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lurquer:
Since Alex started this thread with his lament of his "lust of the flesh--that is sexual immorality (masterbation,[sic] there I said it)", I've been wondering exactly what you guys mean.

Is masturbation mentioned in the scriptures, per se?  No.  I don't really need to know your definition of the word Alex, and others, but I wonder if you are confusing it with something else... 

Do you guys really mean 'looking at porn'?

If so, I have your solution:  stop looking at porn.  Your affliction will cease. Believe me.

If you don't mean looking at porn, then what's the problem?  Are you worried about some erotic dreams you've awoken to?  So what?  Is that sin? Is washing it a little too long in the shower sin? 

And JFK:  you may not be physically dead, but if you, as an old man, have not yet learned to curb your lust for women, I can't see how you can possibly be spiritually 'alive'... You even seem proud of your weakness.   I find that interesting.

Also, FWIW, I'm 45, married, don't have "ED" or testosterone issues, and don't desire other women; I stopped looking at porn many years ago (the Lord delivered), and haven't had any "struggles" with guilt since...and I occasionally still wash it a little too long in the shower.  Big deal.

Feedback welcome... ;)

DEJI:
@Neo by saying "washing it a little too long in the shower" what exactly do you mean? I don't mean to antagonize you, I just want to understand what you mean

lurquer:
Very funny, Deji.    ;)  But I'll defer to hearing Alex's definition as that's what I wondered about (though I don't need to know!)

Again, I suspect this oddly common topic here (which he, primarily, initiates) is really a sanitized way of saying certain people have a porn habit.  Which is a specific sin, and certainly scripturaly described as such...  Rather than the elusive "masterbation" [sic], which is a more nebulous subject that's sort of hard to really define. 

So, you see where I'm coming from.

If Alex's affliction is akin to my silly "washing it too long in the shower", then it is closer to the (apparently rather common) syndrome of picking one's nose and eating the contents.  I don't think that it's a moral sin, but it is certainly gross and maybe not something you'd discuss with friends at dinner--and certainly not with a forum of mostly strangers. 

So either he's being quite banal by bringing up such an unpleasant and useless subject for discussion, or he's "beating around the bush"  (excuse the pun if you perceived one) and is actually suffering from our common Western industrial disease of porn-watching.  For we are undoubtedly a porn-culture, so it stands to reason... And I doubt there would be anywhere close to the moral and physical (and psycho-sexual) problems in our society if every child were not subjected to this porn culture almost as soon as they learn to read. The consequences of which are life long and devastating.  Perhaps Alex is experiencing some of these consequences now..

Hence, I offered my advice, "if this is about porn, the solution is to 'stop watching it'"...  The symptoms will rapidly fade.  I know what I'm talking about. 

You get what I'm saying?

DEJI:
I get what you are saying  ;). You seem to be talking from experience and I mostly agree with you. In Alex's case however, I don't think his struggle with masturbation is a result of a porn watching habit and I don't think he is being banal, He is only crying out for help. I am 31 unmarried and don't have ED and understand Alex perfectly, I was in a somewhat similar situation not too long ago.

lilitalienboi16:
Hi Neo,

You have peaked my interest. When you boast about your masturbation in the shower, do you do it without thinking of anything sexual? When you do it, do you think of only your wife? If you think of other women you know that you are committing adultery in you heart with her correct?

Just curious as to your specifics here.

As for me personally, yes, you are partly correct. Putting it the way I did was a way of keeping things "pg" rated though I wouldn't call it a porn ADDICTION. I don't do it anywhere inappropriately or during inappropriate times but only in secret in moments of great weakness. Your advice is fantastic advice but also the hardest thing to do. I know only by God's strength can any sin be overcome. I do go through ups and downs though perhaps over the years this sin has faded (thank God!) but it is the fact that it occurs, even if less frequently, that makes it so tormenting and shameful. I am still a sinner, let there be no illusions about it.

I want to get to a place where lust has no power over me, that even masturbation become alien to my being. I highly doubt Jesus settled for just masturbating as being okay and I doubt the apostles did eithetr. I just can't picture John the apostle spending his free time on patmos masturbating. I just don't want to do any of it. I will only please my wife because it is my Godly duty when I am married to her not to neglect her needs and desires.

Call me overzealous and unrealistic but this has been a desire of mine going back to as early as when I was sixteen and struggling with testosterone coursing through my veins. Struggling through the growing pains of puberty and all it does to a boy. I shared this struggle of mine from the very beginning because it was at the start of all these carnal lutsful desires that the Lord made Himself known to me. By the grace of God I will get to that place and maybe I never will but I will keep crying out, as Deji put it, until the day that I do, or I die. I just can't settle for anything less than the total victory of Christ in me. Why would anyone of us want less knowing what we know now?

God bless,
Alex

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