rebelling against low expectations

Porn is Out There

P

It only takes one click.

Only one click can take you to the places you desire to go.

One click can give you the thrill of your heart.

One click can cause that uncensored, unrestrained, and unrestricted pleasure to flow through your veins.

Would you take the trip?

You don’t have to board a plane or fill your tank, but the road would lead you through the Road of Pleasure to the Road of Destruction.

Would you pay the cost?

There are no out-of-pocket expenses – just a complete surrender of the heart, body, mind.

Would you take the risk?

It’s a dark and ominous path once you take it there is no turning back.

To think that something so simple as an image could be so destructive is sad, but porn can. It’s not just the guys; it’s the girls. It’s not just the rebels; it’s the rebels without a cause for rebelling.

Don’t let this happen to you.

It can seep into your mind and your heart; once it’s there in your head, there’s no getting it out. It can cause pain, sorrow, and regret. All in all, porn will cause a lot of damage if you dabble in it.

Don’t let it happen to you.

I’m not telling you this so you can go searching in blind curiosity to find out what can make one image so evil; I’m telling you this so that you can guard your heart, your eyes, and your mind. So that you may “put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11).

Because porn is out there.

It’s in the books we read, the movies we watch, the music we listen to, the magazines we buy, and the things we type in Google. It’s one of the easiest things to get a hold of, but in the end it will get a hold of you.

This is why it is important that you keep up your guard.

To those who have already been down that Road of Destruction, I want you to know that there is hope at the cross of Jesus Christ. If you have been sought by this destroyer, flee.

Run away from him and his evil attacks and into the arms of grace. Let the blood from the wounds of Jesus Christ cleanse your eyes, purify your mind, and restore your heart. Go before his cross, stand and be amazed, then fall on your knees and be broken.

Let the One who who was broken for the most despicable sinners (me included) remove your filthy rags and give you his coat of righteousness.

Please go, my friend, and sin no more.

Luke 7:48, 50: “And he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ And he said to the women, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.'”

Romans 5:8-9: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”


Share Your Thoughts in the Comment Section!

There are currently __ Comment(s)


Photo courtesy of Logan Smith and Flickr Creative Commons.


signup_for_email_updates_banner

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

About the author

Victoria Maps

is a senior in high school living in Mississippi. Victoria loves books, poems, blogs, and history. She wants to spend her life glorifying God and doing His will. She loves for people to know the truth and to be encouraged by that truth.

42 comments

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • This is, sadly, a much needed article as I go through the process of sanctification. Being down this road, I’m glad that there is something here to warn people against one of the most abundant sins in our society. Especially on this site. It becomes so controlling (I believe scientists actually found that it changes the brain patterns much like a heroin addict’s). Satan will try so hard to have us to fall, if not to ruin us, then to ruin our testimonies. Thank you so much for writing this!

  • Great Article!
    To those of you who are in the rut, the cycle is breakable! I know how it feels to make the same mistake over and over and over again. For me, it kindof got to the point where, whenever I gave into it, I wanted to feel bad for doing it, but I didn’t feel as much guilt and shame as I knew I should’ve been feeling. I kept “asking forgiveness” from God, and then the very next day I was right back at it again. Very tiring, frustrating, and consuming.
    Wanna know how I have finally started to break the cycle? Confession. Not just to God. To other people. Specifically, I confessed to my dad. I had talked to him before about my addiction, so he knew I struggled with it, but I never really went in depth about it to him. Till one night I told him everything.
    It sounds really bad when you say everything you’ve done out loud to another person. That’s because it is. It’s sin. Satan somehow gets us to believe that if we keep our sin hidden, and just move on with life, it’ll be ok, or the sin isn’t as serious. It is. The power of sin is in its secrecy.
    Get your wrongdoings out in the open and in front of other (trusted) people. Expose them for what they really are! Contrary to what we often think, most people will not look down on you for confessing a sin, no matter how ugly it may be. Usually, the opposite is true: people usually respect you more for being courageous. I promise you, that if you truly are confessing a sin to someone from your heart (not because you got caught), that sin will lose its power! Use prayer and scripture to combat the temptation!
    I haven’t given into my addiction since I have recently confessed, but don’t ever think that it’s a “once and done” battle. You have to fight every day. More importantly, you must let God fight for you. If you feel even the slightest hint of an urge to go back to the addiction, blast Satan full force with scripture, prayer, and rebuke him in Jesus’ name.
    So to those of you who seem hopelessly stuck in the addiction, there is hope. Confession brings much freedom; however, remember this: true confession comes because you want it, not because you got caught. If you don’t think you’re ready to confess from the heart yet, spend time in God’s word and in prayer. Earnestly pray that He would give you the desire to beat the addiction.

    ~Not doing what’s wrong is not enough. We must start doing what’s right.~

    • @Seth Yoder , great comment! You are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT when you say that “the power of sin is in its secrecy”. I know. Fear is the inevitable trap that holds me back every time. When I confessed to a trusted friend, and then eventually to my parents, THAT is when I could start fighting the battle. How many times did I try on my own…it NEVER worked! The pattern was consuming. And I could not break it on my own. The power of confession, not only to God, but to another person, is unbelievable.

      To those of you who have been fighting for years, there is hope. After five years of secrecy, I told someone. And that was the hardest thing I have EVER done. I grappled with Satan the night I made my choice. But never doubt that GOD more powerful that Satan any day of the week. He will win!

      Also, something that I have done ever since I confessed, is weekly talk with my friend specifically about sexual temptation. We hold each other accountable. Because you WILL fail again. Don’t doubt that. Some days you will succeed, some day you will fail. But every time, confession is the MOST IMPORTANT THING!!!! Confess to God, and than confess to someone trusted. Talking every week completely honestly about how I succeeded and how I failed has made such a difference. It does not fix you. But it does give you the tools you need to fight the battle day after day. THERE IS HOPE!!!!

      • Thank you Haley. I have been struggling with porn for a couple years and God recently got through to me. It is very encouraging to know I am not alone. I have been clean for a couple months and the past month it has attacked me in full force again and I have to make a conscious decision every day that I will trust God can help me get through this.

    • You made a lot of great, crucial points here Seth. It is so easy to say that it’s all right to do certain sins or that it’s not as bad as doing this or that. In reality when you keep on saying that it’s OK or its not that big a deal you might begin to believe that. The result of believing sins we do are mediocre is a dead conscience(which is really serious ), something I believe I was on the verge of. I am so grateful for the redeeming grace of God!

      So thanks Seth for pin-pointing these crucial points!

  • “One click can cause that uncensored, unrestrained, and unrestricted pleasure to flow through your veins.”

    Ewwwwwwwwwwwww. What. I can’t even with that sentence. Are you porn-juicing or something? Idek.

    Once upon a time, there was an old farmer. He was walking down the Road of Pleasure, nigh about 5 miles where it crosses the Road of Destruction. You know, where that one gas station is, *Kwik, Stop before it gets too pretentious to breathe in here.*

    Anyway, this farmer, despite the fact that there were clear italics above warning him against _taking the trip_, was walking down the Road of Pleasure. Eventually, he met a man coming along the other way. “Good day,” said the stranger. “I have been walking up and down these parts, asking everyone I meet the same question, and no one seems to have the answer. Will you answer me?”
    “Merry sir,” said the farmer, “I am a simple man who knows none but the earth and his own dear field and crops. However, I will answer if I can.”
    “Can you tell me,” said the stranger, “Why it is that of the all the Rebelution blog posts from the year 2016 that have an author with a discernible gender, 24 are female and only 4 are male?”
    “Aye,” said the farmer, looking down at the Road of Pleasure. “But it’s a sad tale. I’m afraid all the articles entitled ‘3 Lessons Learned from the 1 thing that every Rebelutionary must do in order to feel Christiany’ have scared the men-folk away.”
    “Oh,” said the stranger. “I thought it was the overly-dramatic stock photos.”

    • Hello Bo. As the editor-in-chief of The Rebelution, I thought I would pop in and address your concern about The Reb posting only female writers. Just for future comments, though, your issues will be taken much more seriously if you don’t mock us through a silly story.

      The team at The Rebelution tries a lot harder than you seem to think to produce content that is edifying to both genders. Unfortunately, a fact of reality is that we get more submissions from females than males. While it’s true that we have published more articles by females than males, we have also rejected more articles by females than males. We would love to publish more guys! But to do that we would need guys to submit more stuff to us.

      On a side note, I would encourage you to be more considerate in thinking about how your comments come across. The growing team at The Rebelution pours hours and hours of our time every week into making this website better. Our writers are young and still learning and growing but are also pouring their time and effort into writing content for their peers.

      Your comment came across as hurtful and discouraging. We are simply trying to build the kingdom of God and impact our generation through this little corner of the web. Honestly, I am sorry that you were upset by what you’ve seen, and I did just take a moment to pray for you now. I think that if you look past gender on a post, you’ll find on The Rebelution a great deal of stuff worth reading.

      • Jaquelle, thank you so much for addressing that comment with grace and kindness! (I read it a few hours ago before you deleted it) I completely agree that the articles on the Reb definitely go past gender, age, and ethnicity. Thank you and the whole team for how much work you put into the Reb on a daily basis.

        • Thank you, Haley, for your kind encouragement. That means a lot. 🙂 And I actually didn’t delete Bo’s comment – he must have done that. It’s probably for the better, though.

      • I also wanted to say how much I appreciate ya’ll and all ya’ll do. You make the Rebelution a great place to glorify God and to encourage others. I am truly grateful!

    • So, I’m really not sure how Bo’s comment got deleted. I didn’t do it. And Jaquelle didn’t do it. And apparently Bo didn’t do it either (see his latest comment below). So this is a mystery of the interwebs. 😉

  • It also gives the evil one and his spirits a hold on your life a right to affect you negatively, and can even lead to demon possession.

    • Honestly, I don’t know for sure. But I was referring to the unsaved in my post. But–for a Christian–it definitely leads to demonic oppression (as a opposed to possession). A friend of mine has prayed with a born-again Christian for deliverance who received a demon at a church where a false ‘holy spirit’ was proclaimed and made use of. Scary, actually.

    • “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and
      love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
      You cannot serve God and money.” Luke 16:13 ESV

  • So, Bo… This whole exchange makes me sad.

    It makes me sad because you comment on here somewhat often (by another name) and yet you felt the need to hide behind another identity in order to express your frustration. Why? Do you think you’d be shunned? That we wouldn’t be open to your input?

    It makes me sad because you obviously have some ongoing problems with how we do things, yet you’ve never attempted to bring those concerns up with me. Instead, you let Victoria take the brunt of it.

    This should have been directed Jaquelle and to me. My email address is public. I respond to emails. I also respond to comments when I am tagged (at least, I try to). Did you ever try to communicate these concerns directly?

    It makes me sad because I feel like you may have some genuinely helpful feedback for us and the approach you took largely undermined that.

    I’d like to give you another chance though. My email address is brett [at] therebelution [dot] com. I’d like you to send me and email and let me know a good time to talk on the phone. And I’d like to talk to you and hear your thoughts.

    Take me up on that. Really.

    • @BrettHarris:disqus
      Thanks for reaching out to me.

      First, yes, I did make another account for this. That’s no secret. Anyone who looked at this post for a few hours after it went up might have noticed that I posted a similar comment with another account (@Fighting_Falcon), and then decided to do it via this account instead. My reasons for doing that have nothing to do with anonymity… @Fighting_Falcon has no more information on it about me than does this. Does the profile of that account contain rather embarrassing comments from when I was like 13? Mayyybbeee. But, in all seriousness, the real reason I made a new account is that I resolved to begin commenting regularly and with spirit, and I didn’t want those emails all over my normal email account. This account is tied to my second email. No cluttered inbox. Yay! Also, Fighting_Falcon sounds so polemical, and that is adverse to my intentions *sarcasm*.

      Let Victoria take the brunt of it? Perhaps. But I’m a firm believer in public-action -> public complaint.

      Why didn’t I contact you? Because the issue is with the people, not with the infrastructure.

      “But wait! Didn’t you just say, ‘Yo, Rebelution, why you post this?’ in the last comment?”

      Oops. You caught me. That’s awkward. I guess I’ll say that the issue is _most often_ the with the people, not with the infrastructure.

      Nevertheless, I will happily take you up on your offer.

      • There are a lot of evil things in the world. Society deems some things as easier to discuss because they are more commonly accepted by non-believers, e.g., jealousy. Is there anything good about envy? It drives people to do sinful things, not to mention lust is not just about people, but also money, fame, influence, just to mention a few. In this sense, drawing a bright line between this subject and others with the concern that other things “are nicer” is not consistent with what we learn from scripture.

        The author is addressing an issue that is infrequently addressed in society, but the culprit of a lot of problems that we can outwardly observe, ranging from broken marriages to depression. Anyone with a heart for Jesus is to be commended and, if there truly is a concern with something someone does, it is better to resolve privately before endeavoring anything else.

  • I read your article Sam S. and it was really beautiful. Actually, it is very similar to my story in a lot of ways. It really encouraged me a lot. Thank you writing it!

  • Hey Amanda, I’ll be praying for you in this regard. 🙂 Stay strong and remember to rely on God, He is the only way that you can resist this temptation.

  • Hey Victoria,
    Thank you so much for addressing such a culturally relevant topic. As Sam states below, people feel uncomfortable talking about such sins. I appreciate the questions you asked. It was well written.

  • The overall tone here doesn’t sound loving, and that’s not how we’re called to behave.

    There are two concerns I raised and you addressed:

    1) Setting: Even when Paul was chastising various church communities, he spoke with love. Clearly legitimate admonition is correct, but again there are times to do it in public and times to do it one-to-one. It’s inaccurate to pick one instance where Paul disagreed with Peter without explaining the similarities between these the two instances, especially since there were also times when Paul disagreed with people one-on-one.

    2) Substance: I’m still unclear what your major objections towards her post. Deferring to “it’s a matter of opinion” isn’t right for us as Christians, especially in a community of believers, to do — we need to ground our arguments in the truth. Imagine what would have happened to the spreading of the Gospel if Paul just told people to believe since it was his opinion; rather, he persuaded people through argument, intense prayer, living a virtuous life, and meeting people in their circumstances.

    I don’t mean to dwell on your original post, but it’s important for people to know that they’re not going to be shot down when they try to meaningfully contribute on the forums here.

  • Again, I’d really encourage you to try and strike a different tone, especially as we’re meant to be a loving community with the same values. No one disagrees that all forms of lust are issues that need to be dealt with properly in a community and church, but that’s obviously what motivated the author to write a piece. Deferring to phrases and opinion about the author’s content are not substitutes for an actual argument.

    The concern about female:male ratio doesn’t strike me as an issue. Females have different preferences than males, so it’s not surprising that volunteered articles self-select from different groups with preferences for writing. As an academic and researcher, I enjoy writing, which is why I recently contributed an article, but I also recognize that a lot of male colleagues don’t enjoy writing as much. In either case, it’s not a concern to me since the content from contributors is good and glorifying to God.

  • Your article was really amazing, sister! Remember, we may have to face persecution for the truth.

By Victoria Maps
rebelling against low expectations

The Rebelution is a teenage rebellion against low expectations—a worldwide campaign to reject apathy, embrace responsibility, and do hard things. Learn More →