I find it very disturbing how prone we are to becoming absorbed in our own spiritual selves. While it may look and sound spiritual, what often passes as spirituality is the expression of our disordered hearts. Every since Genesis, all sin is about getting what we want for ourselves. You see this expressed in our sex lives, our use of money, and our misuse of food among other things. Interestingly, we immediately recognize this hateful nature of evil in others, whether in our child, a friend or our spouse, but often miss the beam in our own eye. Our unruly desires can get us lost in a blinding fog and the darkness of unbelief. Particularly, it is hard to see how self-serving our spirituality has become. The potential for deceit in our spiritual lives is more potent as we strive spiritually to find meaning specifically for ourselves. Continue reading
Masturbation: It’s a Form of False Intimacy
The Bible doesn’t specifically prohibit masturbation. So is it wrong? Is it a form of false intimacy and therefore a sin? Without a biblical prohibition, many Christians, including some counselors, teachers, and writers have sanctioned the behavior assuming that the practice is not sinful. They see it as neither right nor wrong, but simply permissible when the person is single, unable to have sex with their spouse for a period of time, or needs help in dealing with sexual dysfunction in marriage. A good definition of masturbation is a behavior whereby the person stimulates themselves to orgasm without involving another person. To be clear, a wife or husband manually stimulating their spouse to orgasm is not masturbation. Continue reading
Is It Sexual Addiction or Is It Sexual Sin?
An article in Christianity Today, “Help for the Sexually Desperate,” states: Is sexual addiction a disease or simply immoral behavior? Clinical psychologist Bob Hughes speaks for many Christian therapists when he says sex addiction is both a sinful choice and a biological disease. Dr. Harry Schaumburg, with twenty nine years of experience in helping restore sexual purity, disagrees. Addiction does not provide a path to healing because it does not get to the heart of evil. Continue reading