Struggling

Sin is what makes you human. God knew that when he made you

You're still young. Trust me when I say that you haven't sinned even HALF as many times as you're about to in your lifetime. But as they say on Batman, "Why do we fall, Bruce?....So we can learn to pick ourselves up."

 

This is a secular forum so excuse me if my presence in this thread is like an uppercut to your soul thrown by a spiritual Mike Tyson. I respect all religions btw.

Struggle is what makes us human.

A truthful James Allen passage, SOLDIER UP SON THIS IS NOT A WALK IN THE PARK, THIS IS LIFE OR DEATH, MISERY OR HAPPINESS, YOUR DECISIONS DETERMINE THE OUTCOME:

1. The Gate And The Way

Strait is the Gate, and narrow is the Way, which leadeth unto Life, and few there be that find it.

~ Jesus

A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things.

~ Jesus

The supreme aim of all religions is to teach men how to live; and the learning and the living are religion itself. The purification of the human heart, the building up of a blameless life, and the perfecting of the soul, these are the great underlying and enduring factors in all religions and creeds the world over. That which is vital in every religion is the striving after, and the practice of, Goodness; all things else are accretions, superfluities, illusions. Goodness — and by Goodness I mean sinlessness — is the beautiful and imperishable form of Religion, but creeds and religions are the perishable garments, woven of the threads of opinion, in which men clothe it. One after another religions come and go, but Religion, being Life itself, endures forever. Let men cease to quarrel over the garments and strive to perceive the universality and beauty of the indwelling form; thus will they become wedded to it, will become one with the supreme Goodness. Religion is Goodness; Goodness is Religion.

We know nothing higher than Goodness. We can conceive of nothing more beautiful than Goodness. Beholding the Perfect Goodness, men call it God. Seeing that Goodness practiced by man, men worship him as God.

We behold Jesus as a sinless man; in him is the Perfect Goodness revealed, not obscurely and metaphysically, but in all his words and deeds; and it is by virtue of his sinlessness that he is accepted as an Examplar and universal Teacher.

The Teachers of mankind are few. A thousand years may pass by without the advent of such a one; but when the True Teacher does appear, the distinguishing feature by which he is known is his life. His conduct is different from that of other men, and his teaching is never derived from any man or book, but from his own life. The Teacher first lives, and then teaches others how they may likewise live. The proof and witness of his teaching is in himself, his life. Out of millions of preachers, one only is ultimately accepted by mankind as the true Teacher, and the one who is thus accepted and exalted is he who lives. All the others are mere disquisitionaries and commentators, and as such they rapidly pass out of human ken.

Jesus, the Teacher, lived, in all its perfection, and in the face of the most adverse conditions, the divine life of Love; he pursued the true life of Goodwill, as distinguished from the false life of self-seeking, which the majority elect to follow. In him there was no element of selfishness, all his thoughts, words and acts being prompted by the spirit of Love. To this spirit of Love he so entirely subjected his personality that he became one with it, so much so that he literally became Divine Love personified. His complete victory over the personality was accomplished by obedience to the Divine Law of Love within himself, by virtue of which he became divine, and his whole teaching is to the effect that all who practice the same obedience will realize the same divine Life, will become consciously divine.

The unalterable meekness, undying compassion, sweet forgiveness, and unending love and patience of Jesus are the themes of a thousand hymns, the subject of millions of heartfelt prayers; and this is so because those qualities are recognized everywhere and by all men as being distinctively divine. To make the practice of these qualities the chief object of life constitutes Religion! to deny them, and to continue to live in their selfish opposites — pride, condemnation, harshness, hatred, and anger — constitutes irreligion.

Men everywhere, in their inmost hearts though they may deny it argumentatively, know that Goodness is divine; and Jesus is worshipped as God, not for any claim he made, nor because of any miraculous circumstance connected with his life, but because he never departed from the Perfect Goodness, the Faultless Love. "God is Love," Love is God. Man knows no God except Love manifesting in the human heart and life in the form of stainless thoughts, blameless words, and deeds of gentle pity and forgiveness, and he can only know this God in the measure that he has realized Love in his own heart by self-subjugation. The God which forms the subject of theological argument, and whose existence or non-existence men are so eager to prove, is the God of hypothesis and speculation. He who, by overcoming self, has found, dwelling within him, the Supreme Love, knows what that Love is far beyond the reach of all selfish argument, and can only be lived; and he lives, leaving vain argument to those who will not come up higher.

Having by obedience, entered into full possession of the Divine Life, Jesus gave to the world certain spiritual rules, by the observance of which all men could become sons of God, could live the Perfect Life. These rules or precepts are so simple, direct, and unmistakable that it is impossible to misunderstand them. So plain and unequivocal are they that even an unlettered child could grasp their meaning without difficulty. All of them are directly related to human conduct and can be applied only by the individual in his own life. To carry out the spirit of these rules in one’s daily conduct constitutes the whole duty of life, and lifts the individual into the full consciousness of his divine origin and nature, of his oneness with God, the Supreme Good. It is here, however, where the difficulty arises, for, although there are millions of men and women worshipping Jesus as God in a miraculous or metaphysical sense, there are really very few who believe in his precepts, and who attempt to carry them out in their life. In the precepts themselves there can be no difficulty or misunderstanding; all this liesin the unbelief of those who read the precepts. Men do not carry out the precepts of Jesus because they do not believe it possible to do so, and so they never try; whilst there are others who, believing it possible and necessary to carry them out, are not willing to make the personal sacrifices which those precepts demand. Yet, apart from the earnest striving to live out the teachings of Jesus there can be no true life. To merely call Jesus "Lord" does not constitute discipleship, but to weave his words into the fabric of one’s life, to put into execution his divine and selfperfecting precepts, this, and this only, constitutes discipleship.

Let it be understood thus early that with the almost innumerable creeds which have been built upon the Hebrew Scriptures, I have absolutely nothing to do. I have to do entirely with the life and teaching of Jesus, and with the vital realities in the human heart to which that teaching is directed. I have to do with Goodness, not with speculation; with Love, not with theological theories; with self-perfection, not with fleeting opinions.

Jesus was a supremely good man; this all men know, and to know this is allembracing and all sufficient. He has left precepts which, if a man will guide his conduct by them, will lead him unerringly to the Supreme Goodness; to know this is gladdening and glorious.

A good man is the flower of humanity, and to daily grow purer, nobler, more Godlike, by overcoming some selfish tendency, is to be continually drawing nearer to the Divine Heart. "He that would be my disciple let him deny himself daily," is a statement which none can misunderstand or misapply, howsoever he may ignore it. Nowhere in the universe is there any substitute for Goodness, and until a man has this, he has nothing worthy or enduring. To the possession of Goodness there is only one way, and that is, to give up all and everything that is opposed to Goodness. Every selfish desire must be eradicated; every impure thought must be yielded up; every clinging to opinion must be sacrificed; and it is in the doing of this that constitutes the following of Christ. That which is above all creeds, beliefs and opinions is a loving and self-sacrificing heart. The life of Jesus is a demonstration of this truth, and all His teaching is designed to bring about this holy and supreme consummation.

To dwell in love always and towards all is to live the true life, is to have Life itself. Jesus so lived, and all men may so live if they will humbly and faithfully carry out his precepts. So long as they refuse to do this, clinging to their desires, passions and opinions, they cannot be ranked as his disciples; they are the disciples of self. "Verily, verily, I say unto you: whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin," is the searching declaration of Jesus. Let men cease to delude themselves with the belief that they can retain their bad tempers, their lusts, their harsh words and judgments, their personal hatreds, their petty contentions and darling opinions, and yet have Christ. All that divides man from man, and man from Goodness is not of Christ, for Christ is Love.

To continue to commit sin is to be a doer of sin, a follower of self, and not a doer of righteousness and a follower of Christ. Sin and Christ cannot dwell together, and he who accepts the Christ life of pure Goodness, ceases from sin. To follow Christ means to give up all, in our mind and conduct, that antagonizes the spirit of Love, and this, we shall find as we proceed, necessitates complete self-surrender, refusing to harbor any thought that is not pure, compassionate and gentle. The Christ-spirit of Love puts an end, not only to all sin, but to all division and contention. If I contend for an opinion, say, about the divinity of Jesus Christ, against the opinion of another as to his non-divinity, I at once create division and strife, and depart from the Christ, the spirit of Love. When Christ is disputed about, Christ is lost.

It is no less selfish and sinful to cling to opinion than to cling to impure desire. Knowing this, the good man gives up himself unreservedly to the spirit of Love, and dwells in Love towards all, contending with none, condemning none, hating none, but loving all, seeing behind their opinions, their creeds and their sins, into their striving, suffering and sorrowing hearts. "He that loveth his life shall lose it." Eternal Life belongs to him who will obediently relinquish his petty, narrowing, sin-loving, strifeproducing personal self, for only by so doing can he enter into the large, beautiful, free and glorious life of abounding Love. Herein is the Path of Life; for the strait Gate is the Gate of Goodness, and the narrow Way is the Way of Renunciation, or selfsacrifice. So strait is the Gate that no sin can pass through, and so narrow is the Way that he who essays to walk it can take with him no selfish thought as his companion.

Stop relying on God and start applying your own efforts. God does not help helpless sinners, he helps those applying their own efforts.

Godspeed.

 

Nice video by a really great Father:

 

Btw, your God did not make me. Just felt like saying that. Not trying to get into a religious argument.

Even though this is a secular forum, there are designated areas you can discuss your religions in peace.

Bring it out into an open area like this, without declaring only people who believe in God are welcome to participate, well it's pretty much open to discussion from anyone.

Another couple videos I feel like sharing:

 

Shame isn't the way to deal with this and you will eventually see this. You are a person, you are allowed to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. Look at the progress you've made already. Keep posting.

 

Welcome to the forum Brocky boy

 

Admittedly I'm agnostic. I very much respect and appreciate the secularity of this forum. However, I can see the kid is obviously struggling with guilt that can be attributed to his religious affiliations so I'd rather use that to help him work through the guilt than work against it (after all, who am I to say?).

Guilting is the worst thing you can do to yourself through this process. Finding the silver linings would be much more conducive to your recovery.

 

Well that's sweet and reassuring of you pal

Brock I want you to take a look at this recovery program if you don't know about it.
It's free for people your age.

Think about using it.

And just coming here to chat with friends and gaining some extra support from your fellow addicts.

Try not to solely rely on addicts to guide you in your recovery my friend

www.fortifyprogram.org

 

WHY ACTOR TERRY CREWS WANTS PEOPLE TO STOP WATCHING PORN
February 23, 2016

Last summer, we posted a blog article that went viral titled, 5 Celebrities Who Hate Porn. We listed five well-known movie stars who have publicly spoken out about porn and its harmful effects, and number one on our list was actor/spokesperson Terry Crews. Crews is perhaps best known for his hilarious bicep-bulging Old Spice videos, but since achieving viral YouTube fame, Crews has gone on to become a legitimate force in Hollywood. He has had starring roles in successful TV series such as Everybody Hates Chris and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and has featured in high-grossing movies such as White Chicks, The Longest Yard, and The Expendables. He even hosted Who Wants To Be A Millionaire for a while.

After seeing that we posted about him on our blog, Terry officially joined the #PornKillsLove movement by repping one of our popular Porn Kills Love tees and giving Fight the New Drug a shout out to his millions of followers.



As you can see, since becoming a bonafide celebrity, Crews has not shied away from talking about a big secret that he carried with him for much of his life. Crews first started being candid about his lifelong addiction to pornography in his bookManhood. Hetalked openly about how he was first addicted to porn at the age of 12 years old and how it continued all the way into adulthood, eventually deeply affecting his marriage to his wife, Rebecca. After facing many years of addiction and a tumultuous marriage that almost ended in divorce due to his porn use, Crews was able to break free and go on to be the success that he is today. And now he wants other people to break free from porn as well.

Crews has recently taken to his Facebook page with over 7 million+ followers to talk about his “dirty little secret” as he calls it. By using Facebook’s new live video feature for celebrities, Crews has been live streaming real talk sessions about his past struggle with pornography, how it affected his life, and how he broke free.

“This thing has become a problem, I think it’s a worldwide problem,” Terry says in his first Dirty Little Secret video. “Pornography really messed up my life in a lot of ways.

Some people deny it and say, ‘Hey man you can’t really be addicted to pornography, there’s no way.’ But I’ll tell you something: if day turns into night and you’re still watching, you probably got a problem. And that was me.”

He talked about how pornography consumed his life by becoming a secret that he was able to keep hidden for years. Despite being able to keep it a secret from everyone, he said that it started to corrupt his relationship with his wife.

“My wife was literally like, ‘I don’t know you anymore, I’m out of here,'” he continued. “This is a major, major problem, I literally had to go to rehab for it.”



“My issue was, and is with pornography,” Crews continued, “Is that it changes the way you think about people, people become objects, people become body parts; they become things to be used rather than people to be loved.”

He encouraged porn viewers to put the issue out into the light and break free by no longer keeping it a secret. He concluded by saying he didn’t quit porn to get his wife back, but to get his life back.

The video has received over 2 million views and Crews has since come out withDirty Little Secret 2 another live video, this time taken while driving in his convertible through Los Angeles.

Terry Crews using his fame and large social audience as a platform to talk about the real scientific harms of pornography has been a huge step in the right direction for our generation that has grown up with unlimited access to internet porn. By having people like Terry be bold enough to take a stand on this issue, we are seeing conversations getting started and perceptions starting to change.

Update: Crews recently posted Dirty Little Secret 3, an 11-minute video where he talked about what he learned about pornography addiction through rehab and therapy. Since then, news outlets like CNN and The Today Show have since been covering Crews’ candid message about overcoming pornography.



YO BROCK, TERRY CREWS SAYS NOT TO FEEL ASHAMED. PMO TAKES OVER OUR SENSE OF GOODNESS AND CAUSES US TO DO THINGS THAT WE REGRET, BUT THAT IS NOT WHO WE REALLY ARE AS HUMANS.


Terry Crews
August 12 at 1:25pm ·
A MESSAGE FROM TERRY CREWS TO THOSE ADDICTED TO PORNOGRAPHY:

Listen to me. You have to understand that you are not evil. All behavior is simply the result of your thinking. Porn makes you think about using people selfishly, and the result is that you feel worse and worse ABOUT YOURSELF. So to deal with that YOU DO IT AGAIN. But every effect has a cause-- and this cause is HOW YOU THINK. Men believe they are more valuable than women or women believe they have nothing to offer but their bodies, therefore defeating porn is virtually impossible to do because of WHAT YOU BELIEVE. Porn is not about sex. Porn is about POWER. The power to manipulate and use another person regardless of how they feel about the situation. Women (or men) become emotionless posters, images and rag dolls and become LESS THAN HUMAN in your eyes. To change this-- you must see the truth. You are good. And so is everyone else. Love is voluntary and only seeks to benefit the other person, therefore benefiting himself in the process. Porn attempts to keep in shame, and shame doesn't say you've done something wrong, shame says YOU ARE BAD, and if you think you are bad-- you can't help but do bad things. But when you realize you are good, porn cannot survive that climate. Remember when you were a kid, and actually cared about those around you. Porn was the farthest thing from your mind. You can have that again, you have to replace all bad thoughts with good ones, and cover all shame with redemption.

 

'Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone.' -- Jesus Christ



Jesus loves you Brock. He said God is ready to help you once you start using Fortify if you haven't signed up yet.

facebook.com/ithebreather

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"Forgiven"

Oh God
These demons won't last a minute
No these demons won't last another minute in this war
They won't last in this war
This is a battle fought by the lord
Resurrected from the dead
"I the Breather"
I leave it to myself to put you in place
How could it be we were so lost in ourselves
Hold on to me, Why were we so deceived?
This could be what sets you free
I believed in you put your trust in me
Fooled to think I'd gone for eternity
Your theories can't provide what I can for you
You forgave me, so forgive the free
Oh God
How could it be we were so lost in ourselves
Hold on to me, why were we so deceived?

Jesus says God is waiting to forgive us all. Once we man up and take responsibility for our own thoughts and actions. He said meditation is great, Jesus was an avid meditator.



I know your God btw.



He says he's waiting to help.



geckoandfly.com/18567/holy-bible-quotes-jesus-christ-life-god-haven-sin-faith

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Brock, if you go to church with your family, I hope there is a leader there you have talked to about your problem.

Don't be embarrassed, find a Pastor, Father, or Priest to confess your issue with masturbation to.



Also try to make some good friends at church and don't be afraid to tell them you use NoFap. I'm sure you're not the only boy your age struggling with this vice.

God bless you son.

P.S.

Once an addict, not always an addict....our humanity is waiting for us to reclaim it