Jerry hates dogs. When he was young a dog attacked him and bit him 12 times. Now as an adult he lives on a spectacular lake. Bad dogs have been disappearing all around the lake. Everybody knows Jerry is doing it, but hey, these are bad dogs. One fine day a dog gets loose and bites a young girl. Yep, within 5 hours the dog has met his maker. But one thing Jerry does not know. The dog is owned by Vito Corleone, the Godfather. But hey, Jerry is friends with Vito. They go back a long way. That night Vito knocks on Jerry's door. Jerry my friend, how are you.” “I am okay.” “Jerry, there was an incident with my dog and I know you did it.” Jerry, thinking rapidly, realizes that this would be a bad time to lie. “Yeah, I did not know it was your dog. What can I do to make it up to you.” “Jerry, we have been friends a long time. I loved my dog, but I love you also. You are going to have to leave the lake.” “I can't leave, I love it here.” “Mmmmmm... Jerry, I forgive you for what you have done, but if you don't leave the lake there will be a stifling in 3 days.” Jerry knew what that meant. In this family a stifling always included bullets. Jerry nodded in agreement, “Don't you worry, I am not going to do anything to harm you or any of your pets ever again.” Vito smiled, hugged Jerry, and left. One hour later Jerry's wife Julia arrived. “I heard what happened,” she said. “Oh yeah, but that is not going to be a problem.” “But I heard that we are going to have to leave.” “Oh no, he forgave me. This is all cleared up.” She packed her suitcase. “You don't need to leave.” She left. Jerry stayed. The end. What is the meaning of the parable of the killer? Sometimes Christians read hard verses. But all their life they have been taught to focus on something else. So... just like Jerry, they focus on something else other than the verses. Quitting porn is something that really can happen for people who believe the hard verses and who also focus on them. I wrote an article yesterday. Reacting as Jerry would react is one choice. We can ignore the hard verses and focus on something else. Or... we can focus on allowing the hard scriptures to change us.
We are told to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Part of sacrifice is to do what God wants us to do. We want to be busy with work, play, and pleasure. God wants us to do what He wants us to do and He wants to be our pleasure. Consider praying: “Father, take away this spirit of lust and show me what You want me to do.” To discover our purpose in life we should spend a block of time daily praying about it. We should try to get involved in some kind of Christian service to see if that is what God wants us to do. To get more ideas about finding purpose consider reading the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Romans 12: Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” When we start “To do” what God wants us to do, satan will fight back telling us to reject being Holy, and by trying to get us into sin. Study this verse. Is going to war with sin your reasonable service? Second, sin brings us into darkness. It is really hard to fight addiction in that depressed state. Consider praying: “Father, help me to turn from sin.” Quitting formula: 51% doing + 49% stop doing Finally, thinking in new ways is part of the 51%. Consider praying: “Father, show me how You can be my pleasure.” What should you "do" today?
Many are confused by Bible verses. Here is a verse at the beginning of the timeline of life. “If you call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved.” Here is one in the middle of the timeline: If you look upon a woman with lust, you have already committed adultry with her. Here is one at the end of the timeline: Matthew 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. Many churches teach the beginning of the timeline, some teach the middle of it, but... very few get all the way to the verses at the end of the timeline. This is unfortunate, because, the verses at the end are much more important than the ones at the beginning. They say what happens at the end. People avoid the verses for quitting like the plague. They avoid them because some of these verses are what happens at the end of the timeline. If you avoid these verses, will what they say still happen? If these verses are not true then Christianity is a sham, a fake, all made-up stuff like evolution. This is why Jesus said to tear out an eye that causes you to sin. That action is better than hell. Second, it is almost impossible to make habits of the 10 new habits you need to form if you don't believe the verses at the end of the timeline. Third, Jesus is very forceful and very clear... Change is needed. Fourth, many do 10% of what is recommended at this site, some do 15%, and only a few even do 20%. Fifth, what percentage of the habits would you learn if you memorized Matthew 5:29 and quoted it twice a day? Sixth, you will quit for good “when” you learn enough new habits. Pick a day of the week to test how close you are. For example, Saturday is the test day. How well did you progress with the habit of turning from lust this week? How well did you progress with the habit of finding your purpose and doing God's will? How well did you progress with the habit of fighting frustration and negative emotions? Were you organized daily in your fight? How well did you progress with the habit of working on being prepared for triggers? What positive addictions did you increase in this week? Seventh, Jesus hammers lust, adultery, and fornication because it totally ruins us. He knows that a pure mind starts to lead to joy. Finally, memorizing the tough verses leads to forming great habits for quitting.
