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a Non-Profit 501 (C) (3) Organization Founded by Award-Winning Christian Author/Speaker Lisa Freeman "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal…" Ecclesiastes 3:1-3
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~AWARDS~
Best New Book of The Year 2007 Writer of the Year, 2000 & 2007 Honorable Mention Awkward Romance Contest May 2006 All Time Best Award Fanstory.com 2006 Finalist in Chicken Soup Contest 2005 Distinguished Achievement Award, 2005 2nd Place Photo Say More Contest 2005 Top Story in Obadiah Contest 2002 2 Top Stories in Obadiah Contest 2003 Diploma from Guideposts for Teens, 2002 Merit Certificate from Writer's Digest, 2000 & 2001
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"STAY PURE" A Monthly E-Zine For Those Recovering From Addictive Behaviors
March 2002 "Green With Envy" Happy St. Patrick’s Day! BE BLESSED!
A Special Thanks To All Our Writers!!!
Psalm 119:9 "How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word."
Feature Article: "Green With Envy" by Elisabeth FreemanCouples Forum: "Making The Connection" by Elisabeth Freeman (Lust and Jealousy)"Separated From The Body" by Paul Cook @ www.porn-free.org"We Have The Strength Of Elephants " by Jim Rumczikas"Church & Pornography Part 2" By Wesley KingThe Laughing Corner: A few short jokes… Remember, laughter is the best medicine… A merry heart doeth good like a medicine! Prov. 17:22 Helpful Sites : http://www.porn-free.org; http://www.no-porn.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New E-Books Available!!! To Help All Who Are Affected By This Demon Of Pornography:
"Coming Out of Sexual Addiction" ~SAVE NOW~ Just $5 Get E-Copy Now! Also available in hard copy for $9.95 plus s/h ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "She Said, He Said, God Says" Marriage in Trouble? Porn got a grip on you or your spouse? Be set FREE today! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (if you are unable to click on the link, visit my website at atime2heal.org and click on the books section) Other Helpful Books are available at porn-free.org!!! ***The Bible tells us that "people perish for lack of vision". Don’t perish, get a vision of healing and learn how to BREAK FREE FROM THIS STRANGLING ADDICTION! Here at STAY PURE, we’d like to hear from you. What are your comments and thoughts, how could we better serve your needs. Without your input, we may never know. After all, this is a service for YOU. Needed… Singles Column… Someone who will be willing to write a monthly short article geared toward singles. Please email me of your interest. Green With Envy by Elisabeth A. Freeman
With March already here, the color green comes into view. Shamrocks, leprechauns, and the grass changing, as a sign of spring. However, when I think of green, the spirit of envy comes to my mind. As an ex-wife of a porn addict, and a wife of a recovered porn addict, envy has been a spirit that has effected my life as well as my husbands. Envy is like a god. It’s when we desire what someone else has. It will eventually control our whole being if we let it. As I healed from our battle with pornography, I would often find myself wishing I looked like this woman or that woman. Thinking that by looking a certain way, my husband would only desire me. When men delve into pornography, they enter into the world of envy. They may find that they no longer are satisfied with the beautiful wife they have, although they may love her very much. Envy is a lust—a lust of wanting something you don’t have. Although we can all be envious of things, the spirit of pornography causes this spirit of envy to flourish in relationships, destroying the true image of what husbands and wives really have. None of us are perfect—we all have flaws. But when we allow envy, lust, and pornography to enter our lives, the only way we to be set free is by taking authority just as Jesus did, over the spirits in our lives. He called them by name, rebuked them, and they left.However, since many of us are the victims where these spirit dwell, we have to take it one step further—we have to choose every day to die to ourselves and take up the cross of Jesus. It is then, and only then that we’ll break free from being green with envy! Couples Forum: "Making The Connection" By Elisabeth A. Freeman Don’t you hate it when you go out to start your car and it won’t turn over? That’s happened to us all too often. Although there could be a series of problems, John always checks the connection from the battery first. Having a mechanical background, John knows, without the proper connection, there will be no power to the engine. When John and I came to terms with pornography, it seemed that our connection died. It was like the power cord had been stripped from the center of our lives. Suddenly our marriage bed turned into a chilling cell, used only for sleep. I longed for John, and he desperately reached out for me. But for some reason, we weren’t connecting. I had trusted him more than I had any man. And I couldn’t believe, my husband, a devoted Christian man, could ever do anything so vile. How could he? I often accused. He made a commitment to me. But then I realized John is only human. And besides, we have all sinned. One sin is just as bad as another. So, who am I to judge? The real problem wasn’t that John sinned, it was where I was placing my trust. I soon learned that I had trusted more in John than I had in God. Instead of faithfully praying for him and our marriage every day, I trusted him to be what I thought he should. By trusting in John, I lost the connection to the real Power Source—God. Like a dead battery, we were trying to make the connection. We had corroded our lives with human trust—instead of going straight to the Power. Our cables were hooked up to the world, but when we made the right connection, through prayer, and looked to God for guidance, suddenly our relationship turned over.The fact is, all of us need prayer to overcome the obstacles in our lives. None of us are above it. For us, prayer was the missing connection. Now that John and I both have discovered the power of prayer, we commit to praying for one another daily. Although our lives aren’t perfect, and we still struggle at times, we’re connecting in a whole new way! I would encourage you and your spouse to get rid of the dead battery syndrome and make the connection to the real Power Source! Separated from the Body By Paul Cook "How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification." 1 Corinthians 14:26 NKJV The Lord has been showing me this month how many people have been separated from the body of Christ. They stop attending church for a variety of reasons, including spiritual abuse, disillusionment, scandals, lack of practical teaching, taking offense, etc. The effects of being separated from rest of the body of Christ are significant. Without the spiritual covering and edification from other Christians, we are vulnerable to the enemy and are likely to become unfruitful in our walk with God.One of the problems causing separation is that some churches are not addressing the pressing moral issues of our day. Sex addiction is a prime example. Statistics indicate there are many Christians addicted to pornography. These people are hungry for practical help to break their addiction and live for God. If the church doesn’t provide the answers, they are likely to withdraw from the church. In isolation, they are in danger of drifting further into addiction and turning away from Christ.The devil steps in to capitalize on this situation by using fear and shame to keep the addict from sharing his struggle with others. Fear of judgment and embarrassment keeps them from confessing their struggle and receiving the healing that confession brings (1 John 1:9). If they don’t break the secrecy, their addiction usually grows deeper and consumes more of their lives. As they repeatedly fall to the temptations, the shame increases, and they’re less inclined to want to connect with other Christians. The devil will also try to cut them off from God by suggesting that their sin is beyond Jesus’ sacrifice. He uses lies like "God will never forgive you," or "God is angry with you and wants to punish you."Since God is the only hope for our healing and recovery, we can’t afford to be cut off from God by the devil’s lies. The truth is that Jesus’ blood covered every one of our sins. There is forgiveness and healing awaiting us when we turn back to God in repentance. Recovering from sex addiction almost always starts with breaking secrecy and seeking help from other Christians who are walking in purity. We are all part of the body of Christ ( 1 Corinthians 12:27). The scriptures exhort us to meet together for confession (James 5:16), prayer (Matthew 18:19-20), worship (Ephesians 5:18-19), fellowship (Hebrews 10:24-25) and other edifying activities. Doing so helps us draw together as a team and function effectively in continuing Christ’s mission on earth. When we’re not meeting with the rest of our team, we’re less edified (if at all), weak, vulnerable and unprotected.If you are not attending a church or your church is spiritually dead, I encourage you to start looking for a good church to attend. A good church provides a spiritual covering over its members that helps protect them from spiritual attacks. It also helps you interact with real people and gives you practical solutions for the challenges you face. Jesus gave us the body of Christ as a gift so that we will have support and encouragement during the tough times and in turn be able to experience the joy of helping others. If you are walking to freedom from addiction, you need all the edification and protection you can get while you practice purity in your daily walk. Remember that there are no perfect churches. As you search for the right place, ask God to guide you to where he wants you to be.We Have The Strength Of Elephants By Jim Rumczikas A baby elephant is trained by being chained to a stake in the ground. The elephant spends enormous energy and time trying to escape. When he cannot get free; he no longer fights. That is why a full-grown 15,000 pound elephant, who can knock over a house, will not free himself from the stake. It seems that we are like that elephant. Once staked to pornography or sexual sin, we fight; but it seems that we cannot get free. The good news is that Christ set us free. "So, if the Son set you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36 2 Corth 5:17 tells us that we are "new creatures…all things are become new." Isaiah 43:18 states, "Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old." Why then do we have such a hard time in overcoming our past? Could it be that we are like that elephant that has been "trained" …by the enemy. The problem is spiritual. So, we must address it in the spiritual. Those demons have been with us for so long that we don’t know that we are now 15,000 pounds of spiritual power . OK, it may not feel like it; but spiritual power is not about feelings. We don’t have to feel powerful. We need to know that we are powerful, and act upon that power not our circumstances.How do we access that power? We need to be totally committed to Christ. Prayer, worship, and Bible reading are our main tools. Through this we recognize who we are in Christ. We must demolish the enemy’s strongholds. Ask the Holy Spirit’s guidance on how to speak positively about overcoming our problem. Our enemy must hear that he’s defeated. Vocally tell the demons in your life that they are no longer welcome and that they must leave. Tell them "I have the power of Christ to uproot the stake that has been planted in my life." A friend praying and agreeing with us is very helpful. Matthew 18:19 Jesus says, "if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for it will be done for you by my Father in heaven." Once our house is clean, we need to fill it with Christ. However, Matt 12:45 tells us that if the house is clean and empty, the demon will bring seven more with him and we will be worse then before. Keeping clean may be the hardest part of our fight. The elephant in us wants to keep us tied. But we need to break those ties that bind us and make a decision to fight the thoughts that temp us. Ultimately, we need to resolve to keep pure and stay pure. Our spiritual strongholds are removed by listening to the Holy Spirit, speaking victory over the enemy, and filling our clean house with Christ. Let’s remember that we are the free and powerful elephant that no longer is deceived by a six-inch stake .
Church and Pornography Part 2 by Wesley King In the first article of this series, I discussed how the church has failed in its duties to minister to those suffering from pornographic or sexual addictions. I would like now to present evidence to support that claim. One striking example of this failure is that these addictions are widespread throughout the church and very few churches address the subject. I'm not saying that pastors do not preach about sexual immorality, since that would be nearly impossible to avoid no matter what text in the Bible from which they have drawn their sermons. I'm sure all of us have heard sermons telling us to flee from sexual immorality. However, all teaching about sexual immorality ends with the sermon.I have known churches that have implemented programs to help alcohol or drug
abusers and provide counseling services for them, but rare is the church that
has a class or group devoted to those struggling with sexual addictions. In
fact, in most staunchly conservative churches, by this I mean a resistance to
change, rather than a theological viewpoint, the subject of sex is almost never
discussed. Therefore it is highly unlikely for them to have open forums for sex
addicts to receive support and Biblical teaching to help them recover and stay
free from their addiction. There are some statistics that indicate that almost 70% of pastors struggle
with pornography or lust. Although these numbers might be high, I think that we
can safely say that at least half of Christian men struggle with lust or
pornography and a number of these men are addicted. There are also some women
who struggle with So, what can a church do to provide help to those struggling with sexual
addictions? I'll address this issue in the next part of this series. *Fake Ring* A guy bought his wife a beautiful diamond ring for Valentine's Day. A friend of his said, "I thought she wanted one of those pretty 4-Wheel drive vehicles." "She did," he replied. "But where in the world was I going to find a fake jeep!!" *Art That Sells* An artist asked the gallery owner if there had been any recent interest in his paintings, which happened to be on display. "I have good news and bad news," the gallery owner replied. "The good news is that a gentleman inquired about your work and wondered if it would appreciate in value after your death." "What did you say?" questioned the artist. "When I told him it would, he bought all 15 of your paintings." "That's wonderful!" the artist exclaimed. "What's the bad news?" "The gentleman was your doctor...." *Be Careful Following The Crowd* A missionary recruit goes to Venezuela for the first time, struggling with the language. He visits one of the local churches and sits in the front row. So as not to make a fool of himself, he decides to pick someone out of the crowd to imitate. He decides to follow the man sitting next to him in the front pew. As they sing, the man claps his hands, so the missionary recruit claps, too. When the man stands up to pray, the missionary recruit stands up, too. When the man sits down, the missionary sits down. Later in the service, the man next to him stands up again, so the missionary stands up, too. Suddenly a hush falls over the entire congregation. A few people gasp. The missionary looks around and sees that no one else is standing. So he sits down. After the service ends, the missionary recruit greets the preacher. "I take it you don't speak Spanish," the preacher says. The missionary replies, "No, I don't. It's that obvious?" "Well yes," the preacher says. "I announced that the Acosta family had a new-born baby boy, and I asked the proud father to please stand up."
*Walking On Water* |
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