Legend has it there was a day not so long ago when men were sexually pure. There was a day when a man gave his word on his wedding day to forsake all others, and he did exactly what he said he would do. He stayed married and faithful to the wife God gave to him to cherish.
In that day, it was expected that men would keep their word to their wives and to others. A man was as good as his word, as the stories say.
There was a day when a man would run from wicked women and avoid the porn store located on the dirty side of town. Some with grey hair still talk of the era when a man’s word was as good as gold.
Then, the war started. This wasn’t a conventional war with bombs, planes and navy ships, raised by some faraway nation. This war was raised against us, the church and our culture, from the very pit of hell itself.
The enemy of our souls began a sexual campaign—or as we would later call it, a sexual revolution. This campaign would question the very core biblical view of sexuality. The vicious weapons of pornography, drugs and sexual immorality were raised against our educational institutions and churches, and the onslaught spread throughout the land.
The fight pitted sons and daughters against the truths and values of their parents and grandparents like no other cultural war in the history of mankind. These young people talked of free love, or rather free sex. Pornography was a right and sex was a right without consequences or responsibilities.
This mindset developed in many ways over the next decades. The Internet has taken this sexual combat to every home, computer and cell phone. For most of us men, pornography is only a click away, and it grants the enemy’s army easy access to our hearts, lives and families.
This has an impact on every church in this great nation and many nations around the world. Some churches are active in the fight against sexual sin, and some have no idea they are in a war; half or more of their men are dead inside because their silent sins are keeping them from reaching their full destiny in Christ.
Clean is a solution manual for all of you engaged in this great war. You didn’t ask for it; you just happened to be born when the enemy declared murderous intentions on you and your family, church and nation. You had no say, but you are called to help our God set free a generation.
No church community in history has had to reckon with such an intense and sophisticated inundation of sexual perversity. And we are God’s only warriors in this battle. Our culture says we are crazy to believe God’s word about sexual fidelity and purity, whether we are single or married.
If we win this war together, we might see a return to Christian sexual values in our culture. We might return to a day when sexual purity is the standard once again, and perversion is seen for the damaging entity it really is.
I write this book from a place of absolute compassion. I never met my father. I was placed in foster homes, sexually abused and fully sexually addicted as a teen and young adult. I know the damages of this enemy personally.
This soldier has the scars and has experienced the shame of feeling flawed and disconnected from God and the body of Christ, much like many of you do. The memories of this war are real for me, and so is the victory I will share in future pages. Victory is so much sweeter, since this is what God has made each of us for—victory!
Note: The preceding is an excerpt from Douglas Weiss’ book, Clean: A Proven Plan for Men Committed to Sexual Integrity. The book will be available May 7 from Thomas Nelson Inc.
Dr. Douglas Weiss is a leading expert in sexual addiction recovery, a nationally known author, speaker and licensed psychologist. He is the executive director of Heart-to-Heart Counseling Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., and the president of the American Association for Sex Addiction Therapy.
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