I’ve only been blogging for a little over a year and one of the commitments I made to myself and to my blogging endeavor (whatever that means) was to point men to biblical resources that will help them in their personal fight against pornography.  Hence, the reason for this post.  Tim Challies is his new book Sexual Detox: A guide for guys who are sick of porn shares biblically, forthrightly, convictionally, and passionately about how men can rightly fight against pornography.  Though Challies’ intended audience is young men, its safe to say that the lure of pornography is no respecter of generations; men from all different backgrounds of all different ages have been influenced and affected by the evil of pornography – no one is immune from it.  And yes the “no one” in the previous sentence is indeed an absolute and it was intentional.  As a result, that means Challies is talking to you.  And if you’re wondering, “does it include the guy who’s writing this (that would be me)” then the answer is yes. 

The book is only a mere 108 pages, but don’t let the brevity of length fool you into thinking that there must not be a lot there.  There’s profound and insightful truth statements on every page that prompted me moment after moment to go “wow” and to incessantly jot notes down in the margins or circle/underline statements.  Thus far, I’ve read two chapters and have been greatly challenged and encouraged as I think about my own personal fight against sexual temptation, as well as how I might better encourage and challenge other men to live victoriously over sexual sin. 

Here’s an excerpt from the book:

…Few Christian men indulge in pornography without realizing they need to quit.  Every Christian guy who looks at porn wants to stop, but many want to stop just a little bit less than we want to keep going.  The problem isn’t knowledge – it’s desire and ability.  And so sin prevails.  Here’s a promise.  You will never stop until you begin to see the monstrous nature of the sin you are committing.  You will never stop until the sin is more horrifying to you than the commission of the sin is enjoyable.  You will need to hate that sin before you can find freedom from it.  That means you need more grace.  You need to cry out to be changed so you do see the monstrous nature of this sin, and then you need to act, in faith that God will meet you with grace as you seek to cut off the pornography and begin the rest (Challies, pp. 17-18).

At the end of each chapter Challies has a “Think” section where he hopes that the reader will “take a moment to reflect and, hopefully…get very real about” the issue of pornography (Challies, pp. 23).  Let me commend this resource to you wholeheartedly and I pray with expectancy that it compels men to look to the gospel of Christ Jesus that (1) gives us freedom from the punishment of sin in our lives and (2) gives us the power to say no to sin and yes to the things of God.   Look to Him and may He be glorified in your battle against sexual sin!