I am a grateful believer in the Lord Jesus Christ! I have started this blog for one sole purpose…. Your Soul! I believe in the Blood of Jesus Christ, I believe He died on the Cross for Salvation of all who believe! This blog is not about me, about notoriety, or fame…. It is to point to the Lord Jesus Christ! We live in a broken world, full of hate, sin and despair. There is a battle taking place, and your eternal salvation is at stake, the question is, Do you Know Jesus?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:17

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 8:12

Copyright © 2019 Martin Ebel. All rights reserved.

“Flee from sexual immorality. All of her sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.” 1 Chorinthians 6:18

It’s the secret nobody wants to talk about. It’s not a problem so why blog about it? Pornography isn’t really all that bad is it? Satan is the ruler of lies, he wants you to believe that pornography is not a societal issue that we all need to fight.

Pornography Kills Love!

According to fightthenewdrug.org, the prevalence of this issue is beyond an epidemic. Chances are, everybody who reads this blog has at least once viewed a porn magazine or watched a porn video, whether it be soft porn or the the very degrading hard porn; only you know the truth.

Pornography by the numbers (this should shock you):

• According to a study of just one website, Pornhub, enough porn was watched in 2016 on this site that would fill 194,000,000 USB flash drives.
• in 2017 alone, Pornhub got 28.5 BILLION visits. That is 1,000 visits per second, or 78.1 million a day.
• More than 5,517,748,800 hours of porn were watched on just this one site in 2018. that is equal to 629,880 years of content consumed in 1 year….. On just one site!

I was about 8 years old when I was first introduced to my first porn magazine. It was in a fort that we built at the end of the street in our friend’s yard. I had not even gone through puberty and I was looking at a magazine that was already destroying the way I see women and sexual purity. The years that followed were times of confusion, shame and at the same time exhilaration; looking back, it destroyed my childhood. It framed the basis of how every one of my future relationships would be….. All about me, all about my needs, all about my desires. It was about my need for sex…. When I wanted it, how I wanted it.

“Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” 2 Timothy 2:22

But why is it such a problem? Why couldn’t you just say no more and just stop? That is such a difficult question to answer for everybody. For me, it was an addiction. It was a rush. I had an imaginary woman who would never deny me, would always be there for me, would never degrade me, never tell me I wasn’t good enough. I could do anything to her and she would never say no. It was a dark abyss of lies! Again, every relationship that I had through the years were all centered around sex. The more the better! It went against everything that God intended sex to be, and I didn’t care…..

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from the body that is subject to death?” Romans 7:24

My first marriage lasted 9 months. We both were very much addicted to sex. That is what our marriage was all about. We did not know how to discuss issues within our relationship. We didn’t know how to love each other, we were in lust, not in love. It was ironic that the reason I decided to end the marriage was because she cheated on me. It was a few years later that God placed in my life the one whom my soul belonged to!

“I found the one whom my soul loves.” Song of Solomon 3:4

God is Good! In 1996 I met Michelle at the job of which I am still employed, she was my trainer. We married in 1998 and still are married today (yes, she is still training me). God knew that my heart was in desperate need of healing from the wounds that Satan had caused from his lies of sexual immorality. Michelle was the wife God intended for me for so many reasons. You see, my wife, unknown to me at the time, was damaged by sexual abuse in her childhood. Her views of relationships were destroyed by abuse at the hands of a step-father who should have protected her, instead the sexual sins of this man caused irreparable damage. Here we are, a sexual addicted man married to a sexually damaged woman. God is Good!

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” Psalm 147:3

Early in our marriage, there was lots of selfishness on my part and co-dependency on her part. Looking back, I was ashamed of how I treated her. It wasn’t until we were married 19 years that things truly unraveled. It was after years of enabling my selfish desires and a significant alcohol addiction that my wife had enough and told me to leave the home to get help…… To get right with God. I was destroyed! I had utterly ruined my marriage because of my sexual addiction and alcoholism! I thought it was over. I had nowhere to go. I could have chosen the bottle and continued on the path of self-destruction (which would have certainly led to my untimely death), or I could chose the path towards The Light…… I Chose The Light!

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
    blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
    and justified when you judge.

It was at this time in my life that I truly reached a crossroad. Jesus or Death! I chose to go through the Cross! Jesus Christ died on the cross to bear the sins of the world! Picture this…. If you were the only person in the world, Jesus would have died on that same cross just for you! I read Psalm 51 (which you can too with this link). I absorbed the Words that David so beautifully put before me. That a shameful man like myself would even be forgivable by anybody! In these verses was Hope, Forgiveness and Love! God took the dark hardened heart that once beat in my chest and replaced it with a heart filled with The Holy Spirit! It was a New Life! The moment that I completely surrendered to God’s will for my life I have not had the desire to drink, nor have I wasted my life away through the sins of Pornography!

It has been 857 days since I last had a drink or watched any pornography! Praise God!

God works miracles every day! He did it for me and he can do it for you too! I forgave myself for the sins of the past, Jesus forgave me and my wife has forgiven me. I am walking in the Light of Grace and my message is clear, you can too! We easily forget that we all are prone to this sin…. Wait, how could you say that?

“The Fall” – When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Genesis 3: 6-7

We all are naked and afraid. We are in a broken world that is in need of Redemption! We all struggle with sin, but most of us simply don’t know that the battle has already been won! His name is Jesus…. Do you know Him?

If you are struggling with sin, no matter what that sin may be, there is Hope! If this is you, I strongly encourage you to consider Celebrate Recovery! Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered, 12 step recovery program for anyone struggling with hurt, pain or addiction of any kind. Celebrate Recovery is a safe place to find community and freedom from the issues that are controlling our life. Find a Recovery Group near you today!

As you read through the passages of John 15 here, you have to grasp the importance of Jesus using one single word – Remain! In my Bible translation (NIV), Jesus uses the word “remain” eight (8) times to describe how we ought to live our lives in relation to our Lord and Savior. In other translations is the word “abide”. But what does it really mean to remain or abide in Jesus? To better help clarify the importance of why He used this word you need to know the definition of the word “remain” or “abide”.

Remain: to stay in the same place or with the same person or group : to stay after others have gone. Abide: to continue in a place; to wait for.

How do these amazing verses tie into the issues of our Identity?

Identity confusion is a lack of self-worth. It’s not being comfortable in your own skin.  It’s telling yourself that it was a mistake that you were made the way you are…….. It’s saying God created you wrong.  Let’s take it to the next level. Sexual Identity confusion is about sexual sin. It’s about changing your sexual orientation so that you can enjoy sex contrary to how God intended it to be. Sex is for reproduction and marital enjoyment, the world has made it into an abhorrent act. Let’s be clear, some people want to change their sexual identity so that the sexual sin they are living in is more enjoyable.

It absolutely breaks my heart to see people struggling with who they are. That they feel incomplete and inadequate with the way God created them.  Its simple, they either don’t know God, or the God they know is absolutely twisted by the pain and anguish they feel from sexual abuse. They simply don’t know who they are in Christ because the Christ they know is based on hurts, pain and devistating abuse at the hands of people who were supposed to love them. They are confused because their idea of love is warped by the sin of others.

If they come to know what true love is, the Love of God, the confusion of who they are would be changed forever!

If you knew just how much God really loves you, that He cares about you so very much, you would never doubt that He created you perfectly just the way you are! If you seek God with all of your heart and soul, you will find such a complete Joy that is so overwhelming and satisfying! Remain in God and you will never be confused as to who you are and what endless Love really is. What we seek is happiness, what He gives us so much more….. Joy!

Jesus said “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

Stop struggling with who you are, God already knows who you are, He created you and He wants a relationship with you and you alone! Find Him and He will show you who He created you too be…… You Are A Child of God!

It’s now 2019. I just wanted to point that out. Women’s Suffrage was a movement for their right to vote that began as early as 1912, some nearly 100 years ago. Today we see women’s struggle to fight for equal right’s in the workplace, to be clear I agree with.

Yesterday I was faced with a very troubling conversation by a female parishioner at our church. She brought up her opinion that women should not serve as an Usher at our church, of which we have one. She wanted me to know that women should not serve because they should not be involved with our time of offering and collecting the offering. Needless to say, I was taken aback. I was speechless (for those who know me, that is very rare).

Her comments brought to my heart several bigger picture questions than I am even capable of answering, but allow me to try.

An Usher at our church is there to serve the guest’s that walk through our doors. They are to greet them, make them feel welcome, be a valuable resource and above all, show the Love and Grace of God to all who come. I searched high and low in the bible and cannot find any references about women not being allowed to serve in the capacity as an “usher”. There are things to say about Serving in a position of authority, but that is a different matter, not at the heart of this particular discussion. What I found an abundance of, is verses that touch on how we are called to serve, of which these two are perfect examples of:

“This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God”.
2 Corinthians 9:12

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s Grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be the Glory and the Power for ever and ever. Amen”
1 Peter 4:10-11

Both verses point out two things…. Serve Others…… Give thanks and the glory to God. Might I also point out that the critical comments made by the parishioner may not be, in a matter of speaking, words uttered by our Lord and Savior.

Another extremely critical point to be made is that we, the people, are the Church and the Body of Christ! The Church not the buildings, the facilities or the coffee that is served. This point is so easily overlooked. I don’t go to church, I am the Church! Church is not a 2 hour event every Sunday, it is a way of life, it is the essence of who I am in Christ! I must look at everybody who I come into contact with through the eyes of Jesus Christ!
Am I graceful?
Am I judgmental?
Am I critical?
Am I being legalistic?
That is me too! Something about calling the kettle black come to mind?

How are we, the Church, going to get people to come through the doors to experience the awesome power of God in our lives when we cannot accept a woman as an usher? Jesus said in Matthew 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth”. How can we be the salt of the earth when we are causing strife within the walls of His Church, within our hearts, within our worldly views of who should and should not serve?

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” John 8:11

We go to church on Sunday’s because we are all broken and sinful people in need of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ! We cannot grow in Christ if we cannot remove the wordly thinking from our hearts. We need to allow God’s illuminating power of love, acceptance and grace to permeate every part of us. We need to embrace the most clearest message that a church must proclaim…. Come as you are, Jesus will take care of the rest! Let the deep penetrating truths in these next verses clearly show you what the Body of Christ is and how we all belong to it through Faith in our Lord Jesus!

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”
Romans 12:3‭-‬8

Father God,
We so desperately need You! We bear the burdens of our sinful ways every breath we breathe. Give us an overwhelming desire to stop living in the old ways of the legalistic views of the church and fully embrace the Love and Grace that you so freely give to us every day! Let us love and cherish every soul that comes to church and bring them into the fold of the Body of Christ! Let all those who believe have a heart to serve others sacrificially, putting the needs of others above their own. Father God, we cannot grasp the depth of your love for us! Let us, with every measure of our being, give the love you show us to others in everything we do. Let us give thanks to those who serve, for their gifts of service to us are a light in a dark world that desperately needs you God!

Amen!