For quite a while, many times that I try to picture the cross I end up seeing a nude or close-to-nude woman on it. I think it was because of how Jesus is often shown as being stripped before hung on the cross, so my brain connects it with other images showing a lot of skin. This always made me feel awful, like I was replacing Christ with porn and I would do everything to get the image out of my head. I just recently heard someone say two steps that had helped them escape from addictive behavior (In their case it was alcohol, but it works the same): 1. Imagine what your life would be like if you were completely free from your addictive behavior. Keep that image in your mind all day. 2. Picture yourself lifting your addictive behavior and nailing it to the cross. That second one hit me hard, and I will be thinking of that any time these images come into my head again. Jesus paid that price once and for all for my failings, and my porn addiction was nailed to that cross right along with him
Bakjo, it is not your fault that those images were even affecting you in such a way. God knows that can happen and Satan uses it!!! We should not even be creating, erecting, displaying Jesus hanging on a cross ever in the first place!!! Not in any church, not anywhere!! If you were actually standing at the foot of the crosses when the 3 were hanging there, that would NOT have been a sexual image by any means!!!! The Second Commandment against idolatry is recorded in Exodus 20:4-6: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” God commands us not to make idols or any representation of Him. Nothing we can make can compare with Almighty God—human handiwork would only give us a false image of the true God. We are not to use statues, pictures, jewelry or anything else to represent God or as a physical aid in worshipping Him. The "church" has watered down this commandment to it's fullest. I'm sorry if this seems radical but it's the TRUTH. It's gotten so bad that a huge percent of porn videos and porn stars have a "cross" either tattooed on their body or hanging around their necks!!! That is mocking God!! If everyone VOWED to turn off porn and get to their knees the second they spotted a 'cross', you would cut your habit in half!!!
We all have some form of intrusive thoughts. If this frequently happens you may have pure o. In the Channel 4 drama/comedy Pure is based on a true story of a woman who has Pure O. In it, she keeps seeing people naked and is so disturbed by it that she moves to another country. But moving doesn't make it stop. The thing that helps her is finding out she has a form of OCD called Pure O. After finding it out every time she would imagine people being naked she would say to herself, 'It's not me, it's my OCD'. She would say that to herself for a few times and then the images would leave her mind. I don't know if that will help. Maybe watching the show might help. Be warned there's a lot of nudity in it but I didn't find all the triggering since it's not presented in a sexy way. I found watching the show helped me with my intrusive thoughts. If the TV shows seem too much you always read the book the show is based on and there's also an article the author wrote Pure O. Of course, it might not help but I found watching the show helpful because it let me know I wasn't alone.
Ummmm I would not advice watching watching any show that has "lot's of nudity". You DON'T NEED TO BE REASSURED YOU ARE "NOT ALONE"... Jesus knows exactly how you are TEMPTED everyday!!!!! 14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one (Jesus) who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.…
There is no mention of OCD or Pure O in the Bible. Sometimes it's not enough to say Jesus knows. It never helped me. If we only needed Jesus then why are we on this site?
When I had intrusive thoughts -- ones that I did not want in my mind and I knew were not coming from me -- I learned to tell them to leave in Jesus' Name. I resisted doing this for a long time because I do not want to treat God as a magic fairy who gives me what I want when I say his name. I do not think Scripture teaches that this is how Jesus operates. However, in this case, when the need was dire and I was under direct spiritual attack (as far as I could tell), I found the name of Christ to be powerful and effective. Never once did the thoughts fail to leave me when they were truly placed there by the enemy. Whether I went back to them later by my own choice is a different story, but when the thoughts were truly being forced on me by the enemy, Jesus washed them away perfectly. It is not enough to simply know that Jesus can relate. It *is* enough to have him actively by your side and in your heart and mind fighting the battle for you. At least, that has been my experience. God bless you, @BakJo !
This is all imo, so take it fwiw. Jesus actually *is* all we need. It is learning to live life as his disciple that we lack, and this practical instruction from other, older disciples is one of the primary roles for which Jesus instituted his Church. ("Go and make disciples.") The modern church has done a very poor job of this. After decades of church attendance, I was as trapped in PMO as I had ever been. I despaired. It wasn't until I began to learn from other disciples one-on-one what it meant to be and how to actually live day-in and day-out as a disciple, that my life began to improve and I began to experience the "normal Christian life" of daily victory and peace and rest that Jesus promises to all who come to him. It is my hope that on this forum we can begin to disciple one another in this way, learning from one another as Jesus teaches us directly through his Spirit as individuals. We have a long ways to go -- further up and further in!
Hopefully to learn Jesus is all you need. As far as OCD not found in the Bible?? Good grief man.... the bible is a very old and very true account of "One God seeking man", not man seeking God. Man already was worshiping gods on numerous levels, sun, moon, fertility, sexual, thunder, etc. Example: The Heart organ throughout the entire bible, old and new, was thought to be where our "thinking" came from... they thought the heart was the brain. Everytime... EVERYTIME you read the word heart in the bible you can substitute "mind" instead... the constant battle with knowing and walking with God and obeying His commandments was always in the MIND, not in feelings. OCD, Pure O, Bipolar, Asperger's Disorder, etc. These may not be "mentioned" in the bible but the CURE for those is mentioned: Jesus said in Matthew 22:36-40 the Greatest Commandment of all was the SHEMA Here is the best literal translation of what this reads using what the words actually mean at the time written: Attention and Obey, (people who believe He rules as God)! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is the only ONE. You will accept Yahweh your God with your whole mind, your whole body, and with forceful passionate strength. It goes on the say: 6 These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart (mind!!!); 7 and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them on your hand as a sign, put them at the front of a headband around your forehead, 9 and write them on the door-frames of your house and on your gates. In other words, MEMORIZE, fill your MIND with His word daily, minute by minute. Notice how strong and almost impossible it is to do what is written BUT that is the only way to CURE the mind according to God Himself. READ ALL OF Romans 1... Your "Pure O" and mind disorders, and other sexual behaviors can be inserted and included in verses like these: 28 In other words, since they have not considered God worth knowing, God has given them up to worthless ways of thinking; so that they do improper things. 29 They are filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and vice; stuffed with jealousy, murder, quarrelling, dishonesty and ill-will; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God; they are insolent, arrogant and boastful; they plan evil schemes; they disobey their parents; 31 they are brainless, faithless, mindless and ruthless. Satan is not done INVENTING new disorders and new diseases that man will use as excuses to explain away tons of sin, bad behavior, and normalized wickedness. Living in this culture is not an excuse... it's a curse, but not an excuse... it's HARD, but it's not an excuse!!!
All well said and true, but there is I think a difference between Jesus saying "Be anxious for nothing" and instruction on how to actually achieve that on an ongoing basis. The Scripture paints the picture for what life in the Kingdom looks like, but it is often lacking on details regarding the *how*. (Again, just my opinion. I could be wrong about this!) That practical piece is, I think, what we are to get from the Spirit directly and from other wise disciples who are more mature than us in the walk of faith. Jesus promises I do not need to worry about anything if I am in him. So I know it is possible to operate like this. But the work of faith ("believe") involves learning how to enter into this reality for myself. Jesus sets us free from sin and shows us what is possible in his promises. The Spirit guides us into all truth, one day at a time. He often does this, in my experience, through other disciples. This is the Church. This is why we need one another.
YES Tao, I agree... but the "HOW" like I said above was spelled out in filling your mind with His commandments and word... YES, we now have the "law" written on our hearts (which means mind) according to the new covenant in Jesus. And YES the Spirit (if given permission to) will indwell us and help us and guide us. But there is NO escaping the fundamental exercise of "filling our minds" with His word... Psalm 119, the longest of all Psalms, speaks nothing but the importance of knowing, remembering, and living God's word by filling the mind. This is extremely HARD to do in our busy lives, I understand!!! I have wasted DAYS in porn instead of God's word, we only go to church once a week, the Israelite went to "worship" twice a day with sacrifices and thanksgiving and prayers... It's no wonder Jews call Christianity a CHEAP religion!!! Not because they "worked" for their salvation but because they Worshiped God constantly!!! Once God "reconciled the world to himself in Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:19) believers have had a tendency and temptation to just sit back and relax and not include God until they need Him badly. Wasting time that could be used "filling your mind". I'm just saying... (easy to preach but not easy to do, but also easy to forget) Tao I understand where you are coming from totally and also true and well said to you too... (BTW, I love this place)
When I confessed my PMO to my wife after hiding it from her for 15 years, the first stanza of Psalm 119 was my cry to God. His word pulled me through that very difficult day. I agree 100%. And I would add that under the New Covenant, we now acknowledge Jesus as the Word. Thus, his instruction to us, "Abide in me and I will abide in you," is right and good. If we stay connected to the Vine, we will thrive. If we remove ourselves from it, we will wither and die. Thank you for the encouraging word today!
