This past weekend was extremely powerful and mens' lives are being changed. We finished up our dual retreat where the guys and girls were separated and I saw God move in gigantic ways. The weekend was focused on sexual addiction and we had a counselor who specializes in sexual addiction fly up from Florida to speak. Due to the content I can't describe to you all what happened, but let's just say many eyes were opened to the pains that sexual sin causes. Here's how I look at it.
Imagine you are perceiving reality. You know, you're everyday life. You are looking out into the world and everything seems to be as it is. You are living out YOUR reality. What YOU believe to be life as it is. Little do you know the destruction, the truth, and the war that rages behind you. I believe that people are wounded at a very young age. I believe we are at war, and the enemy, Satan, shoots his arrows, dripped with poisonous lies that devastate our heart and help us to believe falsehoods about ourselves, God and the very lives we live. The wounding that occurs at a young age is devastating and it impacts the thoughts men have towards sex, women and their masculinity.
This weekend about 60 men slowly turned around and started to open their eyes, and see the onslaught of arrows that have been shooting at their hearts. Even if it's just a sliver of their eyes that were open, it was still a huge victory. Think about the change that could occur from this weekend? Sexual addiction is huge in America. The porn industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. A majority of men are sexually addicted and don't even know the danger and destruction it causes. That impacts how they interact with their wives, children and God. This weekend was huge in stopping that trend at New Life Church. This weekend was the start of raising up men of Christ, who desire to love women as their sisters and work towards becoming sexually free for their wives someday. It was beautiful. There were times this past weekend where I was moved to tears. Guys were confessing sin in their lives they had never shared before while gaining freedom and insight into why they are addicted. That was the first point that the counselor stated. Sexual addiction is not about sex. It's about a longing that we have not fulfilled in our lives and instead of turning to Christ we use sexual addiction to dull ourselves so we don't have to feel that hurt, pain, shame and ignore the issues in our past.
Guys were challenged with questions such as these:
-Is there anything that keeps you from recognizing this issue in your life as important as it is?
-What does the word addict imply about me?
-Am I not worthy to be your son? (in regard to Jesus- we looked at the story of the prodigal son: Luke 15).
We talked about intimacy and how we relate with others, ourselves and God in terms of our core emotions which are anger, sadness and fear.
He challenged us to be vulnerable with our emotions. "Emotions foster intimacy and make us vulnerable- We were made to be intimate, so we must be vulnerable with others and true intimacy stems from being fully known and fully loved." That hit me hard because that's what I desire to have with my Savior Jesus Christ and my wife someday. To be fully known and fully loved. That was a powerful part of the weekend for me.
We talked about sexual triggers. He used examples of why someone may act out. That person may think it's because he has a problem with sex, however, if he thought back to his past week, and thought about the test he just failed he would remember his feeling of shame, anger or sadness. Instead of engaging with those emotions and bringing those fears to God, that person chose to act out sexually. That was powerful for a lot of guys, I don't believe many of them had thought about sexual triggers before and to recognize those at a young age is huge in knowing your story and becoming a man of integrity. I
I had several deep conversations with guys in my life group. Two in particular were incredible. One is starting to piece together his past hurt with his mom leaving him and how his anger affects himself, others, women and his view of God. It was so powerful to see God move in his life.
The weekend was a great success. Like I stated, eyes were open and I think many men are taking up their swords and want to fight this battle. They want to know more fully who they are, why they act in certain ways and desire to love their sisters in absolute purity. 1 Timothy 5: 1-2 "Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but echort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity." Imagine if God raises up 60 men to do this. Gosh that'll change the world. So yeeahhh, powerful weekend : )
Prayer requests:
-Continue to pray for my small group and OC New Life team.
-Myself and Party at the Rock: One of my jobs this summer is directing an event we have called Party at the Rock. It's a huge party we throw on our lawn at campus with free food, live music and zero alcohol. I'm in charge of coordinating over 150 students, that means creating teams for set up, tear down, food, marketing, inviting etc. To be honest it's been a lot and these past two days have been very rough. I feel extremely under attack from the enemy. Satan knows that lives have been changed at this party and I don't think it's a coincidence that issues in my life have been coming up. We swarm the campus inviting people to come and many have come to know the Lord through this event. Pray that I could have clarity and wisdom to lead. God's been teaching me a lot about delegation, my pride and surrendering my reputation. This party could tank, but God still desires to know me, love me and is still proud of me. That's hard for me to believe at times, but he's working on me ; ). The party is tomorrow so if you could be praying during the day for God to move that would be great. I can plan and coordinate to the best of my ability, but unless God moves, lives won't be changed. And pray that my soul may have peace in Christ please.
2 Corinthians 12:9 "But he said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power my rest on me."
I'm a broken man, and a broken leader. Pray God will use my weaknesses for His glory tomorrow night. All the glory and credit to Him. His gospel changed and saved my life for eternity and here on earth.
Thank you all for reading. I'll be sure to update in about a week again. I need some sleep!
-cam
Awesome insights, Cameron. So impressed with your wisdom!
ReplyDeleteLove you!
Jacqueline