In this week’s sermon, we will be unveiling the wisdom of the Cross.
This episode: We look at fasting—why it will help you battle porn, doing it with a right heart, and how to incorporate it into your life.
In the latest sermon, our speakers unpack several biblical texts to unveil Yahweh as Redeemer.
This episode: In this podcast we'll give a biblical answer to the question: "What role does accountability play in overcoming sexual sin?"
When ministering to someone in sexual sin, one must realize that sin has done a level of damage in that persons heart and in their life.
This is part two of our episode, "A Leaders Guide to the Sexual Addict." We created this episode to be a guide for lay leaders, counselors or anyone who wants to help someone overcome their sexual sin. We hope it will give you a better understanding of what's going on inside the heart of a professing Christian who is involved with sexual sin. We can't discuss everything, but we're trying to hit the key features.
A church system won't save you. Only Jesus personally can save you, lead you, and guide you through life.
When a church culture is compromised enough that false teachers can thrive inside of its system, this will undoubtedly affect people in their daily lives. You see, Jesus said that when we continue in His Word that we will know the truth, and that the truth would liberate us. And so the converse is also true. Without the truth, we will not be liberated. And by definition, false teachers do not offer the truth of God to people, not in its purity. And so people are left bound in slavery to their sins. In this episode, Nate sits down with Patrick and Jon to discuss how this played out in their lives, and how it was that God helped bring them out of that system.
This series is based on the book Intoxicated with Babylon: The Seduction of God’s People in the Last Days by Steve Gallagher. You can find out more about that book by visiting our bookstore.
Registration is now open for our 2023 Conference! We hope to see you there. Click the link and watch the trailer now.
The world as we know it is in a spiritual freefall—moving ever further away from God. Those who remain attached to this world system are moving irresistibly into an ever-greater darkness. Before long they will be utterly engulfed, unable to escape. The only way out is to live in the will of God every minute of every day. This is the only path into the light—the only way into God.
Register now for the 2023 Pure Life Ministries Conference!
If a person loses their reverential and worshipful fear of God, it's easy for them to journey down the spiral of degradation.
Ken Larkin has been a biblical counselor in our Residential Program for 14 years. He's seen many men who have entrenched themselves in sin and have traveled deep down the Spiral of Degradation. In part one of this interview, he discusses the first two steps of the spiral and how they can play out in a person's life. (from Podcast Episode #493 - Babylon: When Satan Rules the Hearts of Men)
Nate: In Romans one we are given a description of what many Christians’ call “the Spiral of Degradation.” And what we see in this passage is a group of people who are going through a spiritual process that ends in total corruption. Anyone can go through the same spiritual corrupting process that would make them the kind of person that God destroyed in the biblical flood described in Genesis 6. So, anyone of us can become the kind of person that would make God say, “I am grieved that I made them.” Personally, I believe that viewing pornography is a fast track to becoming that kind of person. So, I brought Ken Larkin in to help us take a detailed look at this process. Ken, you’ve watched men come into our program who are way down the spiral of degradation, but you've also seen men come out of the spiral. So, first, could you briefly describe the steps down the spiral of degradation for us?
Ken: Sure. There are basically seven steps. The first step is a failure to reverence and give gratitude to God. In Romans 1:21 it says, “They did not honor or glorify Him as God or give thanks.” The second step is the darkening heart. Verses 22 & 23 say, “Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man.” And you can see where this is going here with the whole idea of pornography and sexual sin. The third step is suppression of the truth. Verse 25 says that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie.
As you're going down that spiral, the next step would be to be given over to the lust of the heart. Verse 24 says, “Therefore, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity.” Step five signifies being given over even further. In verse 26 it says, “God gave them over to degrading passions.” Further on down the spiral is step six, which is the depraved mind. It says this in verse. Lastly, step 7, goes from verse 29 to the end of the chapter where it says that they came to a place of being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, and they were given over to a lifestyle of fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the sinful mind.
Nate: If somebody were to read through that portion of Scripture, they would definitely be able to see that there are definite steps along this pathway. This is not just one quick jump all the way to filled with all manner of unrighteousness. This is a process and what we want to help people realize is that if they are anywhere in that process, they're headed somewhere. But we also want them to see that they can come out of the spiral. So, here's what I want to do. I'd like to flesh these steps out and give a little bit of what they might look like in a practical way, so that somebody could see where they identify with being in this process. Or maybe they have been there, or it may help them see where they are headed. Let's start with the first step down. They did not glorify God as God or give Him thanks. What does that mean exactly? And what does it look like when somebody is taking that step?
Ken: Well, it's interesting because Scripture says first that they did know God. So, it's not ignorance. This is someone that has the knowledge of God, has come into a relationship with Him, but then they lose their reverential and worshipful fear and love of God. You could say it's like someone left their first love. First of all, what happens is they begin to lose their adoration and awe of God. They lose the place where God is literally the center of their universe, where He should be. They lose the place where God is everything and where God is God, and what slowly happens is that begins to be replaced by self.
If you look at someone that may have been broken over their sin, they should be coming into true repentance. But often times even after repenting, all of a sudden, their self-life and pride starts rising up again and they become bigger in their own estimation and God becomes smaller. Then what happens is since they're not deriving their ultimate fulfillment from a relationship with God, a sense of discontentment or dissatisfaction starts welling up in their hearts and they become ungrateful. Then since they're not seeking intimacy with God, they might be doing all the outward things they did before, but something inside their heart has changed their direction and now they're turning away from God and seeking fulfillment or satisfaction outside of Him. This causes them to be disgruntled and believe that somehow God's holding out on them and not giving them what they want. It's a very evil disposition.
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Nate: Yeah, and it's also very subtle. This doesn't even necessarily mean that a person is engaging in some gross sin. This is just like you said, a change of direction in the heart. I think that’s important for people to understand. The danger zone is not looking at pornography once a week or starting to commit A, B or C sin. The danger zone is where the attitude of the heart changes towards God. Now let’s look at the second step which is the darkening heart. What's happening at this point and how do you see this taking place?
Ken: It's a change in direction. Now they're moving away from the light and toward darkness. I've heard it said that morality is not a line, it's a direction. So now they're moving in the opposite direction and what happens is since they're not satisfied with God, they're going to seek satisfaction in their idol. And in a lot of people's case the idol is sexual sin, which Scripture really brings out in Romans 1. So, what's happening is they might be involved in a certain behavior and it's maybe euphoric or they really get something out of it. It’s almost like a drug addict. The first hit is amazing and then afterwards they're always seeking that high again.
Eventually they want to continue this behavior more frequently. They were giving over to their sin once a week and now they are giving over daily. But ultimately, it's the law of diminishing returns, because it's not going to continually satisfy. It's never going to be like the initial high or euphoric experience, so they're going to want to continue to do it more frequently. And then what happens is you cross lines and begin to engage in more depraved behavior. Where once it might have just been looking at porn, now this person is acting out with other people or getting involved in behavior that is worse than what they ever would have dreamed they would do. But they're starting to go down in a direction away from God and toward their sin.
Nate: Yeah. And when it says the darkening heart, I think the thing to remember is that it's not just a change in the progression of behavior, but something's really happening in the person’s heart. What other kinds of things could you see taking place in this person’s internal world maybe?
Ken: One of the things is that their value system begins to change. What they would have considered evil before, no longer looks that bad. As a matter of fact, it looks good and it looks enticing. It looks like something desirable even though it might be something God hates and it’s inherently evil. And one of the aspects of sin which we'll get into more as we go down the spiral is that one of the lies that is easy to believe is that you can just easily quit whenever you want. That is not true. The more you give over to sin you're being corrupted on the inside and your heart is becoming more dark, more polluted, more fouled and tainted by that sin. And the effects of that don’t just immediately go away once your wrong behavior stops.
When ministering to a man in sexual sin, a pastor should keep in mind that sin deeply corrupts even the most outwardly kind person.
When you've ministered to Christian men in sexual sin for as long as we have, you start to get a pretty good idea about who you are dealing with and what they need. If you’re a pastor, if you’re discipling someone who is struggling with sexual sin, or if you recently found out that someone you love has been living a double life of hidden immorality, this episode is for you. Welcome to part one of "A Leader's Guide to the Sexual Addict."
A marriage fueled by a desire for success, prosperity and sexual pleasure is a recipe for disaster.
When Chris looked at Marissa, he saw a woman who would help him control his lust. He saw someone who would help him achieve a prosperous life. When Marissa looked at Chris, she saw a man who would help her pursue the Lord, someone who would help her cultivate the kind of spiritual life she dreamed of having. One day, both of their dreams came crashing down. But this did not result in the destruction of their marriage. Instead, it brought about the creation of something unexpected. Something beautiful. Something brand new.
When you look at someone's life, it's obvious that their decisions impact the people around them whether they want them to or not.
People living in habitual sin often believe that their sin only affects them. They deceive themselves into believing it won’t harm family and friends. But this isn't true practically, and it isn't true spiritually or biblically either. In part two of our interview with Dustin and Brittany Renz we discuss how hidden sin affects a marriage and some of the important aspects of rebuilding a broken marriage.
If you haven’t already read part one, you can find the link to that article below. (from Podcast Episode #462 - Husbands, It's Time to Be Honest)
Click here to check out Hiding Your Sin Won't Protect Your Wife (Part 1)
Patrick: Dustin and Brittany, today we’re continuing our discussion on how Dustin’s double life affected your marriage and how important honesty and transparency are in a marriage. I think we would all say that it is worth it to bring our sin out into the light. The consequences we have to walk through are worth the freedom and the joy of the Lord in our relationships with others. But I think that a lot of people are going to hold out their hand and try to resist that moment. So, if there was someone that you knew was hiding sin and being dishonest with their wives, how would you counsel them considering your own experience with hiding sin?
Dustin: When I look back, I had always told myself I was going to get free between me and God. It wasn't that I was just going to blatantly live in sin, but me and God are going to get this figured out between me and Him. I've counseled people before in that place who don't want to let it all out in the open and my advice to them is if it works getting free between you and God, then why aren't you free? How many years have you been struggling with this? 5 years? 10 years? If you want to be free, the only way to do it is to confess your sin.
When I look back, I don't think it was possible for me to be free until I let Brittany know and let things out in the open. So, in some ways, all the painful consequences that I had to walk through was the only pathway to freedom. The only reason it was so destructive and painful was because I waited so long. So, I always let people know, unfortunately you can't go back in time and fix the damage that has been done from your sin. I couldn't go back to the beginning of our marriage when we were dating and decide to be real, but I could make the choice that I did and let it all out when I did. Adding more days, months, and years just causes more and more pain, so why not just deal with it now and get it out in the open so that you can be free?
Brittany: Also, I think it would have helped back then if he would have gone to a pastor or a mature believer that he could confess his sin to. He could have told someone that he wanted to get free and maybe they could have helped him walk through some things before confessing to me.
Patrick: As we're talking about this Dustin, it reminds me of the sermon you delivered to the men in our Residential Program. You were talking to them about the story of Achan out of the book of Joshua. He was hiding his sin. But it didn't just affect him. It didn't even just affect his family. His sin affected the whole Israelite community. You made some pretty strong statements to the guys about that. I'm wondering if you can relate that to your marriage and the conversation we're having.
Dustin: I mentioned in that message something Paul talks about in Galatians. He said that if you sow to the flesh, you'll reap corruption and that if you sow to the spirit, you'll reap everlasting life. It was the first time I really thought of it this way when I was preparing that message, but one of the points was that as believers, or really anyone, we all have control over what kind of seed we sow. We can choose to sow to the flesh or to sow to the spirit. But we have no control over the harvest that comes. So, the decision we make, and the repercussions and consequences of those decisions are all going to play out in ways that affect others. It’s like a ripple effect that we can't choose the outcome of. You can't control it or keep it from occurring.
The lie that a lot of people believe is that their sin only affects themselves. They may even believe that they can deal with it between them and God and just move on. They also may think that it doesn't even affect their wife or kids. That's not biblically true. When you look at someone's life, it's obvious that their consequences and their decisions have a very large impact on the people around them whether they want them to or not.
Patrick: We've already kind of touched on one of the questions I wanted to ask, which is, what does the Word of God have to say about living honestly and transparently in a relationship?
Dustin: Yeah. We talked a little bit about the theme of walking in the light as He is in the light. In 1 John there is a contrast made between darkness and light. We can't live in darkness and claim to know God. That should bring conviction to anybody who claims to be a believer and yet is living in the darkness. So, I think part of the lifestyle someone has to develop, even after their first major confession, is an ongoing process or confession and repentance. It's not just a one-time thing where you come clean and then you go back in to hiding. You have to learn how to be an open book with the people close to you in your life. Not necessarily the whole world, but certainly your spouse and your pastor or spiritual authority in your life.
I really love how Paul says in Romans 12:9 that we should let love be sincere. That word sincere is actually translated in the Greek anupokritos, which means “without hypocrisy.” In essence, Paul is giving an exhortation to us that love should be without hypocrisy. You should love that way, especially in a marriage relationship. That should be the closest relationship that you have on the earth. Your spouse is the person that you are the most intimate with. You can't truly love your spouse and have a true marital bond if you're living with a mask on. Biblically it doesn't make sense and practically it doesn't either.
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Patrick: As you talk about learning to live in the light and learning to love without hypocrisy, obviously that didn't happen right away after you confessed. That probably had to play itself out when you returned from the program and got back into rebuilding your marriage. Can you each talk about what that time was like and some of the struggles and issues that you had to walk through to learn to build honest communication with each other?
Brittany: I could see that Dustin was being more open and honest after coming back from the Residential Program and trust was something that had to develop over a lot of time. Trust doesn't happen overnight. I had to see that he was being trustworthy and the more that he would communicate with me about anything that he was struggling with or just difficulties that he was having, I saw that he was being more open and honest about his life in general. Also, he was getting help from our pastor and other mature believers, so there was accountability factored in there as well. I couldn't be his accountability partner because I still had all of my emotions and thoughts involved as we were going through this process. But if I had to or wanted to ask him a question, I knew he was able to answer me honestly and able to open up and be honest about what he was dealing with or struggling with.
Dustin: For me, I think the process was very challenging because I had spent years trying to learn how to deceive and manipulate. That was my lifestyle and I had become really good at it. So to learn to live outwardly and to talk about what was going on inside, especially if I was having a struggle with something, was completely contrary to what I taught myself to do. So it took a while. Even with pastors and other people aside from my wife, I had to learn to be open and honest. There were times where I felt like I was really struggling and I would tell Brittany that I needed her to pray for me. But one thing I found for me is that I would get really defensive if Brittany would ask me, “Hey, how are you doing?” If I was doing well, it would be frustrating because I kept feeling like she didn’t trust me yet.
So, I had to work through that and I had to realize that I was the one who caused all these problems. Who was I to get upset? But when you start to have a good track record, it can become difficult not to rise up internally when you are questioned about if you are struggling. I'm used to being questioned now, because now I know that I'm not above temptation and I actually invite people into my life who can ask those tough questions. Initially I remember often responding like, “I’m doing good. Don't worry about me, I’m fine.” And I had to work through some of my selfishness and self-sufficiency during that period of time.
Brittany: And on the flip side, when I would ask him those questions and he did admit something that he was struggling with or something that was difficult, I wanted to get real upset myself and say, “Why are you still dealing with this? I thought you overcame these things or got past them.” But I had to realize that he had to take a lot of time to get these sins worked out of his life and to get the overwhelming temptation out of his life by continually walking in freedom while being open and honest. So, I had to deal with things myself internally to be a support, not to pat him on the back and say, “Oh better luck next time.” I just needed to be a support where I realized that he might mess up and he might make a mistake, but he was walking in the light and going through a process of transformation.
Patrick: Was it challenging for you at first to really believe that he wouldn’t go back to hiding everything and to really believe that he was on the right track? Did you have to fight to believe that about him?
Brittany: Oh yeah. A lot of doubt at first and a lot of distrust. A lot of wondering if he is just saying what I wanted to hear or if he was saying the truth. Especially in the beginning, because I would think back on when he opened up and confessed all of his sin and I didn't even know anything was going on in his life at that time. I would get hit with the thought of, “I already believed the lie once. Am I going to believe the lie again?” So, the time factor was big because it took a lot of time to trust him again and to believe what he was saying. But I could see the more that he was walking in freedom and walking in the light, I would begin to trust him more and see that he was walking out the life that he was claiming to be living now.
Dustin: So, when we look at the whole process during that time, it was messy, difficult, and challenging. It had its ups and downs emotionally as well. It wasn't just like we flipped a switch and everything was perfect. It took a really a long time. Some of the battles still continue to this day, but we've grown a ton, so things are a lot different. Initially it was really difficult for both of us, but the Lord gave us the grace to navigate through it and get us to a place where trust could be built into our relationship. And as I continued to walk in transparency, we were able to get to the strong relationship that we have today.
Patrick: I want to switch gears as we close today because when it came to rebuilding your marriage you guys talked a lot about the process of learning to be honest and learning over time to rebuild trust, and how that involved your communication with one another about things going on in your life. But I can imagine that there were other factors of building a healthy marriage centered in God that would over time help you guys to feel closer and more vulnerable with one another. So, is there anything else you would like to share about how you rebuilt your marriage as we close today?
Dustin: I think that each of us getting alone with the Lord to pray and get into the Word consistently has been an essential part of rebuilding our marriage. We get together to pray and read the Word as well. We’ve gone through marriage books together and we’ve watched teaching videos just to learn. Spending time doing those things on a regular basis has been helpful. I think one of the biggest things for me that Brittany referenced earlier is that I've got people in my life that I meet with on a regular basis. I've got a couple of men that I am accountable to that I meet with once a week and one of the questions that I'm asked every week is, “How's your marriage doing? How have you been treating your wife? What kind of issues are you working through?” So, I think for her, knowing that I have people I'm going to that I'm being transparent with, gives her a peace about where I'm at in my walk with the Lord. Overall, it has been a huge advantage for me as a married man to have people to ask those questions. Because every married man should be able to be held accountable for the way that they’re acting and the way that they are treating their wife.
Brittany: Yeah. And we're able to do devotions together and this isn't in place of personal devotions, but we're able to read a marriage devotional or listen to a podcast or something that will build our marriage up. We’re also able to pray together and sometimes just go on dates together where we are able to spend time building our relationship and have uninterrupted time to more deeply communicate with each other about our lives.
Maintaining a godly atmosphere in your home leads to a life full of blessings and genuine freedom.
Welcome to the fifth episode in our series, Key Lessons on the Road to Freedom. In this episode, we are going to look at yet another vital aspect of learning to walk in freedom from sexual sin - keeping a godly atmosphere in your home. It's a lesson we all have to learn. If we want to live godly lives, we have to keep a careful guard over our homes.
The Role of Consecration in Overcoming Sin (Article) By Steve Gallagher
It may be painful to walk through the consequences of confessing sin, but this is a vital step on the road to freedom.
Before Dustin Renz came through the Pure Life Ministries Residential Program, he was living a double life. On the outside, he was a good Christian husband in full time ministry. But in secret, he was addicted to pornography and drugs. In this interview, he and his wife, Brittney, discuss how this duplicitous life prevented him from gaining freedom over his sin. They also share about the many problems it created in their marriage. (from Podcast Episode #462 - Husbands, It's Time to Be Honest)
Patrick: Dustin and Brittany, thank you for joining us today. Dustin, I wanted to speak with you today about what was important for you when you were rebuilding your marriage. And as we were preparing for this interview, what stood out to me about your story was how important honesty and transparency are in a marriage. So that’s what we want to talk about today. Before we get in to that, could you talk about your life before you came to the Pure Life Residential Program? Specifically, could you highlight the deception in your marriage?
Dustin: Sure. Brittany and I met in Bible school right after I graduated from Teen Challenge. I actually stayed and worked for a couple of months at Teen Challenge after I graduated the program. I had been free for 11 months or so from pornography and drugs, but I ended up working in an office with computer access and I started viewing pornography again. When I first met Brittany, I wasn't looking for a wife, but we fell in love and I knew it was the Lord. I felt like we were brought together by Him, so I told her everything. I told her my whole history and everything that I had done sexually. I just laid it all out there because she had grown up in a Christian home and had lived a completely different life than me, so I wanted her to know that this is kind of what the package of my life was. So initially I really wanted to be real and honest.
I knew I needed help with the pornography use, so I went to see a counselor at our school and started meeting with him regularly. I would meet with him and share with him my struggles and try to get help. But I kept working at Teen Challenge on the weekends and still had that access to pornography. So I would be looking at porn on the weekends and then I would go back to school and share all the things that were going on again.
I don't know what the time frame was, but eventually I started to realize that I was going to lose my relationship with Brittany if I didn’t get this thing right. But I wasn’t getting free and I didn't know when I was going to. So I decided to just deal with it between me and God and just tell Brittany and the counselor that I was doing okay. That was the worst decision I ever made, but it felt like it was all I knew to do. So basically, I lied to her and we got engaged and then we got married, and throughout all of that she had no idea about it. In the first few years of our marriage, I was expecting the marriage to fix the problem and that didn't happen.
So then, I was still dabbling with pornography and in my eyes it was like, well, things are okay other than this little area of my life that I'm dealing with. But I didn't see that I had two different lives developing. Looking back, I see it that way, but at the time I saw it as me having this struggle from my past. I thought I would break free from it eventually. Instead, it ended up being nearly 6 or 7 years where my double life became more and more evident to me. But in my delusion I didn't think I was hiding a secret life. I felt like I was being transparent to a degree with her and that I was just keeping this little secret to myself. Of course it wasn't a little one, but I saw it that way in my deceived terms.
Patrick: Did that change your perspective on Brittany or your interactions with her? Did you see that as you started to lie and hide more and more that the lack of transparency caused things to change over time?
Dustin: Yeah. Anytime you lie and manipulate, you start covering up one lie and that leads to another lie. Eventually I had so many things going on that it wasn't just the pornography. It became the drugs, the alcohol and spending money on those things. It ended up becoming out of hand to where I would allow her in to my world to a certain degree, because she knew I was struggling with some things. She kind of knew that I was having emotional issues, but I would always mask them as if I was dealing with the effects of something other than my sin. So, it's kind of like I let her into a place of seeing a little bit of my struggles, but she could never get past that place to see what was really going on.
Patrick: So, Brittany, I'm happy that you were able to join us today for this interview because I think that your perspective on some of what Dustin is saying is going to help some of the men who are listening see how exactly lying and manipulating impacts others, not just themselves. So, what was your perspective on that time period that Dustin was talking about?
Brittany: So that's a little bit complicated because when somebody is lying and manipulating, they get really good at it. So, it was hard to know anything at that time, because I would get a little hint of something and then I’d talk to him about it and he would give really good answers and downplay things. When you love someone, you automatically want to trust them. So, I kind of had that in the back of my mind. I thought he must be trustworthy, especially because his answers were pretty much panning out. So, I really didn't know much and that's why when it all came out, I was so devastated because I didn't know anything, and I didn't have any hints of things. But when I look back, I could remember the hints here that I dismissed.
Patrick: Before Dustin’s sin was exposed, did you feel like you had what you had always imagined would be a good Christian marriage?
Brittany: Yes, I definitely thought at the time that we had a good Christian marriage. He was in the ministry, we did ministry at our church and we were involved in so many different aspects of Christianity. We were involved in things that outside looking in would seem like a really on-track Christian couple. Really, the only thing at that time I noticed were his bouts of depression. I would talk to him about them and try to find out what was going on and it would always just be some evasive answer that I didn't quite understand. But I kind of just accepted it because what else would I have known? I didn't know any other sins that he was hiding, but I guess that played out as depression and that was what he was willing to share with me.
Patrick: That's interesting to me, because Dustin, one of the things I asked you to help prepare for this interview was to give us one lie you used to believe that you now see is not true about how to be a good husband. What you said was that you felt like you needed to lie and hide your sin in order to protect Brittany. In some ways it sounds like that's what was happening. By hiding your sin, you kept her from being hurt. But, I'd like you to talk about how even though it seemed like you were protecting her, that wasn't really true.
Dustin: Sure. I think that was really the whole problem all along. When I decided to start lying early in the marriage and started pretending everything was okay, I created this other persona that nobody knew about except for me and the Lord. Interestingly, I remember early on in our marriage we were doing youth ministry and we were on our way out to a youth group and we were talking about somebody that we knew who had fallen into drugs. I don't remember the exact scenario, but I remember at that time Brittany saying to me, if you ever were like that again, I could never stay married to you. That was a flippant comment and she wasn't meaning for it to be anything. But all these years later, I can still remember that comment because that was the thing that made me think, “If I ever tell her, she's going to leave me.” And that was an overwhelming fear of mine.
Brittany: And at the time, I wouldn't have thought that he was doing any of that stuff. So that comment wouldn't have been even a threat. It was just an offhanded thought. I really believed that couldn’t be him and that he wouldn’t do that type of thing.
Dustin: I think the devil really used that as ammunition, because I remained with this fear that if I ever came clean, Brittany would leave me. So, I thought in a way that I was protecting her in the sense of protecting her from having to walk through all the pain.
Also, the deeper we got into ministry I knew that it was going to affect my credentials. I knew that if I confessed I would get pulled off the mission field. She felt called to missions as a child so I felt like I was the hero and was keeping her from losing everything. I felt like this was just my cross to bear. I held onto that for years and the big lie that I believed is that I couldn’t tell her now because the stakes are too high and that it would destroy our relationship.
During all that I had this fantasy that I would get free between me and the Lord. I pictured me and Brittany in our seventies or eighties sitting on rocking chairs in our house and I would say, “Hey honey, you know, back when I was in my twenties I had this issue I didn't tell you about and I just want to confess to you and let you know. But it's so far back that it's no big deal anymore.” And I kind of felt like I’d have this long track record of doing well so then she would be like, “Oh, it's no big deal. I'm glad you told me, but that was when we were young.” So that was this weird thing that was always in the back of my mind. Of course, that was a lie that allowed me to keep pursuing sin.
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Patrick: It's interesting because you said that you were afraid that you would lose the relationship. You even spun that in terms of telling yourself you were protecting her, and you talked about protecting her dreams and her image. But you were afraid that you would lose your own credentials. So, in a way it sounds like there was actually a lot of selfishness that you were trying to play off as selflessness.
Dustin: I think that's really the heart of it. It was really all about me. But in my mind, to justify and rationalize what I was doing, I had to feel like my hiding was actually benefiting her in some way. Looking back, that way of thinking was total deception. But at the time it seemed to make logical sense.
Patrick: So, what was that like when it finally came out? What was the process that led up to the confession and how did that affect both of you?
Dustin: We were on the mission field and we had been there about 16 months. Initially I didn't know the language or the culture, so I wasn't able to get access to things to feed my sin. But as time went on, I learned the language and I started to figure out how to get drugs. I had actually been able to get cocaine for the first time over there and within a couple of days of using again I was up doing drugs one night while Brittany was in bed. That night I had such a conviction of needing to confess to my wife.
For years I struggled with the point that if I could just tell somebody what is going on in my life, I can find freedom. That was the internal battle that I fought, but then I would always convince myself not to do it. And that night I remember making a tangible decision in my heart to keep living this lie. I couldn't tell her. But the next morning Brittney woke up and we were in bed, and she just looked at me and asked me, “What's going on with you?”
Brittany: I asked because I could tell that something was wrong. He was just very depressed and something looked really wrong. And like many times before I asked him, “What's going on? What's wrong?” And this time he shared everything. Whereas before maybe he just gave me a real quick answer and downplayed it, this time he shared everything that he had been doing for the past several years and I was totally devastated.
I was totally blindsided because I hadn't known any of these things. When he shared, I was so upset that I almost didn't register what he was saying. But then, as I started to realize what he was really telling me and the reality of it, I was almost frightened by who he was. I was thinking, “I've been married to this man for 5 or 6 years and have no idea who he is.” Because he wasn't who I thought he was and I didn't know how things would look after this. What was going to happen now? What was going to happen with our baby because of all of this stuff that he had just spilled out?
Dustin: And for me it was like a chain reaction went off. For years I thought if I could just get this out, it'll fix it. I sort of had this expectation that it's the secret that needs to be let out and if I can just do that then maybe this will all be over. Instead, it kind of began the nightmare in some ways, because we immediately called our leaders and they came over. I showed them everything I had and three days later, we were flown back to the US and asked to resign. We ended up moving in with her parents. On top of all that, we had a baby to raise.
My expectation of this fixing the problem actually in some ways opened up the chaos. It was the first step in getting somewhere, but I was hoping that I would just feel the weight lift off my chest. Instead, bringing it out caused her to begin the process of dealing with it all and it caused a chain reaction of negative consequences that eventually led me to the Residential Program at Pure Life Ministries. But initially for about eight months we had to walk through some pretty painful consequences.
Brittany: And even though the consequences took a long time to walk through, in the long run it was better that he confessed things when he did and didn't wait even more years and pile more consequences and more effects from his sin.
When the focus of the church culture shifts from desiring God alone, we replace real passion for God with a vain substitute.
Having been saved during a powerful revival in the 1970’s, Steve Gallagher has personally watched a church on fire for God begin to atrophy spiritually. This has left today’s church filled with many who don’t care much at all about the things of God. So, in this episode of our series, “Babylon: The Seat of Satan’s Power,” Nate Danser sits down with Pastor Steve to discuss how the spirit of Babylon has contributed to this spiritual decline and what we must do as individuals to cultivate a personal fervor and devotion for God.
This series is based on the book Intoxicated with Babylon: The Seduction of God’s People in the Last Days by Steve Gallagher. You can find out more about that book by visiting our bookstore.
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The life of self-denial that Jesus called for from His followers is not what Americans want to hear about.
Many of us have heard of reality-TV shows such as America’s Got Talent or The Apprentice. Prestigious award ceremonies, such as The GRAMMYs and The Oscars, decorate the abilities of the highest echelon of musical and acting talent worldwide. Humanity tunes into these shows and roots for their favorite entertainers because it is easy to get swept away by those who can rouse our emotions and give us goose bumps.
And this same type of attitude has quietly slithered its way into an apathetic and worldly-minded church. In our American church culture, many talented and ambitious Christians have made very big names for themselves and have a wide impact on the hearts and minds of many people. Unfortunately, through this, a door has been opened for a subtle deception to creep into the church.
As Steve Gallagher warns us in this episode, when we allow talented and gifted men who can stir up our emotions to be given positions of prominence and influence in our lives and in the church rather than men who are of godly character who call people to live a life of self-sacrifice and to live like Christ, we cannot have the spiritual discernment needed to detect the falsehoods that will come to deceive many in these last days.
A broken marriage is a serious storm for any woman. Faith, hope, and love anchor our souls to the Lord while the tempest rages around us.
The world tells us that hope comes from an expectation that something good is going to happen. But if that’s true, how can a wife have hope when her marriage is failing? You see, we need a hope that anchors itself in something beyond this world of suffering. We need a living hope flowing to us despite the difficult circumstances of this life. In this Purity for Life replay, Kathy Gallagher joins us to talk about the true hope of all believers, and she helps us see how to anchor ourselves in it.
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