It began when a lady sat down at my table in the concierge lounge of the Marriott Hotel in Anaheim, Calif. "Are you going to talk about sex sins in your men's meeting tonight?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. Why?"

"Because my husband, who is a minister at this conference, just served me with divorce papers." Ensuing conversation made me aware he was hooked on Internet pornography. Shortly after that, another pastor's wife asked me to talk with her husband about his cyber-porn addiction.

I became curious after those ladies told me about their husbands. I typed the word "adult" into a search engine, which turned up a glut of sites featuring porn. The pictures I saw when I clicked on one of the links were "hard core." I immediately turned off the computer and spent the next few hours at the beach reading my Bible and meditating.

On my return back to the hotel room where I was staying, the pictures I had seen earlier came back to my mind. Needing to deal with it immediately, I stopped and bought a box of unleavened crackers and a bottle of grape juice. Looking at that computer I realized it was possible to "boot up" my Bible program and put it in a window on the screen, then do the same with pornography, putting them side-by-side on one screen. That is what happens when they are both on one screen in your mind.

Sitting in front of the computer, I made a covenant with God in the name of Jesus Christ that nothing unclean, immoral, ungodly, perverse or lewd would ever come up on that screen again. As a covenant man, taking communion was a sign of the renewing of the covenant God made with me in Christ. And He gave the Holy Spirit to empower the keeping of it.

The Bible says, "Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils" (1 Cor. 10:21, KJV). It says we cannot. Covenant men cannot! The deceitfulness of sin only shows you it's pleasure but never it's consequences. The pleasure of sin only lasts for a season, but the consequences can last for a lifetime, or an eternity.

All pornography is idolatrous. It allows a man to create an image in the mind to which the act of habitual masturbation becomes an act of worship.

Declining morality in America is reflected primarily in the steady spread of behavior that weakens family life, promotes disrespect for authority and for others, and insults the practice of personal responsibility. In the United States, culture is the culprit. In our Lord's parable of the prodigal, it was not the devil who enticed the young man from his home and family, it was the desire to enjoy the culture of the world. When we are born naturally, we are born into the culture of our country, but when we are born spiritually we are born into the culture of Christianity.

After speaking at a church in another country regarding the need for repentance from sex sins, I found total silence among the pastors I was speaking to. After a few minutes I queried aloud as to the reason for the silence. Finally, one of the brethren spoke up and said, "We do not speak of that among our people, because we feel that promiscuity is just part of our culture."

But is promiscuity a part of the culture of Christianity? That's impossible, according to Scripture. I wonder what is going on when ministers refuse to address "sexual intimacy" publicly from their pulpits. The Christian's silence lets the devil speak. When Christians speak, the devil is silent.

Jehovah God knew what would happen if the nation of Israel were to allow the heathen practices to continue in the culture of His people. He gave them a "scorched earth" policy to eliminate the temptation. He knew His people could be seduced by their fleshly natures to adopt the practices of the unbelievers. True today.

One statistic states more than 550,000 porn sites exist, with 1,000 a day being created. The largest consumer group is 12- to 17-year-old boys. Internet filters are a must, but there is nothing as powerful for real help like the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to save a man from addictive behavior.

"Remember this--the wrong desires that come into your life aren't anything new and different. Many others have faced exactly the same problems before you. And no temptation is irresistible. You can trust God to keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it, for He has promised this and will do what He says. He will show you how to escape temptation's power so that you can bear up patiently against it" (1 Cor 10:13, TLB). You don't escape from God but to God.

No matter what the addictive behavior, God's covenant-keeping power is sufficient for any need. "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32, KJV). NM

By the late Edwin Louis Cole, known as the pioneer of the modern-day men's movement and founder of the Christian Men's Network (CMN). Visit CMN's Web site at edcole.org.