EVERY REVIVAL SETS US FREE ~ an urgent wake-up call.
The age of innocence is over … we are the first generation that will have to talk to our children about porn. We have to tell our kids that pornographic sex is fake and real sex is about love, not lust.
The children’s extensive knowledge of porn terms was not only startling, it superseded that of every adult in the room – including the sex education consultant himself. The adults in attendance were incredulous at the thought that not only did this kind of porn exist, but that a 14-year-old boy may have actually watched it.
‘That’s illegal. Where are you getting this stuff from?’ ‘Facebook,’ the boy said. ‘It just pops up whether you want it or not, sometimes via advertisements.’
It’s horrifying enough for parents to know that children can get porn via the internet. But to think they get it from Facebook – the social media currency that has become a universal must-have for teenagers globally – will strike terror into their hearts.
Letting our children consume it freely via the internet is like leaving heroin lying around the house.
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The moment I knew internet pornography had cast its dark shadow over the lives of millions of ordinary British teenagers will live with me for ever.
I was sitting in the smart drama hall of a specialist sports college in the North of England with a fantastic reputation.
Before me were a group of 20 boys and girls, aged 13-14. Largely white, working class children, they were well turned-out, polite, giggly and shy.
Martin Daubney with his wife Diana and his son Sonny
I’d been invited to sit in on a forward-thinking class led by sex education consultant Jonny Hunt, who is regularly asked into schools to discuss sex and relationships. To establish what these kids knew about sex – including pornography – he had asked the children to write an A-Z list of the sexual terms they knew, no matter how extreme.
Most of these children had just hit puberty and some were clearly still children: wide-eyed, nervous, with high-pitched voices.
Some of the girls were beginning their first forays into make-up. Several wore braces on their teeth. Everybody was smartly turned out in school uniform, and the most anti-authority statement in the room was a tie worn deliberately short. A One Direction pencil case lay on a desk. These were clearly good children, from good homes. So far, so very, very ordinary.
But when Jonny pinned their lists on the board, it turned out that the children’s extensive knowledge of porn terms was not only startling, it superseded that of every adult in the room – including the sex education consultant himself.
The adults in attendance were incredulous at the thought that not only did this kind of porn exist, but that a 14-year-old boy may have actually watched it.
When questioned, they had all – every child in a class of 20 – seen sodomy acted out in porn videos. I was stunned they even knew about it – I certainly hadn’t heard of it at that age – let alone had watched it and as a result may even have wanted to try it.
By the end of the hour-long class – and three others that followed with other children – I was profoundly saddened by what I had witnessed. While teenage boys will always be fascinated by, and curious about, sex, what’s now considered ‘normal’ by under-18s is an entirely distorted view of intercourse and the way relationships should be conducted.
It seemed as if the children’s entire expectation of sex had been defined by what they see in online porn. The conversation was horrifying enough, yet there was worse to come.
In the playground, I interviewed a brave group of seven bright boys and girls aged 14-15 to ascertain in more detail what online porn they had witnessed.
One boy calmly recalled watching a scene too graphic to describe in a family newspaper, but which had involved an animal.
‘You’re watching bestiality?’ I asked. ‘That’s illegal. Where are you getting this stuff from?’
‘Facebook,’ the boy said. ‘It just pops up whether you want it or not, sometimes via advertisements. You don’t have any control over it.’
A girl added, ‘On Facebook, you just scroll down and it’s there. If any of your friends like it, it comes up on your home page.’
These kids were balanced, smart and savvy. They were the most academically gifted and sporting in the school. They came from ordinary, hard-working households. This was not ‘Broken Britain’.
Some were clearly shocked by what they had seen on the internet.
It’s horrifying enough for parents to know that children can get porn via the internet. But to think they get it from Facebook – the social media currency that has become a universal must-have for teenagers globally – will strike terror into their hearts.
I asked the teenagers: ‘On a scale of one to ten, how likely would you say it is that boys and girls your age are watching porn online?’
The reply was a chorus of tens, nines and one eight.
When I asked the children if there were parental controls on the internet at home, they all said no, their parents trusted them. They all admitted their parents had no idea what they were watching, and would be shocked if they did know.
What I saw at the school was awful, but sadly not unusual.
The findings were backed up in a survey of 80 boys and girls aged 12-16.
It proves the vast majority of UK teens have seen sexual imagery online, or pornographic films.
According to the survey, the boys appear largely happy about watching porn – and were twice as likely as girls to do so – but the girls are significantly more confused, angry and frightened by online sexual imagery. The more they see, the stronger they feel.
But what impact is this steady diet of online depravity having on the attitudes of boys and girls towards real life relationships, and on their self-esteem?
Could it even have a wider impact on their lives, blighting their ability to function in the world, get good qualifications and jobs?
What I discovered left me truly shocked and saddened.
My interest was deeply personal, too, as my own beautiful little boy, Sonny, is now four. Even though he has only just started primary school, the Children’s Commissioner estimates boys as young as ten are now being exposed to online porn.
I wanted to know what I could do to protect my own son from a seemingly inevitable exposure to hardcore material in just a few years’ time.
I used to be sceptical that porn was as damaging a force as the headlines and David Cameron – who recently said it was ‘corroding childhood’ – suggest. In the past I’d even defended pornography in university debates, on TV and on radio. I claimed it was our freedom of choice to watch it and said it could actually help add to adult relationships.
Research for ‘Porn on the Brain’ TV film
What I saw during the making of the film changed my opinion of pornography forever.
The true stories of boys I met whose lives had been totally taken over by porn not only moved me to tears but also made me incredibly angry that this is happening to our children.
And the looks of revulsion on those poor girl’s faces in the playground enraged me.
I feel as if an entire generation’s sexuality has been hijacked by grotesque online porn.
To find out what porn is doing to young men, and the girls they have relationships with, we spoke to them via online forums and discovered that there were many young lives seriously blighted by an excessive, unhealthy relationship with pornography that can begin when they are as young as 12.
We learned that some had lost their jobs, others had broken relationships, failed exams, or got into serious debt through using porn.
Take the 19-year-old man I got to know. He was handsome, articulate and in full-time employment as an apprentice electrician. But his life was dominated by his porn habit.
‘Every bit of spare time I have is spent watching porn,’ he says. ‘It is extreme. I can’t hold down a relationship for longer than three weeks…’
Having established, like the recent Children’s Commissioner report, that ‘basically, porn is everywhere’, we set out to discover what all this porn was doing to their brains.
Was it having any effect at all? Could it be addictive?
We found Dr Valerie Voon, a neuroscientist at Cambridge University and a global authority on addiction.
Then, in the first study of its kind, we recruited 19 heavy porn users who felt their habit was out of control and had Dr Voon examine their brain activity as they watched, among other things, hardcore porn.
She showed them a variety of images, both stills and videos.
These ranged from images known to excite all men, such as bundles of £50 notes and extreme sports in action, to mundane landscapes and wallpapers – all inter-spliced with hardcore porn videos, plus pictures of both clothed and naked women.
The ways in which their brains responded to this diverse imagery were compared with the responses of a group of healthy volunteers.
She was interested in a particular brain region called the ventral striatum – the ‘reward centre’ – where our sense of pleasure is produced. This is one of the areas where an addict will show a heightened response to visual representations of their addiction – whether it’s a syringe or a bottle of vodka.
‘Letting our children consume it freely via the internet is like leaving heroin lying around the house’
What we discovered was a revelation. When shown porn, the reward centre of normal volunteers barely reacted, but that of the compulsive porn users lit up like a Christmas tree.
The compulsive porn users’ brains showed clear parallels with those with substance addictions.
Everybody on the project was astounded, even Dr Voon, who admitted she had been ‘sceptical and ambivalent’ about the study at the outset.
If porn does have the insidious power to be addictive, then letting our children consume it freely via the internet is like leaving heroin lying around the house, or handing out vodka at the school gates.
And this toxic effect is filtering down directly into young girls’ lives.
The most shocking testament came from Professor Gail Dines. Regarded as the world’s leading anti-pornography campaigner, she has interviewed thousands of men and women about sex and pornography.
‘When you interview young women about their experiences of sex, you see an increased level of violence: rough, violent sex,’ she says.
‘That is directly because of porn, as young boys are getting their sexual cues from men in porn who are acting as if they’re sexual psychopaths.
‘Pornography is sexually traumatising an entire generation of boys.’
By talking with sexual addiction experts such as Professor John E Grant of the University of Chicago, Dr Paula Hall, the UK’s top sex addiction therapist, and Professor Matt Field from the University of Liverpool, we learned that the teenage brain is especially vulnerable to addiction.
The brain’s reward centre is fully developed by the time we’re teenagers, but the part of the brain that regulates our urges – the pre-frontal cortex – isn’t fully developed until our mid-20s. The brains of teenagers are not wired to say ‘stop’, they are wired to want more. The implications of this study are profoundly troubling.
So who is going to take on the responsibility for protecting our children until they are old enough to do it for themselves?
Can we rely on schools? It strikes me that the current sex education system in the UK – where schools are obliged only to teach the basics of reproduction and the perils of sex, which they can opt out of anyway – is hopelessly outdated.
In the internet age, our children are turning to online porn for an alternative sex education – the worst place they can go.
The Mail claimed a victory in July when David Cameron announced that by the end of 2014 all 19 million UK homes currently connected to the internet will be contacted by service providers and told they must say whether family friendly filters that block all porn sites should be switched on or off.
But our TV show proved that determined children will always find a way around online blocks.
Ultimately, the responsibility lies with us, the parents. The age of innocence is over.
Like many parents, I fear that my boy’s childhood could be taken away by pornography. So we have to fight back.
We need to get tech-savvy, and as toe-curling as it seems, we are the first generation that will have to talk to our children about porn.
We have to tell our kids that pornographic sex is fake and real sex is about love, not lust.
By talking to them, they stand a chance. If we stick our head in the sand, we are fooling only ourselves.
By Martin Daubney in Britain’s Daily Mail, Mail Online, edited & emphasis added. Published 25 September 2013, Updated: 30 September 2013.
Every Revival sets us free ~ an urgent wake-up call
Why put this article (even edited with offensive terms and images removed) on a revival website? Because it’s an urgent wake-up call.
Every parent, pastor, youth leader and teacher should be aware of this. Some Christian homes use internet blockers, but not all. Even so, as the article reveals, pornography still turns up on social media sites. So you must inform and guide your teenagers and children.
What can Christians do about it?
That question is a good topic for home groups, study groups, youth groups and families. Here are a few starting suggestions.
Pray. God guides. God intervenes. God answers prayer.
Study. Scripture has answers. Check reliable internet information.
Talk. Discuss it with your teens and children. They’re exposed to it.
Speak. Preach and lead studies on this vital topic.
This book surveys the significance of the death of Jesus on the cross using key verses and passages and a harmony of the Gospels, including this chart summary:
Holy week, from Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to his death and resurrection, is by far the greatest week in history.
Jesus, the Lamb of God, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, chose to be crucified in Jerusalem at the Passover festival. He became our Passover Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.
The Old Testament points to Jesus, the Messiah, God’s Anointed One. The New Testament tells his story and calls us to respond in faith to his gift of salvation and eternal life.
Key Passages
Holy Week: the last week of the earthly life of Jesus may be summarized this way as a general guide. The different Gospels record different events, each one telling the Gospel, the good news, in their own way. So this arrangement is just an estimate of the sequence of the momentous developments in Holy Week.
This summary follows the outline in Mark’s Gospel:
The following selections give highlights of key events that week.
These passages remind us of events from the most momentous week in all history, and indeed in all eternity. The Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world, took our sin upon himself, died in our place, and conquered death. He alone is the Saviour of the World. All who believe in him, all who trust him, will not die but live for ever with him.
Amazon/Kindle 5 star reviews: ***** * This book is a brief introduction to publishing through Kindle Direct Publishing(formerlyCreatespace). People who are thinking about self-publishing for the first time will find it helpful. It gives easy to understand, step-by-step instructions and tips.
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* Thanks, Geoff! This has (literally) changed our life, because it has opened up new avenues of sharing the gospel and the Word. Blessings!
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You Can Publish for Free is a small book you can use or pass on to others, showing you how you can publish for free and share your good news.
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Contents
1. Create
2. Upload
3. Distribute
Here is part of Chapter 1: Create
This morning I had an idea: Why not make a book explaining how to make a book for free?
So here it is.
I’ve been publishing books for a while. It used to cost me a lot, but now I do it for free. So can you.
All the guidebooks and articles that I found seemed hard to understand, so I thought: Why not make a simple guidebook that anyone can use? Here it is. This book is available to order in print or immediately available on Kindle and here as a PDF. I uploaded it to Kindle Direct Publishers (KDP) for free.
All you need is a computer (or laptop, or tablet, or even a smartphone) linked to the internet. The Kindle and PDF versions are handy because they have direct links to web pages.
I chose to print this book in ‘color’. That costs a bit more but for small books of 24-40 pages or so, copies are not expensive. If you use images or photographs they look better in ‘color’.
So if you would like to publish a book like this simple one for free, go ahead. It’s easy to do. You can upload it today for free and order copies tomorrow! You just pay for the copies you order, from one to any number you want. And authors/publishers get their copies cheaper than anyone else!
What book?
Possibilities are endless!
An easy way to start would be by using your family or holiday photos. Many people have albums on web pages such as on Facebook but books are still popular and welcome, especially as gifts.
You may like to use images as I have done in my Appendix.
Perhaps you could consider fiction or non-fiction. Most of my books are non-fiction, but I have included fiction stories that a pre-school grandson told me when he was 3 and 4. Uploading many edited copies to the publisher costs nothing as I gradually improved the layout of the book. There’s a holiday idea for you with your children or grandchildren
An older grandson wrote a biography for a primary school assignment so I published that and it became a welcome and popular gift. He did the layout himself. You could help your children or grandchildren make a small book of around 24 pages.
Your children or grandchildren may appreciate your autobiography or part of your life story. The world has changed so much since the twentieth century that your story could be really interesting especially if you illustrate it with some photos. You could start with some small books and then combine them into one larger volume later.
I have published various essays written by my students and made them available in a book. If you do that you become the editor of that book. Students often gave their work to me with better formatting than I can do myself. I have encouraged students to publish their work, for free.
Maybe you lead or speak in a study group and could gather your material into a small resource book. You can have that published and in your hands within a month, or have it available on Kindle tomorrow! I often use my books as resources for my speaking or teaching.
Why not try something to begin? You may find yourself enjoying this hobby and helping or blessing others in the process.
A huge advantage of Kindle Direct Publishing is that you can upload new editions, or corrections, also for free.
Digital eBooks are easiest to do now. Just upload your Word file to Kindle! Add a free cover you create with Cover Creator.
Just go to Kindle Direct Publishing (an Amazon company) and follow the links.
What you publish there goes on Amazon and Kindle for free. Expanded distribution adds your book(s) to The Book Depository with free airmail worldwide, and your books are listed on other distributors, some of which get listed on Amazon as well.
You can start small. For example, King of the Granny Flat (a biography – Look inside) was a Grade 7, primary school assignment done by my grandson, Dante Waugh, including the layout and photo selections. So Grandpa just published it – for free. There’s an idea for parents and grandparents!
The main disadvantage is that all your errors get published (in print or digitally) just as you upload them! But it’s easy to then upload a corrected version for free. If you have a spouse or friend good at editing, you’re home and hosed. Kindle Direct Publishing now provides a brilliant digital proof of your book that you can examine before publishing.
You can pay for services, such as covers, layout, editing, marketing. But these are optional extras. At first, I used their services for layout and covers. This first line of images here gives examples of cover designs I paid for:
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Here are examples of cover designs done by others that we reproduced:
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I did most of my other books with the cover creator for free. For example, the 20 issues of the Renewal Journalhave the same cover design and fonts, but different colours and photos – See Renewal Journals page:
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You will see many books with the same cover design but different colours, fonts and photos on the Books and Welcome page here, all done for free, such as these in the Lion of Judah series:
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Other books, including the digital versions, have a range of free cover designs such as this design:
NOTE: I need your positive comment/review on Amazon/Kindle (brief is fine – “Inspiring” – “Helpful”).
Renewal Journal now gives you a FREE digital book every weekend
for your digital library – download or add to your Cloud.
I’m happy to mail you a free paperback copy in thanks for your 5 star review comment on Amazon & Kindle. Just give me your address in a comment at the bottom of this page here on Renewal Journal. Blessings.
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The Lion of Judah, a title adapted from Revelation 5:5, is one of the titles for Jesus. The verses in this book cover his many titles. The name Jesus is from the Greek translation of the Hebrew name Joshua (Yeshua). See www.biblegateway.com for more references using these titles.
Lion of Judah
Judah’s father Jacob called him a young lion and prophesied that ‘the sceptre shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes’ (Genesis 49:9-10 NKJV), or ‘until he comes to whom it belongs’ (RSV), or ‘until tribute comes to him’ (NRSV, ESV). Revelation 5:5 declares that the Lion of the tribe of Judah has triumphed, announcing that Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb was also the conquering Lion.
Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.’ (Revelation 5:5)
Jesus/Joshua (the Lord saves)
The word Joshua/Jesus means the Lord saves, or the Lord is salvation. That is why the angel announcing his birth said, ‘… you are to name him Joshua/Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’ (Matthew 1:21). It is the same name as Moses’ general, Joshua, who led the Israelites into their promised land.
The earliest English translations of the Bible used the name Jesus for Joshua/Jesus of Nazareth, and the name Joshua for others with that same name. It is translated as Joshua in Luke 3:29 (Jose in KJV), Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8. So in English the name Jesus became unique and sacred for Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world.
Joshua (originally ‘Yehoshua’ in Hebrew) had been shortened to Yeshua in Jesus’ time, so Jesus was known as Yeshua/Joshua. That name became Iesous in Greek, Yesu in Africa and Asia, Isa in Arabic, and both Joshua and Jesus in English. The Hebrew word was translated as Joshua in English and the Greek translation of that name became both Joshua and Jesus in English.
Here are sample passages about Joshua/Jesus of Nazareth. You can respond to him as you read about him. He said, “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20).
She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)
I am
Jesus, one with God, uses God’s name given to Moses at the burning bush – ‘I am’ (Exodus 3:14). The verses here expound many facets of who Jesus is in himself.
Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.’ (John 8:58)
The Bread of life, the living bread
I am the bread of life (John 6:35, 48)
I am the living bread (John 6:51)
The Light of the world
I am the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5)
The Door/Gate
I am the door/I am the gate (John 10:7, 9; door NKJV; gate NRSV)
The Good Shepherd
I am the good shepherd (John 10:11, 14)
… a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel (Matthew 2:6; see Ezekiel 34)
The Resurrection, the Life
I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25)
The way, the truth, the life
I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6)
The True Vine
I am the true vine (John 15:1)
I am the vine, you are the branches (John 15:5)
The Alpha and the Omega,
The first and the last,
The beginning and the end
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. (Revelation 22:13; see Revelation 1:8, 11; 22:13).
The root and the descendant of David,
The bright morning star
I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star
(Revelation 22:16; see Revelation 5:5; see Numbers 24:17)
I AM For children & youth – a way to remember these I AM statements1 – bun: I am the bread of life
2 – shoe: I am the way, the truth, and the life
3 – tree: I am the good shepherd (in the tree’s shade)
4 – door: I am the door
5 – hive: I am the resurrection and the life (if you sit on it)
6 – sticks: I am the light of the world (sticks on fire for light)
7 – heaven: I am the Alpha and the Omega … beginning and the end
8 – gate: I am the first and the last (going through a gate)
9 – vine: I am the true vine
10 – hen: I am the bright morning star (hen/rooster greets morning)
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.But these are written so that you may come to believethat Jesus is the Messiah,the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
(John 20:30-31)
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This book examines how Jesus, the Lion of Judah, fulfilled prophecies about him in the Scriptures.
Jesus Declared that he fulfilled Scripture
But all this has taken place, so that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled. (Matthew 26:56)
Then he took the twelve aside and said to them, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. (Luke 18:31)
For I tell you, this scripture must be fulfilled in me, “And he was counted among the lawless”; and indeed what is written about me is being fulfilled.’ (Luke 22:37; see Isaiah 53:12)
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. (Luke 24:27)
‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:44-47)
You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. (John 5:39)
