Gospel.com Blog

Today is the Great American Smokeout 2009, an event sponsored by the American Cancer Society. The idea is straightforward: decide today that you’re going to break your smoking habit, and take steps to make that happen. (If you’re looking to quit, the ACS site has a useful-looking guide to quitting smoking.)

Smoking is a habit you don’t hear much about in the church these days. I imagine that’s partly because the traditional evangelical shunning of smoking and drinking has a lot less moral traction than it used to; and partly because years of anti-smoking campaigns have convinced most of us that whether or not it’s a sin, smoking is not a desirable habit.

But there are plenty of Christians out there who want to break a smoking habit that has mastered them. One ministry that can help you do so is Setting Captives Free, which has a free 60-day online course called Breath of Life that takes a Jesus-centered approach to breaking free of a smoking addiction. (Setting Captives Free offers many other free courses as well, all aimed at finding freedom from habitual sin.)

If this is something you struggle with, today’s as good a day as any to decide that you’re going to quit—and that you’re going to do what it takes to break the habit for good. Take a look and see if the above resources can help!

The featured topic on Gospel.com is recovery. While putting an end to some types of sin is as simple as “just saying no,” other sins and behaviors can cause so much damage to our lives, relationships, and spiritual health that breaking free requires serious time and commitment—a process of recovery.

The recovery process is frequently necessary when addiction—to alcohol, drugs, sex, pornography, etc.—is involved. Recovery is sometimes also necessary even when your own behavior wasn’t responsible for the damage, as in the case of abuse. Today we’ll point out a few links to general recovery resources from around the Gospel.com community; tomorrow we’ll focus on recovery resources for more specific problems. Whatever the reasons you’re seeking recovery, here are some good starting points:

• Discipleship Tools has a very extensive collection of free online recovery resources. From 12-step recovery guides to detailed biblical essays about the recovery process, there’s a great deal of useful material here.
• The Encyclopedia of Recovery and Addiction Wiki has compiled a huge list of online recovery resources, covering all types of addiction from drug abuse to overeating.
• Safe Families has a slightly more narrow focus—it primarily addresses sexual addiction and pornography—but links to a large number of resources for both recovering addicts and their families.

Between those three ministries, there are hundreds of essays and other tools to help you get started down the long hard road to recovery. Explore those links, and we’ll be back tomorrow with some more specific resources!

XXXChurch has joined the Gospel.com community!

If you’re not familiar with XXXChurch’s unique ministry, you owe it to yourself to take a look. As you might guess from their name, XXXChurch (”the #1 Christian porn site”) is all about ministering to consumers—and creators—of pornography. Whoever you are, whatever your situation, XXXChurch wants to help you break free of the destructive trap of pornography. They’re not here to lecture about about something you probably already know (that pornography hurts your life and relationships)—they want to give you the tools to break the habit or help a friend or spouse do the same.

There’s a lot to see on their website. For starters, you might try some of these links:

• One of the things that sets XXXChurch apart from a lot of pornography ministries is that XXXChurch focuses a lot of resources on reaching out to the producers and actors who make pornography. That means heading out to porn industry conventions and elsewhere to bring a message of freedom straight to the industry. Read about their ministry to the porn industry.
• That said, there’s plenty of material to help the everyone person who wants to break away from porn. Teenagers, parents, pastors, husbands and wives… it doesn’t matter who you are, XXXChurch can help you find freedom.
• XXXChurch hosts many events throughout the year to help you and your community understand the dangers of porn. From church events to live debates, take a look at what they’re doing and how you can get involved.
• Their prayer wall is a place where you can post your thoughts and ask for help and support from the community.

There’s a lot more to the ministry, but those links should give you a good overview of what they’re about.

Have you ever felt like a slave to sin? Do you know someone who might be? Setting Captives Free is a ministry that strives to bring people into a right relationship with God. They don’t claim to make you impervious to sin, but they can effectively help you break free from addiction.

The goal of Setting Captives Free is surprisingly simple, they want “to reach as many people as possible with the liberating message of Jesus Christ.” Practically, this works out into a series of free online courses. Courses range from achieving sexual purity, food issues, gambling, and substance abuse. All courses are free and will walk you through a daily process of recovery. They have translations of their courses in six languages with more translations on the way.

If you’re interested in hearing about how other people have been blessed by their ministry, you can read testimonies of those that have found freedom. They also have other resources, like recommended reading, audio files, links, and accountability software to help you or someone you know break free from sin. In all things they strive to meet their purpose of honoring and glorifying God.