Approximately eight years ago, Proven Ministries financed Barna research into the status of sexual integrity throughout American churches. More recently, our colleagues at Pure Desire have revisited the data with Barna research of their own, bringing more current statistics before our observation. Eight years ago, only 8% of churches reported having anything programmatic in regard…
Category: Scripture
Renewing our passion for God
PROVEN starts with being passionate for God. The word passion comes from the Latin root pati, which means suffering. We get the word patience from this root, too. Consider in 1 Corinthians 13 how God’s Word describes love as “long-suffering” in one translation and “patience” in another. They mean the same thing. Think about it….
Encounter the Resurrected Christ
Last weekend, believers around the world reflected on the death and burial of Jesus Christ. Sunday we celebrated His resurrection. From church, many went home to a large lunch or dinner and enjoyed time with family. What did the disciples do? They sought the resurrected Christ. The empty tomb Christ’s disappearance dumbfounded the disciples. Peter…
Sin: A Matter of the Heart
Sin is a Cruel Master Can you think of any place in the Bible where sin is described as a good thing? Neither can I. Sin is an evil desire. Sin crouches at our doors. It preys on us, lies to us, enslaves us, and destroys us. Years ago, I struggled with promiscuity, pleasing others,…
Battling with Forgiveness
By: Allie Joy Hudson 3 min. read Conviction and Mercy Sometimes I harbor some strange desire to hold onto my guilt and shame. I apologize over and over, whether this is to another person or to God. I continue to linger in the knowledge that I’ve failed, that I’ve hurt someone. In this moment,…
Reflections on “The Naked Seed” by C.S. Lewis
By: Allie Joy Hudson 3 min. read Dry My favorite poem is an obscure little work by C.S. Lewis, called “The Naked Seed.” Every time I go back and reread it, it’s opening lines grab my attention right away: “My heart is empty. All the fountains that should run / With longing, are in…
A Love That Never Leaves
A Love That Never Leaves By: Allie Joy Hudson 3 min. read A Renewed Truth As we celebrate Passion Week this week and reflect on Jesus’ great sacrifice and victory for us, I wanted to share something that God reminded me of recently. This small but significant lesson really stood out to me because…
Resurrection in the Midst of COVID-19
COVID-19… By: Allie Joy Hudson 5 min. read A Time of Grief and Praise Social media has looked pretty interesting this past week. I’ve seen countless posts about people struggling with COVID-19 – struggling with sickness, grief, anxiety, loneliness, depression, confusion, and financial insecurity. People are hurting. However, especially with the celebration of Easter…
Purity in The Face of Defeat
Battle By: Allie Joy Hudson 4 min read If you’re struggling to overcome a porn habit, and you head home just hoping to not watch it that night, you are almost always going to fail. The Proven curriculum talks about how important it is to have a plan of action in overcoming your entrapment…
Longing for Lust: Three Psalms to Pray
Three Psalms to Pray By: Shane James O’Neill Sex: More Than Biology No matter what kind of beautiful community I have around me, there are times when I just want sexual intimacy. The more distance I get from pornography, the more it becomes less a biological thing and more of a soul thing. …
How Secret Sin Will Devastate Marriage
4 min read By: Shane James O’Neill A Marriage Trapped in Lust Recently, a family in their late 30’s with several children had me and some friends over for lunch. People were eating all over the house, so I went to the living room, finding myself seated beside the mother of that family. She…
These Three Things Will Help You Know Purity
Joshua — 6 minute read By: Allie Joy Hudson The Age of Sexual Commodity It only takes a few minutes of watching TV, scrolling on social media, or even examining some of the thought patterns lodged in our own minds to see three things that our postmodern culture prizes and flaunts: busyness, promoting our…
Trapped in Sexual Sin
5 min read By: Cale Baker Trapped in Sexual Sin We often feel that our addiction to porn is too much to overcome. I know I’ve reached that despairing moment within addiction where I started to believe that Jesus’s power wasn’t enough to help me. The baggage surrounding my sexual sin seemed too complex…
Stepping Stones to Healing
4 min read By: Shane James O’Neill Failure and Healing When stats tell us 97% of men in the church have viewed porn, it’s safe to say nearly all of us have failed or fallen victim to over sexualization. By looking at this struggle, the questions arise, “how should we handle failure?” and “how…
Can God Use My Sin?
4 min read By: Shane James O’Neill Can God Use My Sin? There is a difficult passage in the book of Hebrews, a passage that always sobers my soul. It goes: See that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when…
Lust and The Sin of King David
6 min read By: Allie Joy Hudson Lust and The Sin of King David After a two-day reprieve visiting with King David, Uriah traveled back to where his fellow soldiers were encamped. The Israelites had been waging war against the Ammonites, and they had besieged Rabbah, one of Ammon’s major cities. Uriah shook his head…
Can I Ever Be Free of Porn?
Free of Porn — 6 minute read By: Shane James O’Neill Shaped by Porn We know lust and pornography deeply impact us. Porn rewires our brains: porn creates grey matter, which stunts our thinking, memory, and jacks up our neural pathways. Porn prevents us from really using our minds. 97% of men in the…
Shameful Nakedness, Beautiful Dignity
4 minute read By: Allie Joy Hudson Self-Porn (In this article we’re going to reference an incident of a celebrity who had images leaked. You’ll likely feel a desire to go discover who it was and find the images, as though it’s a fun game. Let me tell you it isn’t a game. This…
How To Find Sexual Purity
Timothy W. Brophy What if I told you that the secret to maintaining sexual purity was revealed somewhere between 2,500 and 3,000 years ago? Although lust may seem like a modern issue, the pathway to sexual purity was shown long ago in Psalm 119. New is Always Better We live in culture where new…
How to Amputate Porn From Your Life
By: Shane James O’Neill An Adolescent Addiction I’ve struggled with pornography throughout the entirety of my adult life. If I’m being honest, I struggled with it even before then, before my body was able to respond to the images and intimacy before me. There are many things that have carried me along on my…
How to Trust God with Your (Sex) Life
By: Allie Joy Hudson The Harlot Stronghold The twenty-third chapter of the book of Isaiah prophesies the city of Tyre’s fall. Isaiah’s bleak description opens with images of wailing, shame, and restlessness. The people of Tyre “play the harlot” and turn to other godless nations for refuge rather than seeking after God with their…
Why Does Marriage Matter?
By: Allie Joy Kapus Getting Marriage Right If I’m being completely honest, I put off writing this part of the series. I knew that I would be writing about God’s definition for the marriage covenant, and since I write and talk about that so often, I figured I could just write the post pretty…
The Best Equipment for the Worst Predicament
By C. T. Giles “…take the helmet of salvation…” Who doesn’t want their own signature helmet? I wouldn’t bother with setting mine out in some formal looking display. No. Mine would have a place alongside the jackets and shoes, right by the door, ready to grab and go. God bless… how badly I wish…
How Faith Shields From Pornography and Infidelity
By: Shane James O’Neill Lying to Myself I’ve had patches of abusing pornography throughout my Christian life. I’m always shocked to see how quickly the habit grabs a hold of me and how much it impacts my life. When I am watching pornography my life output significantly dwindles: my heart cares less for people,…