Becoming Whole

Send us a textTalking about sex - yikes - Nobody really wants to talk about sex. It’s private. It’s personal. It’s painful. It’s none of your business. As awkward as it may feel, we need to be talking about sex. Together let’s better understand why we don’t talk about sex and consider why we should. In this episode, Josh will be exploring two reasons you avoid the topic. For more reasons, head to the blog.Highlights:How do we talk about sex in a way that honors the goodness and sacredness of sex?We want to be honest, but we don’t need to be graphic. The world says otherwise.Sex is not just an activity. It’s a God-given, faithful relationship that has the capacity to impart new life into the world.Extras:“Treading Boldly through a Pornographic World: A Field Guide for Parents” by Daniel Weiss and Josh GlaserTranscription:Full Transcription Available hereSupport Becoming WholeFree Resources to help you on your journey to Becoming Whole 👉Men's Overcoming Lust & Temptation Devotional👉Women 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Women overcoming unwanted sexual Behavior)👉Compass 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Wives who are or have been impacted by partner betrayal)

Send us a textFrom the beginning, our story reveals we were created by God’s love. God’s immense love is moving, it is powerful and it is good BUT… and that’s where we pick up in this episode, with the weighty ‘however.’  Does God’s Love Save You?Because reducing God’s love for us to a mere feeling subtracts the power and freedom and consequences we have been given the ability to choose. Also, from the beginning, scripture reveals the cost of our sin. Our society is softening that part of our story, saying Sin is covered by God’s all-encompassing love. We can’t gloss over the very real consequences when we choose our own way. God’s love is more than sentimentality. It is a commitment. Allow this episode to challenge you you to a better understanding of God’s love for you.Highlights:God’s love is not just a feeling that He has towards us. God’s love is something that moves Him toward action, moves Him in a directionThere’s authority and power in what we do. And, either we are aligning ourselves and saying ‘yes’ to God’s kingdom or we are saying ‘no’ to God’s kingdom.The modern message is undermining our ability and authority to bring destruction to ourselves and to the universe and the magnitude of the destruction sin has wrought on the Earth.Extras:Hebrews 9:22 “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”In Genesis 3 God lays out the consequences for the Sin of man and woman and how their Sin introduces a new universe because of what they’ve done.There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done. CS LEWISJohn 14:21 “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” If you want to learn more, check out Josh's latest writings on this very topic at, Why You Need More than God’s Grandfatherly LoveTranscription:Full Transcription Available hereSupport Becoming WholeFree Resources to help you on your journey to Becoming Whole 👉Men's Overcoming Lust & Temptation Devotional👉Women 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Women overcoming unwanted sexual Behavior)👉Compass 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Wives who are or have been impacted by partner betrayal)

Send us a textThere’s a story, a set of rules and ideas that you’ve accepted as truth for your body and your sexuality. You might not even be aware. It’s ok, we’ve all done it. But, what if we were to UN-do the story?Authors Linda Noble and Linda Stewart join Josh on the podcast to pull apart the narrative and present you with an invitation to The Body and Personhood.There are no rules here, just God’s heart for the human person you are meant to be.There is an unrepeatable value about each person.There is an unrepeatable value to you. Let’s dive in.Highlights:We need to rewrite the paradigm. We need to go back to the very beginning and start over.Actually, we are embodied persons. Our body expresses who we are and the things that we do with our body affects who we are and our person. So, we really need to change the message.There’s a difference between our body being an expression of who we are versus an accessory.Homework:Prayer for your body: “God thank you for this strong body that enables me to love and live and serve, to see that my body is not about my appearance but about how it expresses the love from God through my person. I pray those parts of my body that I feel ashamed of or wish were different, that I can see them now as the way I express God’s love to others and also to Him.”Practice for your body to recognize others as whole persons: Retrain yourself talk to say, I see the whole person when I see my best friend. I see the whole person when I see my family members. Practical exercise for your body: Model whole seeing by making EYE CONTACT, which acknowledges the person. Also, TALK about others as whole people when complimenting. We are more than the pimple on our forehead, or our stature or shape. Try using language for yourself and others that reflects what you see about the whole person (i.e. their kindness, patience or generosity).Extras:Before The Sex Talk: A Theology of the Body Approach for Parents and Mentors by Linda Beth Noble and Linda Marie Stewart Linda Noble, Ministry Director at Journey Community Church in La Mesa, CA Linda Stewart, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Supervisor at Safe Haven Relationship Center in Carlsbad, CATheology of the Body Transcription:Full Transcription Available hereSupport Becoming WholeFree Resources to help you on your journey to Becoming Whole 👉Men's Overcoming Lust & Temptation Devotional👉Women 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Women overcoming unwanted sexual Behavior)👉Compass 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Wives who are or have been impacted by partner betrayal)

Send us a textThere are times in this journey towards sexual integrity for teaching through a lesson and maybe even assigning homework. And yet, sometimes the most powerful lesson can come from a voice saying, “I understand. Me too.” If you find yourself wrestling with lust, we hope you’ll allow this episode to come alongside you. Lust is blinding. Let’s unpack a vision for seeing the way God intended.Highlights:We live in a culture of entertainment. We live in a culture of lust. We live in a culture of consumerism. And we live in a fallen world -All of these things conspire against our eyes capacity to see.We are designed to see people and to hold them in esteem and value.Lust can make people objects or obstacles but not human beingsExtras:Genesis 1 and 2Romans 1:18-32“There is no dignity when the human dimension is eliminated from the person. In short, the problem with pornography is not that it shows too much of the person, but that it shows far too little.” -Pope John Paul IIFor more on this topic, check our latest article Where Eyes Don’t SeeTranscription:Full Transcription Available hereSupport Becoming WholeFree Resources to help you on your journey to Becoming Whole 👉Men's Overcoming Lust & Temptation Devotional👉Women 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Women overcoming unwanted sexual Behavior)👉Compass 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Wives who are or have been impacted by partner betrayal)

Send us a textMaybe you’ve heard or you’ve said these words: “If you don’t have sex with me, I’m going to be tempted to stray.” Either way, we encourage you to stay and listen. Let’s, together, start Moving Beyond Marital Manipulation.On this journey to sexual wholeness, the world is eager to bombard you with “facts” and “studies say” and “research shows.” The world discredits who God made you and is calling you to be.Let’s understand five ways marital manipulation short cuts the courageous work you’re doing.Highlights:5 Reasons Marital Manipulation FailsPlaces the husbands’ sexual integrity on the womanRemoves the Cross of Jesus from the equationDegrading to womenDegrading to menMars the image of GodYour heart is to cherish your wife. She is designed by God to be a woman to be loved, cherished, honored.That on demandIn all the ways that Jesus demonstrated integrity and self-control and self-restraint, he was willing to suffer to go against what his flesh desired in the moment to love his bride, pour out his life for his bride. sexual experience gives you what you want, how you want, when you want it. What relationship in life is like that? None.Extras:For more on this topic, check our latest article Do You Need Sex?Transcription:Full Transcription Available hereSupport Becoming WholeFree Resources to help you on your journey to Becoming Whole 👉Men's Overcoming Lust & Temptation Devotional👉Women 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Women overcoming unwanted sexual Behavior)👉Compass 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Wives who are or have been impacted by partner betrayal)

Send us a textDo you want to look at porn? The pull of pornography is devilishly strong. Whatever your reason is for seeking it out, let us offer you 5 reasons to NOT look this time. Don’t let the cycle continue to dull your senses in this life. You are created and meant for living fully alive, fully loved and loving, and fully whole. We hope this episode spurs you towards conviction without condemnation. There is no shame here, only encouragement for better understanding. Don’t waste any more time feeling bad about your pornography use. Rather, let the conviction become an action point to end your addiction. Regeneration Ministries is here to help you towards becoming whole.Highlights:Pornography provides you with “sex” on demand and your brain doesn’t know what to do with it. Your brain isn’t wired for that.What happens over time as you use pornography is that the neuron-receptors in your brain begin to shut down, they begin to atrophy.That on demand sexual experience gives you what you want, how you want, when you want it. What relationship in life is like that? None.Homework:Prayer: Lord Jesus, I ask that you would free me from the grip of pornography. Lord, I want my brain to be healthy and free.  I want to be self giving not selfish. I want to see people not objects.  I want to heal where I have wounds from my past. I don’t want them to fester. Lord, I don’t want to be immature. I want to grow up in full stature to be a full, loving Christ-like adult. Lord would you help me on this path. In Jesus’ name, Amen.Extras:You have to want what you want but you have to want where your wants lead…G.K. Chesterton: “Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God.”Drew Boa: “Porn is a pacifier.”For more on this topic, check our latest article 5 Reasons You Don’t Want PornTranscription:Full Transcription Available hereSupport Becoming WholeFree Resources to help you on your journey to Becoming Whole 👉Men's Overcoming Lust & Temptation Devotional👉Women 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Women overcoming unwanted sexual Behavior)👉Compass 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Wives who are or have been impacted by partner betrayal)

Send us a textIf you find yourself here, you are battling more than sexual sin. You are fighting to become whole.  And that is why, at Regeneration Ministries, our mission is to help you face your issues and break free from patterns holding you captive. Together, we are doing more than just kicking a habit. Satan is loud and thick with shame, grabbing at you to keep you from breaking your habit. God, on the other hand, loves you so much He is both willing to let you walk away and wait until you return. We need to be sober about our choices.In this episode, let’s unpack the what and why of “unwanted sexual behaviors.” There is intention and an invitation waiting just for you.  Highlights:Unwanted Sexual Behaviors - on one hand, we want it. On the other hand, we want to stop.“The man who is lost in his passions is less lost than the man who has lost his passion.” - St. AugustineThe phrase “Unwanted Sexual Behavior” begins to acknowledge and recognize your own alignment with what God says is right and what God says is wrong.Extras:Romans 8:18-30Luke 15:11-32 Parable of the Prodigal son - notice how the father let his son go. God says, we are free to go. The father also welcomed his son back when he returned. God, also, anxiously and lovingly waits on us to return to Him.Romans 5:20 “So then, the law was introduced into God’s plan to bring the reality of human sinfulness out of hiding. And yet, wherever sin increased, there was more than enough of God’s grace to triumph all the more! (TPT) John 4:1-30 Samaritan womanFor more on this topic, check our latest article Was It When You Don’t Want to QuitTranscription:Full Transcription Available hereSupport Becoming WholeFree Resources to help you on your journey to Becoming Whole 👉Men's Overcoming Lust & Temptation Devotional👉Women 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Women overcoming unwanted sexual Behavior)👉Compass 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Wives who are or have been impacted by partner betrayal)

Send us a textThe habit loop, for good or bad, goes something like this: Trigger. Craving. Response. Reward. Let's get Practical About Recovery.When it comes to unwanted sexual behaviors, that loop slides shame in just after the reward. That’s why you’re here now. You’re doing the work to break the cycle. But sometimes, the work feels annoying, unnecessary, and even boring.If you wish you could stop with the steps and just “lean into Jesus,” you’re in the right place.  Friend, there is a battle for your heart. And Jesus, as both God and man, wants you whole.  The battle plan must include the heart work and the homework. Listen in as Josh lays out your battle plan using both spiritual and the practical.Highlights:“The ultimate freedom we have as human beings is the power to select what we will allow our minds to dwell upon. It is in our thoughts that the first movements toward the renovation of the heart occur.”-Dallas WillardYou are free to choose what you do, brothers and sisters, but these things have consequences for you and for others.When we put up practical boundaries it creates space again. It slows the process down so we don’t find ourselves too far in.Homework:Consider Jesus asking you this question, “What are you looking for?” Let’s try doing a Heart Map. In the center of a piece of paper, write out in a word or two the thing that you’re struggling with - porn, lust, affair, etc. draw a circle around it. Around it, write the feeling you get from it, write the feeling you experience after, write the experience or person that led you to this moment. Draw a circle around each of those and then connect those circles to the center one. What are the details of those feelings? Is there something in common that you see on that piece of paper? A heart map can slow your brain down long enough for your eyes and heart to catch up with the “thing beneath the thing” - your motivation. Let Jesus ask you the question, do the practical homework and listen long enough for Him to guide you through the answers.Extras:1 Corinthians 6:12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything"—but I will not be mastered by anything.”1 Corinthians 10Romans 6:16 “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?”For more on this topic, check our latest article Was It Do I Need a Filter to Overcome Porn?Transcription:Free Resources to help you on your journey to Becoming Whole 👉Men's Overcoming Lust & Temptation Devotional👉Women 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Women overcoming unwanted sexual Behavior)👉Compass 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Wives who are or have been impacted by partner betrayal)

Send us a textThere’s an exclusivity in the topic of sexual abuse and rape as something that only happens to women. That is simply false. Men, let this episode invite you in, giving you space to consider what may have felt “weird” or called “lucky” as perhaps, abuse. Allow this time to clearly define your understanding of what sexual abuse and rape can mean for men. You are not meant to be left out.Let’s begin with affirming that what happened to you was wrong, that it was a violation, it was abuse. Don’t carry it alone anymore.Highlights:A sexual violation is a violation because it is a failure to respect the body of another person.God wants to restore the truth of who you are.There are so many men who were sexually abused as children, or as young adults, or who were sexually violated as men, including adult men who had been raped and did not know that’s what they could call it.Homework:You are worthy of Healing. What does that look like?Making space to acknowledge that what happened to you was a violation, was abuse.Finding A trusted person in your life that you can talk about it.Taking time to grieve.Setting up boundaries within relationships and your own memories.Moving towards forgiveness in sexual and relational health.Extras:Andrew Comiskey – Living Waters“Treading Boldly through a Pornographic World: A Field Guide for Parents” by Josh Glaser and Daniel WeissFor more on this topic, check our latest article Was It “Weird” or Was It Abuse?Transcription:Full Transcription Available hereSupport Becoming WholeFree Resources to help you on your journey to Becoming Whole 👉Men's Overcoming Lust & Temptation Devotional👉Women 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Women overcoming unwanted sexual Behavior)👉Compass 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Wives who are or have been impacted by partner betrayal)

Send us a textMost of us battling unwanted sexual behaviors teeter between Option A- Resist or Option B-Give In. Which option do you choose? If you’re wrestling with issues of pornography, lust or masturbation; this episode explores another Option.  Jesus is inviting you to see more, not to see less. As St. John Paul II put it “there is no dignity when the human dimension is eliminated from the person.” Let’s unpack the options together to understand them better. Then, moving towards integrity, let’s pray to see.Highlights:First reaction is to look, to indulge. The second reaction is to look away, to avert our eyes in some way.There’s a problem with both reactions in the moment of temptation“There is no dignity when the human dimension is eliminated from the person.  In short, the problem with pornography is not that it shows too much of the person, but that it shows far too little.” - St. John Paul IIHomework:We need our hearts purified and our eyes opened. Rather than praying to stop your unwanted behavior, pray “Lord I want to see.”Extras:Facebook Group for “Men Who See”  St. John Paul II “There is no dignity when the human dimension is eliminated from the person.  In short, the problem with pornography is not that it shows too much of the person, but that it shows far too little.”Luke 7 Sinful Woman Anoints JesusJesus asks, “Simon, do you see this woman?”Luke 18 A Blind Beggar Receives his sight - “When he came near, Jesus asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’“Lord, I want to see,” he replied.”"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" Matthew 5:8Matthew 6:22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.”Romans 1 The truth about God is evident all around us in CreationGenesis 1 God created man and woman in his imageFor more on this topic, check our latest article Why Avoiding Lust Can Be a TrapTranscription:Full Transcription Available hereSupport Becoming WholeFree Resources to help you on your journey to Becoming Whole 👉Men's Overcoming Lust & Temptation Devotional👉Women 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Women overcoming unwanted sexual Behavior)👉Compass 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Wives who are or have been impacted by partner betrayal)