The following are true stories of actual struggles of real Christian men.  All names have been changed to protect the guilty.  Can you relate?

*  Doug struggles deeply with frequent masturbation.  He wishes he could stop, and lives in the shadow of secret shame because of his actions.  He said he considers his habit a kind of unfaithfulness to his wife, but feels powerless to change his behavior.

*  Mark said he had a crazy sexual history.  Before he got married he was on the constant prowl and had sex with literally dozens of women.  Since he has gotten married he feels almost trapped by the knowledge that he can only have sex with one woman for the rest of his life, and struggles frequently with thoughts and feelings of wanting to have sex with other women.

*  Tom struggles with Internet pornography.  He has to work on his computer every day and tries to resist the constant temptation that lies only a couple mouse clicks away.  His wife recently caught him "looking" and he got in big trouble.

*  John is the pastor of a large church, and his relationship with his wife hasn't had much "sizzle" in a long time.  He travels frequently - to do God's work - and confessed he surrenders often to the temptation to watch pornographic movies while alone in his hotel room.

*  Joe is a missionary in a foreign country.  He is serving God full time, and his ministry is growing and being blessed in remarkable ways.  As I had the opportunity to share the story of my sexual struggle with him, he literally broke down in tears and begged me to help him.  He confessed struggling with sexual temptation toward the children around him, among several other things.

*  A respected deacon in a large church admitted to struggling with sexual sin and numerous adulterous affairs over the years.  His job required him to travel, and he had endless opportunities while out of town.  When a younger man in the church went to him for advice concerning his own sexual struggle, the older deacon advised the younger man to keep his sexual indiscretions a secret, and never admit to doing anything wrong.  "What nobody knows can't hurt them."

*  Bill, the youth pastor at a growing church, frequently used the computer in his office at the church to access internet pornography and masturbate while he was at work.  One day the senior pastor of the church caught him in the act, which was a very embarrassing situation.

*  Rick, the pastor of a church in a small Missouri town, is accused of molesting a young teenage girl.  Rather than risk a public scandal, he personally pays a secret settlement to keep the girl and her family silent.

* Frank harbored a secret deep in his heart for many years.  The power of shame prohibited him from telling anyone about his struggle.  When he was an adolescent he sexually molested his younger sister numerous times.  At times the guilt and shame of what he did to his sister was tormenting to him, but he doesn't know what to do about it. 

* When he was a teenager Jim was sexually active with numerous different girls.  He got two different girls pregnant and they both had abortions.  Jim has since become a Christian, and he now struggles with a deep sense of guilt over the two abortions he was part of.  He wonders who these two children would be today, and how his life would be different, if they had been given the opportunity to live.

* Dan's marriage has been troubled for many years.  His relationship with his wife is defined by anger, distance, and coldness.  He is frustrated because his wife has virtually no interest in sex.  Dan therefore frequently involves himself with pornography, and rationalizes that it's his wife's fault: "If she didn't withhold herself from me, I wouldn't need to look at porn.  It's her fault.  What else am I supposed to do?" 

* Lance has secretly struggled with homosexual thoughts, desires, and tendencies.  He has participated in numerous homosexual encounters and regularly visits homosexual porn sites on the Internet.  He wishes he could be different because he knows his desires and actions are not consitent with his faith, but no matter how hard he tries he seems powerless to change, and always goes back to his old patterns of behavior.  At times he feels very angry at God because God will not take his homosexual desires away.

* Ed feels deep shame and guilt about something he participated in while at war in Vietnam: he and serveral other men raped a woman.  He has confessed what he did to God many times, but his guilt never seems to go away, and whenever he remembers what happened he feels sick to his stomach.  His sense of shame became even greater when he had his own daughters and imagined something similar happening to one of them.

*  If there was posted a brief vignette of your sexual struggle, what would it say?