Porn Dealer finds God

 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Mt 20:16 NIV

You did not come into this world by chance, no matter how good or evil your parents were, no matter whether your parents planned your birth or did not want you at all. 

God has a calling for every single person. God is our Creator. He created you. God is a good, creative Creator. He does not create anything or anyone without a good purpose. 

John Dawson was a missionary from New Zealand who served in Los Angeles. He wanted to reach the owner of a porn shop for Jesus. He had breakfast with this man every week and explained the gospel to him. The man believed everything, but was still not ready to give his life to Jesus.

Then John Dawson received a new insight from the Holy Spirit.

He told the man that he was hard on the outside but had a soft heart. God had given him the gift of mercy, but he was using that gift wrongly by giving false comfort through pornography.

The porn dealer was deeply moved and he began to hope.

That same day, the man made Jesus the Lord of his life.

Jesus told the religious professionals of His day that they were blind because they were proud know-alls.

… Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 

For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. Mt 21:31–32 NIV
 
There are still such theological experts and high-ranking church leaders today. This story of Jesus and the religious professionals is unfortunately still relevant.

Are you a human being? Then you are called. You have a calling from Jesus, but your calling must be activated. You must believe and repent.

Are you already converted, but somehow stuck? Your life is more or less virtuous, but for you, God's kingdom is only in the Bible and in heaven. 

Jesus has very specific plans for you and important tasks.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph 2:10 NIV

You can continue to strive to be a good, virtuous Christian, or you can take time out to perceive God's guidance and find the true purpose of your life.

“Show me, LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. Ps 39:4 NIV

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 
For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Mt 7:7–8 NIV

Repent and Believe.

 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. Heb 12:14 NIV

If this text does not inspire the fear of God in you, then there is something wrong with your faith.

For example, if you are involved in pornography addiction, should you expect to go to heaven?

It's good to proclaim the truth of God, but if you keep aggressively belittling those who think differently, do the outsiders see the love of God in you? Will your religious pride open the door to heaven for you?

If we are saved only by holy living, we must live godly lives.
What does that mean? Can we earn eternal life?

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
not by works, so that no one can boast. Eph 2:8–9 NIV

We are saved from condemnation by God's grace, but we must never forget that we are saved not only from God's punishment, but from sin, from the old unholy life.

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Rom 6:1–2 NIV

God gives us grace to live as disciples of Jesus, not as sinners who expect God's forgiveness lightly and unconditionally.

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;
and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Jn 8:31–32 NASB95

I read a story about a prostitute who attended a church service. She kept attending the service and she came to faith. Her thinking and character changed bit by bit. Then she began to tithe. A while later, she left her work in the brothel and began to lead a completely new life.

This conversion was a process. When was she accepted by Jesus as a child of God? Only God knows that. We must not rush to judgement, but we do know one thing: If she had stayed in the brothel, she would never have got to heaven.

But there are many Christians who were never shameful sinners like this prostitute, but they were nevertheless secretly addicted to pornography, or they were cruel husbands, or greedy businessmen. If they don't repent, should they expect God's blessing and salvation?

What did Jesus say?

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mk 1:14–15 NIV

Porn Star Escapes

 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?

And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. Mt 18:12–13 NIV

Shelley Lubben loved Jesus when she was a little girl. She wanted to be a preacher. At the age of nine she was sexually abused. She was sexualised and became sexually active as a teenager. At 18, her life was out of control and her parents rejected her.

She was poor and hungry. Then a man offered her money for sex and she became a prostitute.

She became pregnant and gave birth to a child with a client. She kept the baby but continued to work as a prostitute.

However, God did not abandon her. She still believed in God, but she did not trust Jesus because she was rejected by her parents and everyone else. She also felt that God had abandoned her.

Then she was afraid of rape, murder and prison. She looked for a way out as a porn actress because it seemed less dangerous.

Then she felt the diabolical darkness like never before, much worse than in prostitution.
She had a brilliant success as a porn star, but the eerie demonic presence was terrible to her.

Then Jesus Himself came to her again and again. He pleaded with her lovingly:
Please, Shelley, don't do it again this time.

She eventually left the porn industry, but she was deeply hurt and tainted.

She then found a friend who had also turned away from Jesus. He became a brotherly friend, but then they returned to Jesus together and she married him.