Testimony Tuesday: A Single Young Man’s Testimony
Tuesday's testimonies are from current and former Pureheart counselees. Most of these men and women have broken free and now walk in consistent purity and/or healed marriages but some are still in process. These brothers and sisters, married and single, represent a wide spectrum of ages, races, nationalities, denominations, backgrounds, personalities, and levels of addiction and dysfunction but all of them have changed dramatically. If they can change, so can you! For obvious reasons, we have changed their names. Here are their stories (unedited)
“Sergio’s” Testimony
I was saved in 1981 at a large Charismatic church in Florida. I was drawn to the church after seeing these happy and upbeat individuals in the Restaurant I was managing at the time, in a Theme Park in Florida. They were attending a Christian concert in the park, and I remember saying to myself - I’ve never seen Christians having genuine fun like this, so I asked one of the people in their group where they went to church. I visited the church and I went down and accepted Christ after my second visit. This church had well over 5K members, which was large during this time - so they had well known speakers and pastors visit and teach. Several of these individuals have very large national ministries today and I’m very thankful that I had a solid foundation built into me from some of these individuals of faith.
My walk with the Lord was “on fire” for the first several years until I met a young lady who was not a Christian - but I thought I could handle leading her to the Lord and just date her. Well, she did accept Christ - but we fell into sexual sin and we did get engaged, but after almost 2 years things didn’t work out. This was around 1985 now and I began seeing other women and having sex with them while dating. I was convicted of this sin and attempted to ask for forgiveness but eventually never stopped. I also began viewing pornography around this time which led me into masturbation as well. I never really stopped going to church, so I was constantly asking God for forgiveness - I would stop seeing women for a few months only. I had no concept of spiritual warfare or how the devil was influencing all of this in my life. It was like I knew that living this way was wrong and was not pleasing God, but I always felt like I was going to eventually get myself together and stop living this way.
I kept meeting different women and thinking - this is the one I’m going to marry. We would date for a year - year and a half but then break up. Therefore over the last 35 years I’ve had sex with many women (about 38) and have crossed the line (heavy petting) with another 10-12. Although I attempted prior to Pureheart to get help dealing with this - I was never able to either stick with my commitments or stay committed to the programs. I reached out to 2 different groups designed to help those involved in sexual sin and I also at one point was seeing a private Christian counselor. Even though I was involved in viewing pornography and masturbation - these were not the overwhelming problem I was having. My challenge was consistently telling God “that’s it”, no more seeing women and being sexually intimate with them - and then in a short time, falling right back into sin. My life became cold, mechanical, with a lack of emotion towards women and I eventually turned to women for just companionship and not wanting to be alone.
In March, 2019 I had a massive stroke - but God had mercy on me because I have no physical challenges or deficits from that episode. But I knew this was a wake up call from God so I was led to Tim Davis/Pureheart by searching the Web (while still in the hospital) - for a Christian based program to help men recover from sexual addictions. I thank God for Tim and Pureheart because after being in sexual sin for so many years and having been through this type of counseling before, I knew I needed this. But I was a little skeptical on whether it could keep my attention and help me. I can prayerfully say that Pureheart has exceeded my expectations and gave me exactly what I needed. It was direct, candid and had a strong spiritual focus. I didn’t need / want anything sugarcoated or too soft. Tim was straight-forward and didn’t hold back from getting the issues / challenges around sexual sin on the table for us to deal with them and come up with a plan to defeat the enemy.
Over the last year, I have had no masturbations, no porn and no acting out with women! Which is a major accomplishment. Although I’ve been through counseling sessions before dealing with sexual sin, it was very different going through with a group. It was helpful hearing from others that were having some of the same challenges and coming back each week to encourage and support each other. I really like building a bond with a small group of guys where I could pick up the phone or text them anytime during a time of weakness or just to vent.
I would highly recommend Pureheart Ministries if you want an experienced, dedicated counselor in Tim who has a proven process that helped me - someone who has been down this road before and didn’t complete the programs. But I can truly say that Pureheart’s plan of group counseling, reading materials, homework, and accountability measures help keep me on track - but more importantly is restoring my relationship with the Father.