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price to pay at the end of the day, and it will be a heavy
    one.
    First, what you view today will stay in your mind a long, long
    time—maybe forever. There’s an old saying: “It takes twenty
    seconds to look at a
Playboy
and twenty years to forget what you
    saw.” I can still remember the nude spread of Suzanne Sommers in the
    surging mountain stream as if it were yesterday. I still remember the short,
    full-bodied Asian girl standing nude in the wheat field in
Gallery
after she won the “Girl Next Door Contest.” I can still see
    the nude
Playboy
model cloaked in a clear plastic raincoat as the
    shower cascaded over her. Every detail, from the color and cut of her hairstyle
    right down to the curvature of her spreading thighs are imprinted in my brain.
    I guess the old saying is wrong. I saw those images twenty-
three
years
    ago, and I still haven’t forgotten.
    Second, we pay the price
    whether we know it’s coming or not. I’ve watched a ton of gory
    movies in my day, but few screams in those films have matched Lampwick’s
    shriek of raw terror when his hands were turned into hooves. He didn’t
    see it coming. If you think the law of reaping and sowing has been suspended
    during your teen years, then Satan gleefully uses this to his advantage. He
    does everything in his power to hook you sexually before marriage.
    Maybe you aren’t concerned. Maybe you think God will forgive you and
    that everything will be over once you marry. He’ll forgive you, all
    right, but it’s not over. Sin comes with inescapable consequences that
    follow you. You’ll have to pay the price at the same toll bridge as the
    rest of us. Jim told us this:
    I’ve been a Christian since the
    age of nine, and I’ve been sexually active since I was twelve. Now
    I’m in my late twenties, and I’m on the Internet constantly viewing
    the worst kinds of pornography. The lustful thoughts and acts will one day
    destroy me if I can’t find a way to control it. Though I’m a
    Christian, it’s always two steps backward and one step forward due to my
    sexual sin. I regret the things I do but then go right back to them. I never
    can focus my extra energy on Him, no matter how desperately I desire it.
    Here’s what Tom, a college student, said:
    I’ve been
    struggling with sexuality for over a year now. I had a longtime girlfriend in
    high school that I made love to for a couple of years. Since we broke up,
    I’ve longed for another girlfriend, but I haven’t found anyone,
    which has been frustrating. So frustrating that my feelings for girls have
    turned primarily to lust. I’m really ashamed of the things I do and think
    about, and I’m often ashamed to face God. I don’t know how
    I’ll ever get free.
    Tanner says he’s addicted to
    pornography:
    It began when I was in high school, and it chases me
    through the years. I’ve tried to pray and read my Bible, but because of
    my sin, I have no desire to do these spiritual disciplines. I’m desperate
    and need help. I’m studying to become a pastor, and I’m close to
    ordination, but I feel convicted and guilty. My deepest desire is to serve God
    and be a man of God, but I don’t know what to do. I cannot get
    free.
    And Derrick feels as though he’s living like a public
    saint and a private sinner:
    The hypocrisy is ripping me apart, and the
    absence of God is like a living hell for me. I need help. I’m dying on
    the inside. I just don’t know what to do or where to go. I don’t
    live for God, I don’t witness, and I don’t pray. People say that
    the definition of hell is “eternal separation” from God. I feel
    that I have that right now, so I guess I’m in hell!
    The end of
    the day at Adventure Island has arrived for these men, and they struggle
    against binding cords like donkeys pulling coal cars through dark mines, day
    after draining day. Some of you already feel the cords wrapping you tighter and
    tighter.
    As the cords tighten, you struggle and struggle, and you