This week I opened an account with a new server for my emails. No one knew the address but I discovered 10 emails waiting in it. They all showed the sender as me although I had not sent them. Each had a caption of a sexual nature. After the initial moment of freezing I set about to get rid of the stuff. There seemed no way unless each was opened then it could be “binned”. Each picture displayed those parts of the female anatomy that even our first parents, in their state of rebellion against God, had the wit to cover. It induced a guilty feeling that made me want to keep quiet about it. Presumably this was similar to the feelings of abused people who remain silent. It is this silence that I believe to be the devil’s weapon. It’s in the silence that guilt grows and illogical thinking takes over. The recipient of such material tries to sweep it under the carpet, conceal it, only to find that it will reappear to bite you. The trouble with addiction is that you don’t have a gauge that tells you when you’re hooked. The astonishment of the accused when the Garda tell him the number of pictures on his computer testifies to that fact. By then it’s too late the serpents bite has fastened on the victim. He is helpless. What remedy does the Bible offer? The Psalmist knew all about being silent and concealing his sin. He graphically describes it in psalm 32. “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.” Then the Psalmist breaks the sound barrier and speaks first to the prophet Nathan then to God. “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”— and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” Some try to impose rules to overcome addictive urges but St Paul writes that “they lack any value in restraining sexual indulgences”. Colossians Chapter 2verse 23. Encouragingly we read of a greater power that can and does bring release to the sexually immoral; “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God”. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 11. Sadly these adult addictions defeat many today but they can be overcome by real Christian fellowship where people are not afraid to be open with one another and through prayer and the power of the Gospel to bring freedom to the modern captives: 2Timothy 2:25 – “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.