Posted by
voiceoftruth on Saturday, January 26, 2008 12:54:59 PM
Some observations and a word directed (mainly) to people who call themselves believers...
The internet is bar none one of Satan's most effective tools, now and forever. Never have so many venues been made available for people to be exploited, exploit others or themselves.
One trend seems to have really exploded in the past few years - women (young and old) willing to exploit themselves and present themselves to the world as crass sexual objects.
I see it all over Myspace, it's kind of astonishing. I see it on occassion on Flickr by sheer coincidence when a random pic from the "everyone's pics" category shows me way more about a person than I ever wanted to see. Usually these are younger girls, usually... not always. And then of course there is the utter profusion of e-mails providing easy opportunity for every and any twisted perversion that suits your fancy. A great source of amusement for the devil.
How you present yourself to the world through your own pictures, videos and the graphics you use for your messages, profiles, etc.. are all ways you present yourself, your witness. Among other things.
The self-explotation and utter lack of self respect that abounds these days in the world probably boils down to the fact that many people have lost (or perhaps never learned) the capacity to truly respect themselves. If you view yourself as a randomly generated accident, with no eternal purpose and no divine creator your image of yourself will reflect that mindset.
But what about Christians.. Who should be viewing themselves as beings created in the image of God, designed to worship and fellowship with Him and to present themselves to the world as His witnesses and representatives? How does one rationalize the use of sexy pictures and graphics, near naked angel & fairies and language that is as crass and worldy as the most die-hard non-believer?
I could make a guess that their Bibles must be gathering dust on some bookshelf somewhere, or they are cherry picking the passages they like and discarding those they do not... Unfortunately for them that is not going to fly as an excuse come Judgement day when we all saved and unsaved will be judged by our acts and our witness and the saved will be rewarded according to their works.
Many Christians in today's age who don't want to deal with this cry out, "But we are not to Judge others!" Baloney. God's Word says we are to judge, as in assess, discern, determine and speak out about the things that are both pleasing and displeasing or outright abominations in the eyes of the Lord. When it comes to our own brethren we are supposed to correct, it's a mandate. That applies to self too.
God makes it clear, we are set apart, no longer of the world and are to come out of the world system (live a new life) our witness has to express that. If it doesn't, do we really belong to God at all? I am working out my salvation, and I better be doing it with fear and trembling as I do. I've got 38 "unsaved" years living like the world for the devil to keep bringing up in my face, not to mention some major mistakes made after salvation... Sometimes I stumble, I fall, I get back up... and keep walking the walk God laid out for me.
When the Holy Spirit indwells in you AND YOU DO NOT QUENCH HIM, the difference between right and wrong is not really hard to discern... which make conviction, repentance & forgiveness possible.
If "Christians" let themselves be exploited and participate in the exploitation of others it's got to be from one or more of the following factors...
Strong strong delusion is already falling upon the earth and many of the elect have been and are being deceived; false and corrupted (worldly) doctrines have produce millions of "quasi-saved" believers who are passing themselves off as Christians, but are in no way true believers. Some other's either don't know enough about the genuine work of the Holy Spirit in a believers life, or are purposely quenching Him because it feels easier to act like the world and be accepted by it, than to take up your cross and follow Jesus (example). I've had enough experience with wolves calling themselves born-again Christians in the past few years to know that all this is true.
It's time to get back to the Word, examine ourselves, stop quenching the Holy Spirit & let Him do His work in us... I plan on taking these words to heart myself. I know we are all works in progress, but time is running short...
Matthew 16
(Jesus speaking to the Pharisee's)
2 ... "When it is evening you say,
'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red';
3 and in the morning,
'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites!
[a] You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot
discern the signs of the times.
Peter in the Courtyard
(denying that he knew Christ)