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Self Disfigurement
And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
Matthew 18:9
Jesus taught us that any area that allows sin to enter into our lives must be removed. If spending time with certain people causes you to sin, don't spend time with them. If certain activities take your mind away from God, don't do them. If looking magazines, television shows, or the Internet causes you to lust after the opposite sex, don't allow them into your life.
With the Internet, there is an ever-present, easily accessible, gateway into every sin imaginable. We have access to it and our children have access to it. With just a few clicks of the mouse lustful desires and sexual exploitation, perversions and blasphemy are brought right into our home. Sometimes it is even done accidentally.
For anybody struggling with temptation, or worried about their spouse or children lured into the sins of the Internet, it needs to be removed. You can simply cancel the Internet all together. Or you can install an Internet filter device. I have found and tested one called the I-Boss from Phantom Technologies. It is a hardware device, and it works very well.
The I-Boss is a small box the plugs in between your modem and computer. Or, if you share the Internet between multiple computers, it will plug in between the modem and router. It only works for broadband access, so if you are still using dial-up, the I-Boss will not work for you.
The I-Boss works by filtering categories. Using a browser-based configuration menu you can allow or disallow certain categories such as adult (pornography), violence, illegal, hacking, drugs, dating, gambling, shopping, and many more.
It works by comparing the website you are accessing against a database. The database is constantly being updated to include new sites. The subscription price is currently $7.95 a month or $59.95 for a year. Because it is a hardware device and no software has to be installed, the filter does not slow down your Internet access.
I was very skeptical at first. With so many websites out there I didn't expect it to be very effective at catching the ones I wanted to block. I am happy to say that it works extremely well. Trying to find a website to access that falls into a blocked category is almost impossible. Someone would have to try very hard, for hours on end, to find a site that wasn't allowed.
Every attempted access to a block category is logged. If the device is disconnected in an attempt to bypass the filter, it is logged as well. The logs can be set to automatically email to a parent, accountability person or spouse. I believe this is an excellent way to protect your children from information you do not want them exposed to. Or, to remove the temptation to look at pornography, gambling or other websites that lead to sin. With the e-mail logs you can set up an accountability system that can help keep you on the narrow path into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Enough said...
The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:7-11
| Comments (0)Fallen World
This image was sent to me recently in an e-mail. It is the 1994 Pulitzer Prize winning photo taken by Kevin Carter. The photograph shows a famine stricken Sudanese child trying to reach food. Behind her is a vulture waiting for her to die so it can feed upon her.
Kevin Carter, a South Africa photojournalist, committed suicide two months after receiving the Pulitzer Prize. His long time friend, Judith Matloff, stated that Carter would often return from upsetting assignments with bouts of crying, drinking, or using drugs. She says that after he shot his Pulitzer Prize winning photo, he "sat under a tree and cried and chain-smoked" - he couldn't distance himself from the horror he saw. No one knows what happened to the girl in the picture.
In his suicide note he stated that he was haunted by the vivid memories of killings, corpses, anger, pain, starving and wounded children and trigger-happy madmen.
This world is fallen. All of us suffer. But if you are reading this you have it far better than most. Right now, half the world (about 3 billion people) lives on less than two dollars a day. Because of poverty, over 30,000 children die every day. Every year 2.2 million children die because they are not immunized and 15 millions children are orphaned because of HIV/AIDS.
It's easy to live in our comfortable lives, detached from the rest of the world; most of us don't want to fully realize how much suffering is really occurring in the world. They say ignorance is bliss but who benefits from it? Nobody.
I struggle with empathy and pray often for more of it. I pray that I will be more selfless, not consumed with this world and what it has offer me. It is only temporary and moving past me at an enormous rate. There are many people suffering, many people who have not heard about their Savior, Jesus Christ. We should always be motivated to spread the good news to the fallen world.
What will you do with it?
For those of us who know the Lord, who have been forgiven and saved, we owe a lot to the One who has saved us. Our lives once had no meaning, no purpose beyond temporary physical gratification. Now that we have heeded the calling of our Lord Jesus Christ and accepted Him into our lives, we have a greater purpose.
With salvation comes hope and peace - and a price. Jesus gave His life on the cross as payment for our sins. In turn, we are called to give our lives to Jesus. It's a small price to pay when you consider what our lives were before - hopeless and void of purpose. But, despite this, it's all too easy to become caught up in this world and lose site of heavenly goal.
I struggle with living for myself. My flesh tells me that I deserve to be entertained and have certain luxuries. But I know that my life is not my own and as I let Jesus take control He leads me down a more selfless path, a path of self denial, where His will reigns.
There are so many people suffering, people who don't know and have never heard about Jesus Christ. Not that knowing Jesus doesn't mean the suffering will stop, it means that if you suffer, it pales in comparison to the hope we now have as children of God.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
Romans 8:18-19
Knowing that I was saved from a reckless path of destruction to the great hope I now have, I must constantly remind myself not to become complacent, or become too absorbed in the things of earth. I must set my eyes on heaven, and the things of heaven, and the will of my Heavenly Father.
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
Hosea 6:6