I need to clarify something, when we say we are sorry for offending by placing porn, masquerading as journalism, on facebook, but refuse to remove the pictures, we are saying "I'm sorry you got offended, but I really don't care about you." This happened to me just today. I was asked to forgive a man for posting vile pictures in a parade, when I said I did forgive him I was forced to take back my forgiveness because he refused to take the pictures down. There is no forgiveness for someone who will not stop sinning.
Why do so many men think it's alright to post just because it was an article by someone who was against the acts. I suggest that if someone is really against the act, then they would avoid all contact with news about it, especially photos.
This kind of apology was given to me privately in chat with scripture to justify it by saying "I am not under the law."
When we are not under condemnation of the law, it does not mean that we are free to be as sinful and vile as we choose while thumbing our noses at a brother or sister. Using Scripture out of context to justify sin is blasphemous at best.
What could possibly be so important about showing the wickedness that evil people do, that we would be willing to destroy the sensibilities of another believer to do it. It is in fact, a violation of God's Word to put up wicked pictures of what evil people do.
Psalm 101:3 "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me."
When we put up pictures of men depicting Jesus or photos of porn to prove a point, we are in serious danger of making a brother or sister fall. IT IS SIN!!!!!!
Romans 14:21 "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak."
Ephesians 5:12 "For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret."
Don't think for one moment that it is alright with God to put up pictures that normally one would have to go to a porn store to buy. It doesn't matter whether it really happened or not, we are not to indulge in that filth to any degree. We do not need to see it, nor do we need to show it.
Brothers and sisters, let's be careful to keep a clean heart while protecting the minds and hearts of God's family.
-Psalm 45:10-11 KJV
Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; 11 So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him."
Who is the most important to us in our lives? If we say children, husband, wife or extended family, then we have idols. We can love these people, however, when they attempt to destroy our walk with God or undermine the path God has for us personally, then we are to place Christ first. We wish they would come with us in our pursuit for holiness and God's will, but most often they will not.
Matthew 22:1-14
"1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying,
2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to [b]a king who [c]gave a wedding feast for his son.
3 And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come.
4 Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.”’
5 But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business,
6 and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.
7 But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire.
8 Then he *said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.
9 Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.’
10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests."
11 “But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes,
12 and he *said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless.
13 Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 FOR MANY ARE CALLED BUT FEW ARE CHOSEN.”
Losing family is not the worst thing that can happen to us. Losing the protection of the Lord because we are choosing family over Him, is far more important. God will not listen to those who choose other gods over Him.
Proverbs 1;28 ""Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently but they will not find me,"
Isaiah 59:2 "But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear."
Even believers can stray from making God their first love. To place family above God is always sin! Without realizing it we can diminish our obedience to Christ in favor of the love of family. Fear of being alone drives us to capitulate to family when Christ in us can make us completely content with being alone if that is His will.
John 14:16-18
"16 I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
18 “I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU AS ORPHANS, I will come to you."
2 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline."
To follow Christ means that we will lose nearly everyone we thought were suppose to love us. They love the things of the world, their pride and their pleasure more than they love God and more than they love us. We must choose between the world and God, how we choose may be an indication of whether or not we were ever born again.
Matthew 10:32-39
"32 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.
34 “Do not think that I came to [d]bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35 For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36 and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.
37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
39 He who has found his [e]life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it."
The act and attitude of declaring Christ before men, no matter how the delivery, will chase off those who are contemptuous toward Him. They may attempt to make us look like the one they hate, but in fact it is not us, it is the Holy Spirit that lives in us that makes them so very uncomfortable. They will have to concocted perceived wrongs against them to make us the fall guy, however, we know it is not about us, but God that frightens them.
Often a frightened animal will become vicious, their fear drives them to attack. This is the case with non-believers who come in contact with the Holy Spirit, they will attack anyone or anything that makes them feel convicted about their sin. We know this because of the death of Christ. He did nothing but good, harmed no one and healed many while He was walking the earth, and yet, remember their response was to revile Him.
John 15:18-25
"18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have [b]sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 He who hates Me hates My Father also.
24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.
25 But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’"
Never fear brothers and sisters, we can expect this to intensify, but we have the King of Kings living in us, we do not need to fear what the world will do to us. What a blessing to be a child of the King, knowing that soon it will all be over and we will get to go home. In the mean time we keep speaking truth according to the love of Christ and leave all the results to Him.
Jeremiah 7:16 ""As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you."
Jeremiah 11:14 ""Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not listen when they call to Me because of their disaster."
You see, God has revealed this to me through His word and the Holy Spirit that this nation is not going to turn and that we should pray for believers to become strong. When I try to pray for the country, I am stopped, as though God is saying "NO."
Those who continue to pray, are focusing on their own desire to live in a "free country", to continue to do as they please and to save them from hardship. Never in the history of the world has an entire nation turned from sin when they got to the point we are now.
Punishment is all that was in store for them. There was a "city" in the Bible that the prophet Jonah was told to go and preach, and they repented, but a city, not a nation. All the nations that got to the level of depravity we are in, were diminished and eventually destroyed never to rise again.
When our indoctrination has been all our life, "freedom, freedom, freedom", it pushed out all thought of holiness or godliness. Freedom became our god and the One True God is going to remove that god, so that we might see our need for Him.
