Posts filed under ‘Religion’
Because sometimes I forget.
The last few weeks of reflection have brought something to mind that was a fairly interesting revelation to me. It wasn’t an all-at-once sort of realization, but more of a compilation of many thoughts I’ve had over the last couple of years. This post (series) is an exercise in thinking through it more clearly, and also is a type of confession.
I’m splitting this up into several posts, not as a traffic gimmick or something, but because of time constraints.
It should be known that the God I speak of is the God of the Christian Bible. This is the subject of another post altogether. Perhaps I’ll get there at the end of this. Hang with me.
The first three things that remind me that I’m not God:
1. Hunger
I dislike being hungry. It reminds me that I am a mortal creature that is dependent on the world around me. It reminds me that we have to work very hard to produce food (or produce cash to buy food, or earn cash to buy food). Ultimately it reminds me that it used to not be this way, and that someone else is in charge of my life.
This causes me to try to avoid feeling hungry. Whenever I feel even slightly hungry, reflexively, I eat, to try and re-assert some dominance over my domain. Rarely, if ever, do I allow myself to simply sit with the feeling, and reflect on the fact that I am a dependent creature. This is why I am overweight (not grossly so… 225lbs at 6′2″, but enough that it reminds me of all these things.)
2. Sleep
At certain points during the day, especially in the evening, my productivity drops to nil. I am forced to cease activity, and surrender to an overwhelming urge to sleep. I can stave this off with drugs (caffeine), but not for long, and always with longer term negative consequence. Prolonged periods of wakefulness actually drive human beings insane.
This, like hunger, reminds me that I am a weak, mortal creature. It also reminds me that I serve a God who never slumbers nor sleeps, which is comforting. But ultimately humiliating (which is also a good thing).
3. Lack of Knowledge
I hate not knowing something. Deep down a part of me hates people realizing that I don’t know something. (Yes, this is ridiculous.) Two tendencies result from this.
- I try to know a little about everything. Dangerous, and ridiculous.
- At times, I will speak about something that I know nothing about as if I knew about it. Also dangerous and ridiculous.
I try to read as much as I can and have a finger on the pulse of “culture” (the world around me, current events, trends, fashions, music, etc…). This is an endless pursuit and can get a little out of hand for me from time to time. The funny thing is, I feel like a bit of a failure when I don’t keep up. The failure? Failure to be God.
This is a reminder that I serve an omniscient God.
More to come.
I’ve had a few questions in response to my message (verbal essay?) on Pornography. Mostly along the lines of “does God actually say anything about pornography?”, or for those who know that he does, but don’t know what, “what does he say about it?”. I thought I’d share really briefly.
To start with, the only way I know that we can know for sure what God says on a subject is through the Christian Bible. How do I know that? That’s another topic altogether, I’ll get there, someday… in short, the last 7 years of my life have shown me, through academic research, and through experiential knowledge, that it’s true. Basically, everything I understand the Bible to say matches with the reality I percieve around me.
Anyway, here goes:
1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 (ESV)
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
A couple of concepts to pull out of here.
Sanctification: = purification. Pure means completely one thing; not mixed…
Sexual Immorality: The Greek word here is Porneia. It’s where we get the word porn in the first place. In the bible, it means; adultery, homosexuality, beastiality, incest, and intercourse with a divorced man or woman. Hard stuff. Could probably focus a book or semester course on any one of those…
Passion of lust: lust in this context means craving, or desiring something that is forbidden. We all know what passionate means.
Impurity: The opposite of purity (fairly simple…)
Holiness: Same word as sanctification above…
Disregards God: Other translations say “Reject God”. So, if you choose sexual immorality, you are rejecting God. I was hit hard by this thought.
And now from the man himself:
Matthew 5:27-30
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Looking with lustful intent: Jesus turns the Jewish law, and our common sense on it’s head here. Has anyone reading this NOT looked at someone with “lustful intent”? At any rate, this is the very center of what porn is about, so here he is equating that with sleeping with someone’s wife (or husband…).
Drastic measures: Here’s where to end up. Jesus talked about this pretty strongly, as does Paul in the above Thessalonians passage. Literally gouge your eye out? Probably not, but realize the seriousness of what’s going on here, and take appropriate measures. That’s the message they are conveying. Do we take it seriously enough?
Well, the talk went well. You can listen to it here. I decided to break it into a two part series. This first one was “Porn: Why men don’t respect women.” The next one will be “Porn: Why women don’t respect themselves.” This will mean a new round of posters, probably implementing some of the suggestions I got on the last poster.
The crowd’s reaction was great, and I daresay that the posters had their intended effect, on Christians and non-Christians alike.
Check the poster out…
I made this flyer for my next Rock message. (in the flyer… “Dangerous Curves” refers to a local “bikini bar”, essentially a strip club where they don’t take ALL their clothes off, thus circumventing many city ordinances.)
Next week at The Rock I will be speaking about pornography. Specifically how pornography is creeping into the American mainstream (it has been for the last fifty years or so, but in the last decade it has made rapid and slightly disconcerting advances.)
One cannot turn on network television in the evening without sex, implied or actual coming up every five minutes (slight exageration). My message will be on a general level how this effects the way men view women. I’m also going to draw attention to the slippery slope from sex on TV to the sex slave trade in Amercia (estimates of over 100,000 AMERICAN girls and women currently bought and sold as sex slaves today…)
The reason there’s a market for sex on TV is the same reason there is a market for sex slaves.
I hope men come away angry at pornography.
Some great resources around this topic can be found at xxxchurch.com
