But…

There is a great passage in the book of Revelation chapter 21 verses 6-8.  It is speaking of the New Jerusalem and the idea that God will make ALL things new.  It begins in verse 6 by saying,

He said to me: “It is done.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.  To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.  He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 

These are good words.  This is a great reminder for those who have a relationship with Jesus Christ that there will be a day when it will be done.  There will be a day when the God who created and the God who has always been will give us the life that we have thirsted for while on this earth.  Because we can claim the resurrection of Christ, we have overcome death and we will be children of God!  What a wonderful promise.  It doesn’t end here…

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.  This is the second death.”

While there is great hope for those in Christ, there is great judgment for those who are unbelieving.  John reveals a list of those who will experience this second death.  He lumps together the cowards, those who don’t believe, those who murder, those who are sexually immoral, those who use magic, idolaters, and liars.  They will all experience the second death.  Two things stand out:

1.  What does it mean to be sexually immoral?  The greek word is πόρνος which we call pornos.  It has three meanings.  1) one who prostitutes their body to another’s lust for hire  2) a prostitute  3) one who indulges in unlawful sexual intercourse, a fornicator.  Sexual immorality is running rampant in our culture today.  Prostitutes are available on streets and in brothels.  You can pay someone to fulfill nearly any sexual desire that you have.  Many are actively participating in fornication and having sex outside of God’s intended design.  Please know that there is hope for those who are cowards, those who don’t believe, and even the sexually immoral.  Hope has a name and His name is Jesus.  The Bible reminds us that if you seek Him, you will find Him.  He is our only hope and he want to make all things new for us.

2.  What is the fiery lake of burning sulfur?  While many would assume that this is Hell, I won’t make that claim.  I don’t know what Hell is like.  The translated english for this passage has done a good job.  I the original greek it was literally a reference to a lake filled with fire and burning sulfur.  Here is what I do know.  This is the second death that the Bible refers to.  This is a place of separation for God.  It won’t be fun and it is reserved for those without Christ. 

All Scripture is living and active.  It is truth and I want to share it with you.  If you fall into the categories of cowardly, unbelieving, sexually immoral, or whatever it may be, there is hope!  God knows you and sent His son to die for YOUR sins!   It is through Christ that we can escape second death and receive eternal life in Heaven with our Lord.

Jesus Loves Porn Stars

According to CNBC, there is $3,075 spent every second on porn.  Each second, 28,000 people are viewing porn online, and every 39 minutes, a new pornographic video is being produced.  It is not just made for movies but also for iPhones and Blackberry technology.  The fact is that the industry of porn is larger than the revenues of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and Earthlink combined!  It brings in more revenue than those of the NFL, NBA, and MLB combined!  This means that Jenna Jameson and Ron Jeremy are bigger stars than Peyton Manning and Kobe Bryant.  There are more than 400 million porn pages online accessed by more than 40 million adults in the United States.  Recently CNN reported that 70% of Christians admitted to struggling with pornography.  Oprah acknowledges that pornography is America’s #1 addiction.  This pandemic must cause us to pursue the wounded, engage in the issue, and love the broken.    

In the Gospels, we find a story where Jesus walks in on judgment.  He approaches a woman naked and ashamed facing imminent death by stoning of the crowd around her.  She has been caught in adultery and dragged into a common area where those passing by would soon be encouraged to join in the stoning of this woman.  Jesus comes on the scene and in humility walks near to the woman and drops down to His knees and draws in the dirt.  The crowd surrounds them both, with stones in hand, paying close attention to what Jesus is doing.  We are never told what is written, but we know that those who condemning this woman walked away in silence.  This is a great picture of us standing around those struggling with porn.     

As the statistics show, you know several people who are struggling with porn.  You probably know people who have reached out to you on this issue and you brushed it off because it was too scary.  Jesus gave us an example of how we must pursue the wounded.  Jesus didn’t come to the woman and scold her for what she had done.  Other people had already done that.  Jesus didn’t stand at a distance and counsel the woman on how to leave her life of sin.  Jesus approached her with no stone in hand and got down next to her in the sand.  Jesus got dirty.  Notice that Jesus didn’t offer advice.  He just wrote in the dirt.  The woman knew that Jesus didn’t approve but she knew that Jesus didn’t condemn.  It is time to stop encouraging those around us from a distance.  We must go and be with them. 

Jesus also gives us an example of what it looks like to engage in an issue.  The penalty for adultery in those days was being stoned to death.  Jesus engages in the issue when He arrived at the scene of such an incident.  He doesn’t avoid the crowd or the woman.  He gets with the woman and humbles the crowd.  I believe that often when we see the crowd as it pertains to porn and purity we run in the other direction.  We are called to engage in the issues of those around us.

At last, Jesus loves the woman in her broken state.  He asks her to choose life and to leave her life of sin.  He offers no condemnation, but offers her wholeness that can only be found in him.  Love looks like a cross where the crowd surrounds the broken, and the broken can be made whole.  God wants to use us as we engage in this issue with our brothers and sisters.                                      

It is important to understand the destructive power of sin.  We must not separate ourselves from the sinner because of their sin.  While we must stay away from situations that we can’t handle, we must not stay away from those in sin.  How are you interacting with those so that they may see the love of Christ?  How are you modeling the love of Christ while living among the sinners as Jesus did?  We must choose which is more important:  to make it hard to sin, or to make it easy to see Christ.  Love should look like Jesus, not like judgment.  Jesus loved the wounded and the broken.  Jesus loves you, and… Jesus loves porn stars! 

(This article was published in the March 7, 2010 issue of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette in the Living section on page 6D under the heading title “Love can conquer porn’s wiles”)