Lucifer has done a masterful job at separating the consequences of evil from the actions of evil. He delays consequences as long as he can, in order to propagate the evil activities until they reach habit stage. But the effect of delaying consequences seems only to multiply their pain when they finally do ensue; and they ALWAYS follow our behavior. We may evade them for a while, but eventually everything we do catches up with us. It is not so much Karma as if we spread evil in the ether and it somehow materializes in our lives later; it is more like the laws of gravity – cause and effect. Evil tries to hide its nature from us, mask the pain from the actions that will surely come, and blame everyone and everything else for its existence; but in the end it fails. Evil is the opposite of God, therefore by nature, nothing we would ever desire.
Sometimes in our quest to measure evil, and separate some actions into “less harmful” than others, we develop a belief that certain “sins” or evil actions, are personal, just between you and God. Personal sins, or private sins then, need only be discussed between you and God, and so are thought to be “less harmful” to others than say assault and battery might be. But this belief is incorrect. It is yet another deception created by the master deceiver of souls. It is the equivalent of dropping a 3 pound rock in a bathtub full of water, and expecting only the original splash will be the result. In addition to the splash, are generated waves of displaced water that traverse the tub from end to end – only constricted by the boundaries of the size of the tub. If the tub were 12 feet across, the waves would travel 12 feet. But because most tubs are only a couple feet across, and 4 or 5 feet in length, the waves simply double back on themselves making quite a havoc. This is similar to how “private” sins disturb your own life, and the lives of those you encounter.
Take for example, the personal sin of pride. Pride is something held only in the heart. It does not appear at first glance to affect anyone else directly and therefore would seem to be only between you and God. But examine it closer for a minute. I can allow my pride to overtake my humility, as such, I become unwilling to learn from another believing no-one knows more than I. I can become unwilling to help those less fortunate believing that “helping” is a job for those who are not as smart or as capable, or as rich as I am. I can begin to treat others by cast, category, and classification – all of which are governed strictly by my pride. In so doing, I tear down the image of Christ who loved all without condition, and instead erect an idol of me to worship instead. My ill treatment of others may lead to direct evil against them, but even if that is restrained, by attitudes will definitively be affected.
Another common misperception about personal sin is that of sexual self-gratification. This one is worse, because it is looked at as the “lesser” of a great many evils that we are capable of performing related to our sexual expression. It sounds good at first glance. But examine it a bit closer; the very words “self-gratification” define the basic problem at its core – pleasing one’s self. Our entire legal system is built to keep my propensity to serve self, from interfering with yours. Limitations and punishments are outlined to try to keep us from causing serious harm to each other while pursuing the happiness of pleasing number one. In a sexual sense, we replace intimacy, and the concept of pleasing our partner/spouse FIRST, with searching for the bio-chemical “high” of orgasm. Self-gratification begins by focusing solely on what pleases me, with complete and total disregard for what makes my spouse happy, as there is no spouse to even consider in the scenario. Over time, habits form, and when my spouse does enter the scenario, I could be disappointed that it does not coincide with my mental picture of what “should” happen.
There are those who believe self-gratification hurts no-one; that it is a victimless crime. But this is untrue. Those who engage in this behavior are almost always unable to stop. They extinguish the value of intimacy and vulnerability with someone else, and turn people into objects, objects without meaning or consequence. The kind of mental imagery associated with self-gratification is usually degenerative. Comedians joke about being children and looking at the underwear sections of the Sears catalog, or at the National Geographic magazines with naked natives. But this soon turns to the “art” of Playboy, then to the eroticism of Penthouse, and finally to the pure hardcore smut found in an infinite number of specific Internet sites, or former print publications. The imagery degenerates further into sub cultures like S&M, Bondage, Baby-Play, Anal fetishes, etc.. But it is not limited to these, further degeneration leads to the infliction of severe or permanent pain, child molestation, animal molestation, and finally the association of death and sex together. A downward spiral, no-one believes themselves capable of, until they find themselves in it. Yet still the belief, that we remain unharmed by our actions.
For those who believe they only hurt themselves, yet another revelation. The industry that provides the materials for your mental imagery could care less who it hurts in the manufacture of these materials. Countless daughters, sisters, mothers, even elderly – both women and men – put into positions where self-esteem is destroyed, where the danger of disease is rampant, where intimacy loses all value. And for the person unable to control their baser passions, often this behavior does not end when marriage begins. It continues into the marriage, depriving the spouse of true intimacy. It is bringing baggage and expectations into our sexual expression that should have never been in the first place. Men must unlearn almost everything they think they know, before they will ever be capable of sharing true beauty and intimacy in giving to their wives.
Lucifer, under the guise of social norms, propagates these ideas that a women or wife should be a gentle lady out of the house, and a “freak” in the bedroom. Countless women’s magazines offer advice on how to please and keep a man through sexual proficiency when the reality is far from these ideals. Honesty, vulnerability, clear communication, intimacy, even spiritual dependency on Christ will do more to keep a man, than will tricks dreamed up in a magazine. There is nothing wrong with creativity or invention in the bedroom, it is only a problem when biology replaces intimacy as the primary objective. Orgasm is not the ultimate goal, a union of mind, body, and soul, - is.
So our thought to be personal sin, hurts us, hurts those we claim to love most, hurts our families as it affects our attitudes in what we teach our children, our community in how we treat others, and finally God as He must bear witness to the pain we cause in our “personal” acts of evil. In the end, sin, or evil actions always cause ripples of pain, that grow as they reach others. Our 3 pound rock in the pond may be a veritable Tsunami by the time its full effects are cataloged by unseen hands. This is the nature of evil. This is the nature of poo. Poo smells. You can hardly conceal it when it is physically nearby. Even its after effects will be known for a while after it has left the area. So it is with evil. Evil is nothing more than poo, wrapped in a shiny wrapper. The shiny wrapper is at best a momentary distraction until the clear evil of poo is revealed. But by then sometimes it is already too late. Behaviors are formed, habits ensue, slavery is initiated, and thus the need for Savior. Thus the need for a “creator” God who can re-create IN me what must be completely redone.
It is not enough to want only some of the poo, out of my life. It can only be enough when ALL of the poo is out of my life. No more habits, no more chains, no more bad choices, no more regrets – just the freedom that comes from giving the problem to the only God who wants to take it over and remove it FROM us. It does no good to clean half of the cesspool of our lives. We must let Him clean it all. I know the work is hard, and atrocious, and was made so by us in our persistence at spreading our feces from wall to wall. But this is the work Christ is willing to do in our lives. He sees evil as this level of abhorrent, and wishes only to see it completely removed from your day to day. Let go the shiny wrappers, and embrace the freedom of Christ. Let us stop making ripples of pain in the oceans of our lives, and replace it with wave after wave of His love for ALL who we encounter.
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