Are You a Mothball or Salt and Light?

I remember the day when our world seemed much larger.  We had one telephone in our house. We felt lucky that we had this new thing called a television where we could see and hear people who were not even in our house but somewhere else, like a different city in black and white moving images.

There was this thing called “distance” and to see someone on the other side of the world meant traveling by ship or plane for hours the 7,665 miles and to see and talk with my friend Mack who lives in Hunan, China. Now, I can see him every Sunday night on 180 LIVE as he listens to our program and eats his breakfast. Our world has gotten so much smaller and distance is overcome by the World Wide Web.

One of the problems with this WWW is that we can see, hear and watch any kind of sexual sin for which our corrupt flesh craves.  It is utterly disgusting to read about the porn industry and what is happening to the female and male actors.  These “porn stars” are addicted to strong narcotics because without them they would never do or allow to be done what is happening to them.  Virtually all of them have herpes and as the world of hard-core porn goes further into violence so people can get off, they have injuries that are more severe and even life-threatening.

Now that the world is so small it is more and more difficult to live inside your Christian bubble. There are many people who call themselves Christians, or followers of Christ but they are not following Him and trying to impact this corrupt and decaying world.  They want to raise their family in a Christian home, go to a Christian church, send their kids to a Christian school, have them attend a Christian youth group and even be educated at home with a Christian curriculum.

They are insulating their kids from this fallen world by making them mothballs when we are called to be salt and light. However, many of them are shocked when their carefully planned and maintained bubble seems to burst. They discover porn has invaded their home and it probably did not start from some kid down the street whose parents didn’t monitor them well enough.  The evidence that demands a verdict could be found in the deleted history of the father and perhaps even the mother.

When did the body of Christ decide to go on the defensive?  Did we forget these words that Jesus spoke to his disciples before he was captured and slaughtered?

Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.

Jesus has overcome the world.  He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. And Please Note – HE in INFINITELY GREATER. And He has told us to go into all the world and make disciples. We are meant to be on the front line impacting the world and fighting against sin and injustice.

Instead, we are mothballs trying to preserve what we want to keep safe. I remember mothballs.  They were used by my parents in a closet where my father’s Navy uniforms were kept in plastic bags and mothballs at the bottom.  Did not want the moths to eat the wool of the uniform that he could not fit into anyway.

That is why I love 180 Ministries. We are not on R&R.  We are not staying in the “fort” and hoping to keep the enemy out.  We are a front-line ministry bandaging the wounded of sexual addiction and trying to rescue every person wounded and sexually broken. We scorn the shame of having become addicted to sex.  We cannot change the choices we made in the past but we can certainly help those freshly wounded and teach them how to fight this fight.

I want you to think about the people you know who just might be a walking wounded person.  Who is in so much pain and fear about being found out, losing his wife, his family and perhaps even his job.  How could you come alongside of them and help bear their burden? They will not be hard to find.  In fact, they might be standing next to you in church singing Holy, Holy, Holy, yet filled with shame over their own secret sexual brokenness.

We are commanded to bear one another’s burdens and I can almost guarantee you that every man you know is fighting this battle in some way.  Can you tell them about 180?  Can you help them get plugged in to receive my emails?  Can you help them join one of our Online Support Teams?  We have discovered the biblical truth one needs to know for recovery to happen and we have the community in which they can heal.

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