Daily Devotional for Thursday September 27, 2001

The Duty to Resist Temptation

(Genesis 39:7-12, Proverbs 1:10, Romans 6:13, Ephesians 6:13)

The newest of the television programs designed to bring in high ratings, regardless the content, is Fox's Love Cruise. These are the same people who brought us Who Wants To Marry A Millionaire, Temptation Island, and other programs void of any morality. This newest program, though, has got to set some sort of record for sending every immoral message possible. The entertainment world, movies, TV, radio, and music is often an easy target because of the incredible garbage they pollute our society with. It is part of the world we live in, part of our life, and from time to time I feel led by the Lord to comment on it, since we are all exposed to it. Love Cruise is a "reality" program where 16 singles sail on this yacht, have intimate dates, switch off and date others who are on board, ultimately vote people off until there is one couple left who win $200,000 cash. Having been involved in the broadcast media for years, I understand that the goal of the networks is simple. It is all about money, and ratings equal money. For those who have no, or very little moral base to their lives, this type of program is very appealing, and I have no doubt will be very successful in achieving the network's goal of attracting viewers.

Let me just take a second to point out a couple of very obvious points. First off, living together is a sin and not something a Christian should do. I don't care what kind of rationalization you want to use, it is a sin. If sex is involved, it is cut and dried. since fornication is simply sex between two people who are not married as man and wife. Even if sex is not involved, the bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:22 to "avoid every kind of evil". Not only does living together have the appearance of evil, but it puts you in the position of being able to fall into sin very easily. My friends, this is why the Bible tells us to flee from temptation and to avoid temptation, so that we will NOT fall. I get emails daily from men and women asking how far they should go with their boyfriend or girlfriend. Listen carefully, it is not a game to see how "far" you can go without sinning. If you are at that point, YOU HAVE ALREADY SINNED!!! Jesus said that if you lust in your heart, you have already committed the act of adultery. The physical act is simply the manifestation of the sin you have already committed in your heart!

For those who have read my Devotionals for a while know, I am NOT a person that believes in condemning people. I am not telling you that if you watch this program you are going to hell. But I am saying, pray daily about what you expose yourself to. Pray about the things you see and the things you hear. The Bible talks of renewing our mind. That in essence means we push out the garbage, those things of no eternal importance, and replace them with the living Word of God. As you mature spiritually, you start to lose interest in many things of the world, since you come under conviction and realize they just aren't important. I am NOT saying we shouldn't have fun and enjoy life. I urge you to do that often. But I am saying we need to guard carefully the things we expose ourselves to. This is not a new problem either. From the early church on, Paul and others in leadership recognized that in their society there were many things that believers did not need to be involved with, but were always going to be there. Prior to being Christians, many have been involved in all kinds of ungodly things. We realize as we are saved, that they have no place in our lives anymore. We change our focus from the things of this world to the things of God.

I love you and care about you so much. I pray today that you will deal with temptation the way Joseph dealt with temptation. He ran from it!!! There is no shame in running from sin. As a matter of fact, God tells us to run from it! I pray each day as temptations come your way, you will follow the example of Joseph and run from sin. God loves you and has promised to always give you a path of escape from sin. ALWAYS. The question today is, when faced with temptation do you run from it?...or to it?