Thursday, July 19, 2012

50 Magicians

Allow your Pastor to have a heart-to-heart talk with you. I've read blogs and reviews about a new book "Fifty Shades of Grey" and a new movie "Magic Mike". Evidently, the book contains sexually explicit reading, and the movie is about male strippers. I have seen neither the book nor the movie, and do not plan to. Thus, rather than deal with specifics in the book or movie, I will limit myremarks to the general idea of Christian purity.

Books and movies like these are regularly being released. The difference this time is the seemingly positive response these two are receiving within the Christian community.

Whenever we confront a cultural phenomenon like this, we as believers have to find an appropriate Biblical response.  We all agree the Bible speaks about purity of heart in sexual matters (Prov. 7:25), speaks against lust in one's heart (Matt. 5:28; Job 31:1), and against any type of sexual activity apart from marriage (Heb. 13:4; Prov. 5:15-19).

         It is wrong for a believer to watch any scene that would cause lustful thoughts, or to read any sexually explicit material, even if it has a good story line connected with it (Rom. 13:13-14). We as believers have to be extra careful in our conduct. Otherwise we find ourselves doing what the worldly culture around us does.

         This is no minor matter.  Danger lurks in activities like this. They can be slippery steppingstones into further sin.  They can obsess attention, spawn fantasies, and cause discontent within marriage. As your Pastor, I urge you to be careful.

I ask you to follow a simple Bible guideline. Ask yourself, would Jesus read this, would He watch this? The Bible reminds us we should engage only in activities Jesus would be pleased with.

I pray God will make you wise to do right in all situations. A more detailed blog by Pastor Todd Carnes about the movie and book is accessible at this link.  http://toddcarnes.com/2012/0/50-shades-of-porn/#more-649

 

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