Recently, I took a 2 week quietus from Facebook and social media in general. I have to tell you I’m better for it. It can be a good tool; but I also believe it more often than not becomes a tunneling apparatus for the carnality of believers. It allows for more sin, more destructive, and self destructive behavior— namely selfishness and pride. The roots to all sin is self. It isn’t the devil or someone else. The formula is found in James 1.14-15– “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” This is a step by step process: 1. Our temptation is initiated by self, selfish desires, from within. This indicates that it is ever-present and not as dead as we thought. 2. We are enticed by either our own thoughts, or one of our senses, from this world around us. 3. Once the on-board selfish desire has met the object we have seen, heard, etc. lust has conceived! It is no longer a thought or a brief moment of reflection, it is now a real thing in motion. 4. We have now sinned. 5. We are killing ourselves a little bit more.
Some people mis-interpret the last phase of the process with something tangible like drugs. Once you take it you are killing yourself (bringeth forth death). But the reality is, when we dwell on these matters, once we partake of that which is selfishly derived, we have brought an element of death upon our relationships. Our relationship with God is immediately hindered, our kids, our wives, other humans too depending on the habit we have now formed. Sin therefore really comes from within and is intimately connected to this world. The world offers everything wrong for us… the tools it implores against us are listed and described in 1 John 2.16– “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” The real enemy is from within.
This 2 week quietus has also enabled me to reflect on what I did see on Facebook before I stopped…. near complete stupidity. I read one of the most selfish, self-derived, post I have ever read. It did have just enough of a sense of honesty and spirituality, but was completely about self. Sad. Why was it sad? First, the sliver of so-called spirituality leads me to believe the person believes that what they said was spiritual. This is self-deception and therefore saddens me. Secondly, because other believers were praising it like it was scripture. They thought it too was spiritual in nature. That is sad indeed! Third, because it played right into the devils hand, because his overall game is to rob God of glory. This happened when several other well intentioned but untrained believers took the bait and began to praise the individual for being special and spiritual. Wrong. Here is a helpful hint… if it’s self… it’s not spiritual!
How have we gotten so off course? How have we allowed Satan to intervene in our relationship with God to such a degree? Is he really that tricky or are we really that blind? Neither. He is working off an old model. First, give them what they want, depress them if necessary, but better if you make them miserable by addiction to self. Secondly, make their want “spiritual” or at least sound spiritual. Then when they have to defend it, they believe God is on their side. Third, have someone tell them they are wrong and that will evoke their pride. Now they have not only been drawn away by their own lust of the eyes, and flesh but now the pride of life. The trifecta is in order. And bonus…they think they are spiritual. BUT… The Spirit within will not agree. So they ‘feel bad’ and the person telling them the truth caused that. The truth-telling deliver is now labeled a “toxic” person to them. This truth-telling friend is someone who doesn’t just disagree with them, but (in their mind) they disagree with God too. Now the truth-telling friend needs to be avoided or discounted at all cost.
Welcome to modern church my friends! Governed by self, led by self, and motivated by other self-focused individuals who think genuinely they are right and right with God. And that truth-teller is at minimal a mean person, maybe a bully, but could even be a dictator. Run!
This summer at camp there was something in the air; adults and kids both felt it. You could look at it on their faces. The attack was so heavy throughout the week. The warning was there that they were in a safe zone, but that they were still being attacked. People struggled because they are satisfied with how things are going in their lives.
The reality is, the return from this camp was different than before because of the relationships. The excuses were removed. You had to mingle and you had to fellowship and you could not isolate. In other words it was a mock-up environment to what church should be like. A nearly daily contact and accountability with others. Not just teaching, but teaching mixed with fellowship and constant discussion about an internal desire to please God. Each day praying with others about struggles, desires, needs, and others souls. Being in an environment of constant reality check. It was God…God…God…others…others…others. Exactly how church should be all the time. Without this environment we are forced into a cocoon of self. Self is dangerous and volatile. Self is almost always lazy because it’s… selfish. Self desires the wrong things, thinks the wrong things, and acts upon self-justifications… I’m right and everyone else is weird.
This brings us to the point… there is an obvious separation between the ones who go to these fellowship building things (ie. camp etc) and those who don’t. Frankly, Christians are killing themselves spiritually and don’t even realize it. Decades of aloneness and self has created a terrible set of selfish habits. These believers are educated though… puffed up in spiritual knowledge that isn’t even spiritual. They can quote bible verses like taking a pill, but never curing the negative mechanisms.
What is lost when you have allowed self to rule? Perspective! Self robs you of your ability to accurately see. It robs us of perspective and tunnel-visions us away from Christ and back to self. Get with others! Get with others who will encourage and motivate you to grow closer to God and deny yourself.