Tuesday, February 3, 2004
It's sad, but we - like a lot of people - have had to institute a lot of safety precautions to protect our computers. Things like not opening any e-mail attachments or putting foreign diskettes in each other's computers. There's this dreaded word for anyone who owns a computer - virus. Now, this is not "take two aspirin and call me in the morning" stuff. No, we're talking technical viruses that can get into your systems and wreak havoc with your data and your equipment. That's why the first display I see when I turn my computer on says "Virus Scan." There are plenty of horror stories of what happened when one of these little alien invaders got into a computer system. We're talking total meltdown in some cases. It really does pay to go to extra effort to keep those invaders out!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Viruses in Your Computer."
You may be a computer whiz or a computer zero - but you own one of the most sophisticated computers on earth. It's called your brain. And your mental computer is no different from an electronic computer - it has to be protected from deadly viruses that infiltrate your software and cause expensive damage.
That's why our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Peter 2:11 warns: "Abstain from sinful desires, which war against the soul." There are wrong desires that literally start a war in your soul. And whatever feeds those destructive desires is a virus in your mind and heart that you cannot afford - no matter how exciting; no matter how interesting it appears to be. That's why God says the strategy for keeping your soul from being poisoned is simple - abstain. Stay away from sinful desires and the influences that feed them. In fact, as 2 Timothy 2:22, says, run away from them!
There are things that millions of people are watching that you can't afford to watch - actually, neither can they. Because those things plant spiritual viruses in your heart. There are things you can't afford to listen to. There are places you can't afford to go to, things you can't afford to read, and websites you can't afford to visit. Because of the poison. Because of what it does to your soul - to your life.
Lustful images, suggestive humor, sexual scenes, sexual themes - they get into your thought system and they stay there for years. You never seem to forget a dirty joke. Right? And wrong desires slowly start to dominate so many of your thoughts - without even realizing it, you reach a point where you can't help thinking wrong, thinking dirty, thinking sin. If you're married, these moral viruses dilute and pollute your focus on the one person you should be directing all your desire to - your covenant love. If you're not married, the viruses twist and distort your whole perspective on the opposite sex. They continually bring you down in the battle to be pure.
And those sin-viruses get planted in your heart and they literally block the flow of God's power into your life, much like plaque in an artery keeps the blood from getting through. You have no idea how powerful your life could be, how much more God could use you, if you'd clean the viruses of sinful thoughts out of your system.
Thank God, the Bible says it is possible to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5). But you have to set boundaries that will keep out the viruses that are all over your TV screen, your radio, magazines, books, CDs, the Internet. It's a battle to keep these alien invaders out of your system, but it's a battle worth fighting. Get your Virus Scan activated, and avoid anything that can enter your heart, poison your system, and cause lifelong damage.