Running To Win on Oneplace.com

When you have two oxen pulling a plow, you need both to work together. Otherwise, you cannot plow in a straight line. That is why the Bible says "don't be unequally yoked together" in any binding relationships. There is a need for separation from the world, a separation that keeps us from being contaminated.

There is no doubt. It's a mess out there. The moral impurity in the media and on the internet is destroying a whole generation. Christians are torn. Either abandon a technology they can't live without and become so isolated from culture as to have no impact on it at all, or, risk exposure to violence and sexual images on the internet while trying to engage the world they live in.

The grace of God is His unmerited favor, His bestowal of mercy on those who don't deserve it. That includes all of us. No matter how far we have fallen, there is help and hope if we come to God in honest repentance, seeking His forgiveness and healing. Many who have been in deep moral sin now have this hope. Today, you will hear a testimony of one man who found that God's grace was enough.

Many believers find themselves bound in moral sins--sins made easy by the internet's anonymous access to pornography. So what will motivate any of us to point that mouse somewhere else in our private moments? Today we'll look at the one bottom-line reality that will convince us to make right moral choices instead of following the slippery slope into sexual sin.

Despite their best intentions, even Christians fall into sin. It's easy with today's media technology. When we fall, we're tempted to give up, to let the world have its way. But the Bible offers a different path, the path of grace, the path God has provided for restoration and forgiveness, the path to wholeness and usefulness in His kingdom.

Christians, like everyone else, are drowning in a sea of moral impurity. It's hard to use a computer without being exposed to it. Social pressure makes people text all day long. Social media is replacing real face-to-face communication. Our addiction to technology and the rapid breakdown in morality go hand in hand. Today, we will learn how the grace of God gives us a way out of this chaos.

The Bible gives us a stark choice: either we love God or we love a world-system opposed to all He stands for. Breaking free from the culture's grip takes more than theory. It takes clear action-steps we can implement. Today, Pastor Lutzer gives us another action step to help us guard our hearts from what surrounds us--the evil now almost omnipresent in contemporary media.

It's clear from the Bible that we face an either/or: either we love God or we love the world and its corrupt values. With technology now almost omnipresent, how should a believer renounce loving the world? Should we unplug from the internet permanently? Should we toss out our television sets? Today, another positive action step we can take in the ongoing battle for our hearts and minds.

In a world saturated in moral impurity, it's hard to be unaffected. Your computer gives you email, but also easy access to evil. So do we toss out our PC's, iPads, and smart phones? Is there a way to find a workable balance that protects us from sin but enables us in our daily lives? Today we'll learn a few lessons from a book written long before word processing.

We have all had bad dreams. How freeing it is to wake up and realize that the horror we had been through was not real. Demonic powers use the internet's ready access to evil lure computer users into bondage. Pastor Lutzer had a dream that he was in bondage, with no means of escape. His experience assured him that all of us must be very careful in our use of technology.

We have all had bad dreams. How freeing it is to wake up and realize that the horror we had been through was not real. Demonic powers use the internet's ready access to evil lure computer users into bondage. Pastor Lutzer had a dream that he was in bondage, with no means of escape. His experience assured him that all of us must be very careful in our use of technology.

In any battle, there can be no victory without a good strategy. This is really true in the war between the media and our hearts. Pastor Lutzer is giving us proactive steps we can take to break the stranglehold the media has on us. Today, we find three such steps in the fourth chapter of the book of James, steps we must take if we want to be free from the seductive siren call of the internet.

Every fisherman knows that a fish cannot resist a worm on a hook. That tempting morsel brings the fish to his own doom. Just so, all of us have worms on hooks we find hard to resist. Desire, especially sexual desire, can lure us to do things we know are wrong. Our hearts can be swayed away from God unless we take steps to prevent it.

Imagine yourself in a boat that is safe and dry. Across the pond another boat is leaking and sinking. You may think you are okay. In contrast to this, in terms of moral temptation, we are all in the same boat. Whether in the church or not, all of us as humans are prone to moral sins, and the media makes such sinning easy.

Jeremiah the prophet surveyed the wickedness of his day and lamented, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick, who can understand it?" In this internet age it's no surprise that immorality is rampant, since we are predisposed to evil in the first place. How should Christians protect themselves from the media onslaught shouting from their computers and TV screens?