I am in an accountability relationship with a preacher friend of mine and I recently got onto the net in my office at church. SO did he. What we did was we went out and bought a web filter and then he came and installed it onto my computer at church and then I went and did the same at his - this way neither he nor I know what the password is to access it and break through it.

I hope it doesn't come as a shock that I say this and went to such lengths (by the way, I had my wife install it on our home computer so she knows the password and not me) but I know myself and I know how accessible porn is on the net. I have had friends fall to this and I don't want to give Satan any more room in my life.

Any of you do anything similar?

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2000

Answers

Michael, I commend you for doing what you did. I say a hardy AMEN! There is so much garbage out there. Anymore all you have to do is to misspell a word on a search and most likely porn pops up. That is one reason I do not have an AOL account. It seems that you email on AOL gets flooded with advertisements for porn.

The only problem I found with filters is that they also filter out unrated sites such as Christian sites. Even the Christian filters such as Clean Web do not allow you into chats. So what do you do? internet often can be a curse but it has benefits that help us as well.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2000

I saw an "expert" on the news this morning who said that the best "filter" for internet junk is between our ears. We ourselves must be the final filter point to keep out unwanted junk. But it is like it is everywhere...the internet has become soooo abused.

I don't think there is a "perfect solution" on this one. What works for one may not work for others. But accountability IS an answer. Doing a search is like walking through a minefield sometimes. Having someone who is willing to be open, and who you can be open with, is very vital in this area.

I think part of the real problem isnt the internet, or the smut...its the unrealistic expectations of "perfection" that people put on us (as ministers, and as Christians in general). We cannot be open and honest about problems so they can be solved. Instead, it becomes a "closet secret." The flase "puritanical" standards about talking about sex wounds more than it helps.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2000

One day a friend and I were talking about prayer.

He said, "Whenever I start to pray all these thoughts come into my mind and I can't get rid of them."

I replied, "If all these thoughts are on your mind and you can't get them out of your head then maybe you should let them go out in your Prayer. Maybe God is interested in what your thoughts are."

I did the same thing and soon "all these thoughts" no longer bothered me. Came to realize I was human, faulty.

It really doesn't matter what your thoughts are. We are all pretty base when it comes to things like this.

(James 5:16 KJV) "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

In my opinion this is not to be construed to mean that we should get up in front of a gathering and tell everyone our faults. (That is a very embarassing situation) It isn't anyones business unless it is affecting the group or individual.

I confess my faults to my wife, as in general conversation. That means that I am honest with her. She is honest with me. We don't talk about our faults with other people. And the direct benefit of this is an intimacy that women love. And soon us guys catch on. It is a good thing. Kind of scary at first.

In the past I shared thoughts with other christians only to have them betray me and "go to the pastor." Can't tell you what I think of that kind of evil.

Be careful to whom you confess.

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2000

Mark,

we can confess our faults to others, but who of them can actually forgive our sins? John 20:23. Only those so ordained by Christ.

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2000

Who can actually forgive our sins? Only the one who has been sinned against ... and that is God Himself. C.S. Lewis explained it magnificently:

Then comes the real shock. Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time. ....



One part of the claim tends to slip by us unnoticed because we have heard it so often that we no longer see what it amounts to. I mean the claim to forgive sins: any sins. Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic. We can all understand how a man forgives offences against himself. You tread on my toe and I forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man, himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announces that he forgave you for treading on other men's toes and stealing other men's money? Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give to his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did. He told people their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offences. This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. In the mouth of any other speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only regard as a silliness and conceit unrivalled by any other character in history.

Mere Christianity, pp. 54,55

-- Anonymous, February 06, 2000