The Heart of the Matter

My wife and I were discussing a couple of weeks ago the idea of allowing internet access to our teenagers at church. With a content filter in place to block the obvious stuff I felt just fine allowing teenagers and older on the internet. She didn't want any opportunity for our students to get around the system and get to things they shouldn't. I understand her point, but I have been going through a book it has been talking about having a right heart, and it made me think of this topic again.

We as christians must have "right hearts" as we go about life both in church and outside of church. When we are on the internet, we definetly need to have a right heart! whatever you want is right at your fingertips. Do you want to fall into Satans trap? Go ahead and get on the internet! Do you want to grow in Christ and spread his word? Go ahead and get on the internet!

As leaders we often want to create this perfect enviroment to honor God, and in our minds that means remove any possiblity that might cause someone to even consider sinning. However, lets look at the perfect enviromen that God created. The Garden of Eden was perfect, yet in that perfection was option to sin... hmm... I think to Honor God we must have free will to sin and choose not to go there, but instead to follow him and his ways. Whenever we are tempted with sin, sure there is potential for us to fall, however the flip side of that is that we have an opportunity to honor God with a right heart that turns from evil. That is no reason to go marching into sinful and unhealthy situations, but I love the fact that when I am tempted I have a choice to say yes to Jesus, and to remind Satan that he is not in control of my life.

God, help us to have right hearts today and to chose you and follow you no matter what temptations the enemy puts in our path. Thank you for Freedom!!!