"If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it." Genesis 4:7
Last week, I had the opportunity to see the movie, "The Sound of Freedom." The film is based on the true story of Tim Ballard, a former special agent for Homeland Security, who formed an operation to rescue children who have been sold into sexual slavery. Mr. Ballard is the founder of Operation Underground Railroad, whose four-pronged approach to the widespread and growing crime of sex trafficking includes raising awareness of this assault against the most vulnerable of humanity: children. Hence, the reason for this sobering film.
Since watching the movie, I have pondered what manner of evil overtakes a person driving them to delve into the deepest abyss of darkness that sin can offer. After all, no one plans to be a deviant when they grow up.
Looking back on my own life, I remember the first time I had seen pornographic magazines at a friend's house. I recall the recoiling shock of the images and the immediate shame they produced. I felt dirty; something had shifted and I didn't like it.
The Bible says God provides an escape route with every temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13). When Cain was brooding over a perceived injustice, the Lord came to him with the warning in the verse above, giving Cain the chance not to open that door. The choice was his to either rule over it or to succumb to it. We know what route he chose, thereby committing the first murder.
Jesus warned us sternly just how deep the darkness of sin can be: "If your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better to enter life with one eye that to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell." (Matthew 18:9) While this extreme measure was not taken literally after I saw that magazine, the reprimand and exhortation was taken very seriously. To have proceeded further down that path would have been to shake hands with the devil.
Every journey, whether good or bad, begins with one step. When given the choice, step into the light of Christ.
"The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble." Proverbs 4: 18, 19
"This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God." John 3: 19-21
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