My Sin & Amazing Grace

I removed my post after realizing that I had written about the very thing a fellow classmate had written on earlier. There is no excuse for my mistake and I take full responsibility for it. In its place I will seek to share my heart concerning another topic that I had given thought to but was unsure I was ready to write. This error on my part though has opened the door, unplanned as it was, for me to address it.

Over the last fifteen plus years of being a pastor I have made many mistakes. While many were never earth shattering others left scars for myself and others that we as a congregation had to work through. Many of these mistakes were what we could call rookie because they came from a lack of experience that if learned from brings wisdom. Some mistakes were because of personal short comings that I had to take to the Lord and with the help of others seek to overcome in my life. The point I want to make here is that mistakes that involve sin are our own. No one including myself can pass the responsibility off on someone else for their own sin. Neither are we allowed, according to scripture, to declare our sin as not hurting or involving anyone else.

This is why it is so important that we address sin for what it is. When I did something that would be considered sin I confessed it to the board or the church so that forgiveness could be given and received. This is what I have tried to share with those in the congregation who have fallen in sin. There is no sin that only effects me. When we are saved we are brought into a family Christ says, a living body, according to Paul and because of this we are interconnected. If one member does something good we are all blessed and this is easy to celebrate. However when one of us does wrong the desire is to run or demand our rights to be individuals without any responsibility to the whole. What we don't realize is that it is in owning our sin and confessing it that we find peace and forgiveness.

Not long ago two friends of mine left their wives and families. My heart was broken not only over the sin but over the fact that there was no desire on their part to own their sin. We have not yet come to see the distance the ripples in the pond will go. While on one hand love demands me to carry out the slow but purposeful process of discipline, love also moves me to reach out to them as friends. While one has allowed me to do this with honesty the other cannot see this as love. Redeemed individuals are not free from temptation or the giving into this temptation. This is why we receive from God the words of 1 John 1:9. If we, children of God, confess our sin He is faithful to forgive it. The key here is confession which is the process of first owning our sin and then acknowledging that God declares it sin. David humbly confessed that He had sinned against God and begged for forgiveness. While God's grace forgave him, this same grace allowed the cost of that sin to be realized in David's family.

If judgment is to begin with the church then we must deal with our sin before we go out to deal with the log in someone else's eye. If we truly believe God's word then we must be willing to hold it up as truth even when it exposes us. When we are willing to confess our falling short then the world may be more open to hearing where they fall short. Sin cost, which is why God gave His Son to pay the cost. This truth must be established first so that grace which is freely given to all who confess can be seen as truly amazing.

The Walking Dead

If anyone reading this has not checked out this show yet, I would recommend at least watching the first episode. Being on the edge of your seat from the first minute, the thrill that comes with it, the suspense of what may or may not be happening, it's worth at least a first take from the episode (It's on Netflix if you have that).

 An AMC original series, I thought nothing of it when I first started it. I got the reaction, from family and friends, that I just gave to you. Amazing, must see. However, it is hard to get into with a 6 month old in your arms at home. Eventually, I got into during nap time, and began wishing naps were longer. For those of you who are sitting there "Oh, this is just another series trying to take advantage of the whole living dead (vampires, zombies) fad" you will surely be mistaken. Or at least in my opinion.

To start out with, the show, is about a zombie apocalypse. The main character, Rick, is a small town sheriff somewhere outside Atlanta. Before the disease takes hold, Rick is shot and put into a coma, where he is left in the hospital when the dead start to walk. Left there to die, he wakes a couple months into the outbreak and goes in search of his wife and son. Sadly (or at least I think so) he finds them by episode two (or was it three?) just outside of Atlanta, after some in their group of survivors save him in the city limits of Atlanta. Well, lets say they all save each other to get out of the city and back into the camp.

However, I am going to skip to Season 3. Watch to catch up. In the last episode I have seen (there has been a few aired since then), there is breaking point that I see. Two brothers are reunited (pictured above). That got separated from the very first episode. Rick and the main group, wont let the new found brother (who was originally part of the main group) back into the main group. His brother, still part of the main group, wants him back in. There is fighting, mostly yelling, between Daryl (one of the brothers) "he is MY family" and Rick "WE are your REAL family here, the ones that take care of you, look after you, care and tend for you." In the end of this scene, Daryl walks away with Meryl (his brother), leaving the group for his blood relations.

And this brings me to Jesus and my walk with my Christian family. Yes, they may not be my blood family, but they are my family. They are the people that take care of me, look after me, feed me. All of this, not only physically, but they do this spiritually as well. And spiritually is what is important, especially in times of apocalypses. When all is said and done in the apocalypse (whenever it comes), if there is no rapture and I am left here on earth during the tribulation period, I want to be walking with my brothers and sisters in Christ. The ones who look after and feed me spiritually to survive the harsh time.

I look at the Walking Dead as a time like that, and Daryl's decision as one we all have to make. Will we choose our family that has taken care of us through the tough and hard times, or will we venture out with the unknown and step away from Christ and the care that he provides?

Piracy

www.dragoart.com

Piracy is not new by any means. It's been around since boats have sailed the ocean blue, with the earliest documentation dating back to the 14th century BC. The most famous pirates are, of course, the pirates of the Caribbean, and they were sailing around from about 1560 to 1720. There has even been government-supported pirating thinly veiled as "privateering." All in the name of plunder and booty.

But scallywags and parrots are no longer the defining characteristics of pirates these days. There is new booty to be had, and a different ocean to "surf."

I'm talking about internet piracy.

This still isn't a new subject, but it is still a relevant one. Are there any gamers out there? Even if you aren't, you might remember this one game that was released fairly recently:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_3

Those who did play Diablo might remember something like this:

http://gametyrant.co

Diablo 3 could be played either single player or multiplayer, but either way, users had to connect to the servers in order to play. At the 12:01 am release, how many Diablo 3 players tried to connect? All of them. For the first couple of weeks the servers were constantly crashing. So even those who wanted to play by themselves had to be online.

Wait, a game that you could play by yourself, but you had to be online to do so? What's up with that?

Piracy is what's up.

Blizzard isn't the only company to make a game always online. EA recently released a new SimCity which is also an online-only game. While traditionally single player, the new SimCity adds some exciting multiplayer options, but even those who want to manage a city by themselves need to connect to a server to play. Requiring a connection to the server in order to  play garuntees that the player has a legitimate copy of the game and that they didn't get the game from their "anonymous internet friends." Cracked.com wrote an article about how this will be the future of gaming, all in the attempt to curb internet piracy.

It's easy to dismiss piracy as stealing (see Exodus 20:15), but not everyone thinks this way. Exhibit A:

www.twininfite.net

It's not breaking into somebody's house and stealing their entire CD collection, so what's the big deal? I'm not actually taking anything. Another couple considerations in piracy. Let's say a game or desired item X is super expensive. You don't have the money at the time, so you download it somewhere. You weren't going to buy it anyway, so the company isn't "losing" a sale. Maybe you'll buy it when it goes on sale or when the price drops. Again with games, what if one looks good, but you aren't sure? Instead of just passing over, you download it, play it for a bit and discover you like it, then go and buy it. In this case, isn't piracy actually helping the industry by functioning as a demo?

Music is another popular pirating target. A quick Google search reveals a variety of opinions. Some "studies" show that pirating actually helps artists make money, while other "studies" show that pirating is hurting the music industry. Some say it hurts the label, but not the artist (and the artist is the one they actually want to support anyway). Some artists are ok with pirating, since they know people don't always have the money (I personally saw this on the front of a torrent website - an artist encouraged people to download his album and support him if they could, but if not it wasn't a big deal).

What if you go to a friend and borrow his/her copy of Product X? Rip the CD, play the game, or the like? Borrowing in this regard almost never comes across someone's conscience as evil or lawless, but doesn't it effectively do the same thing? Deprive the producer/artist/developer/etc. of money? After all, you aren't buying Product X again. But why is this ok when getting it from random people over the internet isn't?

This isn't meant to be an argument for or against piracy, necessarily. I do hope to bring some more questions to the table and (hopefully) provoke some thinking on this topic. With the many "reasons" or justifications for pirating, it isn't as simple of a matter as labeling it as stealing and walking away. At least, not if you want to have any kind of meaningful interaction with the subject.