The Sticky Black Suit
I’ve been rearing kids for 26 years; my two oldest children are married and raising their own broods. My younger two are just into their teen years, with ten years in between the two sets. I wish I had known at the beginning of starting a family what I know now. But then, we all have things we would do differently if given a second chance. Because there aren’t a lot of do-overs in real life, I think it’s important to discuss the clear and present, and highly accessible danger that is – PORNOGRAPHY!
We are living in an age of a technical revolution that has become intertwined into the very roots of our social structure. With the genius of the computer age, advancements are being made in medicine, education, invention, humanitarian efforts and communication, to name a few. Unfortunately, the availability of information has led to an addictive disease that is seeping out into millions of homes, attaching itself to the viewer like a sticky black suit they cannot shake and eventually overtakes them and the people they’re around.
The sticky black suit analogy comes from an epiphany I had after I had watched Spiderman 3. The suit evolves from an extraterrestrial parasite called a symbiote that attaches itself to Peter Parker. Every time Peter chooses to don the suit he surrenders to the influence of the symbiote. The power of the suit changes him, giving new boldness, strength, and prowess. It also makes him aggressive and sarcastic. It calls to him, tempting him to partake, over and over. In the embryo-stage of his new knowledge, Peter struggles with the desire to continue enjoying the secret enhancements to his persona, and an innate knowledge that whispers a warning in his ear to abandon the growing addiction. Happily, in the end Parker acknowledges the insidious evil that accompanies the sticky black suit, and over time and with great effort to resist, conquers the beast that he will become if he surrenders to its call.
I know wonderful people, men, women and children who have been afflicted and/or affected by a like symbiot, sticky, powerful, and alive. They have experienced the devastating effects pornography has on their personal lives. They also see this resident evil as a worldwide attack on every soul, from an adolescent’s first sighting, a housewife’s secret erotic book collection, a man’s air-affair. The wise ones will remember the warnings of scripture about the “prince of the power of the air,” and how he roams about “seeking whom he may devour,” chewing up his victims and spitting them out in ruined heaps.
Whether we have been personally affected by pornography, or have simply heard of its potential deadly grip, we know from the Bible that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) and “there is none righteous, no not one” (Rom. 3:10). Blessedly, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, “came to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10.) In Luke 4:18, Jesus quotes Is. 61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.”
My newest favorite song, the song I’m preparing my Jr. High music classes to sing in chapel, and the song every believer can sing by God’s grace is by Shane and Shane, called LIBERTY. The lyrics are,
“The Lord is the Spirit
Where the Spirit of the Lord is now, There is liberty
And the Spirit lives inside of me
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, now
There is liberty, there is liberty,
There is liberty
For freedom You set me free
And yes, I am free indeed
You rewrote my name
And shackled my shame
You opened my eyes to see
I am free
When the spirit of the world
Comes to kill me and enslave me I will say
There is liberty
For the chains of sin that once entangled me
Have been broken, now I'm singing 'cause I'm free
There is liberty, there is liberty,
There is liberty
For freedom You set me free
And yes, I am free indeed
You rewrote my name
And shackled my shame
You opened my eyes to see
I am free
The storm rolled in
It was dark in the land
As the Son of Man
Was crucified
You don't take His life
He laid it down
He paid the price
And shed His blood
It is done!
The veil is torn
He has won
And I am free
And I am free
And I am free
I am free
For freedom You set me free
And yes, I am free indeed
You rewrote my name
And shackled my shame
You opened my eyes to see
For freedom You set me free
And yes, I am free indeed
You rewrote my name
And shackled my shame
You opened my eyes to see
I am free.”
Watch this song on You Tube and be inspired to live in victory.
