10.04.07

He who walks with integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his ways will become known. - Proverbs 10:9.

The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it. To do evil is like sport to a fool, but a man of understanding has wisdom. The fear of the wicked will come upon him, and the desire of the righteous will be granted. - Proverbs 10:22-24.

Pornography is to some extent a secret sin, however, every sin has consequences and even though it may be in secret it still has consequences. Sometimes those consequences are severe and sometimes they are delayed but there are consequences.

Here are a couple of examples: A woman in Chicago found her boyfriend’s CDs, which contained porn. Jeanette became very upset. She became so upset that she shot her boyfriend to death and she has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

Just a few days ago, State Representative Matthew Barrett was doing what for everyone involved appeared to be a good thing. He was giving a lecture to a high school class explaining how legislation becomes law. Using a school computer he inserted his own memory card and, and…an image of a partially nude woman was projected onto the screen. Rep. Barrett says that he has no idea where the images came from that are on the memory card. According to Barrett, he received the card as a gift from a legislative liaison with Ohio’s state library.

Sadly, in both of the above instances the sin has affected not only the one directly involved but others as well. The extreme example is the girlfriend now facing murder charges. In the second, we hope that Rep. Barrett is innocent, and he probably is, however, he has been tainted by whoever put the images on the memory device.

Pornography is a sin that those involved do secretly and they keep it secret because they fear discovery. They fear the discovery of their secret sin because usually that will bring with it adverse consequences as we can see from the two examples and we may know of some examples of our own.

The writer of Proverbs says, “The fear of the wicked will come upon him….” Those involved in pornography have the fear of discovery and all of the bad things that could happen because of it. However, they are not the only ones. Many are involved in sinful activities from illegal substance abuse to embezzlement and countless other things not necessarily illegal but definitely immoral. Most of those involved in those activities have some degree of fear. They have fear that something bad will come of their actions. They fear it, and fear it, and fear it until finally it does, just as promised by God’s Word, come upon them. What a miserable way to live!

You can compare the fear of the wicked with the blessing of those who are living according to God’s will. Solomon says in Proverbs 10:9, “He who walks with integrity walks securely….” The most wonderful blessing of all is that instead of continually expecting something bad to happen to you the Bible tells us, “…the desire of the righteous will be granted.” What a wonderful way to live!

Which way of living have you chosen? If you have chosen the way of the wicked, throw yourself at the feet of the Lord and ask for His mercy, and His help to find the right way for your life.

If you have chosen the right way, rejoice! Because your desires in accordance with the will of the Lord will be granted! (Psalm 37:4; 1 John 5:14-15)