The following is from a comment I made within one of my posts about my former friend, Jeff Eddie, now a convicted child molester. His crimes were committed while he was the children's minister of a fairly large church.
A very select few who claim to have known him in school, and one woman especially, sought opportunity to pat themselves on the back for "always knowing something was off" about Jeff. That is a farce. Jeff was the most mature high school kid I have ever met. He spent his life in jobs that helped others. He interviewed me for a juvenile detention position in the late 90's. Being a former Law Enforcement Officer, my main focus in the interview was my authoritarian and interpersonal skills I had gained as an LEO. Jeff, knowing I was a Christian, turned the tables and pointed out that his goal was to make a difference in the kids' lives. That is who Jeff was. Was is past tense
Here is the aforementioned comment:
Unless something arises to the contrary, this is something that changed about Jeff. He gave the devil a foothold in his life, most likely through the Internet porn, and eventually the sin multiplied.
Instead of using this as an opportunity to point out faults we all saw in Jeff, we should really let it cause us to search our own hearts. Not for disgusting stuff like what Jeff did, but for those little footholds that we've grown accustomed to overlooking as unimportant.
In his lifetime, Jeff Eddie has probably done more for God than I ever will. Yet, he was still able to fall farther than any of us think we could ever fall. That's our fallacy. We only think we couldn't fall like that. Satan never screams rape in our ear, he whispers lie, cheat, hide, scheme. It's those little things that we overlook as unimportant that slowly vex our souls.
In Scripture, Lot begins as a good man in whom God heaped many blessings. When given a simple choice that we all face, leaving the side of his guardian, he "pitched his tent toward Sodom." Though he likely remained the most moral man in town, he "vexed his righteous soul" until he was wicked enough to at one point offer his two virgin daughters to the sodomite crowd, and later got drunk and allowed the same two daughters to seduce him. None of us could see ourselves being so evil, but neither could Lot before setting his sights on Sodom.
Let me backtrack a bit in my statement. There is no reason to think that Internet porn was the starting point. The starting point can be way more vague. For example, I try to remind my wife to scan all catalogs before they get placed where we read catalogs in my house, the bathroom. As a healthy adult male, I do not need panties, bra, and swimsuit ads tempting me to lust. Oh, so you are better than that? Then you are either queer, or a lying fool.
I have no idea where Satan first got a hold on Jeff, but I can guarantee it was in a "small" sin.
Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
The "sin which doth so easily beset us" means that sin which we are most exposed to. I personally believe that actual unbelief is that sin for everyone. We live in a world that doesn't want us to believe in God, and on a more personal note we often cannot see God in our circumstance and both challenge our fidelity.
But don't limit Scripture to one precept, or purpose. We are surrounded with temptation. Even television commercials tempt us with sex while selling everything from a cheeseburger to computer repair. The advertising companies know that sex sells.
But it's not just sex. Sitcoms brazenly portray parents as idiots. A smart child can understand the exaggeration, but even he or she will subconsciously rely on these portrayals the next time they disagree with their parents.
Social media declares that we should be our own selves, while at the same time telling us that what that means is to be like all the other rebels. God says, " And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Romans 12:2
Here's my conclusion, I offer for your consideration a thought and a question:
We look at Lot, getting drunk and impregnating his two virgin daughters. We look at Jeff Eddie, molesting children trusted to his care as a Christian minister.
We say, "I could NEVER do something like that!"
Yet neither began with those sins.
Lying, cheating, hiding, scheming, disrespecting, gossiping, hating, and a plethora of other "simple sins."
Perhaps we should be trying to declare that we could never do THOSE sins!
God sees sin as sin, we should, too.
