To the members and friends of First Baptist Church of Edinboro.  The message of the morning was a sincere and honest effort to properly address the void that people fill in all sorts of ways.  They feel they are missing out, or lacking enlightenment, as if the worst sin that could possibly be committed is not knowing the outcome of partaking the forbidden fruit.  Like opening a bag of Kettle Cooked Chips, crunching into only one, then closing the bag, we all have the insatiable desire for more.  This covetous craving is the devil’s ploy.  But, it’s not as innocuous as a potato chip or morsel of dark chocolate.  The effort of the tempter is for our soul.  That is what he’s after.  And the message we need is that when we feel like our level of enlightenment is “not enough”…. that Jesus Christ IS ENOUGH.  Our message in Colossians was to be reminded of the Sufficiency of Christ!  Ye are COMPLETE in Him.  I am convinced that our text (Colossians 3:1-11) was necessary to its original audience for the same reasons that we need it today.  What kicked this thinking into gear was the sordid “enlightenment” that Shades of Grey presents in its fiction.

 

The following link and post are provided by individuals in ministry who are equally concerned about the nature of accepting this fiction as harmless entertainment.

A link with a tactful critique:  http://endsexualexploitation.org/fiftyshadesgrey/

A testimony & challenge from a brother in the Lord:  “It’s pretty incredible to me that we’ve come to a place as a culture that most of us don’t even flinch at something like the blatant, psychologically twisted, hyper sexual and straight pornographic piece of work that is Fifty Shades Of Grey. By incredible, I mean deeply saddening.

For whatever reason, as the movie’s release has drawn closer I’ve found my heart aching as I’ve seen even very mainstream and “family friendly” media outlets like the Today Show promoting it as though it were nothing more than a slightly spicier version of “Never Been Kissed” or any other “you name it romantic comedy”. Housewives and even younger girls lined up outside Rockefeller Plaza by banners promoting the film and all, screaming their heads off like Elvis came back.

My heart aches for the girls who will potentially follow in the steps of their mothers and older role models who find nothing wrong with the book or movie, and in fact find a strange and backwards sense of pleasure and self fulfillment in it. They are being sent a message that sexuality is an area that it’s ok to be treated like meat, to be abused, and that sex is something to idolize.

My heart aches for the men that will seek to “control” woman as the protagonist does in this series. Not only that, but unfortunately I could see the movement of this kind of softcore porn being allowed into mainstream media give way to the thought that porn is in fact ok, and now we can get our wives and girlfriends in on the action too, in light of “Shades”. Not ok, not right. Porn is still wrong, and it scars all those who create it.

It scars all those who view it. I’ve been there. As someone who was in the grips of it, I can tell you it messed me up. To the point where I didn’t know which was up or down, and I physically gave myself to whoever my flesh gravitated toward at the time. I broke what I said I believed in time and time again because of my twisted sexual wanting created by porn, and I can’t help but regret it to this day. I’ve moved beyond it, but what a waste of good life that all was.

My heart aches for all those who have been sexually abused in real life, and I feel the need to apologize on behalf of a culture that’s allowed this sort of thing into the mainstream. This book and movie treats the unbelievably serious and scarring ailment that is the sexual abuse of people’s past and some even present, as nothing more than a mere plot device to give reasoning for the indulgences of Christian Grey with his women. You may say it has redemptive qualities within it’s steamy, seedy, and abuse laced pages, but you fool no one but yourself when you think those “redemptive” qualities shield you from what it will do to your heart, soul, and mind.

Lastly, my heart aches most deeply because of the increasing glorification of overt sexuality and pornography across the board. This is the beast that feeds and creates the population’s appetite for hyper sensuality and porn. It is the beast that has created the monstrosity that is sex trafficking. Deny it day in and day out, but our very wanting as a culture for “entertainment” like Fifty Shades Of Grey and the porn that floods the worldwide web is what has sucked the 800,000 women, men, boys and girls per year, unwillingly into the lucrative world of sex trafficking. (From the U.S. alone)

Supply and demand, Economics 101. What a sick, sick reality.

My hope comes from the thought that those who fight against this reality, can make a difference. To change a culture, to get it out the grips of a rampant sexual appetite and mindset that rips lives apart. To get back to the beauty of what sex truly is through God’s design and plan.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11

What we’ve made sexuality is harming us, rest assured. I take that back… do not “rest” assured, RISE assured, that if you indeed rise up and out of it, you’ll make a difference and others will follow. I want my children one day to grow up in a world free, or at least more free, of the chains that have entrapped an over sexualized culture and generation.

Many would argue “Fifty Shades Of Grey” is just another steamy movie, and another seedy romance novel for women. You fool yourself, as it is more than that. It’s the key that could open up a floodgate of an even more sexually twisted generation, and give no end in sight to the tragedy that is the sex industry. Don’t let that happen. I beg you. Take a stand this Valentine’s Day.” – Ryder Jones