I’m still disturbed by this Facebook post from a friend. I’m not a Duck Dynasty fan. I don’t care for the show, or much TV in general.

I’m sure I have given some people cause to question my salvation, but that speculation would have been dead wrong. Besides, that’s a matter between me and God.

 

Who am I to speculate on who will make it to Heaven or be left behind? And if I really think this person is going to hell, where is the compassion for this lost soul?

The arrogance and snobbery is an anti-Christ attitude. The assumed sin of this man is no better or worse than anyone else’s, including this Facebook friend’s. We are all equal at the foot of the Cross, and God loves us all the same.

So why question a person’s salvation?

Maybe this was a strange way to ask for prayer for this man’s soul….?

_Thomas

I’m rather disturbed after reading this piece on Life Site News about Belle Knox, the infamous 18 year old Duke University Student who entered the pornography and got a lot of press, some of it adulatory.

From the story:

The porn industry has many ways of coercing the human beings they market into doing what they want. For one shoot, Miriam recalls almost tearfully, her agent wouldn’t tell her who she had to “work with.” When she arrived at the set, she realized he was fifty years old. She wanted to leave, but then she’d have to pay a 300 dollar “kill fee,” the director would have been furious, and, she says, she could never have worked for that company again. So she did it.

Do you support this? This is borderline sex trafficking. Borderline rape.

The pornography industry and culture have a way of pulling us in, and the effects on the industry’s actors and consumers is horrific.

I identify with Bart Millard of MercyMe in these lyrics:

Could it be that on my worst day
How You love me still will not change?
What if it’s really not about
What I do but what you did,

Oh what if
This ain’t wishful thinking it’s just how it is

In a world that if you aren’t looking out for you, no one is, I struggle with grasping this thought

It’s illogical, but this is just how it is.

Today is “No Porn Awareness Day” according to the No Porn Club, and it ties in to my personal struggle and a thought that has been on my mind.

This is all about self control. I’ve dealt with pornography addiction since I was 13, and until very recently, I was never able to get a full hold on it. I’m still fighting it, but much more successfully recently, thanks to my increased focus on my walk with God.

But what it all boils down to is self control.

We see people ruin their lives every day. Samson in the Bible had incredible strength, abilities and potential, but lack of self control turned him into a slave for the rest of his life.

NFL athletes are raking in millions of dollars in multi-year contracts, but can’t control themselves off the field, as their legal issues pile up and will eventually destroy what they worked so hard to be. (Aaron Hernandez, Ray Rice, Adrian Petersen, etc.)

Pornography is destructive. Period. Don’t let it ruin your life and relationships.

_Thomas

Hi.

The inspiration for this blog and title come from Brene Brown’s book Gifts of Imperfection:

“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”

I used to write an opinion column for a local newspaper under the title “Without Reservation.” (That domain wasn’t available, and I like the new alliteration.) My previous writing was about ripping without holding anything back; now my writing will include me being real and vulnerable, without holding back, because that’s the only way to show God’s love and help others.

A new take on reservations.

Not looking to “rip” without reservation or be divisive and contrarian because what does that accomplish in the end beyond inflaming passions?

-Thomas