When i was growing up one of my brother’s used to love saying, “cheap thrills kill”. Little did he know that this statement was loaded with truth. After having had a brother contract aids and pass away in 1996, i do believe that some cheap thrills are not to be pursued. It’s been said that pornography is similar to athletes foot of the mind. It promises relief when you scratch it, however, it only intensifies when you yield to its demands. Pornography and prayer are very similar. Prayer produces intimacy(fellowship) which leads to freedom. Pornography on the other hand,produces intimacy which only leads to bondage.
Is the Bible just to ask us to avoid every appearance of evil? Most of us would agree that our society has more than a hint of sexual impurity. It seems as if we are all relentlessly bombarded with sexual images. Speaking in tongues,fasting and quoting scripture does not mean that you will not have sexual desires and passions! Yes, i said it. You may want to read that statement again. The truth is -what does not go away has to be controlled. Job in the Old Testament said, “I have made a covenant with my eyes that i would not look lustfully at a woman”. The type of “look” he was talking about is when one begins to apply images to their thoughts.
Why should one walk in sexual purity?
1) Firstly-if you don’t,you will pay a price. Your faith and prayers become weak because of the guilt,torment and condemnation that always follows. When Adam sinned ,he hid from God. We have a tendency to hide from God when we feel that we have really messed up in this area. Jesus said, “Be ye holy,for i am holy”. Purity and virginity are still esteemed virtues in the Kingdom of God. God is able to preserve your body through the power of the Holy Ghost. Now ,some of you are thinking , “I NEED to have sex!” Remember water and food are necessities-sex is not. No one ever died from not having sex.
2) Secondly-your wife pays the price. Your marriage will suffer because your attention is divided. Sex is not a physical act but a spiritual act. Man is a spirit,lives in a body and has a soul. God expects you to be faithful to the partner of your covenant.
3) Thirdly -the children pay the price. Call it learned behaviors,generational iniquities or the sins of the fathers. If you struggle with pornography and certain addictions be careful as some of these bondages can be passed down to the next generation.
4) Finally-the church pays the price. There is a corporate anointing that God wants to release on the Church but if 3/4 of the church members are dabbling in sexual sin ,how can revival break forth? Repentance always precedes revival.
This is a generation that believes in the Hippy motto of “make love and not war” and yet sex has a rightful place in marriage. This lack of self control may explain why we have very few credible leaders. Most people understand that over indulgence in alcoholic drinks and drugs, is a form of intemperance which destroys the vital organs of the body, including the brain, yet we will not admit that over indulgence in sex may become a habit which is just as destructive and damaging as drug addiction. If you can’t handle the internet -get it out. People survived before the internet.
Some group did a survey of men and their greatest areas of sexual weakness. This is what they came up with.
Areas of weakness for men taken from the book “Every Man’s Battle”

1)Lingerie advertisements/magazines
2)Female joggers in tight nylon shorts
3)Billboards showing scantily clad women
4) Beer and Bikini commercials
5) Sexy movies or dirty movies
6) Receptionists with low cut or tight blouses.
I know that most men will send me emails telling me that they don’t agree with this survey. Remember these are general areas of weakness. Talk to your workmates and find out if there is any truth to this survey. My point is that you have to train your eyes. Train them to bounce of anything besides your wife. Extract from “Every Man’s battle”, ” I began to pay attention to my eyes and i found they were collecting a lot more sexual gratification than i thought. Thinking maybe that was why had lost appetite for Regina,my wife.i began starving my eyes. I couldn’t believe what happened. Regina no longer became a friend,she became a goddess at least to me. The more i draw only from her the more my tastes change. Those little rolls of fat on her back and thighs used to bother me. Now as i run my finger over them they actually turn me on. Regina may not be a supermodel but i am no day at the beach either. To me, she is Miss America”
Perhaps the reason that you are no longer attracted to your mate is that you have been setting your eyes on the wrong things. Learn to starve your eyes.If you have an attitude about sex that does not come from the Lord, you need to uproot that attitude from your life. Often wrong attitudes about sex are a holdover from some past experience. God wants to release you from your past and lead you into a brighter future. If you are married and there is a problem of trust in your relationship, you may need to reexamine the foundation of your marriage. Usually premarital sex (sex before marriage) opens up the door to all kinds of problems with trust. If you have missed the mark,God can restore you spiritually and emotionally. Why not take time to commit your body before God and watch how God will honor your commitment by blessing you with true happiness. Next time you find yourself staring at a young girl in tight nylon shorts,may the Holy Spirit yell out-”CHEAP THRILLS KILL!”

Pastor Munya Takawira

2) THOU SHALT NOT PUT ANYTHING IN EMAIL THAT YOU WOULD MIND HAVING FORWRDAED………because it probably will.
If an email deals with delicate information, remember anything you write may be used in a court of law against you. Ask yourself, “Will I mind if this gets forwarded?” If you are uncertain-save yourself some trouble and don’t send it.

3) THOU SHALT NOT EMAIL (OR CHAT ONLINE) DURING A MEETING.
I know that you think that are good at multi-tasking, but the end result is that you are disengaged. When you chat or email during a meeting /conversation you are relaying the message that what you have to do is more important. The greatest gift that you can give another is the purity of your attention.

4) THOU SHALT NOT “BCC”
Blind carbon copy is often used to secretly include people in the email without the recipient knowing it. This may have its benefits but the potential risks and negatives simply outweigh the positives. The truth is there is really nothing secret which will not be known sooner or later.
5) THOU SHALT BE MORE PERSONAL THAN PROFESSIONAL.
Have you ever tried to carry out a conversation with an automated machine?. “Did you say nine or mine?” and often the only response the automated machine receives is a “click” signifying the end of a frustrating conversation. By its very nature, emails tend to come across as impersonal. Therefore, we have to work hard to come across as warm and personal. Make your emails more relational and less transactional. Communicate as a friend and not a faceless machine.

6) THOU SHALT KEEP EMAILS SHORT AND STRAIGHT TO THE POINT.
As a society we struggle with the disease of hurry, and people generally do not have time to read a 5 page email. Keep it simple and straightforward, avoid the clutter. Choose clear and specific over cute and cluttered.

7) THOU SHALT NOT TEXT OR TAKE CALLS WHILE IN MEETING OR DURING CONVERSATION.
If you must take a call while talking to someone, explain why you need to interrupt the conversation. The word “listen” contains the same letters as the word “silent”

THOU SHALT NOT CALL OR EMAIL PEOPLE ON THEIR DAY OFF.
Do not overload a co-worker with work related emails that need to be accomplished on their day off. Communicate that you want your team members to live healthy balanced lives. And in case you are wondering……Your co-workers should not be expected answer work related emails or phone calls while on vacation with the family.

9) THOU SHALL USE EMAIL FOR PRAYER AND ENCOURAGEMENT.
My wife, Lori has mattered the ability to send messages that say, thinking about you; you matter; God has a plan for your life” all in a matter of seconds. You could even use texting, twitter or facebook to write out a simple prayer of encouragement.

10) THOU SHALT GIVE PHONE/EMAIL/FACE-BOOK AND TWITTER A SABBATH (BREAK)
All roads have been leading to the 10th Commandment. Talk to your accountability partner about having one day that you can learn to unplug for 24hrs. Imagine what life would be like if you responded to your wife instead of your email. If you played with your kids instead of your iPhone. Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it. Gandhi was quoted as having said that there is more to life than speed. After reading the following extract from George Washington’s diary I decided to set aside one day in March, 2012 to unplug. George Washington’s diary-“Tonight my wife and I had dinner alone for the first time in twenty years”. Will you join me for a day, half a day or an hour? Don’t let life pass you by.

by
Pastor Munya Takawira

It has been said that character is much easier kept than recovered. The Bible states that a good name is to be desired more than wealth and fame. As a society we struggle to understand that a lie is never a single act, but more of a movie setting you up for the next scene. The Bible states that a good man is a person that walks in character and integrity and tells the truth even to his hurt. In 1978 golfer, Tom Kite self imposed a penalty that caused him to lose the Hall of Fame Classic at Pinehurst by one stroke. Reporters asked him why he had self imposed a penalty that cost him a victory and he said, ‘There’s only one way to play the game”. How are you playing this game of life? Are you more concerned and consumed by a quest to be rich more than building a good name. Character and integrity should never be compromised. Martin Luther King Jr, in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” included a story about a 72 year old black woman who walked a long distance every day during a bus boycott. She was tired and physically weak, and someone asked her why she continued to support the non-violent protest. Her response will always be treasured: “ My feets is tired,” she said, but my soul is at rest”. As I view some of the political debates on tv, I cannot help but feel and think that the average American has lost faith and trust in the politicians. Many souls are not at rest.

Many people are drawn to the US because the US holds a position of power in the world and it has been conceived to be honest in terms of its standards to corporate governance. In 2002 the US ranked 20th in the world in terms of integrity according to a survey. Denmark, Finland and New Zealand were first, and Haiti, Iraq, Myanmar and Somalia were last out of 163 countries. Based on this research I would suspect that most people would prefer to do business with the US or Denmark as they would feel that they could get a fair deal. However since the US has experienced a wave of corporate scandals many believe that we have been heading down a slippery slope. Companies across the world cheat with accounting policies. Politicians make promises they don’t intend to keep. The average person looks for ways to cheat on taxes or insurance claims. One author stated that people who have lost a 27inch tv report the loss of a 32 inch. These are good people who would not steal money directly but have found ways to stretch the truth. I recently came across the term “wardroaming”, wardroaming is buying an item of clothing-wearing it for a while and then returning it in such a state that the store has to accept it, but they can no longer resale it. The clothing industry estimates that its annual loss from wardroaming is about 16 billion dollars about the same amount as the estimated annual loss from home burglaries and automobile theft combined.

The next time you are tempted to tell a lie, here are a few points to consider.

1) Building character is difficult, but rebuilding it is even harder. Yes, it’s true that God forgives us of all our sins but society is not as forgiving. Ask the ministers who appear to have been living double lives, only to be exposed by some scandal. If I mention Bill Clinton, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Monica Lewinsky? How about O.J Simpson? Isn’t it tragic that people can define you by one event? It pays to remember golfer Tom Kites words, “There is only one way to play the game”. The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour.

2) Ask yourself, “Is it legal?” Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right. The Bible states that he that knows the good he ought to do sins against himself.

3) How will it make you feel about yourself? Ask yourself how you will regard yourself if you act or don’t act in a given situation. Asked about ethics, Abraham Lincoln once quoted an old man he’d heard speak at a church meeting in Indiana, “When I do good I feel good. And when I do bad ,I feel bad”

4) How would you feel if your actions were made public? If you don’t want your wife, co workers, family or friends to know about something, then it’s a sure bet the action is questionable. If the question has not sunk in, how would you feel if your actions were made public on face book?
How many times have you sat silent while the big elephant in the room is ignored?. How many times do you tolerate inappropriate and hurtful behavior because you are not willing to speak the truth? In mathematics, an integer is a number that isn’t divided into fractions. Just so, a man of integrity isn’t divided against himself. He doesn’t think one thing and say another. Will you rise to the challenge and stand for what’s right?

Pastor Munya Takawira