Harmless Objects Or Accursed Articles Which You Keep in Your House?

Let me say at the outset that this message is not about icons and symbols used in worship by certain churches in Christianity, which other denominations consider as idolatrous. The objects used in such worship include statuettes and images of the Virgin Mary, of the saints, lighting of candles, and even the cross. I have my personal views about the use of such representations of God and saints, but presently my message is about objects that every Christian should avoid because keeping them in the home, even as merely decorative items, is a clear violation of God’s commandments.

At my elder son’s wedding, he received a fancy gift from one of his previous employers. A long, elaborately carved wooden mask. My son, in turn, gifted it to us, and we hung it up on the wall of our living room. It was merely a decorative item in our view. As the days passed, whenever I looked at it, I got a slightly uneasy feeling. And then, one day, it suddenly dawned on me. It was an African voodoo mask! I don’t know why this realization escaped me earlier (perhaps God allowed it so the incident could inspire me one day to write this message).

As soon as my eyes were opened to see the decorative piece for what it was, I took it off the wall, and gave it to a neighbor who didn’t have any problem with it . That was about seven years ago, and I hadn’t received as much discernment about such objects as I have today. Had I today’s understanding then, I would not have merely yanked it off the wall and given it away; I would have taken it outside my apartment and flung it down the garbage chute. I would not have considered gifting the accursed object even to a pagan neighbor.

You see, voodoo and all such black magic arts have their origin in one common source – Satan. The ministers of Satan use black magic to deceive the ignorant masses of pagans into committing terrible sins that they would otherwise not do. An example is child sacrifice. Voodoo has caused the death of innumerable infants throughout history. Even as recently as 2001, voodoo claimed the life of a 6-year African boy, whose torso was found in the Thames river in England. The body was without its legs, arms, and head and had been entirely drained of its blood – evidence of a voodoo ritual.

According to Dr Richard Hoskins, a leading expert on African religion, then based at Bath University, and who worked on the case, ‘the sacrifice of animals happens throughout sub-Saharan Africa and is used to empower people, often as a form of protection from the wrath of gods. Human sacrifice is believed to be the most ‘empowering’ form of sacrifice – and offering up a child is the most extreme form of all’.   Daily Mail

That is why God hates everything that has some association with evil practices. And that is why I personally hate to keep a Christmas tree in my house. Now I am not at all saying that those Christians who keep such trees in their homes are committing sin. For them it is an innocent way to celebrate the birth of their Savior (although after decades of research I still can’t figure out the association between a conifer tree and baby Jesus). But the day will come sooner or later when the merciful Lord will open their eyes to how exactly he wants his people to honor the birth of his Son, and then nobody would be singing hymns to trees such as this famous carol:

‘O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging;
Not only green when summer’s here,
But also when ’tis cold and drear.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging!’

But for me and for many other Christians around the world, a Christmas tree reminds us, not of the unchanging leaves, but of the horrible human sacrifices that were committed under the original tree from which the Christmas tree had its origin. More about this origin in a separate message on Christmas and other Christian holidays of pagan origin. But to summarize here, from various sources:

The earliest reference to Christmas being marked on December 25 comes from the second century after Jesus’ birth. It is considered likely the first Christmas celebrations were in reaction to the Roman Saturnalia, a harvest festival that marked the winter solstice – the return of the sun – and honored Saturn, the god of sowing. Saturnalia was a rowdy time, much opposed by the more austere leaders among the still-minority Christian sect…By 529 AD, after Christianity had become the official state religion of the Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian made Christmas a civic holiday.   The Buffalo News, Nov. 22, 1984

The Roman Saturnalia was a festival that celebrated Saturn – the fire god. And fire gods have an insatiable appetite for child sacrifices. Here is a quote about the terrible practice associated with the worship of the fire god (known by various names such as Nimrod, Saturn, Kronos, Molech, and Baal), from ‘The Two Babylons’ by the late Rev Alexander Hislop, a Free Church of Scotland minister:

Now, this is in exact accordance with the character of the Great Head of the system of fire-worship. Nimrod, as the representative of the devouring fire to which human victims, and especially children, were offered in sacrifice, was regarded as the great child-devourer…he was, of course, the actual father of all the Babylonian gods; and, therefore, in that character he was afterwards universally regarded. As the Father of the gods, he was, as we have seen, called Kronos; and every one knows that the classical story of Kronos was just this, that, ‘he devoured his sons as soon as they were born.’ (Lempriere Classical Dictionary, ‘Saturn’)…This legend has a further and deeper meaning; but, as applied to Nimrod, or ‘The Horned One,’ it just refers to the fact, that, as the representative of Moloch or Baal, infants were the most acceptable offerings at his altar. We have ample and melancholy evidence on this subject from the records of antiquity. “The Phoenicians”, says Eusebius, “every year sacrificed their beloved and only-begotten children to Kronos or Saturn”.

For me, a Christmas tree is an accursed object to keep in my house. But for millions of other Christians, it is not, because they do not know yet. And God is not going to punish them for keeping something detestable in the house without knowing its sinister origins.

Hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord: “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are futile; for one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple. They are upright, like a palm tree, and they cannot speak; they must be carried, because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor can they do any good.”   Jer 10:1-5

No Christian should keep an object that has any zodiac signs on it. Neither should they ever keep in their homes any book that espouses divination in the form of horoscope, astrology, numerology, and similar subjects. A Christian who, just for the sake of fun, only occasionally reads his horoscope in a magazine or newspaper just doesn’t understand how strongly God forbids such practice.

Where are all your astrologers, those stargazers who make predictions each month? Let them stand up and save you from what the future holds. But they are like straw burning in a fire; they cannot save themselves from the flame. You will get no help from them at all   Is 47:13-14 NLT

Reiki Healing Rainbow Pendant

No child of God should be deceived into using any article that comes wrapped as a medical device, such as gems for crystal healing, magnetic wristbands for pain relief, negative ion bracelets and necklaces for wellness, and other such objects. There is indeed power emanating out of these objects and users have felt their soothing effect. But it is a power that comes from a deceiving spirit. In the end, the person will be worse off than ever before.

No Bible believer should ever make any tattoo on his or her body. If you had tattooed before you came to Christ, God understands and you don’t have to worry about something you did in your pre-Christ days. But if there is some way you can get them removed, do all that is in your power to erase them from your body which Christ has redeemed with his own blood.

do not mark your skin with tattoos. I am the Lord.   Lev 19:28 NLT

No true Christian should keep a dvd or novel, or music that is X-rated in even a portion of its contents.

I love hip hop. And Eminem was my favorite, and I think he is the most gifted of singers in this cadre of music. Now, in listening to hip hop, I focus on the melody, not the words. I had been enjoying Eminem’s music on radio and tv and I hadn’t yet bought any of his cassettes (yes, there were still cassette players around in Eminem’s heydays). So one day, I walked into a music store and got my first audio cassette of his hit songs. I switched my cassette player and started swaying my body to his rhythmic words. Suddenly I stopped. I heard something I hadn’t heard before, because I hadn’t been listening attentively until now. Eminem was rapping unmentionable obscenities in his platinum-winning song. I sadly went to the blasting player, ejected the cassette, walked to the trash bin, and dumped it there, determined never to buy another Eminem music in my life.

Don’t allow even a friend or neighbor to keep an accursed object in your house for even an hour. We had a loyal maid, whose husband annually went on pilgrimage to his god on a high mountain in south India. Every time he returned he would bring home to his family sweetmeats and drinks that had been offered to appease his deity. After the propitiation, the offerings could be taken back home. Once, the maid brought home to us a can of delicious syrup that her husband had brought with precious care from the mountaintop abode of his god. It was her way of showing her appreciation of us. We knew it was accursed stuff, but we didn’t have the heart to decline it outright in her face. So we took it and kept it on top or our fridge, intending to garbage it at the first opportunity.

Some hours later, a heard a scream from my sister who was visiting us from Canada. I rushed to her in the hallway. ‘A huge snake, a huge snake!’ she screamed. I saw the snake sliding down the hallway and heading towards the fridge on top of which I could see the can with an image of a squatting god on it. The snake slithered under the fridge and disappeared. I looked all around the fridge with a long rod in my hand. But the snake was nowhere. It just disappeared. I thought it might have somehow managed to slip inside the fridge through some crevice. So I asked the maid to call her husband, and together we took the fridge outside and dismantled it. But no son of a Serpente anywhere.

Now, this could be a mere coincidence, but a snake entering our house and heading straight for the image of its father on the fridge top was an unforgettably scary experience for me and my sister. As for the serpent’s mysterious disappearance, probably it might have managed to slip out of the house during the few seconds I went to get a rod to break its spine. But we determined, coincidence or not, that we were never going to let into our lives even for a moment any object that is a delight to the devil’s heart.

Don’t take a casual attitude about accursed objects, as some Israelites did, and suffered for it.

And you, by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things   Josh 6:18

There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you…And Achan answered Joshua and said, “Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done: When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them.   Josh 17:13-21

After reading his message, look around in your house and in your personal life. Is every object, small and big, around you a blessing from our Father in heaven, and a delight to him?

Perhaps the object might not be a tangible article in your home. Perhaps it’s something solid in your mind. Is there a little object somewhere in the recesses of your mind you are not sure how our God looks upon it? There is no room for the least doubt in such matters in a true Christian’s life. If you have any doubt, go on your knees and ascertain from God what he thinks about it. If you are fervent about pleasing him in every small and great area of your life, he will surely reveal his thoughts about it to you.

Even years after I had given my heart and mind to Christ, I would discover now and then some small area in my consciousness that I had been harboring within me ignorantly but which was, if not an accursed thing, an object that did not add to my glorifying God in my life. I would then, with Christ’s help, remove it absolutely from my life.

May God keep your life pure from everything that defiles, from everything that does not delight him to the utmost!

 

Pappa Joseph

 

What Really Happens When A Couple Watch Pornography Together

Understand what really happens to the syche of a man and his wife who watch a pornographic video together.

 

I wish this message was directed only to couples who do not know Christ and his teachings. But sadly, this message is meant for people who consider themselves Christians and who are confident their marriage is on the right track but who do not yet have the understanding of certain marriage-destroying acts that they may be practicing in their private lives.

I know Christian couples who have adult videos or literature stacked away in their closet. No, I did not go snooping into their closets to know this. They themselves have divulged this to me, or Christians who personally know such couples have mentioned it to me in their concern.

What exactly is the harm if married couples use a sex video to impassion their own feelings toward each other? They are not participating in any act of adultery, but using it to enhance their own marital life. In fact, that’s what many popular magazines, such as Cosmopolitan and Glamour, advise their readers. Here’s one such recommendation:

“From the moment you select a skin flick to watch to the moment when you are both breathless, taking the plunge into porn will add fiery fervor to your real-life bump and grinds. If you’re freaked out by the idea of porn, don’t be: Your guy is likely going to only spend about 30 seconds watching the movie before he can’t take his eyes off your reaction. So be daring and let your inhibitions go tonight!”

Yea, be daring and take the plunge into hellfire! For all who follow such advice, that is surely where they are going to finally land up in. I don’t mean the hellfire in the afterlife, I mean the consuming flames fanned by the devil in their married life.

Of course, the world is being taught that porn is ok, provided one doesn’t use it to harm others. It can, sex experts assert, act as a safe catharsis for one’s pent up sexual frustrations, if he is single, or if married, as a shot in the groins to rev up a flaccid bedroom life.

If such counsel was found only in little dirty books sold in sex shops, it does little harm to decent people who don’t read such filthy stuff. But millions of decent people who call themselves ‘Christian’, read Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and hundreds of other such magazines you can easily find in supermarkets. Even a reputable family magazine such as ‘Good Housekeeping’ has its share of advice on this subject: Here is one of their announcements:

“Spice things up in the bedroom with advice from relationship pros. 4 Steamy Reads. Here are four sexy romance books to enjoy, from the first English-language erotic novel to this season’s toe-curlers.”

The four advertised novels, including Fanny Hill and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, are books that no Godly couple should pick up to even glance through. Because even an erotic sentence you inadvertently read in it, will embed in your memory and keep sprouting its filthy image over and over again in your marital life.

‘Relationships pros’, such as the ones mentioned above, get their PhDs from universities that have evolution as the foundation of all their teachings. Evolution teaches that marriage is an evolved form of the primeval mating behavior driven by an animal’s instinct for survival. That’s why when humans show animal behavior in their sexual life, these relationship pros do not look upon them as abominable acts, but as behaviors classified under medical nomenclature such as ‘sexual orientation disturbance’. But, to be fair to their species, even brutes are not disturbed by certain orientations that humans display, such as homosexuality.

The secular sex counselors practice their profession by this universal dictum:

‘There are no objective norms for human behavior to be found in nature. There are only man-made moral norms more or less widely accepted in society.’  Quote from Humboldt-Universitat zu Berline’s website, which is cited as “Worldwide, the best internet offer in sexual medicine” by the German Central Library of Medicine, Cologne

The only pros whose counsels you can trust are those who get their expertise from the very Authority that created the marriage institution itself. And this Authority already has a marriage manual that all couples can easily access in any language. It has counsels for every aspect of married life, and any couple who follows them need never watch a video or literature, or visit a sex counselor, to revive or pep up their sex life.

Now let me explain what really happens when a husband and his wife watch pornography together.

A couple who follows Christ and strives to live by his commandments in the Bible, will never think of prying through a telescope into the bedroom of a neighbor and watch their intimate acts. That, they know, is certainly sin (and in some lands, such as where I live now, even a crime that is prisonable). But watching a couple copulate in their bedroom on video or film is treated as a different matter – an entertainment for relaxation, or a stimulus for the viewers’ own connubial bliss. In God’s sight, there is absolutely no difference. No other eyes are allowed to watch your and your spouse’s bedroom life, and your eyes are not allowed to watch a person’s coitions with another, even if the bedroom performers are doing it for the whole world to lust along with them.

But that is only one aspect of the danger of watching pornography. The far greater danger is what happens to the syche of the viewers. When a husband watches another man performing sexual acts on a woman in the video or movie, he is actually subconsciously, and often consciously, doing the very act by proxy or as an avatar (if you have watched that movie…one of the very few, I think, that is safe to watch with your spouse).

The viewer is virtually participating in the sexual orgies that his or her eyes are soaking in!

Women may not realize what’s going on in their husband’s minds at such times, or else a sensible wife would never allow her husband even imaginatively to go into another woman. But listen, wives, every time a married man watches or reads pornography – on home video, in a theater, on his laptop, in the pages of a novel – he is committing adultery against his wife! Not intentionally, not knowingly, but that’s what he is doing in God’s sight, and the consequences of that adultery, perceived or not, will sooner or later wreck his relationship with his wife and tear their marriage apart.

A husband who watches sex acts in the various forms of media will, within a few years, begin to find his wife less alluring sexually. He will even begin to fantasize, while making love to her, that he is doing it with another woman he has seen elsewhere in the act. And then, the danger increases exponentially, and before he or she realizes it the marriage is tottering on the brinks.

As for the wife, I really do not know what goes on in the mind of the woman while she watches others perform sexual acts. My wife is not of much help, as she has never seen a single such video in her life, and I don’t have the guts to ask some of my old worldly friends to ask their wives. I just have to rely on the Holy Spirit himself. This is what I believe happens to wives who watch pornography with their husbands.

Their minds become saturated with filthy scenes, and these images recreate themselves in the mind of the affected woman over and over again…until the very thought of a sex act, even with her husband, becomes a disgusting consideration. Nevertheless, to avoid discord, she will continue to have him make love to her, but her disinclination will manifest more and more in her body language and attitude. Seeing the apparent ‘frigidity’ of his wife, the dissatisfied husband would seek other outlets for his sexual fantasies that are continually fed by an increasing addiction to pornography.

When a husband watches another man performing sexual acts on a woman in the video or movie, he is actually subconsciously, and often consciously, doing the very act by proxy or as an avatar.

Physical and emotional intimacy in a marriage is one of the greatest gifts of our Creator to man and woman – something he didn’t grant even the angels. Sexual dissatisfaction and ensuing infidelity tears apart this deep intimacy, which is one of the greatest reasons for marriage breakups. See this secular report:

‘Some may argue that sex is not everything in a relationship. Or is it? Although there are many important components that make a sentimental relationship successful, the sexual aspect of the relationship is a driving force that binds or separates couples…

‘Sexual dissatisfaction can be a predictor of infidelity. Moreover, studies have shown that sexual dissatisfaction is a common cause of divorce. Women and men have different views on the value of their sexuality within the context of the relationship. For women, intimacy and the emotional aspect of the relationship greatly impacts their sexual desire and enjoyment in a relationship. On the other hand, men use sex as a means to intimacy. Therefore, women need intimacy in order to have sex and men need sex in order to lead them to intimacy…

‘When sex loses its place in the relationship, men can take it personally. Men define their masculinity and self-worth by their ability to have sex. Therefore, in the absence of sex, men feel disconnected, which makes them ‘free agents’ in the market of love. Men who are dissatisfied with their sex lives are most likely to cheat than those who enjoy greater levels of sexual satisfaction within their relationships.

‘Women are not infallible to infidelity. On the contrary, sexual dissatisfaction in women can also lead them to infidelity. However, the formula for sexual dissatisfaction among women is different. A woman who does not feel emotionally connected to her partner is not able to enjoy her sexuality. Therefore, when a woman finds a “substitute” for her attention with whom she can make a connection and feel romanced, she becomes more vulnerable to infidelity.’   Dr Tanginika Cuascud – mamiverse.com

O married children of God, if any of you reading this message has been watching pornography with your spouse, or alone – even if it is very occasional – flee, flee from this deadly poison that Satan is injecting into your married life.

Repent, if you have succumbed to this trap of the devil, and cleanse your life and your home from every accursed pornographic object, and never allow any such abomination to enter your sacred marital premises again. And see how God begins to bless your relationship with your spouse in ways you could have never experienced before.

If you are among the blessed few who have not watched pornography, or have repented of watching them, praise God for keeping your marriage safe from the tempting wiles of Satan, the arch destroyer of marriages and the father of all divorces.

‘For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth…Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock…Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.   Deut 7:6-26

 

Pappa Joseph