Cleanse

The Lord has given us the resources that we need in order to stand before Him clean and holy, and as we are clean, we can reflect His goodness and light to the world. Jeremiah 33 states:
8 I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against Me.
9 Then it shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor before all nations of the earth, who shall hear all the good that I do to them; they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I provide for it.'

Sin separates us from God, but Jesus died on a cross so that our sins might be forgiven and that we could stand before God clean and whole.  We have the presence of the Holy Spirit within us to convict us of our sins and to enable us to be cleansed.  Jesus cleansed the Temple during Holy Week, and during this special time, we can be resolved to allow the Spirit to cleanse and purify us, so that we, the temple of the Holy Spirit, might better reflect the risen Lord.

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I want to go back into the book of Luke today and capture a snapshot from the final days of the earthly life of Jesus prior to his crucifixion. In Luke 19, we find that Jesus walked into the temple and proceeded to cleanse it:
45 Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it,
46 saying to them, "It is written, 'My house is a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.' "
47 And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him,
48 and were unable to do anything; for all the people were very attentive to hear Him.

The caretakers of the temple attempted to take action against Jesus, but they were prevented from doing so. In our lives, the "caretakers" of the temple of the Holy Spirit are charged with allowing the Spirit of God to cleanse us from the inside. 1 Corinthians 6 says:
18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

In 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic, the Alabama Legislature voted to recognize pornography as a public health crisis. Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation is quoted at the organization's website; she said:

“Modern pornography—with its limitless quantity, speed, and violent or degrading themes—is a jarring new variable in human development. It’s not surprising that such a variable would have negative effects on brains and bodies built for person-to-person sexual contact. Medical professionals, elected officials, therapists and more are beginning to acknowledge the universal harms of pornography.”

The website says the Center has reviewed 99 studies on the "harms of pornography."  Here are two examples of the harm that porn does in the life of a human being:

• Pornography Has Detrimental Impacts on the Brain: There have been over 40 neurological studies which reveal pornography use has negative and detrimental impacts on the brain.
• Pornography Teaches Users that Women Enjoy Sexual Violence and Degradation: A recent study of PornHub videos found that 43% of videos included what the researchers categorized as “visible aggression” and 15% included “nonconsensual aggression.”

PornHub - yes, that is the site that has been in a bit of trouble lately, according to The Christian Post, and deservedly so.  The article says:

MindGeek, the parent company of several major porn websites, including Pornhub, is under investigation and facing its own lawsuits filed on behalf of child sex abuse survivors.

Last month, two unnamed plaintiffs accused Pornhub of hosting and profiting off videos of their abuse uploaded to the popular pornography website. They filed a class action complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

The Christian Post article adds:

In December, 40 women sued Pornhub. They claim that the company profited from their exploitation as victims of sex trafficking.

Last week, more than 70 Canadian lawmakers called for MindGeek to be investigated by police amid the mounting allegations that the company profited from the sexual exploitation of children.

And, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, according to the article, is one of the plaintiffs in a suit filed in federal court in California on behalf of an anonymous person known as Jane Doe against XVideos and its parent company. The story quotes from the Center's Legal Counsel Dani Pinter: “XVideos not only violated the law by hosting Jane Doe’s child sexual abuse material, it profited from her abuse given that each image and video of her was monetized,” adding, “This cannot be allowed to stand and remain unchallenged. Victims of childhood sexual abuse such as Jane Doe unequivocally deserve justice.”

The Post adds: "The lawsuit contends that XVideos not only 'benefited from a sex trafficking venture' and distributed child pornography but also failed to report child sexual abuse material."

There is a disturbing world that is centered around pornography, and we have to be aware that young people are being victimized by child pornographers and traffickers who are trying to profit from the abuse.  And, the consumers of this material and other forms of pornography are finding no shortage of opportunity to view this type of content. It's available and it is our responsibility to be aware and to protect ourselves, our homes, and our communities from this entering in and being used of the enemy to damage hearts and minds.

Since the body is called the temple of the Holy Spirit, we have to evaluate how well that we are protecting ourselves.  We have the power to regulate what is being taken into our minds through our physical senses, including our eyes.  And, if the enemy has built a stronghold in any area, we have to rely on the power of the Spirit to cleanse us.  Jesus cleansed the Jerusalem Temple; we have to let Jesus cleanse the temple of His Spirit.  He said that the Temple was to be a "house of prayer."  If we have been saved, we have been set apart for the use of our Savior and can consider how we are obeying Him.