Hacked and Triggered – Thank God for The Goodness of God – Purity 1540
Purity 1540 12/27/2024 Purity 1540 Audio Podcasq
Purity 1540 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a large steel power transmission tower and the sun setting on the horizon comes to us from yours truly as I was pleased to see the sun again while out walking down Waite Road yesterday afternoon.
Well, it’s Friday, and even though I have been on vacation since last Friday afternoon, let’s thanks God anyway, because His goodness is something we can count on even when we aren’t experiencing sunny skies and because TGIF sentiments aren’t just for workweeks. I have to thank God every day because of who HE is and because of what HE has done for me and continues to do for me. The Lord is my Rock and as we stumble through life or get tripped up by our fellow man it really is important to know that we have a loving heavenly Father who will one day judge the living and the dead and reclaim all of existence to usher in His eternal kingdom.
While I try to give thanks to the Lord when I am not experiencing problems, when I run into various trials, His presence can really save me from the big 6 negative emotions – anger, anxiety, sadness, shame, disgust, and despair!
I recently shared how a recent dental appointment caused me to lament over the difficulties of human relationships, how our bodies break down over time, and how a couple observations about life caused me to have a brief depressive moment where I woefully wondered “why does life have to be this way?” I suspected demonic interference as a possible source for this negative disposition. So I prayed, cast out the enemy, and shifted my perspective to the joy of the Christmas holiday that was upon us and walked away content and jolly!
Overall, I had a wonderful Christmas but as I relaxed on Christmas day and the day after Christmas, I was bothered by constant emails from Meta Platforms Inc informing me of charges for my Facebook ad campaigns for Celebrate Freedom Online – the online Chrisitan Recovery group coaching event that I felt called to launch – and quickly was alarmed at the frequency of the charges. As far as I knew, I had only authorized a couple of campaigns to “boost” the event and a post that explained who I was. But as the emails kept coming in, I realized that something was wrong.
Long story short, I got hacked and I had to take precautions to change my password and to stop the ad campaigns. Apparently the hacker was posting Sketchers sneakers videos to my business page and launching ads for them – and after much frustration this morning I believe I have finally secured my account and complained to meta about the unauthorized ads and charges. I was so angry and quite frankly saddened by this scam that I began to start that slow roll into despair – “Why does life have to be this way?”
I mean, I can barely understand how someone could benefit from hacking my account and launching ads like this. It points to a systemic problem with the advertising market in general – that it somehow rewards people for bringing attention to a client’s business regardless of the legitimacy of the ads that bring the business. The love of money is the root of all evil and somehow the person or persons who did this will presumably benefit from taking Meta’s online ads and my account and exploiting them for their own gainm, and they don’t care that what they are doing is wrong. Somehow this advertising game is rigged in a way where it doesn’t matter how business is generated as long as sales are made. Advertising sucks. Businesses suck. People suck. Pardon my outrage but that’s how I feel.
The theological explanation for why these things happen and will continue to happen is that we live in a sinful world. The reason “people suck” is because of sin and as upset as I am over the evil that was done to me, I realize that my being hacked is nothing compared to the evil that others have suffered. But just because evil is prevalent doesn’t make it right and my sense of outrage is only legitimized because there is a God who has revealed to us what goodness and justice is.
God has revealed Himself to man to tell us who HE is and to teach us right from wrong. Without God, who’s right and what is wrong could just be an opinion or a matter of debate. But because God is sovereign, even though we suffer at the hands of evil men, we can be assured of two things that can give us peace.
- God cares. We don’t have to wonder when we are wronged. God’s word reveals to us that the evil that was done to us should not have happened – it is sin. God’s law forbids the evil that men do to one another so God’s commandments themselves show us that God cares about us, but beyond the law – God sent Jesus to fulfill the law – to live a sinless life and to receive our punishment for the things that we have done to break God’s law. While we will all be victims to someone else’s sin in life, none of us can claim that we were completely innocent because we all fall short of God’s glory and sin in some way. While we would like to judge and condemn those who do us wrong, we have more in common with them than we do with the Lord, as we are both in need of God’s mercy and grace and the solution that only He could provide – Our sins forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ – which brings us to our second point.
- God will make it right. God will avenge all the sins that were committed. God will make things right in the end. The sins perpetrated against mankind will either be cove red by the blood of Jesus or they will be paid for by punishment and eternal separation from God in Hell.
SO as upset as I can get when I think about the way things fall apart, or how our relationships with others can be difficult, or over how our fellow man will sin against us, I can eventually move beyond those big 6 negative emotions ( Sadness, anger, despair, Shame, anxiety, and disgust) and return to peace and joy because I know how good God is. I know HE cares. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for us shows us that God loves us and the fact that Jesus rose from the dead shows us that God will also make things right one day. Sinners will throw themselves on the mercy of God by putting their faith in Jesus or they will pay with their sin through judgement in hell. And when I think about that I am not so angry toward those who have done evil against me. I worry about their souls, and I pray they find the Lord.
Jesus offers us a narrow way and broad is the road that leads to destruction and when I think about how I was on that highway to hell, I can let go of my anger and disgust over the evil of other men and I can release it to the Lord to deal with. Jesus told us that apart from Him we can do nothing. We can’t save ourselves and we won’t even think of doing anything right without God compelling us to repent.
So as much as I was triggered and angry, when I think of the goodness of God I can forgive those who sin against me and find peace knowing that I can count on the Lord because He cares for me and He will one day make all thing right.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/.
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.
(While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Humility (Pride).
Proverbs 21:4 (ESV) Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin.
Today’s verse is the fourth of five passages of scripture that fall under the first point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Humility (Pride).
1. Humility is a virtue most pleasing to God. Pride is a grievous sin in his sight.
Today’s Bible verse illuminates that “lamp of the wicked” for us to expose the tell-tale signs of sin withing – a proud heart and haughty eyes.
Our sins come from desperately wicked hearts and so it should not surprise us that subtle (a look in the eyes) or even unseen things (the depths of one’s heart) can reveal our sin within. Our attitudes and beliefs have to be grounded in the truth of God’s word, or we will think that we are out own authority or that we are somehow better than everyone else. We have to be careful about how we look at our world and how we see ourselves. IF we see ourselves in relation to our fellow man, we may believe the lie that we are more righteous or better than others and that we don’t need to Lord. Pride is a sin because it causes us to trust in ourselves rather than the One who made us, who cares for us, and who will make all wrong things right.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “Day by Day Along the Way” By Jay E. Adams.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Adams’ books for your own private study and to support the late author’s work. This resource is available online for less than $20 at many sites.
Day 39
By this we know that we have come to know Him—if we keep His commandments. – 1 John 2:3
How are we sure that we know God—hunches, strong feelings, or warm glows? John says that you can know that you know Him if you “keep His commandments.” The Great Commission ends with the words, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). Jesus was interested not only in making disciples, but in seeing them live according to His commandments. His “yoke is easy to wear and [His] burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). His commandments “aren’t annoying” (1 John 5:3). Then why should you shy away from His yoke? It will not wear and rub against your neck, as the yoke of the law did. As Paul said, “Why are you testing God by putting on the disciples’ neck a yoke that neither our fathers nor we have had the strength to tolerate?” (Acts 15:10). Christ has set you free from all of the outward ordinances that chafed the Israelites. You walk in the ease of the Gospel with the Lord Himself. His way is light. Walk with Him gladly, therefore, by faith![1]
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 47.
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