ARE YOU ADDICTED?
The dictionary defines addiction as “The fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance or activity”. The terrible scourge of illicit drugs being brought into nations around the world is almost beyond our comprehension. It appears the seizures of drugs by the authorities is but the tip of the iceberg as far as quantity that is actually brought in. So much so that so many people are caught up in this both evil trade and of course the use of them. In my country we actually have government approved “drug injection rooms”. Consideration is being given to making drug testing at “dance parties” available so that the potential user can know how strong and dangerous the drugs are before they decide to take them.
We are so thankful for the fantastic breakthroughs in the health and healing area. As someone approaching 78 years, I have a number of typical aging process problems that are greatly assisted by prescribed medication. Sadly, I regularly see on tv advertisements warning of the dangers of prescription medication addiction as users forget when and how often they have taken their medication.
In some ways what I want to write about today almost makes the above pale into insignificance. I am constantly in awe of the tremendous advancements in the whole technology area. I love my smartphone, and the apps like WhatsApp and Facebook, and the video components, that make it so easy for me to contact people and also to Disciple and Mentor and share the Word of God with them, and to be able to contact people all around the world in a matter of just a few a seconds still blows me away. Sadly, these apps. give access to many things that can be very dangerous to our spiritual health and even our security. Especially things like pornography etc. In some ways our smartphone is almost everything but a phone with all the extras that go with it. these days.
One real challenge is to wisely control our TIME on our phones otherwise we can become ADDICTED and cannot live without them. You may have seen that picture on FB of new arrivals in heaven and St Peter says to an angel, “Why are they holding their hands like that” ? The reply comes” they are missing their smart phones” A Pastor Gordon McDonald years ago (before cell phones) wrote a book entitled “Ordering your private world”. I want to encourage you to look at the amount of time you spend on your smartphone, and seriously consider (if necessary) to make adjustments so that YOU ARE CONTROLLING YOUR SMART PHONE AND IT IS NOT CONTROLLING YOU. Some people I hear are going on “social media fasts” and decide that for a certain period of time, sometime for weeks and months they will not get involved in social media.
I had the privilege on 1978 to go to Seoul Korea to attend the very first English (medium) Church Growth Seminar at Dr. Yonggi Cho’s church and heard the story of how there had been an explosion of church growth in South Korea, Situated in Seoul was the largest, Methodist, Presbyterian and Pentecostal churches in the world. Every one of the churches had early morning prayer meetings, weekly all night prayer meetings, and all had Prayer Mountains, where people would go and fast and pray for numerous days at a time. I heard Dr. Cho say “The Church in Korea ministers under and open heaven”. meaning all the spiritual forces had been driven back, and what was once a Buddhist nation was now at least 30% Christian. I was told just recently, Church and prayer meeting attendance is now falling in Korea, and one reason that was given was that Believers were too busy to pray, and spent too much time on their smart phones. The evil one must be so happy, he may not (yet) be causing Christians in Korea to commit major sins, but he has them caught up and ADDICTED TO THER SMARTPHONES, and neglecting their walk with God.
This may sound fanatical but how about having POSITIVE ADDICTIONS :
Being addicted to Jesus and being madly in love with Him
Being addicted to intimate daily communion with God
Being addicted to reading, studying and meditating daily on the Word of God
Being addicted to the House of God (our local church) and being totally committed to the Leadership and vision of the church.
Being addicted to the Body of Christ (not your denomination or particular doctrines). Our church will not have a special section in heaven, we will be ONE IN CHRIST, let’s work on it now.
What do you think? Let the Holy Spirit speak to you and me, and see if we need to make some adjustments. Would love to hear from you.
