Ashely Madison, Hookers, Porn Stars, Josh Dugger, and What It Reveals

SO...we've all seen how the Ashely Madison scandal has torn more stuff up in our culture.  But in reality it's done something really good. 

It's exposed us for who we really are.  Sinners! Sinners that are in desperate need of rescue.  Our fragile sense of self-righteousness can truly be rocked by just a few small moments.  And possibly what we need is our worlds wrecked a little.  When we come to the end of our massive egos we just might find some good old fashioned revival. 

You see my good deeds are as filthy rags in the site of God.

I once heard a guy say 'The best thing that could happen to us is that our deepest darkest sins are exposed on the 5 o'clock news...because when that happens we no longer cling to our facades and our excuses.  Once we are exposed we have nothing left to cling to except Jesus Christ.'  And in all reality isn't that all we have to cling too, really? 

The sad thing is that everyone is blasting Josh Dugger as a  sick twisted psycho for having an account, but what we don't talk about is the sin that we committed this morning.  We don't talk about that one out of three men inside the CHURCH are viewing porn on a weekly basis.  We don't talk about how we have anger and lust in our own hearts.  It's much easier to point light on someone else's sin rather than our own.  But in all reality all Josh has to cling to right now is Jesus, and isn't that the best thing?  I'm not excusing his sin.  I'm simply saying we need to do as the Bible instructs: 'Examine yourself and see if you be in Christ.'

Oh that I would cling to Jesus in that way in everything in my life.  I hate that it takes a scandal to make us cling to Jesus.  Maybe we'd have less scandals if we pressed into Jesus more. And rather than trying harder when we fail, what would it look like if we'd run to Jesus with our sin rather than running away from him trying to fix ourselves.  Because in all honesty we can't fix ourselves.  My sin will own and destroy me if I attempt to work on it myself.

What this big scandal has shown me is that I as a sinner need to press into Jesus more and rely a whole lot less on myself, my good deeds, and my perceived image to make it work.  All that stuff is garbage.  Jesus is the only thing that makes me clean.

What people like Josh Dugger need is not people like you and I calling him a sicko...what he needs are Christ followers praying for him and pointing him towards repentance, redemption and reconciliation.What we need to be doing is engaging single and married men alike and pointing them to Jesus.  We need churches to invest in solid Bible based men's ministries to help men understand who they are and who Jesus is. This is where we find hope!

Ask yourself a question: would you want a second chance?   Now read 1 John 1:9.