conviction and porn

God's been dealing with me a lot lately about owning my relationship with him. He's been dealing with me about not relying on the "local church" to organize our relationship. Far to many typical American "Christians" rely on their local churches to provide them with opportunities to minister, to be invovled in missions, to worship, to fellowship, etc. This was never Jesus' intention. His intention was and has always been for us to have an individual, real relationship with him. One in which we are ministering to others in our day to day life. One in which we are individually reaching out to the poor and marginalized that we interact with on a daily basis.

In this current season of the Father really convicting me and turning my thoughts more to my individual relationship with Him. He has also been opening up my eyes to "issues-focused" living vs. "compassion-focused" living when it comes to our interaction with others. Let me explain, I recently went to a Porn Debate on the campus of ETSU in Johnson City, TN. It was a debate between Craig Gross (pastor/founder of xxxchurch.com) and Ron Jeremy (the most recognizable male porn star in the world). It was a cool debate, they just did another one at Yale University that Nightline is covering, you can check it out at http://www.abcnews.go.com/Nightline/FaceOff/.

Although it was good, when I left that debate my spirit was grieved a little bit. When Craig was speaking about pornography and the people either invovled in the industry or invovled in the consumption of the industry, it was from an "issues-focued" platform and not a "compassion-focused" platform. Is there anything wrong about talking against porn from an issues point of view, no. But I couldn't get passed the thought that this was not at all how Jesus dealt with things while he was here. Jesus was moved and compelled forward by geniune compassion for people, never by an issue. When confronted with the woman caught in adultary, he did not take that as an opportunity to speak on the issue of fornication and make a example out of her. What He did was to cover her and drive her accusers away, both things done out of compassion.

So how do we handle people and thier shortcomings. Are we movtivated by an issue (pornography, abortion, homosexuality, etc.) or are we motivated by genuine compassion for individuals who find themselves in these situations.

So I'm convicted. Why? Is it because I'm caught up in porn, no. It is because I have been and am currently guilty of being "issues-focused" and not "compassion-focused". We change the world, if we live liked Jesus lived when He was here. He was concerned about people not issues. What are we concerned about?