THE LIFE OF G.R.A.C.E.
¡§Constant Safeguards¡¨
September 18, 2005
Intro: We have been looking at the Shepherd¡¦s Covenant over the last few weeks. This is a covenant that has been established by Focus on the Family and their Pastoral Ministry department. It is meant to give a guideline for pastor¡¦s to live by to experience the life of grace.
G= Genuine Accountability
R= Right Relationships
A= A Servant Heart
C= Constant Safeguards
E= Embrace God Intimately
Today we are talking about establishing safeguards in our lives.
Safeguards are meant to be devices to protect us from ourselves and others.
A friend of mine worked for many years building nuclear bombs. He was an engineer with high level security clearance. I would often ask him about his job and he would respond, ¡§I can tell you, but then I would have to kill you.¡¨ During the Cold War, the military established safeguards to keep nuclear warheads from being fired accidentally. However, they didn¡¦t always work as planned.
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Keeping Presidents in the Nuclear Dark
(Episode #1: The Case of the Missing ¡§Permissive Action Links¡¨)
Bruce G. Blair, Ph.D, CDI President, bblair@cdi.org
Feb. 11, 2004
Last month I asked Robert McNamara, the secretary of defense during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, what he believed back in the 1960s was the status of technical locks on the Minuteman intercontinental missiles. These long-range nuclear-tipped missiles first came on line during the Cuban missile crisis and grew to a force of 1,000 during the McNamara years ¡X the backbone of the U.S. strategic deterrent through the late 1960s. McNamara replied, in his trade-mark, assertively confident manner that he personally saw to it that these special locks (known to wonks as ¡§Permissive Action Links¡¨) were installed on the Minuteman force, and that he regarded them as essential to strict central control and preventing unauthorized launch.
When the history of the nuclear cold war is finally comprehensively written, this McNamara vignette will be one of a long litany of items pointing to the ignorance of presidents and defense secretaries and other nuclear security officials about the true state of nuclear affairs during their time in the saddle. What I then told McNamara about his vitally important locks elicited this response: ¡§I am shocked, absolutely shocked and outraged. Who authorized that?¡¨ What he had just learned from me was that the locks had been installed, but everyone knew the combination.
The Strategic Air Command (SAC) in Omaha quietly decided to set the ¡§locks¡¨ to all zeros in order to circumvent this safeguard. During the early to mid-1970s, during my stint as a Minuteman launch officer, they still had not been changed. Our launch checklist in fact instructed us, the firing crew, to double-check the locking panel in our underground launch bunker to ensure that no digits other than zero had been inadvertently dialed into the panel. SAC remained far less concerned about unauthorized launches than about the potential of these safeguards to interfere with the implementation of wartime launch orders. And so the ¡§secret unlock code¡¨ during the height of the nuclear crises of the Cold War remained constant at OOOOOOOO.
After leaving the Air Force in 1974, I pressed the service, initially by letters addressed to it and then through congressional intermediaries, to consider a range of terrorist scenarios in which these locks could serve as crucial barriers against the unauthorized seizure of launch control over Minuteman missiles. In 1977, I co-authored (with Garry Brewer) an article (reprinted below) entitled ¡§The Terrorist Threat to World Nuclear Programs¡¨ in which I laid out the case for taking this threat more seriously and suggesting remedial measures including, first and foremost, activating those McNamara locks that apparently he and presidents presumed had already been activated.
The locks were activated in 1977.
Sometimes we think we have safeguards in place, when in reality, everyone knows the combination. In the life of a follower of Christ, our enemy knows the combination of our lives. The areas of weakness are not secret to him and his workers. That is why it is vitally important for us to be diligent in protecting ourselves from allowing the enemy to unlock our protective forces.
Today I want to look at three areas of life that must be guarded for a follower of Christ.
I. Safeguard Your Heart
¡§Above all else, safeguard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.¡¨ Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)
The heart is the starting point for the activities of life.
We must be diligent about what we allow to have our heart. What we follow with our heart reflects what we believe at the core of our soul.
¡§Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.¡¨ Luke 12:34 (NLT)
This is a verse we talk about when dealing with money, but it also reflects the other areas of your heart.
What grabs you in life? What are the things that you are passionate about? That is what your heart is focused on.
Our heart is the depth of our being. If we are not careful with what we allow our heart to be given to, we will find our lives in places we don¡¦t desire them to be.
¡§A good person produces good deeds from a good heart, and an evil person produces evil deeds from an evil heart. Whatever is in your heart determines what you say.¡¨ Luke 6:45 (NLT)
How does your heart get that way? We don¡¦t safeguard what we give ourselves over to.
God came to change the heart of man. Jesus lived and died so that man would be able to have purity of heart before God.
What is the first step to safeguarding your life? Guard your heart with a relationship with Jesus.
¡§For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.¡¨
Romans 10:9-10 (NLT)
II. Safeguard Your Mind
The mind is the beginning point of belief in the heart. What we fill our minds with continually reaches into the depths of our heart.
¡§Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind;¡¨ Psalm 26:2 (NIV)
What starts as a thought in your mind will bloom into an action of your heart if you allow it to grow.
Men, this is a unique struggle for us in the area of dealing with the influences of our society. One of the main stumbling blocks for a mans¡¦ mind is the area of pornography.
This is an area that we don¡¦t like to talk about because so many of us deal with struggles in this. And some may argue that it is no big deal. Let me assure you, it is a big deal.
When a mans¡¦ mind becomes focused on a fantasy obsessed with mental images of impurity, it is almost impossible to stop them from invading your real life. They affect relationships with your wife, your kids, your job, and they influence your worldview. The consequences of sin are often overlooked when we are caught in the pleasure of sin.
¡§Having ¡¥athlete¡¦s foot of the mind¡¦ was how I felt. I vividly remember my internal struggles between the consequences of my sin and the pleasure of my sin. I remember when those consequences finally got to the point where they weren¡¦t worth the pleasure of sin.¡¨ Fred Stoeker, Every Man¡¦s Battle
Let me give you some startling statistics about the influence of pornography in our culture.
„X 345% increase in child pornography sites between 2/2001-7/2001 (N2H2, 8/01)
„X 25 million Americans visit cybersex sites between 1-10 hours per week (MSNBC Survey 2000)
„X The U.S. Customs Service estimates that there are more than 100,000 websites offering child pornography - which is illegal, worldwide (Red Herring Magazine, 1/18/02)
„X 9 in 10 kids 8-16 yrs. have viewed porn online, mostly accidentally while doing homework (UK News Telegraph, NOP Research Group, 1/07/02)
„X 26 popular children’s characters, such as Pokemon, My Little Pony and Action Man, revealed thousands of links to porn sites. 30% were hard-core. (Envisional 2000)
„X According to the Justice Department, in 1998 there were 28,000 X-rated websites, generating $925 million in revenue. Now, only three years later, there are 280,000 X- rated websites, generating over $10-20 billion in revenue (The Wall Street Journal 26 Nov. 2001).
„X 30% of all unsolicited emails contain pornographic information (Choose Your Mail.com study, October, 1999).
„X 62% of parents of teenagers are unaware that their children have accessed objectionable websites (Yankelovich Partners study, Sept. 30, 1999).
„X 60% of all web-site visits are sexual in nature (MSNBC /Stanford/Duquesne study, Washington Times Jan. 26, 2000).
„X 51% of pastors admit that looking at internet pornography is their biggest temptation. (Christianity Today, December 2002)
„X According to a U.S. News and World Report article, the porn industry recently took in more than $8 billion in one year. More than all revenues generated by rock and country music, more than America spent on Broadway productions, theater, ballet, jazz and classical music combined.
„X The primary pornography consumer group is boys between ages 12-17.
„X Every day, up to 30 million people log on to pornographic web-sites (CNET.com, April 28, 1999).
„X A recent study (March 2000) shows 1 in 5 adults or 20% (which is nearly 40 million people), have visited a sexually oriented web site.
„X Americans spend an estimated $8-10 billion annually on pornography. This exceeds the combined gross of ABC, CBS, and NBC, which is $6.2 billion.
„X Two hundred million copies of Hustler, Penthouse and Playboy are distributed in U.S. homes every year.
„X The combined circulation of Playboy and Penthouse exceeds that of Time and Newsweek.
„X The average age at which men first see Playboy or a similar magazine is 11.
(From www.XXXCHURCH.COM)
Pornography is a trap that ensnares men from all walks of life. However, it is not just a mans issue. Women must also deal with what they allow to fill their minds. The reason it is so important is that we become desensitized to the culture that we find ourselves thinking and acting like the culture.
¡§Everything you choose to take in through your mind can be stored up in your heart, and it is your heart that determines the direction you will take and the choices you will make in the future when confronted with temptation.¡¨
Shannon Ethridge, Every Woman¡¦s Battle
We must guard ourselves against these influences.
Steps to Safeguarding Your Mind:
1) Get computer firewalls with internet filters.
2) Cancel any subscriptions to questionable magazines.
3) Block out offensive television channels.
4) Get a computer accountability partner.
A free internet software program is available from WWW.XXXCHURCH.COM.
I have installed this on my computer and all of the office computers. It sends an e-mail every two weeks to men who I have set up as accountability partners. It tells them any objectionable website that I have visited over that time. I have also asked all of the Executive Team to put this on their computers as well.
This is a major issue that must be dealt with. The church can no longer ignore the effects of pornography on our souls. We must fill our minds with what is right and true in order to safeguard ourselves.
¡§Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.¡¨ Philip. 4:8 (NIV)
III. Safeguard Your Emotions
Ladies, this may be the area that most applies to you, in protecting your purity and your relationships.
¡§If there is one particular need that drives women, it is certainly her emotional needs.¡¨ Shannon Ethridge, Every Woman¡¦s Battle
Just as dangerous to a relationship and to our heart as mental or physical temptation is emotional temptation. We must learn to guard ourselves against letting anyone but our spouse fill our emotional tanks.
The latest romance novel, movie plot, or television script should not replace or compete with honest emotional intimacy with your husband.
Men, the emotion is not just a woman¡¦s deal. We must guard against comparisons of our wives with other women, against getting our ego propped up by others and against anger and frustration when our emotional needs aren¡¦t met.
¡§Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They become one flesh.¡¨ Genesis 2:24 (The Message)
The point of this passage is that no one is to meet our needs physically, mentally or emotionally like our spouse.
God designed us to live in relationship with one another and we cannot do that if we are not emotionally connected.
Steps to Safeguarding Your Emotions:
1) Communicate honestly with your spouse.
2) Value your spouse¡¦s uniqueness.
3) Be verbally intimate with your spouse.
4) Focus on reality, not a fantasy.
Conclusion:
We have talked today about how to develop safeguards of your heart, your mind and your emotions. We must begin to implement them so that we can be the people God has called us to be.
Today, if you would like to receive Jesus as your Lord so that He can safeguard your heart eternally, you can do so.
Dear Jesus,
Please come into my life and forgive me of my sin. Help me to find healing for my heart only in you. And guard my heart so that I may live the life you have planned for me. Amen.
If you are struggling with mental images and fantasies that you cannot escape, decide today to give those over to Christ. Don¡¦t try to overcome them alone, but find someone to help you to develop the patterns of protections in your life.
Dear Jesus,
I confess to you that my mind has been filled with images that are not pleasing to you. I renounce those in your name and ask you to help me to safeguard my mind so that I may focus on your desires for my life. Amen.
If you are struggling with emotional detachment and find your emotions stirred in places they should not be, commit today to fight against the inappropriate feelings and focus on God¡¦s design for your life.
Dear Jesus,
I ask you to help me deal with my emotions as a pure child of God. Help me to find my fulfillment in you and in my spouse. Help me to guard my emotions from the fantasy world and to open my life to you to meet my emotional needs. Amen.
