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Brothers, sisters. My friends..
4 years ago
I do not wish to appear as a prophet, or anyone greater or more special than a lowly servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But I must say, that the Holy Spirit compels me to speak forth an urgent plea, both for believers of the LORD and His Son whom He sent to die for our sins, and also for those who are unbelievers.
First, my friends..let me remind those who see me as an outsider in furry that I have been in this community since the late 1990's. It was a place of friendship and belonging for me. A place where I could feel accepted and fill a hole in my soul that I had a very hard time filling in any other way. People in the community are very kind, and very accepting, and for that I was, and still am - grateful for. We all wish to be loved and accepted.
But in my quest and desire to be loved and accepted, I found myself traveling down a dark road over the years. I ended up spending so much of my young adult and adult life in places themed for furries that were of an adult nature. Adult roleplay, furry art websites that catered to pornography - all things that glorified a lust of the flesh(fur?) instead of a glory and love for wisdom that comes with choosing biblical morals and eschewing hedonistic impulses and desires. Placing Jesus Christ at the head of my life meant I no longer lived to serve myself - my ego. Prior to living for Jesus Christ, I always concerned myself with selfish things. Fame or how popular I could be in the community. Spending money on conventions and art commissions, often adult in nature - that glorified my character (myself). This is what Satanism is - glorification of and serving yourself instead of serving others.
Jesus Christ took a moment before His death to show a powerful act of humility. Here was the Son of God, in the flesh, here to pay the price and suffer God's wrath for all of our sins, past, present, and even those we have not yet committed. Here was our Lord and savior, kneeling before His disciples to wash their feet, an act of submission and love towards them - to show them, and us - how we ought to treat each other. With love and kindness. With patience and mercy. To act this way is to walk in the spirit and instruction of Jesus Christ. To place others - the LORD's children above yourself by serving them out of love. This is what Jesus Christ was trying to teach a world of sinners.
"And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." Luke 10:27
He taught us to focus not on the flawed, sinful and imperfect state of others without first placing that same amount of critique on ourselves. By realizing just how flawed each and every one of us are, it is with humility and mercy that we are with much love able to guide others much better than if we suspect we are somehow better or in less of a state of wretchedness, which we are not! -- "“Stop judging, so that you will not be judged. For with whatever standard you judge, you will be judged, and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you focus on[a] the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye? How will you tell your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ when, in fact, you have a beam in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. - Matthew 7
He taught us just how important it is that we show mercy and forgiveness to one another. "Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." (Essentially, this means to keep on forgiving others) -Matthew 18:21-22
He instructed His servants to not be selfish and keep the fact that they were saved only to themselves, but to go to others who were still in their sins and unforgiven(unsaved) and teach them, so that they too might come to know the LORD through His Son (Jesus Christ) and the gospel, so that they too would repent of their sins and be saved through their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior, and from this salvation good fruit would be produced in the lives of these newly saved people. "Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” -Matthew 28:16
Brothers and sisters - when I was younger and more foolish, more selfish - I always had a problem with hearing the words 'Jesus Christ' (unless someone was uttering it as an expletive). I didn't want to hear about the gospel. I would tear up pamphlets and servants of the LORD would come and offer me when I would go out. I did not realize it at the time - but this was the LORD reaching out to me through His servants - but in my PRIDE and ego I considered myself a good person, having absolutely no need for Jesus Christ or what He taught.
But I was wrong! In my life, prior to giving my life over to Jesus Christ, I had, at various points in my life done things that are considered sinful behavior that puts a separation between myself and the LORD. Among them, I was:
* a thief(have you ever at any point in time in your life stolen something that does not belong to you? Money? material goods?)
* a fornicator/sexual deviant (furry has a BIG problem with lust/sexual deviancy and WE ALL KNOW IT. It's our 'dark little secret'. The gospel considers sex to be good only when done in sacred matrimony, and for purposes of showing love to your spouse and for having children. So if you have ever had sex outside of marriage, looked at furry porn, erotic roleplay, etc and/or masturbated - you have committed lust - a sin. Furry conventions had a lot of sexual escapades - to the point that you could even get STD tests at the convention? - this is an example of a progression of the sin of lust and where it leads)
* a drug addict (Cannabis, opiates...years upon years of my life, countless dollars used in this pursuit. With my faith in Jesus Christ I was able to drop both despite having been crippled by them for 10-20+ years. I don't doubt many furs turn to drug use as a means to cope with messed up family/life issues. I understand and empathize with those who have turned to drugs as a means of numbing in a life that otherwise seems to sometimes have seemingly little purpose. But there is nothing good about drugs. They are unholy. Drug use, over time DESTROYS your temple(body). Alcohol is included, here. Again, not hard to score drugs at furry cons. Even introvert/shy furs can get in on this if they desire it)
* a liar (For those who want to have an actual REAL relationship with the Creator of everything and His Son Jesus Christ, you MUST NOT lie. Not ever! This is something 99.9% of us are all probably guilty of. "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. - John 8:44)
*a blasphemer (to use the Lord's name in a wicked, disrespectful, or irreverent manner. (I used to cuss and blaspheme the Lord's name all the time before I tried to start having a serious relationship with God and His Son. How can you expect the LORD to want to show Himself in your life if you use His name/title in swears and cusses? Would you want to have a relationship with someone you created if they treated you that way? The Lord actually DOES want a relationship with you even as you sin - but you have to repent and start being more respectful!)
* a selfish person (I used to never give to charity or try to help the poor that I might come across. I would spend money on myself...furry commissions, material things that eventually break or lose my interest. How does any of that glorify the LORD when you can instead make sacrifices and spend money towards charities and helping out the poor and those in need. I do realize furry conventions would have charity auctions, which is good - but I would also see and hear about people spending hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars on commissions. Of course, it is your money and though God gives it all to you to do with as you wish, one behavior (charity, compassion) will bring much more glory to the LORD versus spending countless dollars on art commissions.)
* a depraved mind (For much of my time spent in furry, I would roleplay on furry themed adult roleplay locations or look at adult furry art. The more I did this - the more I wanted to do it. It becomes like an obsession - like a drug. You can never have too much. There is always some new stranger, some new face to woo or seduce. This is not the way the LORD intended His OBEDIENT children to behave: "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; -Romans 1:28 And friends, this is the definition of reprobate= 1a : morally corrupt and b: foreordained to damnation. What does this verse mean? It means the more you indulge in sexual sin, or drug use, or anything considered wicked or immoral in the bible - the less you will care about the LORD, or Jesus Christ, or their teachings that instruct on why/how you can lose your soul if you continue to choose sinful pursuits over morals and good behavior.
These are just a few areas that giving my life over to Jesus Christ and having faith in Him as my savior has helped me towards becoming a better person. I was guilty of all these sins, and yet now my Lord Jesus Christ uses me as His servant to do good works! And, yes - as a servant of Jesus Christ, I may at times offer helpful advice to those whom I see that are still "stuck" in the world of the flesh and material, like I once was, not knowing what it was like to walk with the LORD and His Son. How selfish would I be if I decided to never try to share this experience with others who are in danger as I used to be? Certainly it is true that those who spread the gospel and speak on behalf of Jesus Christ will be met with unkind behavior by those who have not yet repented for their sins and do not yet have the Holy Spirit in their lives. It should come as no surprise, for:
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’ -John 15:18-25
I believe friends, that we are in or fast approaching the end of days. The end times. The Great White Throne Judgment "Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:11-15).
Stop in any selfish pursuits of hedonistic pleasure and look around you. Look at how easy it is for a child to access pornography (furry or otherwise) through a smartphone. A child's innocence is so quickly lost in these times. Public schools are advocating for teaching children about sex at a younger and younger age. There is so much taking place that goes against what the LORD desires for us, and if one is just willing to become a servant of the LORD, putting Him and His Son before themselves, no longer living for themselves (in our mind, this is when EGO often takes control) but instead, always trying to approach everything and everyone with humility, serving others - you will have the scales removed from your eyes and see just how upside down everything really is. When you begin to live your life by serving others - you see just how heavily this creation has been brainwashed into usually desiring to serve themselves and how there is a strong push to remove God and Jesus Christ from peoples' lives.
It is by the grace of the LORD that we are blessed and able to live each day, to live and breathe, and we have the free will to build others up with our words, or to tear them down because we do not care to hear what they have to say to us. As you go through this life you have been given - do you show your gratitude by choosing to tear down and destroy others if they trouble you? Or do you choose to show love and compassion, praying not just for your friends and family but even for those who call you foolish and other nasty words for not being afraid to show your faith in your Lord and savior Jesus Christ?
But I must say, that the Holy Spirit compels me to speak forth an urgent plea, both for believers of the LORD and His Son whom He sent to die for our sins, and also for those who are unbelievers.
First, my friends..let me remind those who see me as an outsider in furry that I have been in this community since the late 1990's. It was a place of friendship and belonging for me. A place where I could feel accepted and fill a hole in my soul that I had a very hard time filling in any other way. People in the community are very kind, and very accepting, and for that I was, and still am - grateful for. We all wish to be loved and accepted.
But in my quest and desire to be loved and accepted, I found myself traveling down a dark road over the years. I ended up spending so much of my young adult and adult life in places themed for furries that were of an adult nature. Adult roleplay, furry art websites that catered to pornography - all things that glorified a lust of the flesh(fur?) instead of a glory and love for wisdom that comes with choosing biblical morals and eschewing hedonistic impulses and desires. Placing Jesus Christ at the head of my life meant I no longer lived to serve myself - my ego. Prior to living for Jesus Christ, I always concerned myself with selfish things. Fame or how popular I could be in the community. Spending money on conventions and art commissions, often adult in nature - that glorified my character (myself). This is what Satanism is - glorification of and serving yourself instead of serving others.
Jesus Christ took a moment before His death to show a powerful act of humility. Here was the Son of God, in the flesh, here to pay the price and suffer God's wrath for all of our sins, past, present, and even those we have not yet committed. Here was our Lord and savior, kneeling before His disciples to wash their feet, an act of submission and love towards them - to show them, and us - how we ought to treat each other. With love and kindness. With patience and mercy. To act this way is to walk in the spirit and instruction of Jesus Christ. To place others - the LORD's children above yourself by serving them out of love. This is what Jesus Christ was trying to teach a world of sinners.
"And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." Luke 10:27
He taught us to focus not on the flawed, sinful and imperfect state of others without first placing that same amount of critique on ourselves. By realizing just how flawed each and every one of us are, it is with humility and mercy that we are with much love able to guide others much better than if we suspect we are somehow better or in less of a state of wretchedness, which we are not! -- "“Stop judging, so that you will not be judged. For with whatever standard you judge, you will be judged, and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you focus on[a] the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye? How will you tell your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ when, in fact, you have a beam in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. - Matthew 7
He taught us just how important it is that we show mercy and forgiveness to one another. "Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." (Essentially, this means to keep on forgiving others) -Matthew 18:21-22
He instructed His servants to not be selfish and keep the fact that they were saved only to themselves, but to go to others who were still in their sins and unforgiven(unsaved) and teach them, so that they too might come to know the LORD through His Son (Jesus Christ) and the gospel, so that they too would repent of their sins and be saved through their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior, and from this salvation good fruit would be produced in the lives of these newly saved people. "Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” -Matthew 28:16
Brothers and sisters - when I was younger and more foolish, more selfish - I always had a problem with hearing the words 'Jesus Christ' (unless someone was uttering it as an expletive). I didn't want to hear about the gospel. I would tear up pamphlets and servants of the LORD would come and offer me when I would go out. I did not realize it at the time - but this was the LORD reaching out to me through His servants - but in my PRIDE and ego I considered myself a good person, having absolutely no need for Jesus Christ or what He taught.
But I was wrong! In my life, prior to giving my life over to Jesus Christ, I had, at various points in my life done things that are considered sinful behavior that puts a separation between myself and the LORD. Among them, I was:
* a thief(have you ever at any point in time in your life stolen something that does not belong to you? Money? material goods?)
* a fornicator/sexual deviant (furry has a BIG problem with lust/sexual deviancy and WE ALL KNOW IT. It's our 'dark little secret'. The gospel considers sex to be good only when done in sacred matrimony, and for purposes of showing love to your spouse and for having children. So if you have ever had sex outside of marriage, looked at furry porn, erotic roleplay, etc and/or masturbated - you have committed lust - a sin. Furry conventions had a lot of sexual escapades - to the point that you could even get STD tests at the convention? - this is an example of a progression of the sin of lust and where it leads)
* a drug addict (Cannabis, opiates...years upon years of my life, countless dollars used in this pursuit. With my faith in Jesus Christ I was able to drop both despite having been crippled by them for 10-20+ years. I don't doubt many furs turn to drug use as a means to cope with messed up family/life issues. I understand and empathize with those who have turned to drugs as a means of numbing in a life that otherwise seems to sometimes have seemingly little purpose. But there is nothing good about drugs. They are unholy. Drug use, over time DESTROYS your temple(body). Alcohol is included, here. Again, not hard to score drugs at furry cons. Even introvert/shy furs can get in on this if they desire it)
* a liar (For those who want to have an actual REAL relationship with the Creator of everything and His Son Jesus Christ, you MUST NOT lie. Not ever! This is something 99.9% of us are all probably guilty of. "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. - John 8:44)
*a blasphemer (to use the Lord's name in a wicked, disrespectful, or irreverent manner. (I used to cuss and blaspheme the Lord's name all the time before I tried to start having a serious relationship with God and His Son. How can you expect the LORD to want to show Himself in your life if you use His name/title in swears and cusses? Would you want to have a relationship with someone you created if they treated you that way? The Lord actually DOES want a relationship with you even as you sin - but you have to repent and start being more respectful!)
* a selfish person (I used to never give to charity or try to help the poor that I might come across. I would spend money on myself...furry commissions, material things that eventually break or lose my interest. How does any of that glorify the LORD when you can instead make sacrifices and spend money towards charities and helping out the poor and those in need. I do realize furry conventions would have charity auctions, which is good - but I would also see and hear about people spending hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars on commissions. Of course, it is your money and though God gives it all to you to do with as you wish, one behavior (charity, compassion) will bring much more glory to the LORD versus spending countless dollars on art commissions.)
* a depraved mind (For much of my time spent in furry, I would roleplay on furry themed adult roleplay locations or look at adult furry art. The more I did this - the more I wanted to do it. It becomes like an obsession - like a drug. You can never have too much. There is always some new stranger, some new face to woo or seduce. This is not the way the LORD intended His OBEDIENT children to behave: "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; -Romans 1:28 And friends, this is the definition of reprobate= 1a : morally corrupt and b: foreordained to damnation. What does this verse mean? It means the more you indulge in sexual sin, or drug use, or anything considered wicked or immoral in the bible - the less you will care about the LORD, or Jesus Christ, or their teachings that instruct on why/how you can lose your soul if you continue to choose sinful pursuits over morals and good behavior.
These are just a few areas that giving my life over to Jesus Christ and having faith in Him as my savior has helped me towards becoming a better person. I was guilty of all these sins, and yet now my Lord Jesus Christ uses me as His servant to do good works! And, yes - as a servant of Jesus Christ, I may at times offer helpful advice to those whom I see that are still "stuck" in the world of the flesh and material, like I once was, not knowing what it was like to walk with the LORD and His Son. How selfish would I be if I decided to never try to share this experience with others who are in danger as I used to be? Certainly it is true that those who spread the gospel and speak on behalf of Jesus Christ will be met with unkind behavior by those who have not yet repented for their sins and do not yet have the Holy Spirit in their lives. It should come as no surprise, for:
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’ -John 15:18-25
I believe friends, that we are in or fast approaching the end of days. The end times. The Great White Throne Judgment "Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:11-15).
Stop in any selfish pursuits of hedonistic pleasure and look around you. Look at how easy it is for a child to access pornography (furry or otherwise) through a smartphone. A child's innocence is so quickly lost in these times. Public schools are advocating for teaching children about sex at a younger and younger age. There is so much taking place that goes against what the LORD desires for us, and if one is just willing to become a servant of the LORD, putting Him and His Son before themselves, no longer living for themselves (in our mind, this is when EGO often takes control) but instead, always trying to approach everything and everyone with humility, serving others - you will have the scales removed from your eyes and see just how upside down everything really is. When you begin to live your life by serving others - you see just how heavily this creation has been brainwashed into usually desiring to serve themselves and how there is a strong push to remove God and Jesus Christ from peoples' lives.
It is by the grace of the LORD that we are blessed and able to live each day, to live and breathe, and we have the free will to build others up with our words, or to tear them down because we do not care to hear what they have to say to us. As you go through this life you have been given - do you show your gratitude by choosing to tear down and destroy others if they trouble you? Or do you choose to show love and compassion, praying not just for your friends and family but even for those who call you foolish and other nasty words for not being afraid to show your faith in your Lord and savior Jesus Christ?
It has to happen eventually but it certainly is terrible seeing the distress of people, like in india, who see their relatives slowly dying because of the lack of hospital beds and oxygen.
It does feel like something strange is going on these days.
Lust: is the most diffuse sin, do I have to give an example of this?
Gluttony: art addictioners, obsessive compulsive commissioners or congoers
Greed: think about all those artist who uses patreon to make le big money or apply monstruously high prices to their commissions
Sloth: artists Who don't keep their promises, people who lie at you
Wrath: drama into its entireness, violence/death threats
Envy: people complaining about other other furs gaining free art, winning a raffle, going to conventions, having a mate etc
Pride : not only the concept of furry pride, but also popufurs and in general, big ego driven People
Results, furry is one of the most hated fandoms, by the media, the Internet and society.
And the situation is not improving with every new generation ot furs being more and more horny than the previous one think about all those furs who are leaving fa because they get approached by creepy people
But I have still hope for the future, there is people who are doing lots of efforts in order to improve our community, i firmly believe that as a community we can go forth all this and mature.
Chastity (purity, abstinence) which is opposite of Lust. Ever since becoming a Christian I have stopped looking at all the adult furry art out there, and don't look at anyone as an object (ie lust over them)
Temperance (humanity, equanimity) which is opposite of Gluttony, and maybe Wrath too. I have found in today's times the news/everyone is very easily getting riled up and picking camps or teams to put themselves into, which only serves to make us all against each other
Charity (benevolence, generosity, sacrifice) which is opposite of Greed - This one is easy to do...give to others/charity instead of spending so much on one's self
Diligence (Persistence, effortfulness) which is opposite of Sloth - I have found that getting into the routine of keeping busy helps to avoid letting things go too long without getting done. That feeling of obligation or 'Someone is relying on me to get this thing done..and I wish to be a good servant, so I will make sure it gets done)
Patience (forgiveness, mercy) which is opposite of Wrath - Having patience with each other is so very important. We are all to some extent damaged or traumatized by living in a world with other damaged people and sin. All the violence, lack of love in some situations, and so on. Being patient and loving and kind helps to offset that great demon of wrath.
Kindness (compassion) which is opposite of Envy, though this works for Wrath as well. Be kind to others. Do acts of kindness whenever one is able to.
Humility (bravery, modesty, reverence) which is opposite of Pride - treating myself as a lowly servant helps to keep my mind/ego from puffing up and considering myself to be above others. If you place yourself mentally underneath others, taking on a servant role as guided and directed by the LORD, it becomes much less difficult to act or go about in a state of ego (self/I) and potentially cause harm to others by putting yourself above them via your behavior and thoughts. When you get into this frame of mind, you often think 'What can I do to serve the LORD's children today..? When you go out, you will look for opportunities to help or serve others, for example. Little acts of kindness.
I would love for these seven virtues to be encouraged among the furry community - we are all children of the Lord - but I feel many in the furry fandom have suffered abuses of various sorts and these abuses we have all suffered manifest into various selfish or dramatic or sinful mannerisms much like in the ways you described.