Some people refer to technology as evil or a source of evil. However, I believe that technology is no more than a tool that can be used for evil or for good, depending on the intent of the person utilizing it.
The Lord has enabled me to utilize technology to encourage and challenge people across the globe to "choose this day whom they will serve" and to "keep on keeping on" once they have made a decision to serve the Lord.
There are those in cyberspace, however, who are either influenced by the prince of the air or merely enticed by their own wayward desires to use technology as a tool to hurt people.
One example that has struck close to home is a tactic known as "phishing." This involves an individual contacting someone under false pretenses, mainly to trick them into giving out personal information that can be used to access bank accounts, send spam, or carry out other nefarious notions.
Some of my friends and family members' accounts have recently been hacked or "phished." Thankfully these attacks have only resulted in the nuisance of having been used as spam portals, and no sensitive information was compromised.
I spoke with one of my friends who had been "phished" and we were intrigued by the fact that something Jesus instructed his disciples to do--become "fishers" of men--has in essence been mockingly morphed from its friendly faith-filled focus, and connivingly co-opted by corrupt con artists who find it funny to be phony and therefore "phish" for men to fall instead of "fishing" for them to be fulfilled.
But, oh, if we in the faith community had the diligence of the phony "phishers."
The scripture is so true when it says the wicked never rest. The scammers never tire of using technology to reach out and pull others into their wicked web. Meanwhile, some of us Christians avoid technology like the plague and miss out on fishing for those who can only be reached by casting the internet, not the fishing net.
We must be wise as serpents but harmless as doves. We must be determined to have a voice in the marketplace of ideas and spread love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control--the fruit of the Spirit--by any means necessary.
Imagine the fruit of the Spirit spreading like a virus and "infecting" untold numbers of people, the way computer viruses run rampant through cyberspace!
Our prayers, persistence, and presence in the technological community helps to adjust the "ph" balance, foiling the forgery of the phony phishers who promulgate promiscuity and other problematic practices as panaceas to life's problems.
We must be present so we can prophetically proclaim that "who the Son sets free is free indeed" to a world so easily entangled by empty promises. May we never give up spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ through word, deed and example, for in due season, we shall reap if we faint not!
BNcouraged!
Rev. Karen
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