Clean Up Your Act

I have heard this line all my life and never really understood any logic in it. How can you clean up an act if you aren't acting? I can understand how you can clean up your room or bed, but an act? This never really hit me as anything understandable; expect something my parents would say to use kids whenever they felt we were being bad. As though being bad was some sort of acting, and not natural, or someone else's fault we may have been in trouble.

This comment didn't make any sense to me until about 3 years ago events required me to go over not only every webpage, but Facebook and Myspace I have. When I first started doing business online, I was verbally attacked for being a Christian. This didn't make any sense to me as I didn't see how being a Christian had anything to do with my line of work, but certain people online saw fit to constantly bring this to my attention and others. If I responded somewhat harshly I was told "That's no way for a Christian to behave", as though they had any idea, when their responses contained more cuss words then I knew anyone could string together. But I'm getting sidetracked.

If you walk the walk, you have to talk the talk. So though I didn't think there was anything wrong on my Facebook, Myspace, or other web pages that could be considered wrong or worse yet sinful, I had to clean up my act. Being an ordained minister for example, they are held more accountable for their sins, James 3:1 says "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that you will be judged more strictly." Much like every other Christian, we are to be examples of our faith. Timothy 3:7 - 8 says "He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap. Deacons, likewise, are to be men worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain." In fact all of Timothy 3 speaks of deacons. Deacons are the same thing as any type of church leader, minister, elder, teacher in the church.

Though Christians aren't meant to judge others, we are meant to judge what is and isn't sinful, and stay away from it. So in light of what I just explained, cleaning up my act consisted of looking over things that perhaps would cause others to sin. By that I mean, lets say you have pictures that though may not show too much, but shows more then enough, they could cause a person to think sinful thoughts, and if you are the person causing this, then you are the temptress, which is indeed a sin. What kind of example is that of a child of Christ to be? We are always under persecution by those who don't understand, don't wish to understand, or never will understand. Unbelievers seem to always assume being a Christian means being perfect. I've never met a perfect human, have you?

Cleaning up your act isn't as easy as you may think. Some things you may think aren't a sin; you'd be very surprised when you take the time to ask someone who is completely honest. I asked several people to be boldly honest, even if hurtful, for the simple reason it was for the betterment of man, as well as peace with God. The sad and sick thing is, nearly everything on the net, stays on the net. So though you may have changed your ways, others may be set in using your past against you. If we were perfect we would BE Christ, and NO ONE IS!