Torrents and their potential for being both good, lawful and useful.

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Hi there..

It finally happened. :-) Some of the TPB's trackers are actually up and running again!! I've been hoping for something like that for a while. In the meantime, I've been uploading on other sites as well, and because of that lots more have been finding and downloaded my torrents.

But I started thinking about why so many Christians won't go to sites like The Pirate Bay, yes why so many won't download material from such sites (and yet I've seen many downloading, but finding it unlawful or scary to share the download further, so they take it off the list very quickly.. :-), and I think I've found some answers. So I wrote a little post on it.

Well, it's actually quite long, but deals with a lot of subjects who are elementary, but rarely found in Bible schools and in "churches" anymore..

This is potentially good reading, so please feel free to copy and paste and print if you think so too. I rather like it myself.. :-) Well. Here goes:

The Internet and it's potential for good.

Some people won't go to, for instance, torrent-sites like The Pirate Bay, even if there's lots of good (there really is..!) movies there, movies people can't get access to otherwise, and never even would have heard of otherwise.

And not only movies, but audio books, audio New Testaments, The whole Bible in fact, dramatized.. There are different books, knowledge and movies and briefly put; incredibly much to gain if we just overstep some of the the boundaries we've set up for ourselves. Because it's not always God who has drawn that line..

Take for instance downloading and copying and spreading the movie "Gospel of John", freely. Illegal copying?

Yes, in fact they claim so, and yet; this movie was made, using money collected from Christians, for the purpose of producing a movie with a true, word by word, account of the Gospel of John, so that people could be saved!

But how will they get saved, if they can't afford to, or can't get access to, or feel that they won't waste any money on a Christian movie, but will watch it if it's free?

And what did Jesus say when they asked Him whether it was right to pay tax to the Emperor or not, and they showed Him a coin?

- "Whose picture and name is on it?"

- "The Emperor's."

- "Then give the Emperor what is his and God what is God's"

Well, whose face is on the cover of "Jesus of Nazareth", "Gospel of John", "Word of Promise - NKJV Dramatized" and so on?

It's Jesus' face and Name! So give His Words to the World and let the world have their own, if they won't receive these, but at least you are giving people a choice if you help spread His Words in this way.. Right? For "how can they believe if no one is preaching?" and "How can they preach unless they are messengers?"

Be a messenger.. :-)

Who are then the lawbreakers?

Is it those who rip and upload and make available the Word of God for free to people of all walks of life?

Or is it those who first collect money from Christians who just wants to help spread the Gospel, and then try to make money on the production?

Why is it so difficult to judge between ourselves and within ourselves what is right and wrong? Because of fear, mostly. Of course the reasons may be many, but mostly it's because we're afraid we might get caught doing something illegal, or because we are afraid of God's wrath upon us. We are right to fear God, but for the right reasons..

I for my part, owe my gratitude to The Pirate Bay, because they let me upload what ever I want, freely, and have never said anything against my "evangelizing" and such, but are very tolerant and open minded. In fact they say in their user policy that "please don't upload porn here. There are plenty of places for that on the net."

They're not so bad, you see, as we've been led to believe.

I have been such a long time member there, that I still uploaded movies and stuff while the trackers were down, and the site didn't function. But I really could do without having to see my neighbors wife or daughter's private parts filling 1/4 of the page in the ads they have to run on the sites to finance the site. Servers and net-access is costly. I solved that nude-ad thing by installing AdBlock Plus as add-on to my Firefox. Free and works great for almost any ads..

But anyway, I think that's perhaps one of the reasons why some won't go to sites that contain for instance nudity..

I mean, as Christians we are funny that way. We're all different, but nudity and such is so dangerous to a Christian in some cases, that it'll actually lead to him condemning himself for his or her eyes being drawn towards it. That is a bit silly, because Jesus says that "..whoever looks at a woman TO LUST FOR HER, have already committed adultery with her in his heart." There's an act of conscious will involved in that.

Some of us think that we've sinned if our mortal flesh tempts us, or even worse; if our mortal flesh draws our eyes towards that section, automatically and not because we really want to check out what's there. It just happens, now and then, in one or the other area, because we are human.

Paul writes about that like this: "..I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. BUT I SEE ANOTHER LAW IN MY MEMBERS, WARRING against the law in my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." That's from the end of Romans 7, if you'd like to look it up.

Many interpret this wrongly, or simply do not understand what he means, but he means that we are human, and if it is not our will to sin that drives us, but we stumble because there's a law that dwells in our bodies, then it is not "we" that sin, but the flesh.

Of such sin, we are not to feel guilty, because this law is inevitable going to manifest itself in weak moments, but while walking according to the law of God in our minds, we will, little by little, be freed and changed by the Spirit of God into a new creation, so that what once tempted us and even held us captive, is being replaced by righteousness.

Not to be interpreted so that we by our own will can make ourselves righteous in the sight of God, but through faith in Him who alone have the power to transform our mortal and sinful flesh into, let's say containers of this new being, through the very faith in Him alone.

If we believe according to the Word that "He makes righteous the unrighteous", and walk according to the law of the Holy Spirit with our minds, the work is carried out by the very same Spirit, sent by Him for this purpose, and thereby end all alienation and enmity between us and God, and all enmity between those who walk according to this, the Spirit of Truth..

Take for instance pornography, which is exactly what these "ads" aim to promote; lust for other women, was a shameful and heavy bond for me once. I was, in a manner, lusting for other women than my wife, and it was hard, but through the grace of God and thanks to the Holy Spirit that he sent to me when I asked Him for it because I wanted to obey Him and didn't want to hurt my wife anymore, I am now transformed on that particular point, so I avoid looking at other women, and it is such a relief.. I can't explain it, but imagine not ever having to feel or be the cause to jealousy anymore! That alone is worth the struggle and the price to pay on the way by saying NO, and turning my head the other way if I felt the temptation.

And now I rarely or never feel even a little tempted to give the columns or porn-mag shelves in the shops a "quick onceover".

Now that's a miracle right there, and a proof of what the Word of God promise is true; that God now writes His laws onto our hearts, and make us walk according to them, fulfilling the righteous demands in the law, like it says further in Romans 8..

And it's the same with every sin a human being is tempted to commit or is bound by!

God only wants to help us to get rid of things that are harmful and/or hurtful to ourselves and people around us. That's all.

That's what He defines us by, that's what He wants for us! That's the basis of it all! That's what the whole God, Jesus, sacrifice, creation, heaven or hell, Bible - everything is all about. It's that easy! And yet covers it all..

Imagine not hurting those you love or anyone anymore, ever! Never waking up with a bad hangover and shameful and hurting behavior in your mind, or even worse'; things you don't even remember having done, but find out when you look at your wife and she has a black eye, or you wake up in a cell because you have done something, maybe terribly, wrong while intoxicated. I mean; many, many people have it like that. They're divorced and everybody suffers. They've killed someone while driving under the influence, and they're in jail and people suffer irrevocably. Imagine being free from all that.

Now tell me what's stupid.

To live in sin as defined by the Bible, or not to live in sin. To say "I'm free to do whatever I like" and then go ahead and do something incredibly evil and stupid, or to say "I'm free to do what ever I really want to", and then be able to go out and live your life without hurting yourself or people, or society for that matter, anymore. Ever! :-)

Hope everybody that needed it got the essence and understanding intended by that little "Bible-lesson".. I didn't mean to lecture, and I don't see myself as being soooo.. wise and superior or anything like that. Quite the opposite in fact, but it just came out like this, so please take it the way it was intended; to perhaps shed a little light on some stuff that people struggle with, and induce some hope in what sometimes seem so hopeless or impossible to understand or harness.. And it all came tumbling down like this because of a little experience I had while TPB was down, that resulted in me uploading also on other sites, so now there are plenty more people finding and downloading what I upload.. Now that's kind of funny, huh..? Yeshua the Messiah is full of surprises.. :-)

Love from Verifire.