Last year I visited a web site that had about a hundred beautiful pictures of Jesus, but when I returned to that web site it had been shut down, because one of the Christian artists was offended that their painting of Jesus was reproduced on the web page without their permission. A lawyer sent a hostile letter to the web host citing copyright violation, so the web host company removed ALL of the pictures of Jesus! So who is the bad guy in this story (other than the lawyer, whom everyone hates): Is the “bad guy” the webmaster who freely posted pictures of Jesus for others to see the beauty of Christ without cost, but who violated copyright law; or is the “bad guy” the Christian artist who supposedly paints pictures of Jesus to draw others to our Savior, but then got offended and had their lawyer shut down the entire web site?

The Bible strongly urges Christians to spread the good news of Jesus to a dying world. Meanwhile, satan is vigorously running around opposing our evangelistic efforts by shutting down anything that speaks of God or Jesus or the Bible. One of the tools he is currently using is Copyright Law, and unfortunately it appears that the evil one has succeeded by deceiving some of my fellow Christian brothers and sisters into doing his dirty work. The web page I mentioned earlier is an excellent example. At www.webshots.com, they allow you to set up free web pages in their Community section. One Christian woman used that opportunity to put up about a hundred beautiful pictures of Jesus she had found scattered around the internet. In fact many of the pictures of Jesus on my own web site come from her web site. Because the pictures of Jesus posted there were so appealing, you would naturally expect that a angry satan would try to find a way to shut it all down. The shocking thing is that it was a fellow Christian that caused that web site to be shut down, and all in the name of Copyright Law!

God is trying to save lost people, and He typically does this by having human beings reach out to other human beings to communicate the good news of the gospel of Jesus. To help us in this important and crucial task, God gives His children special gifts that allows them to write spiritual stories, compose Christian songs, and sculpt and paint images of Jesus and various Bible truths to draw and attract people into the Kingdom of God. Now God does NOT charge human beings for these special gifts; instead He gives these gifts of writing, singing, sculpting and painting to His children for free. In return, God EXPECTS those of us who are so blessed to share the fruits of our spiritual labors FREELY with others.

"Freely you received, so freely give." --Matthew 10:8

You would think that the artist in my story would have been GRATEFUL to the webshots person for posting pictures of Jesus on her web pages, since she was doing it all for free, and she was multiplying the effectiveness of the artist's spiritual gift by putting it out where tens of thousands of people would eventually see them and be impacted by the spiritual power that God imbued them with. But instead, the artist has been tricked and deceived by Copyright Law, because the artist stabbed and killed to death the evangelistic reasons for painting Jesus in the first place!!!

In our day the whole purpose of Copyright Law is to block the poor from enjoying the things that other people create. If you don't have the money to pay, then Copyright Law says you are not allowed to read, see or hear something that you find desirable. In the pagan world it's all about MONEY, but in the Christian world, we are under a different set of rules and directives, because in God's kingdom, we are to be motivated by GENEROUS SERVICE.

The Bible has a lot of compassion for the poor and in fact there are hundreds of texts urging us to give freely and generously to the poor so they don't have to be left out of the beautiful things that God has made. One such law is called "Gleaning." In the Bible when you planted a field of wheat and then the time of Harvest came, God tells the field owner that they are NOT to harvest everything. Instead, they are to leave behind patches and stalks of wheat, because God wants the poor to have free access to some of that wheat. Yes, God does allow the field owner to sell most of their wheat for a profit, but at the same time, God requires a portion of that field to be made available for the poor at no cost and no charge.

"When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not glean your vineyard, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and for the foreigner. I am Yahweh your God."  --Leviticus 19:9,10

In the case of our offended Christian artist, they sent their lawyer who quoted Copyright Law, and accused the webshots webmaster of "stealing" the artist's picture of Jesus, because the artist wasn't being paid for the use of the image. However, I don't think anything was stolen at all. If I take a photograph of a sculpture, have I stolen the sculpture? NOT AT ALL. If I then take a photograph of the photo of the sculpture, have I stolen either the sculpture or the original photograph? NOT AT ALL! In the same way, the offended Christian artist STILL had their original painting, and they STILL had the original photograph of that painting that they posted on their business web site. All the webshots person did was make a copy of the photograph and put it on her web site for others to see for free.

According to the Biblical law of Gleaning, the offended Artist is REQUIRED by God to make available to the poor portions of their artistic fruits without cost to the poor. In my opinion, the offended Artist is clinging to their rights from the manmade law of "Copyright" while completely ignoring God's divine, holy and immutable law of Gleaning! And that law of Gleaning says you MUST give the poor free and unrestricted access to the fruits of your labors without charge. In addition, by sending their lawyer to shut down the Jesus web site, all the offended artist succeeded in doing was "burying their talent in the ground." Instead of allowing people access to see the beautiful painting of Jesus which they had created (which God freely gave them the ability to paint in the first place without cost or charge to them!), they have instead placed severe limits on people's access to the image of their own painting.

Once again, satan has deceived that Christian artist into "burying their talent" where no one can find it, except for the very small few that can afford to pay money for the paper prints they are trying to sell. So for this artist, what it came down to in this situation was MONEY. Instead of painting pictures of Jesus to evangelize the world, this artist apparently just paints pictures of Jesus to MAKE MONEY. Is God pleased with this attitude? I don't think so.

Second, ALL Christians are given the divine and holy commission to evangelize our world by telling them the wonderful news about Jesus:

"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, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen."  --Matthew 28:19, 20

Unfortunately none of us can do this mighty work of evangelizing on our own --It requires teamwork. I may not be able to paint beautiful pictures of Jesus, but I do know how to make web sites where I can clean up poor quality images that I find using high end graphics software and then FREELY make them available for others to find, view and use. I may not be a good writer, but I can create an attractive web page to post the writer's powerful and effective words. I don't know how to compose music, but I can use software to convert it to an MP3 or MID or RAM file so others can hear heaven's songs on my web pages at no charge. Evangelism requires teamwork.

“I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.” --1 Corinthians 3:6

But, if I freely post spiritual words, songs or images on my web page only to have it shut down by some offended Christian, then WE ALL LOSE. But, if you let me post your spiritual treasures on my web pages, then we all benefit: Unbelievers are exposed to precious spiritual truths, Jesus receives glory, the potential for souls to be saved increases, and you as the creator of the original work WILL receive a very generous reward from God on judgment day! But if you come against me with the sword of Copyright Law and cause all the spiritual goodness on this web site to be removed, then the evangelistic efforts of all us will be greatly diminished and all of us will suffer loss.

I am not just saying all these things just because I want to steal things from other people for my pleasure. In this case I am practicing what I preach. I have written quite a few spiritual booklets which I have posted on this web site, and I give my full and free permission for anyone to use them, provided it is for the good purpose for which they were intended.

As a Christian, the job God has assigned to me is to make Christianity to be as attractive as possible, so those who are still unsaved would see the reasons for why I have fallen in love with Jesus. But I can't do this monumental task alone. I need your help, your skills, your abilities, your talents and your gifts to draw people to our loving Savior. Since God has given you this creative ability at no charge to you, I hope you can find it within yourself to give at least some of the fruits of your labors freely to others.

If you search the Internet today, you will find it very difficult to find high quality, high resolution pictures of Jesus and other Bible stories. AND IT ALL COMES DOWN TO MONEY! The free pictures that are made available on the internet are either very low resolution, or damaged by a defacing watermark or the "save as" button is blocked from working so you can't make a copy of the posted picture. If you want access to the really best Christian images, then you have to pay for them.

I'm certainly not opposed to Christians earning a living from their labors. But, at the same time, God reserves the right to receive a "Tithe" of everything you produce. That means that at the very least, one out of ten of the things Christians produce should be given to God to use freely and without cost.

"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this," says Yahweh of Armies, "if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough for.'"  --Malachi 3:8-10

And let us not try to mock God by giving him the low resolution images or the poor-selling songs or the books we wrote that no one wants to read. When we give back to God 1 out of 10 of the things we produce, God expects AND DESERVES to receive from us THE VERY BEST of what we produce for Him:

"And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Bring it now to your governor. Will he accept you, or lift up your face, says Jehovah of Hosts?"  --Malachi 1:8

If you are a Christian artist, writer or musician, I beseech you in the name of generous Jesus, do not hide or bury your spiritual talent where no one can find it. Let the seeds of your spiritual gifts be freely scattered on the internet that many souls might be won over to Jesus. At the very least, give 1 out of every 10 of the wonderful things you produce as a free and thankful tithe offering back to God, which is the very minimum that He requires of you. And give Him your VERY BEST of what you produce, whether it be your writings, your songs or your paintings.

May the generous spirit of God be upon you for the blessing and benefit of us all.

           --Spiritual Borg, 05-07-04