Dangerous “MOMO Challenge”

Courtesy: Hack Forever

Evil never rests, it only regroups and develops a new strategy to bring about as much death, destruction, and pain as it can. It seems that the dust has hardly settled over the last suicide inducing game (The Blue Whale Challenge) that a new one has cropped up: The “Momo Challenge”.

A twelve-year-old girl from Argentina has reported having committed suicide, a suicide linked to the Momo Challenge. There are other suicides that have been linked to the challenge but have yet to be verified. Police officers all over the world are warning parents to be on the lookout for this deadly social media game and to be aware of the signs associated with it.

The way that this challenge works is by sending a number to a person’s phone and asking them to contact a Momo Whatsapp profile. Once a connection has been established, Momo will begin to send challenges/objectives to the users that escalate in self-harm as it progresses. Failure to do so will result in threats such as promising to curse the user, kill their family and appearing at night to them. Graphic and disturbing pictures are also sent to the user to further terrify them into complying with the demands of the Momo.

A father from Cutral Co has claimed that the game threatened his fifteen-year-old daughter with certain death. A Momo-connected profile sent the girl a picture of a dead person and threatened her home, family, and friends if she didn’t respond to the challenge.

The Momo is a terrifying-looking half woman/half bird creature that is weird enough to strike fear into any child (or adult for that matter) when coupled with threats of harm and promised death. The creators of the now-dubbed suicide game are using the cropped image of a bird-woman sculpture that was created by Link Factory, a Japenese special effects company. The Momo challenge has no connection to the Link Factory.

Children remain at risk for games like this because their concept of reality and fantasy can become easily blurred. Parents should keep an eye on their children and their mobile use, but take care not to appear overly controlling because that can create much frustration and distance their children from them. If a child is spending an unhealthy amount of time on their mobile, parents need to promote playing outdoor games. If parents themselves spend a considerable amount of time playing games on their mobiles, all efforts to stop or reduce the time spent doing so should result in your child having less of an interest to engage in mobile games. Having good communication with your child/ren is also vital.

The most important thing that we can do for our children is to pray for them. There is only so much that we can do in the physical realm to protect our kids, therefore prayer is the only form of action that we can take to counter all that takes place in the spiritual realm. I believe that all events that take place in the physical realm first originate in the spiritual realm, and as we do not have constant access to that realm (and should not unless by the Holy Spirit at appointed times and by the will of GOD) we need to put our faith in the Almighty to hear our prayers and petitions to keep our children safe.

Dead Man Walking

The need to bring the Gospel to the Lost has intensified during these Last Days. It is a terrible thing to walk about and see dead people everywhere and know that their numbers are most likely growing. The world has so many enticements and lies that people are more than happy to remain dead, instead of choosing life. These people may not be six-feet under or even ashes, but make no mistake, they are as dead as you can get because there is only one destination for them: hell.

Speaking about death seems quite gloomy, but it’s a necessary part of our lives, especially as Believers. I used to wonder about Luke 9:60 and what it meant for us as GOD’S people, but reading the first two chapters of Colossians has made the meaning as clear as day. Do you know that we deal with dead people every day? We speak to them, shake hands with them, do activities with them and even love them, but they’re dead. I don’t think that some of us actually understand the severity of this- these people are alive and breathing, but they are as good as dead if they do not know Jesus.   That’s what He meant when He said that the dead should bury their own dead. He was letting the ‘wannabe’ disciple know that to follow Jesus was life, but to go back and bury his father would mean death. That’s a ‘shut the front door’, ‘drop the mic’ type of Scripture (for me anyway). That’s our ultimate choice, isn’t it? The choice of life or death. For us Believers, we know that even though we may die in the flesh, yet we still live because Jesus has ‘delivered us from the power of darkness’ (Colossians 1:13), but those who have rejected him only have one destination after death and that’s hell. We have to just take a moment and realize that this is a hectic truth to know, especially if we are not doing enough to speak to people about Jesus.

This whole ‘zombie apocalypse’ thing seems more believable to people than the fact that Jesus died for their sins. I feel like telling them that they are basically the walking dead due to their unbelief! But that wouldn’t go down very well, would it? This gift of life is such a beautiful truth and needs to be spread like wildfire because the Last Days are upon us. You can just turn on any news channel and see what’s happening in the world for proof of this. Each and every one of us has a mission: to go out and preach the kingdom of GOD. It’s not just preachers and missionaries that have this charge, but each and every one of us who confess Jesus the Son of GOD. We don’t need to ram it down their throats or Bible bash them, but when the Holy Spirit moves you to talk to someone, you do it. It may seem embarrassing or scary at first, but look at it this way: if they reject you, don’t take it personally because they are actually rejecting GOD, not you.

I’m going to flip this around now and concentrate on us. This is the area that the Holy Spirit was most insistent about (at this moment): living to the basic principles of the world when we have died with Christ. Many of us are allowing people to cheat us out of Christ because we are giving into their lies. The people of the world think that they are wise and like to puff themselves up with false wisdom. They have all these philosophical things to say, ‘science-backed’ evidence of nothing but lies, and traditions that have no place in our lives. Why are we subjecting ourselves to the basic principles of the world when they are nothing but the words of dead people? It says in Colossians 2:20  ‘Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations-‘. We no longer live in the world, Family, so we have no business following the rules of the world. ‘As you, therefore, have received Christ Jesus the LORD, so walk in Him,’    (Colossians 2:6), we received Him in faith, therefore we have to live faith-filled lives, and that doesn’t include what the world has to say about anything regarding our lives. If we want greater wisdom and knowledge regarding anything, then just ask GOD: ‘…in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge’ (Colossians 2:3). GOD created everything, therefore He knows it all. We certainly do not need the world to tell us what we should be doing, how we should be doing it, and when we should be doing it, especially when it contradicts the word of GOD and leads us astray.

‘Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from GOD’ (Colossians 2:18-19).

Run if you must, but do not entertain the words of a man who professes to have wisdom but does not confess Christ. These people can and will cheat you out of your reward with their empty words. These people are convincing, let me tell you, freakishly convincing at times. That is why you need to be immersed in GOD’S Word and presence on a daily basis. You need that daily ‘oomph’ of strength, wisdom, and knowledge that only GOD’S Word can give you if you are going to survive these Last Days, but we’re also all here to help each other out.

 

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