We are called to be in this world but apart from it. As our society and culture continues to spiral downward we need to constantly be in check with God’s Word and how He teaches us to navigate in this world.
Being saved and ensuring your salvation isn’t the end of the journey; in reality it’s the beginning. God tells us in 1 Peter 2:2-3
You must crave pure spiritual milk so that you can grow into the fullness of your salvation. Cry out for this nourishment as a baby cried for milk, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.
Now, yes, we are saved by grace but if you have truly accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour obedience is a natural result of that acceptance.
John 14: 15 and 23 states:
15: If you love me, obey my commandments
23: All those who love me will do what I say.
As you willingly give your life to Jesus and dig deeper into Him he’s going to cut out the ungodliness in your life so you become more like Him. This is referred to as sanctification.
I bring this all up because there are thousands and thousands of Christians that are being deceived and unknowingly indoctrinated with false religious theologies and ideologies. They are allowing their minds to be filled with satan’s agenda and not God’s. You have to understand that there is a spiritual war raging around us and it’s for our souls. There are only two sides in this war which means you’re either for God or for satan. Although this culture embraces grey God does not! It’s black and white, for or against, there’s no neutrality…no grey.
Through movies, TV shows, books, magazines, newspapers, the music we listen to, the games we play and social media we are filling our minds and thoughts with filth on a daily basis. And although we can’t get away from all of it we need to take charge and responsibility for what we willingly expose ourselves to.
In this post I want to answer 3 questions that I believe every Christian should ask when it comes to entertainment.
1) WHAT AM I FILLING MYSELF UP WITH?
Philippians 4:8 (NLT) says,
Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
What you expose yourself to is what your mind in going to dwell on. So what are you dwelling on? Over the course of your day what occupies your mind and thoughts? Can you say that your thoughts are in alignment with the above verse?
Let me give you some examples of what I’m talking about. Using the above Bible verse is it…
True – to watch movies like Fantastic Beast or TV shows like The Magicians?
Honorable to listen to music that depicts violence and sexual immorality or watch TV shows like Game of Thrones or the Handmaid’s Tale?
Right to watch TV shows like Will and Grace or Modern Family?
Pure to watch movies like Fifty Shades of Grey, read romance novels or watch TV shows like the Bachelor or Bachelorette?
Lovely to watch movies like It, Saw or TV shows like the Walking Dead?
Admirable to play video games like Grand Theft Auto or Madworld?
Excellent to watch movies like Lord of the Rings or TV shows like Mary Kills People or Breaking Bad?
Worthy of Praise to watch movies like Harry Potter that glorify witchcraft or TVs shows like Lucifer or Supernatural that glorifies satan?
Being a mother I’m very passionate about protecting my kids and not letting satan into their lives. So I have to ask. What are you letting your kids watch?
Does God want your children watching movies like Despicable Me where evil is good and fun and being good is boring? Are you letting them watch movies like Coco that depict death un-biblically? Our children are being indoctrinated and conditioned with false teachings that lead away from Jesus!
One of the most dangerous doors that have been opened to our children through movies, TV shows and books is depicting magic aka witchcraft as being safe and fun. That there is actually a difference between good and bad magic. Indoctrination begins as soon as possible with shows like Little Charmers or movies like Harry Potter. Are you or your teens watching shows like The Vampire Diaries or Charmed?
Shows and movies like these invite and tempt kids and teens to experiment. It indoctrinates with witchcraft and normalizes it to the point where kids believe it’s not only safe but empowers them. Instead of turning to Jesus when they have problems they try using supernatural means where they believe they have the power. Here’s just a taste about what I’m talking about concerning Harry Potter. J
-Harry Potter is a witch – that should be enough but I’ll go on…
-You've got 350 kids going to the occult School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Nine are called teachers teaching various different teachings in occultism from astrology, crystal gazing, tea leaf reading, belief in the dead, belief in shape-shifting etc. All of which are what real wiccans learn in their religion. And now it’s being brought down into child friendly religious format.
-It also teaches and indoctrinates a world view of relative truth. As Christians we believe in moral absolutes but this isn’t what our kids are being taught. For example, when Harry steals, lies or does anything wrong he is rewarded because the means justifies the end. Because Harry is using good magic and the evil Lord Voldemort is using bad magic. However; both of their sources of magic comes from the same source, the phoenix feather that belongs to the school's headmaster. It's a pagan worldview that has our children shifting from moral absolutes to the end justifies the means. That good is evil and evil is good. If it's done by Harry it's okay but if it's done by the evil Lord Voldemort it's not good.
-JK Rowling the author of Harry Potter said it would take seven years to build a wizard so now we've got kids as young as 9 to 11years into witchcraft. An entire generation of our youth have been taken in on moral relativism and seduced into the occult.
If you still think Harry Potter is harmless I pray that you’ll at least watch the below video that goes into more detail: Harry Potter Witchcraft Repackaged https://youtu.be/cQGU5nZpiUY
Question to ask yourself? : When you sit down to watch a movie, read a book or listen to music… if God was sitting beside you- would you be comfortable?
2) WHAT DOES GOD THINK?
So now that we’ve got a reference and examples of some of the mainstream entertainment let’s dig deeper into God’s Word to see what He thinks about it.
Witchcraft/The Occult
The Bible talks about witchcraft quite a bit - the consequences and His dislike for anything occultic. Here is my favourite verse because God just lays it out.
Deuteronomy 18 : 9-14 states
When you arrive in the land of the LORD your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nation’s living there. For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling or sorcery, or allow them to interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft or cast spells or function as mediums or psychics, or call for the spirits of the dead. Anyone who does these things is an object of horror and disgust to the LORD. It is because the other nations have done these things that the LORD your God will drive them out ahead of you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God. The people you are about to displace consult with sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the LORD your God forbids you to do such things.
In Acts chapter 9 we come across the story of the seven sons of Sceva. Verse 18 and 19 says:
Many who became believers confessed their sinful practices. A number of them who had been practicing magic brought their incantation books and burned them at a public bonfire.
Their response to hearing the Good News what to destroy what they had that was occultic. If that was their response, as Christians, should we have books and movies in our homes that are occultic in nature or even have the elements of it?
God says in His Word that witchcraft and anything related to it is an object of horror and disgust. If our God says He forbids us from participating in such activities should we be filling our minds and our children’s minds with it?
Watching and listening is a form of participation. When you watch or listen to something because you want to, because you enjoy it aren’t you coming in agreement with it?
Violence
A lot of mainstream entertainment contains graphic violence and has the theme of revenge, of getting back at those who have wronged you.
However; God tells us to forgive, leave vengeance to Him and to turn the other cheek.
Romans 12: 19-21
Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God. For it is written, “I will take vengeance; I will repay those who deserve it,” says the Lord. Instead, do what the Scriptures say: “If you enemies are hungry feed them, if they are thirsty give them something to drink, and they will be ashamed of what they have done to you.” Don’t let evil get the best of you, but conquer evil by doing good.
If you’re constantly watching violence how can you empathize with others pain and suffering? If you‘re constantly filling yourself up with images of hatred and anger how can you show God’s love?
James 1:19-20 says
My dear brothers and sisters, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Your anger can never make things right in God’s sight.
How can we possibly be slow to anger when our minds and thoughts are filled and saturated with anger?
Sex
Sexual immorality is a huge problem in today’s society. It gets flaunted and pushed in our faces wherever we go. But just because our culture says “yes” doesn’t mean God does.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Don’t you know that those who do wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers and swindlers – none of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God.
Jesus tells us what he thinks about sexual immorality to the extent of harming yourself to prevent sinning further.
Matthew 5:27-29
You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
So if we are forbidden to look at someone in a sexual way, other than our spouse, what do you think God thinks about you watching sex and sexual content on TV, in movies, in video games, in magazines and on the internet etc?
Ephesians 5:3-4
Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes – these are not for you.
3) HOW DOES GOD WANT ME SPENDING MY TIME?
Let’s break this into three parts.
Part 1: Relationship with God
In any relationship for it to flourish and grow you need to dedicate some serious time. Let’s go back to the very first scripture in this post:
1 Peter 2:2-3
You must crave pure spiritual milk so that you can grow into the fullness of your salvation. Cry out for this nourishment as a baby cried for milk, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.
The only way you can grow into the fullness of your salvation is to spend time in God’s Word every single day. Our goal, as Christians, should be to be in constant contact with God 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
How else can we put our armor on (Ephesians 6:13-18) and effectively do battle against satan?
How can we know what God wants us to do if we don’t spend time with Him?
1 Thessalonians 5: 17 (KJV) says,
Pray without ceasing.
Remember God doesn’t want (or deserve) our leftovers so give Him the best part of your day!
Part 2: Relationship with other Christians
When you became a Christian you became part of a larger family.
John 13:34-35 says
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you must love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.
We are commanded to love our sisters and brothers in Christ. We can’t do this without spending time with other Christians – this is called fellowship. We are NOT to stand alone but get into the thick of things. God made us relational for a purpose. And yes, sometimes it will get messy but often times it needs to get messy before transformation happens. We shouldn’t hold back from that messiness but love our family just like Jesus loves us.
We have to keep in mind that nothing we have is ours – it’s all God’s. Are you with-holding your God given talents, gifts and time from the body of Christ?
Do you go to Church every Sunday and never volunteer? Do you shy away from someone who’s having problems instead of helping them out?
We are one body with many parts as shown in…
1 Corinthians 12: 12-21
The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.
Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?
But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”
Every single one of us has gifts and talents that can help the body of Christ. Don’t believe the lie that only some are called to serve – we are all called to serve in our own way!
So instead of watching TV or playing video games can you instead volunteer at your Church, join a Bible study or just have some fellowship over coffee?
Part 3: What God has commanded all believers to do
In John 14 verse 15 and 23 Jesus says if you love me obey my commandments and do what I say.
Now I don’t want to get too involved in this but I do want to get you thinking.
In Matthew 28: 19-20 and in Mark 16:15-18 we are given the great commission which is for all believers. In a nutshell we are to…
-make disciples
-baptize
-teach the new disciples to obey the commands Jesus has given us aka discipleship
-cast out demons
-lay hands on the sick and heal them
Now Hebrews 13:8 states that
Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Which means that His word is the same yesterday, today and forever. Praise God!!
And I know for most of you this is absolutely new. Unfortunately in today’s Churches where the blind is leading the blind and it’s more important to have a “feel-good” Church then to have one that teaches sound doctrine that actually changes lives it can be shocking. But we need to come back to what the Bible says and take off our religious eye glasses.
Because the truth is…
John 14: 12-14
The truth is, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name and I will do it because the work of the Son brings glory to the Father.
What did Jesus do?
-made disciples
-cast out demons
-healed the sick
-raised the dead
I would much rather spend my “down-time” discipling others, setting them free and laying hands on people and watching the power of Jesus’ name heal them. I’m telling you there’s no better high or joy then doing that! That’s the Christianity lifestyle that most Christians are missing out on!
So to come back full circle let me ask you some questions and leave you with a few extra scriptures.
1) Is what you’re watching, listening or participating in glorifying God?
2) How much time, every day, do you spend with God?
3) Have you made enough time in your day or week for what God wants to do in your life or is your calendar full with all your stuff?
I’ll end with these two Scriptures…
Romans 12:2
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect His will really is.
Ephesians 5:10-12
Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, rebuke and expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret.
Your Sister in Christ,
Angela
I bless you with an ever-deepening love for Jesus. That you are never compliant but always dig deeper so that you grow into the fullness of your salvation. (1 Peter 2:2-3)
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