Remember Lot's Wife

Below are the words of saints shared in love and humility. I share them with you now not in legalism, but in the Spirit of Christ as food for thought in a time when the deception of the enemy of our souls grows daily more subtle and powerful leading up to the great deception that precedes the return of our Lord. I pray these various thoughts from other brothers and sisters will be a blessing.

"As you sit down to watch TV, count the minutes. How long until you hear the first swear word, how long before the first sexual joke, how long until a violent act takes place, or how long until a child shows clear disrespect to a parent? Probably not too long! Start watching for these things, and you will be amazed. Analyze the humor in a show. Often it centers on foul language, sexuality, or disrespect or rebellion, and the limit is always being pushed."

- Karl Graustein

"As we think about consistency, let me just emphasize the whole area of entertainment, and the kind of entertainment that you approve for yourself and for your children.

You as a mom (and dads as well) are responsible to make sure that your children are being protected. Particularly as younger children; before they know how to discern right from wrong, you’re responsible to help them make those choices.

Entertainment is an area today where we are so influenced in subtle ways by a culture that is contrary to God’s ways. It’s more subtle because we laugh at entertainment; we’re amused by entertainment. It’s fun, so we don’t think of how dangerous some of what we’re being exposed to might be in its philosophy, in its behavior, in what it’s promoting as a worldview."

- Nancy Leigh DeMoss

"Statistics show that the average child living at home in America watches at least twenty-eight hours of television each week. (For some kids, the total is much higher.) Programming that targets young people is often the very worst at deliberately glamorizing sin. By the time most young people graduate from high school, they have been overexposed to the grossest kinds of evil through 'entertainment' media in mind-numbing ways””so that nothing seems particularly appalling anymore. After all, drug use, immorality, violence, and profanity are standard fare on television. When a whole generation has been raised on a steady diet of that stuff, it's no wonder that sin no longer seems exceedingly sinful to them."

- John MacArthur

"When we sit in front of sights, images and messages that are the opposite of God’s Kingdom, we allow our minds to be subtly manipulated by the voices of darkness, whether we realize it or not....

But it’s not just movies and T.V. that has us in its controlling vice. It’s an overall pre-occupation with pop-culture. Music artists, professional athletes, and movie stars claim far more of our applause and attention than Jesus Christ does...

Idols are not just golden statues that people bow down to in ornate temples. An idol is anything that claims our attention and affection above Christ. Most of us verbally declare that Jesus Christ is more important to us than our fetish for music or movies. But what does our life say? Where do we spend the best hours of our day? What do we turn to for enjoyment and comfort?

Tauler wrote,
A pure heart is one to which all that is not of God is strange and jarring.

Pop-culture floods our minds and senses with things that are not of God. But for most of us, the glamorized sin that surrounds us is not strange and jarring. It’s normal and accepted. In fact, we go out of our way to enjoy and participate in it. We even spend a huge amount of our time and money on it. And we allow it to capture our mind, emotion, and attention. Christ makes it clear that we cannot love both Him and the things that charm and ravish this world. We cannot be dazzled by the images of pop-culture and captivated by the King of all kings:

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world." (I John 2:15-16 NKJV)

"Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." (James 4:4)

...Does God stand up and cheer over American Idol? Does He smile with delight over the new Twilight movie? Does He get excited about the latest Cold Play album? Or does He grieve over our distracted, wandering, divided hearts?"

- Leslie Ludy

"Today, there is a whole generation... laughing at things that ought to make them weep, and not a few of them will suffer shipwreck, and some””the loss of their souls. Let the indiscriminate viewer beware."

- R. Kent Hughes

"Do nothing unworthy of Him who represents you in heaven, and whom you represent on earth. He is faithful to you; be you so to Him. Let men know what a Lord and Master you serve. Be His witnesses; be His mirrors; be His living epistles. Let Him speak through you to the world. Let your life tell your fellow-men what He is, and what He is to you. Speak well of Him to men, as He speaks well of you to God. He has honoured you by giving you His name; He has blessed you by conferring on you sonship, and royalty, and an eternal heritage: see that you do justice to His love, and magnify His greatness. . .Be true to Him who loved you, and washed you from your sins in His own blood."

- Horatius Bonar

Thanks for sharing this.

As I considered why people love to be entertained I got to thinking - is it because people have forgotten how to communicate - discussing life/work: how, what you did or didn't do and what went wrong and now looking for solutions. Just thinking about this... What would you say?

My brother who is twelve years younger then me lives in a distant state. We call each other several times a week to shoot the breeze. He is a farmer and I am his big sister. We talk about life, scripture, work, dilemmas encountered and solved (sometimes). In all this mix we have humor and laughter. Next to my husband, I laugh more with him then anyone else. Wonderful "entertainment."

Still, why does one pursue entertainment? What do you say, folks?

"Tauler wrote,
A pure heart is one to which all that is not of God is strange and jarring."

It is these things that are not of God that will be a snare to us in the end. Actually, many are already entangled and while these things appear to be only a snare to those that are partaking, they are also being used to "take down" those that are of a pure heart, for the lovely appears ugly to those that have been feeding in the trough of iniquity.

Who was it that said " entertainment is a substitute for the joy of the LORD"?

This is so true. Why does the whole world today seek entertainment? Because it does not have the presence and joy of the LORD. Why do so many Christians seek after entertainment? Because they are not experiencing the presence and joy of the LORD. Why are so many church services just entertainment for the sheep? Because they don't have the real presence and joy of the LORD. Why do we choose to spend time finding ways to entertain ourselves rather than experiencing the joy and presence of the LORD? Is it because we don't want expose ourselves to the LORD's presence and His dealings in our lives?

P.S. I think it was Leonard Ravenhill who said it.

The quote from MacArthur say the average child watches 28 hours of television a week.

On the dvd, Captivated, the statistics now stand at 55 hours a week. And counting...

It is not just the tv, it's the "screen" altogether. The millenials cannot go 60 seconds w/o their screens - phones, tablets, Ipads, etc. They even sleep with them by their head....it is 24/7....it is truly an addiction....

mama27 said: "It is not just the tv, it's the "screen" altogether. The millenials cannot go 60 seconds w/o their screens - phones, tablets, Ipads, etc. They even sleep with them by their head....it is 24/7....it is truly an addiction...."

...and it is killing us - both physically and spiritually.

Yes, it's the screen that got everyone hooked. We as a family
might not watch more than 1 movie in a week, but try to take
away the blackberry from my young daughter and you will face
serious opposition. Well, at least there is comminication involved
with that device and not only consumption.

"Remember Lot's Wife" -> Yes, and Amen. This year a huge battle
rages on in the spirit world, someone got all his smart weapons
firing non-stop rounds of ammunition in our direction, like very strong
temptations, strive, pride, and the willingness to go back to a 1980's
lifestyle of worldliness and hedonism. Everyday a new trick to fall
and become like Lot's Wife to look back on things we already left behind.

This is a serious fight, and not only inside the family, also in church.
Last Sunday reminded me more about a multimedia show presentation
than a respectful decent worship service. Ok, maybe they are a bit too
US style charismatic for my taste, and the drums play too loud, but this
i can overlook, what really bothers me is that most of them think they
have arrived already, and there are no more temptations that can bring
us back to Lot's Wife position. Like the unsinkable titanic, too big to fail.
That is presumption. Forgive us Lord, we don't know what we're doing.

Psalms 79:9  Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name:
and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake.

a-servant said:

"Forgive us Lord, we don't know what we're doing."

We are in the process of committing electro-magnetic suicide. Killing ourselves as well as those around us. Building ever increasing towers of Babel. Opening ourselves to the power of the enemy by doing that which the LORD has not commanded. Subjecting our minds to control that is only possible by carrying these devices where ever we go. Devices that have eyes and ears and a mouth that can be turned on and used by anyone having a reason or desire to do so. Like cattle we are being rounded up and corralled and all the while we are thinking that we are so clever and inventive - why these devices almost have us thinking that we are God.

Instant information and connection with almost anyone, anytime and anywhere. We have no need of God. Anytime we need anything we can just whip out our device and ask it what we need to know. Never mind that the internet can be manipulated to give you the WRONG answer just as easily as the right. Now there is power. Tell people that which will kill them rather than that which will make them well.

Our playground, and that of our children, is the worldwide web, and just like a spider web, it is designed to trap it's prey until the powers that be can come and suck the life blood out of those that become entangled.

"Psalms 79:9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name:
and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake."

It is not just the tv, it's the "screen" altogether. .... it is truly an addiction....

Well ”“ here I am reading a screen too. Of course I could absolve myself by noting that it’s Christian and edifying. But alas - there is a deceitful, arrogant, self-righteous spot in my heart that would relish the experience of feeling superior to other sinners. Even this topic could be a subtle distraction from my own sense of neediness and smallness, something the entertaining world does quite well. This then becomes a form of entertainment ”“ an opportunity to engage in the delicious game of speck- spotting - but eating up the mental time needed for learning more about my rich inheritance in Christ ”“ and what that requires of me.

"entertainment is a substitute for the joy of the LORD"?

So true! Entertainment can serve as a means of filling the unbearable cavern of emptiness deep withing - which can only be filled by the joy of the Lord.

Diane

The command is to obey.

"The command is to obey."

You are correct, and i just woke up. Re-reading your last post again on the first page, what an extreme statement, and so true. We follow ourselves, because our love and our thinking is corrupted. Satan will never obey, and we are on his side. How sad.

We are in serious trouble, and we ourselves put us there. Now i understand what i saw last Sunday in church in the pastor and the elder in the row in front of me: the prayer and all the joyful celebration didnt go to the God in heaven, it was a celebration of the God in us which on that day was awefully close to the "god of us". Yes too much shouting and stomping, we celebrated ourselves, and how good we are, and how privileged we are to associate ourselves with His name. Jesus help us, we don't even understand how blind we are.

Thank you HeartSong, the Lord uses you to call us back from our deep deep error.

your brother George, in love with the saints.

p.s. my wife just came in before i could post this, and told me that one of our dogs just died. He had fever since 3 days because he did fight with his twin-brother and he lost the fight, then was so weak that he did catch a virus, and now just passed away. Never fight with your brothers and sisters, it weakens everbody, always love them and support them. Never mind the differences, if you disaree just let them know, and if you have to, depart and leave them alone. I have to visit this place one more time next Sunday, maybe I was wrong, and they can find the way back to the real Jesus, Lord of kings, worthy to be praised in sincerity and awe.

HeartSong said: "Our playground, and that of our children, is the worldwide web, and just like a spider web, it is designed to trap it's prey until the powers that be can come and suck the life blood out of those that become entangled."

Sobering words. This generation has become so dependent on the web and all the devices that are available to access it. Particularly the young generation, as you said. They are plugged in 24/7. And are perishing. It seems that God in mercy will have to do what I sometimes do when I see spider webs out in the back yard. I take a broom and give them a swipe.

Follow up: All is good in my local church, they reconsidered
their ways, was an excellent meeting today. An elder came up
and we did pray for Zach our guest from L.A. and he gave his life
to the Lord today, after walking out on the worship time initially.

That still has the same problem of deep base and base drums
that make your stomache vibrate. I would say thats what asks
for the demons to dance, for the most part. Well one demon
got drived out from a girl that went to the floor screaming.

We need to talk about the music again, however i'm happy
that Zach did respond to the invitation, the Lord opened up his heart!