Complacency: Being happy with where we are

Callousness: Devoid of passion or feeling

Holy: Physically pure, morally blameless

Today many Christians are living double lives. On Wednesday and Sunday they go to church, they sing praise and worship, they listen to the teaching, they even receive from God. They are genuine Christians serving Jesus for the moment. But what happens when they are away from the church, when they are home out of the public eye. 1 Peter 1:15 tell us to live Holy lives.

So, you might ask, what exactly is my point. Well the best way to express my point is to use my own life. I have been a Christian for 17 years, and served Jesus the way that many do. I would watch movies that had questionable content, or read magazines that had questionable pictures in them, and then go and worship God like everything was just as it should be. The really sad part was that I really didnt feel like anything was wrong. This is because I had allowed my heart to become callous. When the heart becomes callous then we become complacent in our walk with God, never striving to reach the next level. I can remember a cousin of mine telling me many times that it was okay to watch some of those movies, because as adults we have a built in editor and can filter out the bad stuff. Well now I know better and it is only from personal experience that I speak. God is calling us to live a Holy life and many Christians are allowing themselves to be entertained by the lies of the Deceiver. Some where along the way I stopped watching R rated movies and would only allow myself to watch G and PG 13 movie. Many of these movies contain a very subtle message. While we laugh at the outward story of the movie the inner message is about, lust, adultery, hatred etc These are the very things that God warns us about yet we will sit in front of the television and enjoy the story, allowing the doors to be open in our hearts and homes to the subtle deceits of Satan himself.

A recent movie, The Bachelor, rated pg 13, is a comedy about a man that has a chance to inherit a million dollars, the catch is he has to be married by the time he is 30 which is in 24 hours. So he starts working his way through several x girlfriends looking for one to marry. The story tells about his experiences with each woman as he works his way through the list. Sounds innocent enough, but the subtle story is about the love of money, lust and deceit. Is this the message we want to give to our children in the name of entertainment, not if we want to live a Christian life, holy and blameless.

Dont get me wrong, I am not passing judgment in fact I am sure that they do love Jesus. I know that I did, but this isn't about loving Him, it is about a total commitment to Him. I am merely pointing out that if we want to experience the fullness of God in our lives then the fullness of our lives needs to be in God. We need to renew our minds and worship God with our lives each and every day. We need to get up and turn the TV off, stop playing that video game that is all about death and destruction. We need to stop listening to music about drinking and divorce etc. We need to spend our time with Him, drawing closer to him. Developing our relationship with Jesus and being about our fathers business. God said that his people are a peculiar people. Why is it then that we entertain ourselves the same way that the un-believer does? Where is the fruit that shows the rest of the world that we are different?

"Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

We must stop entertaining ourselves with the ways of the world and start living that holy and blameless life that God has called us to live. Am I saying that we shouldn't watch TV or read a book or watch a movie? Not all, but we should monitor the content very closely. My wife TJ once told me "we shouldn't watch anything on TV that we wouldn't' do in real life". This a good rule of thumb to abide by.

Ezekiel 18:9

"Such a man obeys my commands and carefully keeps my laws. He is righteous, and he will live," says the Sovereign Lord."

 

Mathew 7:24

Jesus is coming back one day and He is coming for a people who are living a holy life dedicated to Him.

~ Michael Vines ~

Jan. 6, 2003