Another Reason to Turn off the TV

Christian, are you sure that spending hours in front of the “Babylon-Tube” (hat tip to my pastor for that one) is the best way to be spending your time? Between all the filth, dirty language, and worldly values, there isn’t much that can be redeemed from Cable TV. Now to make matters even less palatable, this article reports that Comcast and DirecTV are going to be pushing pay-per-view porn advertising on male-oriented channels like ESPN and Spike TV.

Faced with increased competition from former phone companies such as AT&T and Verizon, satellite and cable companies are loosening their chastity belts and getting more aggressive about promoting adult content on other male-heavy channels such as ESPN and Spike TV. What’s more, even as they raise prices on regular channels, the price of their adult fare is about to get much cheaper and more attractive.

So, in addition to what you’d find on almost every other channel, now Cable TV will be airing porn-vertisements. How… nice. Undoubtedly, this move will contribute positively to America’s sewer-mired culture.

God’s Word calls us to be separate from the world, not a part of it (1 John 2:15). And more and more today, being a part of the world includes television watching. The reason why is that what we see on TV affects us. It shapes our values, our morals, our views on God, and defines our standards for behaviour (usually lowering them). Since so much worldly wisdom spews forth, there is no profitability in a Christian devoting himself to the tube. Not only will no spiritual growth amount from it, but excessive television viewing will likely cause the viewer to sin in mind, if not in act. And now, with the porn-vertising push, there is even more risk of that happening.

It’s for reasons like this that we Christians should be spending less time consuming worthless brain-rot and devoting more time to the Lord who has saved us. Maybe instead of watching that R-movie, why not open up your Bible instead? How about finding a quiet place to pray for a while? What about engaging in some sort of ministry for you church? All are preferable to the spiritual poison television feeds to those who view it.

We need to be devoting ourselves to God’s glory, not reveling in that which God hates.

Walking Undead Appear on TV Show

From WorldnetDaily:

A new television program broadcast this month follows a group of 13 non-Christian volunteers, who, on camera, attempt to “live by the teachings of the Bible for three weeks.”

“Make Me a Christian,” broadcast in a three-part series, asks the participants to be mentored by four pastors from a variety of backgrounds – Anglican, Catholic, Evangelical, and Pentecostal – as they attempt to live like Christians, an effort that runs in stark contrast to many of the participants’ backgrounds.

The 13 volunteers who will make the effort include a tattooed militant atheist biker, a man who converted from Christianity to Islam, a lesbian schoolteacher, a lap-dancing witch with a lust for expensive shoes, a middle-class yuppie couple that can’t find time to spend with their children and a party animal who claims he’s slept with over 150 women.

Imagine attending a funeral of a recently deceased man. He lies in an open coffin, completely still. Despite the fact that he no longer draws breath, he almost looks like he could be sleeping because he is so well dressed. A firmly pressed suit adorns his stiff body, while makeup adds color to his cheeks and lips. Eyes closed, it seems as if they could open any moment. If this weren’t a funeral nobody would know he’s dead.

That’s what this British show conjures up in my mind. Dead people being looking like they’re alive. Several spiritual corpses are going to dress up in the good works of the Christian faith and pass themselves off as being spiritually alive. They will be like the walking undead, saying all the right things, doing all the right things, but never being crucified with Christ so that they may live with Him (Romans 6:4-5, Galatians 2:20).

The Word of God already tells us how this will end. Without genuine, born-again saving faith, these people will remain slaves to their sin (Romans 6:6) and never rise from the dead.

If you have it in your heart to pray for these poor souls, please do.

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;  for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. (Romans 6:3-9, NASB)