Hello, Wednesday! It is so hard to believe we have nearly made it to the end of the Bible. And I love God’s sense of humor. We’ll wrap up with Revelations on the last week in 2011. He’s cool like that, isn’t He? Let’s jump right into III John, shall we? Feel free to comment below!
III John 11 (NIV)–Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.
Let’s face it. We live in a world that is inherently evil. Most of the shows on TV, quite a bit of the music on the radio, the majority of the movies we see… Even the news at night is full of it. And the more we soak up, the more desensitized we become. What is wrong appears normal. What is right appears totally dysfunctional. We have come to a place in our culture where we truly are starting to call evil “good” and good “evil.”
It’s a battle, isn’t it? Every day, it gets harder to stand up for right without being labeled “wrong.” The problem really comes in when we start to question that right and wrong. When we are more steeped in our entertainment than we are in our Word, doesn’t the water get a little bit cloudy? We start to question ourselves and our motives, maybe even out God. That’s when we get to that dangerous patch, where we start to maybe not imitate evil, but definitely to tolerate it.
I’ll be honest… I wish we’d all stand up and unite our voices. The voices of the world are most definitely united. Satan has made sure of that. It’s the Christian voices that sound like a whisper here and a brief shout there. Oh, that we would join together in a chorus of truth. Am I the master at that? No. I wish I were. It’s going to take a lot of boldness to be voices of truth. The prayer for that boldness needs to start now…
-JB
Jessica R. Patch says
Girl, you are nailing it and stepping on toes today, mine included. Someone the other day told me, about a particular foul FX tv show, “I like the show and I know it’s rough, but that’s what the real world is like.” My response? “Doesn’t mean you have to entertain yourself with it.” Am I perfect when it comes to tv? Pfft! Hardly.
But you are right. The more we indulge, the less sensitive we become to, well…everything. Great post! You all done Christmas shopping? 🙂
Jodie says
Christmas shopping. I still don’t think I’m done and it’s Christmas night. 🙂 I know. I have to check myself on what I watch and listen to. Sometimes I think, “I’m an adult. I can handle this.” But the fact is, desensitization is desensitization.
Dawn Lucowitz says
I also chose 3 John 11. More and more every day this world makes me shake my head. Good and evil and right and wrong are so confused. Media in its many forms add to this confusion every day. It is really difficult to find good, clean shows on TV or music on the radio. The language, suggestive behavior, and morally questionable actions feel impossible to avoid sometimes. Add social networking and the awful news into the mix and this is an extra hurting nation!
I do not have children of my own, but I now have several God children and my first niece and I am really looking forward to watching them grow and doing my part to help teach them and shape them into Godly people. I want to be that adult that can help them to distinguish between what and who is good and evil.
Jodie says
It’s so hard. Sometimes I wish Jesus would go ahead and come back and stop the madness. I look at the world and wonder how to help my daughter grow up right in it. It’s scary… until I realize God’s got her. He’s bigger than anything going on in the world.