The Christian Home
and
Entertainment
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (1John 2:15-17)
“ON APRIL 30, 1939, THE DAY THAT NEW YORK'S WORLD FAIR OPENED, the American public was introduced to the first U.S. television broadcast as President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a speech to welcome thousands of attendees.” (Google) Later that year, Hitler’s NAZI Germany would invade Poland and World War 2 would be at hand, and the death of 60 million people.
1939 IS PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST DEFINING YEARS in American history when so much change would come about that would affect the American home, including Christian homes. It wasn’t so much the war as it was the technology that was being birthed at the time. The changing technology and the awesome growth of American wealth was a powerful influence on the American home. It won’t be long until this new technology of 1939 will give us powerful computers for our pockets with phones attached to them and we can then become hermits as our relationships dry up.
THE PRESSURES ON THE CHRISTIAN HOME are now powerful and complicated. The enemy of the Christian home is not just one thing; we have many things contrary to the Christian home. On this page I would like to think about our entertainment. We need the Word of God and prayer and the exercise of Christian living.
WE ALSO NEED SOME ENTERTAINMENT, a diversion from the heavy burdens of work and responsibility. A nation needs a day off once a week and needs national holidays when we shift attention from duty to something else. God provided those kinds of days in His system of the Mosaic Law in the Old Testament. There were days of celebration, three times a year. God made us so that we need a change of pace every few days.
OUR ENTERTAINMENT NEEDS TO BE IN HARMONY with the Lordship of Christ and His program of living. Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; (2Corinthians 10:5) I know of no any verse that covers everything better than this verse.
GOD COMMANDED THE ISRAELITES (AND US): Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3) Our entertainment must fit into these verses. The Bible is a sufficient guide for faith and practice. When we consider any part of life in the Christian home, we will find directions by name or by principle in this Book.
GOD IS NOT A WET BLANKET UPON EVERY PARTY, but He is every bit who He claims to be: The Almighty God with whom we have to do. There is no conflict between good entertainment and the Lord of our lives.
I MUST MENTION WHAT I HAVE SEEN HAPPEN IN THE LAST 40 YEARS. It is almost common today in our affluent society to see Christian families come together and while we wait for dinner to be ready and on the table, those who are not in the kitchen are sitting around with their smart phones with eyes and ears glued to the utterances of the little thing in their hands.
No? Then, I am so glad your family life has not been ruined by these little monsters. I think we could improve family life if we had a dedicated bucket in the living room and the dining room. In this bucket, everyone would deposit these little machines that have stolen our eyes and ears away from each other. and we would be forced to talk to one another. How is it that our family comes home at night for fellowship and we are not talking to each other?
I know, I know, our families are dim-witted and have nothing worth listening to and we are too dumb to engage each other in conversation. We’re just not worth talking to? Hmmm. That hurts.
THAT'S JUST THE INTRODUCTION. There is a multi-billion-dollar industry that makes video games into killing machines that makes it fun to kill people. And the much larger screen in the living room addicts our cravings to see drama that must have at least one vivid sex scene in between the explosions and inhumanity toward humanity. Do you think this junk can be devoured week after week and have no effect on the individual and Christian homes?
My friend, I must tell you that we are in crisis today of inviting a den of serpents to fill our eyes and ears and capture our cravings. Our Christian homes need to be places where God is welcome, and the Holy Spirit is not grieved.
THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE READING IN THE HOME. Read good books to the children. Let them read books to us that is on their level. Help children to love good books, good stories. I must tell you that it is dangerous not to read good books to your children. It is dangerous not to roll on the floor and play games with the toddlers. There’s something wonderful and good about playing hide-and-go-seek and ring around the roses and hop-scotch and skipping rope and soft ball and shooting baskets.
CHILDREN SHOULDN'T HAVE TO ALWAYS GO TO SOMEBODY ELSE'S HOUSE you think? And, the home should be the school room where children invite their friends to spend the night and how to have social interchange without destroying everything, you think? Do you ever play: “I spy..?” The others have to guess what you spy.
I learned about playing marbles from my grandpa. He told me how they made their marbles by taking pieces of limestone and dropping them in a chiseled-out hole under a water fall and letting them turn until they were round. If you want to play unfair and put life-time memories in your children, make cookies and mess up the kitchen.
Once you get started at this, your kids may want to hang around until they’re thirty. If that happens, you can threaten them that they can stay and when you’re ninety, they can take care of you.
CHRISTIAN FAMILIES OUGHT TO BE WHERE CHILDREN have enough confidence in their parents that they can talk to Mom and Dad about the serious stuff, if need be. Don’t try to be buddies with your children. You’re not one of them. You are the authority figure and you’d better keep it that way. But it won’t hurt to get down in the floor with them, or go swimming with them.
I GREW UP WITH ANIMALS AROUND THE HOME. I still love cats, dogs, goats, pigs, cows, horses, birds and watching squirrels at a distance. (They can bite all the way through your thumb in a blink of the eye.) No, I never had a pet snake or lizard.
SPLASH AND SWIM WITH YOUR CHILDREN. Play catch and softball and whatever comes handy. All the boys carried knives to school when I was in the 2nd grade. I learned knife-care from Grandpa. I got a knife at least twice for Christmas…carried them to school cause all the other boys got knives for Christmas. We didn’t cut each other or fight with knives. Guns? Grew up with them and how to stay alive with them. Oh yes…and plenty of time with sling shots. I have a new-fangled sling-shot beside my reading chair from Walmart and a bottle of bee-bee’s. There’s a little boy inside of every man, even old men.
IF I STILL HAD YOUNG CHILDREN IN THE HOME, we probably would have a TV, but mom and dad would be in charge of it and the kids would not have one in their bedrooms. Computers? Not in the bedroom. It would be located in the living room or dining room and they would know it’s under the eyes of mom and dad. Computers would be a privilege and not a right. Cell phones, smart phones, under control of parents and that’s the only way they could have one.
Trusting them would be their responsibility to be earned. It’s not a birthright. Oh yes, and keep your promises you make to your kids…ice cream, spanking, whatever. (And this is all under “ENTERTAINMENT IN THE HOME.”)
Read Through the Bible in a Year
FEBRUARY 20, 2018 – TUESDAY
A.M. Numbers 3-4 P.M. Mark 3:22-35
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
Good Verses to Memorize:
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)
Song for Today:
He’s Still Working On Me (1:34) (Class at Calvary Mem. Church)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9GvT4_b4Mc&t=6s
You may have to adjust the volume or delete an ad.
RSS Feed
