More and more lately, I find myself pondering the question of how I should spend my time if I truly think that Christ will come gather us to take us home soon. If heaven is a full time opportunity, than shouldn't my preparation for spending eternity there also be full time, not just here and there when it's convenient? We know we must occupy while we are here but just what does that mean?
Up until 2 years ago, my Sundays were filled with football during the fall/winter. On Sunday, I pretty much would start out with the pre-game NFL shows and end the day with SportsCenter wrap up. I have been known to hang out with friends and literally have 3 tv's setup to get more of the games. Then when I starting getting back into Bible study, you can refer to my "how this all started" section for more info on that journey, I thought what a waste of time to spend the day with football instead of God, my friends and family, or other worthwhile activities. God helped me go cold turkey so to speak on that. I am not trying to say watching football is a sin, I'm just saying it was interfering in my spiritual walk. Whether you should watch football or other sports is between you and God.
Then I started thinking about the videos sitting in my living room...should I have them there, should I be watching them? Over the next 6 months, I discarded all my fiction reading materials from my shelves and about 1/2 the movies. Now I find myself pondering just how much, if any, tv or movies are ok for me to spend my time viewing. I don't have an answer for sure yet but I am more and more each day feeling that less and less is the right choice for me.
If you have read other sections of my blog like my thoughts on music in God's house and you have watched the Ivor Myers testimony, you know how much the devil uses these distractions to keep us from focusing on what's important. Even more so, hollywood has so many other evil aspects. I grew up when movies were still basically "forbidden" for Adventists to go to but during my academy and college years is when it started being acceptable. I used to understand that the reason Ellen White admonished up to stay away from the "theatre" was because in her day that meant the burlesque shows. I thought that made sense and didn't apply to what a theatre is today. After reading this article, I know I was wrong in that assessment, I urge you to read Morning Trumpet Article.
We all have different growth rates in our Christian walk and the Spirit will guide us if we are willing to pray and listen to the response. 2 Tim 2:15 (CEV) tell us "Do your best to win God's approval as a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed and who teaches only the true message." If I am a worker for God, what are my study tools...the products of hollywood or the Scriptures?
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