It was around the year 2000 when I was working as general manager of a local cleaning company that I had to do a lot of driving, mostly at night, all across Nova Scotia. Around that time, I would often turn on the radio just to listen and keep me awake.
However, over time, I noticed something about listening to the radio. There seemed to be a direct correlation between the amount that I listened to the radio and the nearness I felt toward God. The more I listened to the radio, the further I felt from God and the less interested I was in Him or His Word. The less I listened, the more open I was to think about God and be interested in my relationship with Him.
I'm sure it didn't help that there was no Christian radio stations at that time. Almost all of the news was bad news and almost all the music was about sex or desire or some emotional thing or experience.
It is important to know that Jesus said that His Word is like a seed. He said that if the seed of His Word fell on the soil of someone's heart that was crowded with weeds, the seed would not grow strong or produce fruit. The entire focus of Jesus' Word is to produce fruit. The fruit He wishes to produce in us is listed as, "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control." But if there are weeds in the heart of a person, these qualities will not grow. Jesus lists the weeds and names then as, "the worries of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things (other than this fruit He wishes to produce in the heart and life through His Word).
So it was true in my experience that the more I listened to this world's media through the radio, the less fruit I was finding in my heart and life and the less radio I listened to, and the more of His Word I reflected on instead, the more His Word bore fruit in my heart and life.
More topics upcoming:
- Coke, Coffee & Chocolate
- TV and the slippery slope (homosexuality gaining a foothold in television)
- TV and the lure of drama and the explicit "lost" message.
- Powerful Movie Messages: Inception, The Adjustment Bureau
- Paul's instructions to Timothy about focusing on the goal of love and having nothing to do with "myth" (stories of this world).
- "Instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths (stories of this world) and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion." (1Tim. 1.3-6)
- "Worship" music & its appeal to the emotions
- "But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places, who call out to the other children, and say, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.'" (Matt. 11.17)
- "Worship" music & "liking" it ... even when it's calling for revival and confessing sin. Groovin' to repentant music just doesn't jive.
- "What I want or like" ... How much of my life and time and past time is oriented around what I like or want? Life in Christ is not about what I like or want. "For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." (Galatians 5.17)
- Hymns and the effects of perfection on worship. The exchange of the Psalter for pleasing rhymes. The "joyful noise" vs. The performing band.
- The opulence of cathedrals and robbing the poor.
- The refusal to apply child safety policies until after abuse and church splits.
- The incorporated church - the antithesis of Christian community.
