Gift of Tears

When was the last time you got on your knees and wept for the salvation of a lost soul of another human being? The Puritans would pray and ask God for the gift of tears. I believe we desperately need this in the church today. Soul'd out Christians who weep, who are truly heart broken, with tears and pleas and prayers for their lost co-workers and family members, and neighbors, who are on their way to eternal fire and forever misery in hell. There is no end to hell. Eternity is forever! Forever! Forever! God help us to weep! Cry! Plead! Beg! Fast! For every single lost soul we know. God help and forgive us for doing anything else beside this.

Wasting Time

Imagine how much time and life is wasted on tv, movies, youtube, myspace, etc. or any other frivolous things. So sad...
1Peter 5:8 "Be of sober spirit,be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."
How can we be of sober and alert spirit when we watch brain wasting and numbing sitcoms and ungodly movies? youtube videos? We cant.
Job 31:1 "I have made a covenant with my eyes; How then could I gaze at a virgin?"
As Job made a covenant with his eyes to not look upon a woman, so should we make a covenant with our eyes to not look upon ungodly tv, videos, movies, and other forms of what this world calls 'entertainment'.

Jeremiah 7:30 "The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares the Lord. They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it."
I think about how we, as christians, try to have a 'godly home' devoted unto God, but then set up a tv or computer, and then watch evil on it- and 'it' becomes our idol.

Psalm 101:3 (nasb) "I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not fasten its grip on me."
Psalm 101:3 (kjv) "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me."

How many worthless, or wicked things have we spent countless hours watching and finding pleasure in worldly entertainment... Or laughing at sitcoms with humor that wickedly glorifies sins, and then we laugh at it, laughing at coarse jesting, laughing at jokes about sinful things, sins for which Christ Jesus had to be crucified for?
Ephesians 5:4 "and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks."

Philipians 4:8 "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."
Is the tv show or movie pure? worthy of praise? If what your watching does not fit into this catorgory or standard, then don't watch it. The bible says to dwell on things that are good. Dwell means to-To fasten one's attention,to live or continue in a given condition or state,to linger over, emphasize, or ponder in thought, speech. How can you do that when you dwell on unrighteous tv or movies?

Psalm 11:5 "The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates."
How much do you love violent action movies? How much pleasure do you get when the 'bad guys' or 'good guys' get killed, or revenge is executed? In our sinful nature our flesh can't help but rise up and get excited by violent action movies. You may say "Hey watching revenge getting executed is good, because it has a sense of justice, and God loves justice, so its good when the bad guy gets it"
Uh no, the bible says vengeance is the Lords, not ours, and to forgive your enemies, and to do good to those who mis-use you, mis-treat you, and to pray for those that hurt you, to pray for your enemies, to love your enemies. Then you may say in response "Well, the movie is fictional, its just a story, so what does it matter anyway!" Well, it does matter because when you are being entertained by anything that goes against biblical standards and watching and filling your mind with things that are the opposite of what the bible says, you are allowing yourself to be conformed and numbed into the mind-set of this world. Jesus told stories too, they were called parables, and parables in a way are like short stories- with a biblical teaching. Well, movies and tv shows do the same, they are like short teachings- but unfortunately its teaching is always promoting the opposite of biblical standards. Take the bible for what it says, Gods soul hates those who love violence. So why would I want to watch anything that encourages my flesh to love violence?
Psalm 11:4 "The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD'S throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men."
Look at the complete opposite picture above in scripture, "The LORD is in His holy temple" Imagine God on His holy throne in perfect holiness, and perfect love, and perfect hatred of sin...And then imagine us sitting in our living room wasting time, watching an evil tv show or violent tv show or movie, laughing... Quite sad opposites. How God must be grieved. How the Holy Spirit must be grieved in us.
Ephesians 4:30 "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."
Eph 4:29 "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth..."
How can we let no unwholesome word proceed from our mouth when we watch tv shows and movies that that are filled with unwholesome words?
Eph 4:31 "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice."
How can anger, wrath and malice be put away from us when we fill our mind with movies that are full of these things?
Rom 12:2 "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."
How can you renew your mind with godliness and holiness, and not be conformed to the world when all your free time is spent doing the opposite by mind numbing entertainment.
It's interesting that the opposite (Antonym) of "renew" means to- finish, halt, kill, stop. Are you halting your walk and relationship with God by what you watch? Are you killing your spirit? Killing the 'new man' in you who is supposed to be conforming to be more like Jesus? Are You Killing your spiritual growth? Are you stopping Gods will for your life?

Or how much money have we spent on worldly entertainment that could of gone to feed the starving in Africa, or given to support missionaries who need money to help them preach the gospel that will save souls from hell? How much did your flat screen tv cost? How much did your awesome multiple speaker home entertainment center cost? How much is your new updated computer system that comes out every year?

You may say "Hey! I don't own a flat screen and I don't watch movies that much, and I don't own a movie home entertainment system, and even if I had the money to buy one, I wouldn't!" Well then, I ask you then- What do you spend your time and money on? Clothes? Do you have an unending supply of new clothes? shoes? How many pairs of shoes do you own? How much do you spend on frivolous things to decorate your house? How much video games do you play? What new video system do you buy? How much sports do you watch? news?
My point is...Is that everyone has 'something' that we can waste our time and money on. Everyone is in danger of having some sort of frivolous mind numbing and money wasting idol. Check yourself, and ask God what obstacles or idol do you have.
Psalm 26:2 "Examine me, O LORD, and try me; Test my mind and my heart."
Lamentations 3:40 "Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the LORD."
Galatians 6:4 "But each one must examine his own work"
1Thessalonians 5:21-22 "But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil."
2Corinthians 13:5 "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test?"


Anyway things to ponder, repent, and change in our lives...God bless and help us all, who try to live godly in this present evil age.
Galatians 1:4 "who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father"

God wants to RESCUE us! So let Him.