Fighting for better movies!

We had a ladies night here at our church on Friday night and it was a lot of fun. But they women organising the night went through a lot to organise the whole night. The women spent a lot of time searching and watching a lot of movies to find one that was appropriate to show that had no swearing in it or no sex scenes etc. Do you know how hard it was to find a show that had no swearing or sex scenes. Almost impossible. After much searching
they found one.

It made me think about what we watch everyday. We don't have any movies or shows anymore that don't have people sleeping with eachother on night one or having affairs...or without swearing etc. I think this is a little disturbing. What are we watching, WORSE, what are our kids watching?

I hear so many people who say "Oh, I let my kids watch this show. I mean I know its rated 'M' but they know it's not real. They know not to do the things they see." Really? I mean, it's great that you give your kids so much
credit, but let me tell you, they are not as mature as you'd like to believe! I'm sure that you tell them that it's not real, but do they really understand? Kids live in a world of fantasy. If your child still believes in the tooth fairy, Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny, then chances are they're not old enough to be subjected to 'M' rated movies that are full of sex, violence and swearing!

Maybe you think that I'm a prude or something, and that's ok...but I think as Christians we need to make sure that we are using our discernment. We need to know where to draw the line...and let me tell you, it's a very thin line! We need to know a little about discernement. We need to know when to switch the TV off or walk out of a movie that's not wholesome or a movie that maybe you wouldn't be watching if Jesus was there! If there are things that you believe we shouldn't be doing as Christians, why would you watch those things happen on your TV screens? Why would you bring that into your homes? Why would you pay money to go and watch those things happen if you truly don't agree with them. The sad thing is that there are very few movies and shows out now that are wholesome, so we have just 'put up with it' and subjected to the rest of the world.

In Philippians 1:9-11 it says this:

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God."

So much truth in those words. We need to have depth of insight so that we can discern what's best and may be pure and blameless until Christ returns. How do we have depth of insight? We study and we get to know the Word of God and what it tells us about what we should do. The Bible still applies to us today. All the answers you need to know about anything in life is found in the Word of God. You just need to know how to study it. You can't take everything the Bible says as you read it. You need to study it. You need to get to know about when it was written and the context in which it was written to understand what it really says and means. You need to know who translated it and what their sources were. If we put effort into studying God's Word we will have depth of insight and we can discern what God is saying to us and how we should live in a way that is pleasing to God and so that we might be full of the fruit of righteousness. You need to ask yourself in everything you do, 'Is what I'm doing giving glory and praise of God?'

We have fallen into the trap of 'going with the flow'. That's not what God intended for us as Christians. He didn't want us to go with the flow. He wanted us to be IN the world but not OF the world! So in everything that we do we need to make sure that we are pleasing God and not man. If you wouldn't watch it with Jesus, don't watch it at all. Because you ARE watching it with Jesus! Don't encourage people to make these movies. By watching them we are encouraging them to make them and we are not helping. If we take a stand time will show that we, through Jesus, will have the victory.