Placing wicked things before our eyes and Christians?

By: American Decency Staff

By Bill Johnson I had a season in my ministry where I was speaking weekly in churches wherever opportunities arose.  I entitled my message “Holiness:  God’s desire for His peopleâ€Â. It was a very straight forward message.  One of its elements consisted of the question “How can we say we are Christians and yet place before ourselves wicked things?â€Â [Psalm 101:3a – I will place no evil thing before my eyes?] I would often mention different television programs that were becoming popular at the time and give a careful description of some of the program themes and then name particular shows that were garnering a large following like “Desperates Housewivesâ€Â, Grey’s Anatomyâ€Â, “Life as We Know Itâ€Â, etc.. My great burden was increasingly becoming that Christians were accepting that which was unacceptable to the Lord because they were watching the same thing everyone else was watching. I ask the question today:  “How can we say we love Jesus Christ and place before ourselves things that are not pleasing to the Lord?â€Â There is something about us as people that too many of us too easily accommodate  to images, words, themes that are profane, indecent, pornographic, even obscene. My concern was back in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s that there were so few people standing up for truth and decency and righteousness because there were so many  who no longer could be indignant because they were no longer offended by filthy things. I’m afraid that what we as a nation are reaping is what we have sown. Nonetheless, it begins with us.   One of my life verses is the familiar but always significant passage Romans 12:1,2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. In closing, we are in the fight for our life.  There may not be a whole lot we can do about what’s happening out there (though there is), but there is a whole lot we can do in terms of our own lives. It is never too late to fight for personal purity.  If we get sucked up into accommodation and godlessness, opening the flood gate for those who come after us, we have no one to blame more than ourselves. ========================================================== Register for our summer event featuring Gary Bauer, Friday, July 29, at 7:00 pm https://secure4.afo.net/ada/registration.php?eventno=28 Your support is important to our ability to make a difference. Donate online at: https://secure4.afo.net/ada/donate.php American Decency Association is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. American Decency Association Bill Johnson, President P.O. Box 202 Fremont, MI 49412 ph: 231-924-4050 www.americandecency.org http://www.twitter.com/billwjohnson

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