Whatsoever

I read other peoples blogs, web pages and personal information. It is like walking into someone’s house and looking at his or her bookshelf. It can tell you a lot about a person. I notice on many of the Christian profiles they put that they enjoy drama, horror, sci-fi and odd movies or programming on T.V.

I wonder why. The old saying used to be ‘junk in- junk out’. There is no spiritual nutrition in a horror flick. There isn’t very much sustenance in most of the movies or television. They are made for sheer entertainment… and the producer’s pocketbook.

‘I am reminded of a young couple that fell in love and he adored her. She adored him very much… or so he thought. One day he caught a glimpse of the pictures in her wallet. She had multiple pictures of everyone and anyone. Then there was one solitary picture of him. It seemed the smallest of them all and it laid at the back after all the rest.

This made him wonder why if she professed such a great endearing love for him why she wouldn’t want to have a bigger picture or more to show other folks. He had given her many pictures at her request. He began to wonder how special he really was in her life. Was she ashamed of him? Had he embarrassed her? Was he thinking she professed more of a love than she really felt? Was he just imagining that he was first in her life?

He pondered all these questions. He felt unneeded and alone’.

I wonder if this is how Jesus feels when we put him last in our lives. We profess with our mouths that he is our entire lives but we live for the world and its pleasures. Instead of doing what Philippians 4:8 says we do everything and anything that seems to oppose it.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

How can we think on these things while we are watching a movie at $15 a pop that scares the daylights out of us? How do we think on any of these things while having gore effects, shock scenes, and a host of other unpleasant things flash by our eyes? Some would say this is just a true portrayal of life but really, it is just a clever way to desensitize people to pain, blood and brutality. Actually, it lessens the work done on the cross by Christ. Instead of being broken by the thought that he was beaten for our sins, we then can categorize the brutality as just another ‘show’. Desensitization is a bad, bad thing.

We notice that when we think on the things in the above passage they tend to cause us to reflect on our Lord. The one that we are supposedly professing to be number one in our lives.