Are You Serving Two Masters?

Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.


All Christians are agreed? Good.


Now here is the hard part- Go to your home movie cupboard or what ever you may have and get rid of it all. Now cancel cable.


Not a chance, you say? Hard isn't it?


Why? Because we love them to much. We find them entertaining. We have invested to much into them. It is just part of life to have them. They tantalze our lust for things of the flesh. We build ourselves a shrine called the entertainment room, big screens, lights, the whole works. We worship in this temple, become educated in this temple, we spare no expense. We revel in our collection of movies.


We as Christians keep complaining about how bad movies are these days... and yet those same movies are in our own homes. Sorry, I should say GOD'S Home that he has entrusted you to care for. How does something like movies become so important to us, that we would rather defend and excuse ourselves then give it up. Think about it. What is it that is so important?


'But I like them', 'they're funny', 'It is just for entertainment','I'm not watching it for the bad parts', 'that's just the way our culture is now', 'it's a cute movie','you're making a big deal out of nothing','it's just a movie'....


Tell that one to God.

How low we stoop when we find entertaining the very practices GOD HATES! The very things we are to battle against, we use for relaxation. The family devotional is replaced by family time around the TV. We are boiling ourselves to death like the frog in a pot. We can't even tell what is good or bad anymore. We've warped our minds so badly. We have become lover's of pleasure instead of lovers of God. We have set before our eyes the wicked things which God commands us not to do. God isn't pleading with us that we don't do it... He has commanded us. We as Christians have failed to use our discretion. It pains me to hear of Christians talking about a latest movie that is filled with the most horrible things, and yet they talk of how great the movie was and how they are going to get it soon. They don't even blink at sin in them anymore, it doesn't even phase them. What's worse, the worst parts are the ones they love the most, laugh at, and copy.


"But I'm not like that...I know when something isn't right so I can watch it without being influenced by it" --Since when does knowing something is evil in God's sight give you permission to put it in front of you!!!


What ever happened to 'What ever you do; do it all for the glory of God"? Did your viewing of last night's TV program glorify God and edify you? No, it glorifed your carnality.

"But it has a really good message"--check again, was that message biblical or humanistic?

"But I love movies where good wins over the bad"-- Were those 'good' guys what God defines as good? Even their acts and very nature are wicked before Him.

This was a very hard area for me to accept, but but in the end it paid off. I put them all in boxes down to the basement( I wasn't brave enough to get rid of them permanently in the beginning), and refused cable.(Actually, I weeded them out little by little,the most obvious ones went, and as time wore on, I realized that others too were not what they should be until one day I realized that not one of them would have God's approval) I replaced my videos with ones that honoured God, educated me in the christian walk, and blessed my home and family.After awhile, I began to realize how influenced I was by the former videos in my home. I realized how influenced my children were and that scared me, since I am by God responsible for their upbringing. The movies I once loved, now are to me like poison. Harsh to say but true. Only when we get rid of these things do our hearts fully understand how powerful in message these things are.( A word of caution... I also found that not all movies in christian stores are biblicly christian either.)

I will no longer go into movie stores as well. When taking my children in there in the past I told them to look down if they see something they shouldn't be looking at( me, being the good mom to guard their eyes) saw them the whole time with their heads down. That woke me up. I finally looked with my heart wide open for once... they were right, even the things I thought harmless were wicked in God's sight. I walked out and have never been in there again.

It is a radical step, so foreign to our minds to live without our idols, it has become like the air we breath. And our reluctance to let these things go is a testimony that they are too important. Why do you still hang on to yours? We cannot serve two masters. If God said to you right now them or me... could you get rid of them? He's saying it right now. Will those movies still be there tomorrow? Wow, they really are your master. Pray about it. Pray hard. It really will make a difference in your spiritual walk.


If anyone would like some suggestions for some titles of what to replace them with, let me know.

I am a woman of God, I let Him do the Roaring!

I LOVE being the kind of woman that God expects of me! Whoever thinks that being a Godly woman the way the bible describes it is a boring, constricting, unchallenging, unfullfilling, degrading, less-freeing, barbaric, unworthy, outdated and useless waste of time literally must be crazy!

It isn't a matter that I've learned to be content with "debasing" myself to the Bible's "limited" and "outdated" view of womanhood. HA! again...HA! If I had only known sooner the incredible wisdom of God's plan...the freedom...put into one of the most important positions in the world... the light of His truth that just completely marvels me and perplexes me as to how come I didn't "get it" before! The thing that I love the most?... This whole new world that has opened up to me and I have only begun this incredible journey! I LOVE BEING A WOMAN OF GOD - GOD'S WAY!
The more I can weed out the compromises and downright falsehoods that have crept into our post-modern christian culture, the more the world makes sense. I haven't got things perfect yet, but that just means it get's even better than this!

God doesn't make rules of do's and don'ts for his own pleasure, but for our own good. Quit fighting God... He does know what He doing and why!

If God says it... you do it! Huh, isn't that a novel thought.

Training our Children is NOT an Option

Wow, this link below on homeschooling is something to think about and is so true.

http://www.chalcedon.edu/hsblog/2008/08/barking-up-wrong-tree.php

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not on thine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.-Proverb 3:5-6

Too often we abandon God's commands when we don't understand with our own logic... What ever happened to that thing we call FAITH!?!

Trust and obey, there is no other way...

Let the Lord build it

"A house is made of bricks and stone; a home is made of love alone"

Ever notice--GOD is LOVE, so better phrased

"A house is made of bricks and stone; a home is made of GOD alone"

Just like Proverbs 127-"Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain to build it"

We can try to all we want to make our homes into something beautiful and lasting, but if we aren't doing it God's way, we are wasting our time.

Unfortunately, many Christians aren't even aware of what the bible says concerning a home. Those who wish to know are further confused by the humanistic ideals of so-called christian experts. This is rarely a subject taught by the church and when it is , is poorly and sometimes detrimentally explained.

So what is a biblical home? What purpose does God set out for a home? What roles do each family member play in the home? Why is 'how we keep a home' so important to christians? What will a God centered home look like? What should we have/not have in our homes?

I will be discussing this in greater depth for each of these questions in future posts.

For Now,

Wives:Begin by inquireing of your husbands how they would like to see the house. Get an idea of how they would do things. What would they do different? It takes only a moment to get his perspective on things. I'm not asking you to agree with everything, just that you ask for now.

Daughters: though you may not have your own home, you do have your bedroom with which to practice your discernment in creating a God honouring home. As a future homemaker under her husband's guidance, ask your father for guidance in evaluating your room with you. Would he like to see it less messy, Is there music there he does not aprove of and would like to see it gone? Again, your homework is to just ask for now.

Give Up the Act

Look, if we really are serious about our walk with God, then we better act like it. If we are stewarts of the house God has given to us, we better make sure our houses don't contain anything that offends God. If we say we love God, then we had better be very careful to actually follow his commandments. If we say that we trust God's word and that it is relevent for all time, then we better not pick and choose the parts we like, and discard the parts we think don't fit conveniently with today's culture. If we are to be symbols of God's purity, we had better not present ourselves as a prostitute, both in dress and mannerism. If we are putting on the whole armour of God, we better be soldiers who are wise enough to actually use it. If we proclaim to be God's people and yet live like the world, then we are luke warm and spat out by God. It is pretty hard to profess to be a christian when God himself says 'I never knew you, away from me evil doer". We must get our acts together.

Welcome to my Blog

It wasn't long ago, I was searching through the scriptures, read my entire bible for the first time, and ran into so many incredible things there that defied how we are currently portraying christianity. I read the bible again... I must have misunderstood something. We're there other's who saw things by biblical truth? I started to look into other religions- Jehova's Witness, Mormon, Seventh day Adventist, ect. The first thing that struck my mind with them is their passionate conviction for what they beleive( though through much time and biblical study, I have found these groups to not hold up to complete bible doctrine), a passionate conviction that is completly unheard of in most proffessing evangelicals christians.I got down on my knees and and cried for the Lord to show me mercy and wisdom in this area. What began was a huge search.Was I just being legalistic? Am I just misunderstanding something? When little red flags would go up in my mind, was I just being unrealistic? When something the church or christians ( or myself for that matter) would make me feel uneasy, I could never understand why, nor put words to it so I often kept quiet about it. My search though kept leading to clues and widened my mind as too how far we have strayed from God's truth. I had to start somewhere though, and one of those things that rubbed me the wrong way was having my chilren in public school. I took them out this last year, even though I was pregnant with my 5th child, and not sure how I would be able to do it all, I rested on God's strenth...if this was a commandment of his, then who was I to argue. I began homeschooling. My search for truth continued. Then finally, I stumbled upon what I had been looking for... people who feared God in their hearts and minds, who had passionate conviction based on the word of God. Everything that rubbed me the wrong way before that I had no words for... they became my words...I could almost remember leaping out of my chair thinking... THAT'S IT!!! that is what it is I've been noticing! I wasn't just some crazy legalist. I was a person who didn't want to be a whishy-washy christian, I wanted to go full board! And now I know why. It is a world that we never understood in our present day of christiandom because we have strayed so far from what the bible says. We live in a time where evolutionary, humanistic, and feministic thinking has replaced everything we hold dear in both our lives and the church. And now I can see it! Oh, had I known these things sooner, it could have saved me so much grief and heartache. But better late than never...and the difference it has made in my home is astounding! I welcome you all to my blog... let me tell you of what the Lord has done!

Part 3 of Voddie B. series

Voddie Part 2

Please be patient with me!

My site will be up and running soon! I am just getting the hang of it for now. I hope to address many things on my heart, link to sites that have overwhelmed me by their biblical integrity, give some product reviews from various christian sites, hope to open an online store in the future... whew, any help would be great!