Some time ago I was at the movies with a friend. We were watching the trailers and a scene came on where a character said in anger “Jesus Christ!” I cringed on the inside, but my friend actually voiced her disagreement about it out loud so that people in the seats around us could hear. I came away admiring her. I admired her boldness, but more, I admired that she was not prepared to let this just wash over her as another example of living in a secular world.

What has made me think about this is a DVD that Michael and I watched last night. The story was fictional and among other things, it showed the influence of TV and movies in our lives. It highlighted this idea that we as Christians have become desensitised and unresponsive to what is being communicated no matter if it strays from God’s heart and will.

I understand the need for Christians not to appear as weirdos or as “holier than thou,” and I am a firm believer in balance, but I guess I am beginning to question what “balance” means when it comes to my entertainment and recreation. Does it mean that I will just sometimes watch popular sitcoms where glamorous women sleep with loads of men? I guess I have thought that I automatically “filter” what does not line up with God, but if Jesus was sitting on the sofa with me I wonder whether He would just “filter” stuff too, or whether He would stand up and walk out of the room? Sin, no matter how it is wrapped up, is an attack upon who He is, and I do not see Him being half-hearted about it (Romans 1:18).

Joyce Meyer, who may well be one of the most influential Bible teachers of our time, tells the story of friends joining her, and her husband, Dave, for an evening in watching a movie. From memory, the film had been recommended to them and she assumed that it would be OK. In the opening scene a woman appeared riding a horse across the open countryside – topless. Without hesitation she asked Dave to stop the movie, it was ejected from the player, and thrown in the bin!

Her lack of compromise inspires me. Her sensitivity to, and intolerance of, what is inappropriate is exemplary to me.

The thing is that God is gracious, and He bears with us, but is that where we want to leave it? I want so much more than that. God actually spoke in intimate terms with Moses “as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11). That intimacy is what inspires me; that depth of relationship. It is the pure in heart that see Him (Matthew 5:8) and if that means keeping sensitive to what grieves Him (Ephesians 4:30), and “guarding my heart” (Proverbs 4:23) against what offends him through what I allow in through my eyes, than that is what it takes.

~ by Birgit on April 14, 2007.

Posted in Christianity, Devotional, Jesus