Good Food, Bad Food (9/21/08)

It’s always tempting to avoid topics that might turn people off. This is one of them. When you challenge the things that people like, it’s usually a good way to lose viewers. And that’s definitely not my intent. I seriously hope this message did not come across as “preachy” or judgmental.

It’s true that I have no interest in a lot of the shows and movies that people like these days. But I also realize that others can make accusations against me if they wanted to. Take football for instance. Does watching football games edify, educate or inspire me? No, but I like to watch my team play. Is it wholesome? Some people would say that it’s just legalized, organized violence. Others would disagree, of course. But that’s why I didn’t want to get into naming shows and movies. Unless I watch them enough to know what they’re really about, I probably should refrain from commenting.

The point of this video was simple. Don’t just watch stuff because our culture says it funny or interesting. How you spend your free time is between you and God. And I think we should pray to God to help us use our time wisely. And I do think it’s easy to forget to do this.

Now, I said viewers often won’t replicate the behaviors that they watch. Therefore, they think they’re responsible or mature enough to handle it. But I really do think this is a slippery view. I believe our viewing habits do have an impact, even if a subtle one. With so much violence, anger, and lust in our culture, I can’t believe that the stuff we watch doesn’t make an impact—–not that it’s the sole or even primary impact, but it does have an affect (and it may be down the road). And even if you insist on disagreeing on this point, what good does it do us to spend our valuable time watching this stuff that is in conflict with Philippians 4:8?

One final comment. My wife told me pretzels aren’t bad for you. I don’t know if that’s true—-isn’t there a bunch of salt in certain types? But if I wrongly labeled pretzels, I apologize.

Let me know what you think. Does what we watch matter? Where do we draw the line? And if you want to name popular shows or movies, be my guest

“Don’t Have Children!” (9/11/08)

 

 

 

 

 

When my wife first saw the title for this video, she said, “What are you doing?!” I responded, of course, “You need to watch the video to understand.” And this is true.

This video addresses a big issue. There are just so many “religious” people who aren’t fully committed to God. They may believe in God or Jesus, and they may even attend church regularly. But it’s not a passion on a daily basis. They’re real interests and priorities lie elsewhere.

This doesn’t mean these are evil or bad people. But it does mean, I think, they aren’t yet living the life God wants them to live. They’re not fulfilling their purpose. This doesn’t mean, as I’ve said before, that they must quit their job and talk about Jesus 24 hours a day. But there should be different priorities and a strong desire to love God and neighbor.

I want to emphasze one thing that I probably should have made more clear in the video. Even though loving God is the most important thing, it may be impossible to do this if you don’t love your neighbors. After all, Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15). So, to take an extreme example, the person who kills or hurts other people in the name of God…well, this doesn’t make any sense in the Christian religion. That’s for sure.

Presents, Presents, Everywhere (9/01/08)

Well, it’s good to start making videos again after a nice summer vacation. Besides being a little rusty, the biggest surprise was that the video was barely over 4 minutes. Last year, it seemed like I was always cutting like crazy to get them down to 6 minutes. So maybe I’ve just become a more concise person over the summer!

Anyway, I know some people will not like this message. Nobody likes being called spoiled or selfish. Of course, I wasn’t saying that everybody is….and even largely selfish people often do nice things for other people….which is great. All I’m saying, though, is that we should look in the mirror. We should think about how our ancestors lived in generations before us, and how many people live today in our world and local communities. It’s a big challenge in a prosperous nation where the media constantly tells us to splurge on ourselves; but as Christians, we must always think about how we can give and help other people.

Our goal should be to have hearts that want to do this. If we want to do this, it’s not a burden. Indeed it’s a great honor and priviledge to be blessed to help other people and advance God’s kingdom in this important way.