March 17, 2008

• The Stranger

  I don’t know who this is by but I think everyone should read it and think about it.

  The Stranger

  A few months before I was born, my dad met a stranger who was new to
  our small Tennessee town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with
  this enchanting newcomer, and soon invited him to live with our family.
  The stranger was quickly accepted and was around to welcome me into
  the world a few months later.

  As I grew up I never questioned his place in our family. In my young
  mind, each member had a special niche. My brother, Bill, five years my
  senior, was my example. Fran, my younger sister, gave me an opportunity
  to
  play ‘big brother’ and develop the art of teasing. My parents were
  complementary instructors– Mom taught me to love the Word of God,
  and Dad taught me to obey it.

  But the stranger was our storyteller. He could weave the most fascinating
  tales. Adventures, mysteries and comedies were daily conversations. He
  could hold our whole family spell-bound for hours each evening.

  If I wanted to know about politics, history, or science, he knew it all. He
  knew about the past, understood the present, and seemingly could predict
  the future. The pictures he could draw were so life like that I: would often
  laugh or cry as I watched.

  He was Iike a friend to the whole family. He took Dad, Bill and me to our
  first
  major league baseball game. He was always encouraging us to see the
  movies and he even made arrangements to introduce us to several movie
  stars. My brother and I were deeply impressed by John Wayne in particular.

  The stranger was an incessant talker. Dad didn’ t seem to mind-but
  sometimes Mom would quietly get up– while the rest of us were
  enthralled with one of
  his stories of faraway places– go to her room, read her Bible and pray. I
  wonder now if she ever prayed that the stranger would leave.

  You see, my dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions. But
  this stranger never felt obligation to honor them. Profanity, for example,
  was not allowed in our house– not from us, from our friends, or adults.
  Our longtime visitor, however, used occasional four letter words that
  burned my ears and made Dad squirm. To my knowledge the stranger
  was never confronted. My dad was a teetotaler who didn’t permit alcohol
  in
  his home – not even for cooking. But the stranger felt 1ike we needed
  exposure and enlightened us to other ways of life. He offered us beer
  and
  other alcoholic beverages often.

  He made cigarettes look tasty, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished.
  He talked freely (probably too much too freely) about sex. His comments
  were sometimes blatant, sometimes sugestive, and generally embarrassing.
  I know now that my early concepts of the man-woman relationship were influenced by the stranger,

  As I look back, I believe it was the grace of God that the stranger
  did not influence us more. Time after time he opposed the values of my
  parents.
  Yet he was seldom rebuked and never asked to leave.

  More than thirty years have passed since the stranger moved in with the
  young family on Morningside Drive. He is not nearly so intriguing to my
  Dad as he was in those early years. But if I were to walk into my parents’
  den today, you would still see him sitting over in a corner, waiting for
  someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures…

  His name? We always just called him TV.”

  ——————————————————————————————
  

  Watching/reading/listening to these things is having pleasure in them that
  do them. The bottom line is that when we participate as willing observers we are
  having pleasure in sinners who are sinning. What abomination

   

  Psalms 101:3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work
  Of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.

   

  2 Timothy 3:3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, DESPISERS OF THOSE THAT ARE GOOD, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of PLEASURES more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: FROM SUCH TURN AWAY.

  But instead of turning away from these types of people, Christians across the land JUSTIFY their “right” to invite these people into their living rooms for entertainment!

  2 Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye SEPARATE, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you…

  2 Thessalonians 3:14 And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.
  
  James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

  In the second epistle of John, verses 9-11, we read:

  9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the
  doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of
  Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
  

  10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
  

  11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

  The Word of God tells us to not invite someone into our house who abideth not in the doctrine of Christ.

  Do the people on your tv screen abide in the doctrine of Christ?

  The Law of God tells us that we should not covet. Now what do you
  suppose is the purpose of ALL advertising you see on tv? Is it to
  encourage you to a simpler lifestyle? Is it to make you content with
  the things that God has blessed you with?

  Is your tv a “good thing”? Do you think that if the Lord Jesus were
  here on earth today, He would sit and watch the things you watch?

  • 5:58 pm
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