~ Hating That Which is Evil ( parts 1 & 2 )
Part 1
( This was first written as a blog post )
I would like to share something here that has really been on my mind and heart lately.
I have always been against bad movies and bad things on T.V. For my self there is absolutely no way I want to watch, and fill my head with bad things nor for my kids heads either of course.
But whenever I would ever tell someone else how I felt, and would say bad movies and such were not good for a person.
Often I would hear comments like, "Oh it don't hurt me." "It just goes in one ear and out the other." "I don't let that stuff bother me." " It is not good for the children, but it is OK for adults," or "It is just a movie."
I know we all have a different opinion on whats "bad". And that is very sad if you ask me. ( we will get to that later though)
So OK, I have no proof that watching "bad" stuff hurts a person. But there is one thing I know; God hates evil and as children of God we are to hate evil too. And how can one truly hate evil or bad things and still enjoy watching them? You can't in my opinion.
Now we need to define what evil is. I believe evil is anything that is not of God. Evil is everything that God hates. ( We can find some of those in Proverbs 6:16-19, and also in the 10 commandments. )
And I think the words evil and bad mean pretty much mean the same thing, don't you? So rightfully we all should have the same view of what is "bad". There should not be what is bad to me, or what is bad to you, but what is bad to God.
I think that makes since, don't you?
So what is "evil " or "bad"? Anything and everything that is not of God. Period.
And what are we suppose to do about it?
HATE the EVIL. HATE the BAD.
"Seek good and not the evil, that ye may live:.... Amos 5:14
"Hate the evil, and love the good....." Amos 5:15
"The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the forward mouth, do I hate." Proverbs 8:13
"Ye that love the Lord hate evil:.... Psalms 97:10
"Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good." Romans 12:9
"I hate and abhor lying: but the law do I love." Psalm 119:163
" I hate vain thoughts: but the law do I love". Psalm 119: 113
And the comment, "It is just a movie", that doesn't justify a thing. If it is evil, it is evil; I don't care if it is in real life, or acted out in a movie, or made up in a book. If it against the things of God we are suppose to hate it.
There is many movies that are suppose to be good but have a little bad mixed in it. And not all T.V. is bad of course, but often you have to endure some bad to get the good stuff you want. Sad, huh? And every time that happens I have a feeling Satan is somewhere laughing. That is just what he wants.
Anyway I could go on and on why I very dislike T.V in general, and most movies, but that would take way to long ( cause I have lots more reasons ), so I will save that for another post!
May we all hate evil and put it far from us, and love that which is right, and good, and true.
( This was first written as a blog post )
I would like to share something here that has really been on my mind and heart lately.
I have always been against bad movies and bad things on T.V. For my self there is absolutely no way I want to watch, and fill my head with bad things nor for my kids heads either of course.
But whenever I would ever tell someone else how I felt, and would say bad movies and such were not good for a person.
Often I would hear comments like, "Oh it don't hurt me." "It just goes in one ear and out the other." "I don't let that stuff bother me." " It is not good for the children, but it is OK for adults," or "It is just a movie."
I know we all have a different opinion on whats "bad". And that is very sad if you ask me. ( we will get to that later though)
So OK, I have no proof that watching "bad" stuff hurts a person. But there is one thing I know; God hates evil and as children of God we are to hate evil too. And how can one truly hate evil or bad things and still enjoy watching them? You can't in my opinion.
Now we need to define what evil is. I believe evil is anything that is not of God. Evil is everything that God hates. ( We can find some of those in Proverbs 6:16-19, and also in the 10 commandments. )
And I think the words evil and bad mean pretty much mean the same thing, don't you? So rightfully we all should have the same view of what is "bad". There should not be what is bad to me, or what is bad to you, but what is bad to God.
I think that makes since, don't you?
So what is "evil " or "bad"? Anything and everything that is not of God. Period.
And what are we suppose to do about it?
HATE the EVIL. HATE the BAD.
"Seek good and not the evil, that ye may live:.... Amos 5:14
"Hate the evil, and love the good....." Amos 5:15
"The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the forward mouth, do I hate." Proverbs 8:13
"Ye that love the Lord hate evil:.... Psalms 97:10
"Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good." Romans 12:9
"I hate and abhor lying: but the law do I love." Psalm 119:163
" I hate vain thoughts: but the law do I love". Psalm 119: 113
And the comment, "It is just a movie", that doesn't justify a thing. If it is evil, it is evil; I don't care if it is in real life, or acted out in a movie, or made up in a book. If it against the things of God we are suppose to hate it.
There is many movies that are suppose to be good but have a little bad mixed in it. And not all T.V. is bad of course, but often you have to endure some bad to get the good stuff you want. Sad, huh? And every time that happens I have a feeling Satan is somewhere laughing. That is just what he wants.
Anyway I could go on and on why I very dislike T.V in general, and most movies, but that would take way to long ( cause I have lots more reasons ), so I will save that for another post!
May we all hate evil and put it far from us, and love that which is right, and good, and true.
~ Hating That Which is Evil ( part 2 )
Since I made my first post about hating evil I have had some more thoughts to share on this subject.
I felt I needed to make it very clear that though we are to hate those things which are evil, we are not to hate anybody. So we hate the evil deeds, but not the person who does the evil. We are to have the love and forgiveness as God does.
I can hate a T.V. though because it is a thing, not a person! I do not hate the people who make all those crazy and evil shows, movies, and programs that is on T.V. though, ---although I do wonder what goes through their heads to create such things, and I can't say we'd have a lot in common to be friends. But they need Jesus just like the rest of us.
We are instructed to hate evil, depart from evil, and askew evil. And we not only need to heed this in our lives, but instruct our children to do the same, and set an example for them.
I believe the problem in our world today is that more people are not hating evil and bad things. Not only not hating the evil, but condoning it and even participating in the evil. This should not be so among God's people. So sadly we accept bad stuff because we say it is the world we live in, (and that is partly true), but I believe that if we put up a big enough stink, and hated evil enough there would be less of it surrounding us.
Here is an example of evil surrounding us, and I though I did hate it much, I did not do anything about it. Boy if I had it to do again though I certainly would handle it differently.
I had our van in a repair shop the other day to fix a chip on the window shield. The nice man kindly told me, and 3 of the children I had with me that day, that we could wait in the little waiting room since it would take about a 30 min. There was bathroom right there, and he said there was coffee and pop-corn, and we could help our selves. Well he failed to mentioned what was hanging on the wall in there.
Upon our arrival in the waiting room I spotted it right off, this very scantly clad provocative picture on an a big calender. I had to do a double take to verify, yes it truly was. What a shock to see that there. This was a waiting room for public. What in the world!
Now I should have walked out right then, and I am sure your wondering why I did not. But I just hoped Sam ( my 7 year old son and oldest child I had with me ) would not look up that high and see it. And he did not for some time. Then I went to the bath room, and came back. And that is when I seen that he now had seen the offending picture. I told him to not look that way anymore. So he did not. And so we were able to endure the rest our waiting time in there.
Driving home afterward I kept mauling over what I should have done. I know I should have walked out before my son seen the picture. But I also think what would have been better yet, would have been for me to have removed the picture from the wall ( it was only hanging by a tack). I kept thinking about that the whole time I sit there rather it would be my place to take it from the wall or not. On the way home when I thought on it, I felt like it certainly would have been my place and my right. After all it was being used as public waiting room( though it was an employee break room too), and it was my son, and a it was sinful and evil picture, and I HATED it!
If I would have removed that calender I would assume it would have made some kind of effect on the employees. When they went to put their picture back up they would realize that not just everyone enjoyed it. And if everyone that came in there would remove it, they eventually would keep it down I would think. I wonder how many other people like me hated it, yet did nothing about it. I felt so lame and horrible after that.
That to me is a good example that if we hated evil as we ought to and acted on it, we could possible change our surroundings. We are not suppose to simply accept evil and say, "Oh well, that is the world for you". We are suppose to HATE evil, and depart from evil. And keep our precious children from evil.
And concerning movies and such we need hate the evil in them and put it away from us, and watch only what is good and edifying to our family. Can't find anything good to watch? Then don't watch anything at all. Who said movies and T.V. was for God's people in the first place anyway? We can find much better things to do!!
So let us all hate evil , cleave to that which is good, and love all people as God wants us to.
" Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell forever more." Psalm 37:27
" Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace and pursue it." Psalm 34:14
Update:
About two weeks after this incident happened, with much prayer and thought on the matter, I came up with the courage to call this shop. I nicely told the manager that I had been in his shop a couple weeks earlier with my young children, and that I was not happy with the picture that was hanging up in there. I went on to say that I strongly felt other moms would not be appreciate that as well if they ended up in there with children. He was really nice about it, though not sure if it did any good. I haven't been back. But at least I did my part.
It was also about that time I called the hospital about some really bad magazines that was in a public waiting area, and our local grocery store about the magazines they had in the check out line that made me cringe when I went through with my crew of boys. You know I really believe that if all us believers would take a stand such as that, that we could really make a difference. Worth a try anyway.
I felt I needed to make it very clear that though we are to hate those things which are evil, we are not to hate anybody. So we hate the evil deeds, but not the person who does the evil. We are to have the love and forgiveness as God does.
I can hate a T.V. though because it is a thing, not a person! I do not hate the people who make all those crazy and evil shows, movies, and programs that is on T.V. though, ---although I do wonder what goes through their heads to create such things, and I can't say we'd have a lot in common to be friends. But they need Jesus just like the rest of us.
We are instructed to hate evil, depart from evil, and askew evil. And we not only need to heed this in our lives, but instruct our children to do the same, and set an example for them.
I believe the problem in our world today is that more people are not hating evil and bad things. Not only not hating the evil, but condoning it and even participating in the evil. This should not be so among God's people. So sadly we accept bad stuff because we say it is the world we live in, (and that is partly true), but I believe that if we put up a big enough stink, and hated evil enough there would be less of it surrounding us.
Here is an example of evil surrounding us, and I though I did hate it much, I did not do anything about it. Boy if I had it to do again though I certainly would handle it differently.
I had our van in a repair shop the other day to fix a chip on the window shield. The nice man kindly told me, and 3 of the children I had with me that day, that we could wait in the little waiting room since it would take about a 30 min. There was bathroom right there, and he said there was coffee and pop-corn, and we could help our selves. Well he failed to mentioned what was hanging on the wall in there.
Upon our arrival in the waiting room I spotted it right off, this very scantly clad provocative picture on an a big calender. I had to do a double take to verify, yes it truly was. What a shock to see that there. This was a waiting room for public. What in the world!
Now I should have walked out right then, and I am sure your wondering why I did not. But I just hoped Sam ( my 7 year old son and oldest child I had with me ) would not look up that high and see it. And he did not for some time. Then I went to the bath room, and came back. And that is when I seen that he now had seen the offending picture. I told him to not look that way anymore. So he did not. And so we were able to endure the rest our waiting time in there.
Driving home afterward I kept mauling over what I should have done. I know I should have walked out before my son seen the picture. But I also think what would have been better yet, would have been for me to have removed the picture from the wall ( it was only hanging by a tack). I kept thinking about that the whole time I sit there rather it would be my place to take it from the wall or not. On the way home when I thought on it, I felt like it certainly would have been my place and my right. After all it was being used as public waiting room( though it was an employee break room too), and it was my son, and a it was sinful and evil picture, and I HATED it!
If I would have removed that calender I would assume it would have made some kind of effect on the employees. When they went to put their picture back up they would realize that not just everyone enjoyed it. And if everyone that came in there would remove it, they eventually would keep it down I would think. I wonder how many other people like me hated it, yet did nothing about it. I felt so lame and horrible after that.
That to me is a good example that if we hated evil as we ought to and acted on it, we could possible change our surroundings. We are not suppose to simply accept evil and say, "Oh well, that is the world for you". We are suppose to HATE evil, and depart from evil. And keep our precious children from evil.
And concerning movies and such we need hate the evil in them and put it away from us, and watch only what is good and edifying to our family. Can't find anything good to watch? Then don't watch anything at all. Who said movies and T.V. was for God's people in the first place anyway? We can find much better things to do!!
So let us all hate evil , cleave to that which is good, and love all people as God wants us to.
" Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell forever more." Psalm 37:27
" Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace and pursue it." Psalm 34:14
Update:
About two weeks after this incident happened, with much prayer and thought on the matter, I came up with the courage to call this shop. I nicely told the manager that I had been in his shop a couple weeks earlier with my young children, and that I was not happy with the picture that was hanging up in there. I went on to say that I strongly felt other moms would not be appreciate that as well if they ended up in there with children. He was really nice about it, though not sure if it did any good. I haven't been back. But at least I did my part.
It was also about that time I called the hospital about some really bad magazines that was in a public waiting area, and our local grocery store about the magazines they had in the check out line that made me cringe when I went through with my crew of boys. You know I really believe that if all us believers would take a stand such as that, that we could really make a difference. Worth a try anyway.