The Metro reported yesterday that TV watching 'makes you sad.'
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?TV_watching_makes_you_sad&in_article_id=401541&in_page_id=34&in_a_source=
"The more television you watch, the less happy a person you are likely to be.
That is the conclusion from analysis of 30 years of data covering attitudes of 30,000 US adults.
While the depressed watched TV, happy people were socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read more newspapers."
I don't believe that watching or having a tv is wrong. But it does concern me just how large a part of life watching tv and talking about tv are to most people these days. The look of shock and horror that crosses people's faces if they find out that we don't have a tv - by choice - is most astounding. It is as if life could not go on without tv. This is surely not a right attitude.
I suppose I have two problems with tv and films etc.
The first is the time-wasting influence that it can have on one's life. Sadly I know this from past experience. It can be so easy to sit back and let the tv programmes wash over you whilst you sit there and do nothing. Unfortunately, my sinful heart has found new ways to waste time since giving up television.
The second is the sad fact that most tv programmes and films have things in them (events depicted, attitudes displayed etc) which are unhelpful and often sinful for the Christian to watch and absorb. Our sense of hating sin can be dulled when we choose to watch things which don't please God - all for the sake of entertainment. This, of course, includes the wrong use of the God the Father and the Lord Jesus' precious name, which is the only name given among men by which we may be saved.
In the book entitled "Worldliness" edited by C J Mahaney, John Piper writes the following in the foreward:
"What does it look like when the blood of Christ governs the television and the Internet and the iPod and the checkbook and the neckline? Most people have never even asked this question, let alone answered it. The only way most folks know how to draw lines is with rulers. The idea that lines might come into being freely and lovingly (and firmly) as the fruit of the gospel is rare."
"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things."
"May the Lord of all beauty purify our minds so that these are our greatest delights. In the end, the sum of all beauty is Christ, and the sin of worldliness is to diminish our capacity to see him and be satisfied in him and show him compellingly to a perishing world."
It is my hope and prayer that I and believers all around the world will allow the blood of Christ to govern all of our activities all of the time - out of love for the God who has first loved us and shown His love to us in the Lord Jesus. "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world." 1 John 5:3-4.
1 John 2:1-6
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?TV_watching_makes_you_sad&in_article_id=401541&in_page_id=34&in_a_source=
"The more television you watch, the less happy a person you are likely to be.
That is the conclusion from analysis of 30 years of data covering attitudes of 30,000 US adults.
While the depressed watched TV, happy people were socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read more newspapers."
I don't believe that watching or having a tv is wrong. But it does concern me just how large a part of life watching tv and talking about tv are to most people these days. The look of shock and horror that crosses people's faces if they find out that we don't have a tv - by choice - is most astounding. It is as if life could not go on without tv. This is surely not a right attitude.
I suppose I have two problems with tv and films etc.
The first is the time-wasting influence that it can have on one's life. Sadly I know this from past experience. It can be so easy to sit back and let the tv programmes wash over you whilst you sit there and do nothing. Unfortunately, my sinful heart has found new ways to waste time since giving up television.
The second is the sad fact that most tv programmes and films have things in them (events depicted, attitudes displayed etc) which are unhelpful and often sinful for the Christian to watch and absorb. Our sense of hating sin can be dulled when we choose to watch things which don't please God - all for the sake of entertainment. This, of course, includes the wrong use of the God the Father and the Lord Jesus' precious name, which is the only name given among men by which we may be saved.
In the book entitled "Worldliness" edited by C J Mahaney, John Piper writes the following in the foreward:
"What does it look like when the blood of Christ governs the television and the Internet and the iPod and the checkbook and the neckline? Most people have never even asked this question, let alone answered it. The only way most folks know how to draw lines is with rulers. The idea that lines might come into being freely and lovingly (and firmly) as the fruit of the gospel is rare."
"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things."
"May the Lord of all beauty purify our minds so that these are our greatest delights. In the end, the sum of all beauty is Christ, and the sin of worldliness is to diminish our capacity to see him and be satisfied in him and show him compellingly to a perishing world."
It is my hope and prayer that I and believers all around the world will allow the blood of Christ to govern all of our activities all of the time - out of love for the God who has first loved us and shown His love to us in the Lord Jesus. "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world." 1 John 5:3-4.
1 John 2:1-6
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
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