The TV / Computer Addict's Prayer

Friends: Are we afraid, demotivated, or just plain discouraged to get out and make a difference? to live a life of significance? The following is sobering as it is likely the default option of choice in our generation when we retire from the idea that we can indeed affect others for Christ.

May it rightly nudge us push us in the RIGHT direction:

THE TV / COMPUTER ADDICT'S PRAYER
The computer / TV is my shepherd, I shall not want.
It makes me lie down on the sofa.
It leads me away from the faith. It destroys my soul.

It leads me in the path of sex and violence for the sponsor's sake.
Yea, though I walk in the shadow of Christian responsibilities,
There will be no interruption, for the TV and internet are with me.

Its cable and remote control--they comfort me.
It prepares a commercial for me in the presence of my worldliness.
It anoints my head with humanism and consumerism.

My coveting runneth over. Surely, laziness and ignorance
shall follow me all the days of my life,
And I shall dwell in the house watching a screen and clicking a mouse forever.

(Author Unknown; slightly modified)

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The Biggest Thing We Know

"Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world."

~Jesus in John 17:24 (ESV)

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Providential Moment

This morning as I traveled to work in the beginnings of what is supposed to be a major winter storm, I was grateful that the traffic was quite good. I observed the fast moving cars moving through the increasingly-heavy snow and kicking up spray and mist from the streets (actual action-packed imagery to the right). As I rounded downtown Denver, the city could not be seen but a few buildings on its parameter.

As I observed these things, the song, "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus," (an outstanding hymn, came on on my iPod. Wow. What perfect timing.

Life Becomes Big...Too Big

Here's what I observed of my own heart and the habits of the human heart: This morning when I left, this commute was the greatest concern I had. It was the biggest thing to me..

The words of the songs sounded:

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim (as I observed the fading view of the city)
In the light of His glory and grace."

God Is Big

Wow. This commute wasn't so big after all. The hustle of the city, like all of our problems and riches, quickly fades when we truly behold Him. Nothing compares to Him. This weather is a small thing. God is big. When we join Him in Heaven, we won't be thinking about how fast or slow we got to work--all eyes will be fixed on Him, and it's small ways like this that He uses to train our eyes to stay on Him now.

Lord, draw our eyes to You and fix them upon your glory! Let us see each day that You are the biggest thing we know--bigger than all our struggles, commutes, earthly gain, relationships, pain, managers, poverty, emptiness, riches--bigger than all the voices of this world raging for our life. You are real, You are big, You are the God Who works mightily! Amen.

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Challenge and Application Questions

• What small (or big) ways has God reminded you of His greatness and bigness?
• What things that the world (or you apart from grace) might see as an inconvenience do you appreciate that are frequent reminders of our big God?
• How does knowing God's bigness (sovereignty and work in everything) comfort you in your present struggles?
• How does knowing God's bigness keep your eyes on the ultimate Good (Christ Himself) in the midst of great gain?

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Recommended Resources

Daily Thought: Not the End - He Calls the Prodigal

This is not the end. Soul, this is not the end. Though you struggle and lose to sin seemingly more blatantly than ever you have in your life, this is not the end. Repent, my soul, for your sin is serious and His grace is great. Turn from wickedness because there is grace given to turn. Turn to Him because His arms are wide open with welcome. He will kill the fatted cow for you, young one--or old one. He will celebrate with all Heaven when you return. So make haste to the throne! He is calling you now! "Come home!"

The Four Woes of Luke 6 - Woe 4: Against Conformity to this World

"'Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.'"

~Luke 6:26 (ESV)

<Read Part 3 |                     

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What is laid out here for us is a conformity to this world--the world recognizing a person as a worldly person and not observed as a Christian. What is evil here is a lack of distinction from the world around us and its ways. It is a woe to us if we are spoken well of by the world due to being of and like the world. It is a woe to us if our lives do not display the fruit of regeneration in Christ.

In days of old, as yet today, false "prophets prophes[ied] falsely" and "priests rule[d] at their discretion" and "people love[d] to have it so" (Jeremiah 5:31).

So are we not the same when our lives please the culture--when compromise blends us in with the world? Do we not then blaspheme the name of Christ? For to be friends with God (saved) is to be enemy of the world (no longer pursuing the things of the flesh and the lies of the world's ways). As such we are to, with rejoicing in the freedom of salvation, live to glorify His name! Let us cast off all that is worthless--media that glorifies sin even to the slightest, fear of man and living for man's approval, and "every weight, and sin that clings so closely." For many eyes are upon us. Let not the eyes of the world be the ones that speak well of us, but the "cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1).

So may we not give our time and energies to celebrating that which Christ died for, but admiring and exalting His name. All earthly glory will fade, and if we pursue pleasure in the world, it is but a chasing of the wind (Ecclesiastes 2:11). For if we are found sleeping, what will we do when the end comes (Jeremiah 5:31)?

"Father, thank you for revealing to us what is of worth and for warning us against our own proneness to sin and to be conformed to this world. We would not see but that You had chosen to show us. By Your Spirit we now have light to see and discern what is pleasing to You. Father, give us an eternal perspective that causes us to cast off sin and that which is worthless and vain to feed our souls to purity of soul in You. Amen."

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Challenge and Application Questions

• Are there areas of worldliness in your life that glorify that for which Christ died?
• Do you lack an eternal perspective on the here and now and the decisions you make concerning media and other forms of worldliness?
• Do you desire and seek actively for an eternal perspective?
• What areas of grace-motivated change has the Lord done in your life concerning living for Him and not for worldliness?

The Four Woes of Luke 6 - Woe 2: Against Filling Up with the World

"'Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.'"

~Luke 6:25a (ESV)

<Read Part 1 | Read Part 3>

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John Piper often talks of how humans are far too easily satisfied. A young kid would enthusiastically take satisfaction in making mud pies because he can't imagine what is meant by holiday at the beach.

The word "full" here in the Greek is "ěmpiplēmi" or "ěmplēthō" (^[1]) which means to fill in or up and to satisfy. One base Greek word implies "filling to the max." It is not talking about for food per se, but an overall filling of one's self that "makes no room" for anything else because one's satisfaction is in the here and now.

But Jesus mercifully warns us of this. If we fill ourselves with earthly treasures and think that the height of satisfaction, that is the height of ignorance for soon we shall realize, "If this is all there is to life, this is pathetic! I have no more dreams!" Soon the entertainment, fame, drugs, friends, possessions, relationships, immorality, money, or anything else we try to fill ourselves with other than Christ Himself--it will fail us and prove as an ugly deception. Worldliness and lust are ugly deceptions that do nothing but harden our hearts toward God, hinder the pursuit of God, and dull our sensitivity to the Lord's leading. Settle not for them! They lie to us! They do not deliver as advertised!

Our end is to hunger without satisfaction if we settle for less than God. The word "hunger" in the Greek, "pěinaō," means to famish--to crave and be hungered ^[2]. So what we think now to be our satisfaction other than God will leave us dying in starvation.

May we remind ourselves that Christ died to save us from this deceit! What a blessed relief! The Holy Spirit has opened our once darkened eyes to see what really matters and live life in the FREEDOM of the only satisfaction, Jesus Christ. Amen!

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Challenge and Application Questions

• What things less than God most beg to be known as and claim to be satisfaction in your life?
• Do you remind yourself of the Gospel and that Christ died to save you from that deceit when you are tempted to seek satisfaction outside of God?
• In light of the Gospel, have the deceitful things of the world dimmed and been exposed for what they really are?
• How are you applying the Gospel to your Christian life of discernment?

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1. Strong's concordance (KJV), Greek Dictionary 1705. (Back to reading)
2. Strong's concordance (KJV), Greek Dictionary 3983. (Back to reading)