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Day 7
Balance That Teeter-totter
By Al Menconi
The
Teeter-totter is a great tool for discovering
the lack of balance in our spiritual
lives. How much of our entertainment
is ungodly or against biblical values?
How much time do we spend focusing on
what is true and pure, etc. (Phil.
4:8)? For this reason, some
people think the goal is to get the teeter-totter
to be perfectly balanced. They try to
balance their Christian activities with
the negative philosophies of their other
entertainment. But balance is NOT the
goal! The goal is to have the scales
be Full Tilt toward
Christ. We don’t achieve Matthew 16:24 in
our lives by having equal parts of the
world and Jesus.
A level board on the spiritual teeter-totter
is not necessarily a sign of a healthy
Christian life. This is a life that is
neither hot nor cold. We can see what
God thinks of this type of existence
in Revelation 3:16. Christ
says He desires us to be either hot or
cold. He will spew us out of His mouth
if we are lukewarm. The Greek word for "spew" in
this passage is literally to regurgitate
or vomit. In other words, lukewarm Christians
make God want to throw-up. They make
God sick!
The ideal Christian life is to go Full
Tilt for Jesus. It
means to completely lean on Christ,
demonstrating the faith and joy that
only comes from a complete commitment
to Him. This is the position of a
proper teeter-totter—an illustration
of true Christian dedication. It
should be the goal of every Christian.
Your entertainment teeter-totter
can help you reach your goal.
Hopefully, you are beginning to understand
how the teeter-totter can be a marvelous
tool to help you and your family make
wise entertainment choices. It can help
you see how entertainment can affect
your Christian walk.
It can also be a GREAT tool to help
others make wise choices. As a former
school teacher, I would have students
ask my opinion of a certain rock group,
movie, or TV show. If I didn’t
like it, it always seemed to start an
argument. My students so closely identified
with their entertainment that they felt
I was criticizing them if I didn’t
approve of their entertainment. Understanding
the teeter-totter principle helped me
defuse any argument before it started.
And you can do the same.
Now when someone asks me my opinion
of a certain group, program, movie, or
game I don’t have to argue, judge
or criticize. I can simply answer, “I
don’t know, let’s evaluate
its philosophy and put it on our teeter-totter.” No
argument or criticism. By answering this
way, I am helping them think for themselves
as they evaluate entertainment from a
biblical perspective.
Reflection: Evaluate
the philosophies some of the most popular
forms of entertainment in your home.
Put each on your “spiritual teeter
totter.” Does it “teeter” or “totter?”
Response: Take
time to mentally (or literally, if you
constructed an actual teeter-totter)
examine various areas of entertainment
in your life. Try to be thorough. Have
you looked at music? Movies? TV? Videos
and DVD’s?
Books and comics? Computer and video
games? The Internet? What area consumes
the most time? What area is the least
spiritual? Are you surprised by how much
time you have invested in any of these
areas? What steps can you take to shift
your emphasis from ungodly entertainment
to focusing on Godly and spiritual themes
in your life?
Verse of the Day: Matthew 16:24
"Jesus said
to His disciples, 'If anyone would
come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross and follow Me. '" (NIV)
Jesus says that in order to really
live for Him, we must deny our selfish
desires and follow His lead. This command
can be simply stated in five words – DENY
SELF/LIVE FOR JESUS. The Satanic
Bible teaches exactly the opposite. It
says that men ought to live for themselves
and deny biblical values.
The Satanic Bible says to take everything
you can, live for yourself, and feed
your fleshly desires. This philosophy
can also be expressed in five simple
words – LIVE FOR SELF/DENY
JESUS. The Holy Bible asks you
to give your life to others, live for
Jesus, and feed your spiritual nature.
The Satanic Bible suggests exactly the
opposite.
Many Christians are mainly concerned
about satanic signs and symbols in music
and other forms of entertainment. But
The Satanic Bible teaches that you don’t
have to be a practicing Satanist or witch
to live according to the satanic philosophy.
Although most of today’s entertainers
may not be remotely involved in the occult,
many still teach us to deny Jesus (biblical
values) and live for ourselves – which
is exactly the same philosophy as The
Satanic Bible.
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