Weekend Wrap-up
Theme of the Week: 'It's Only a Movie'
Saturday, January 1, 2005
 1 of 1
It's only a movie," a buddy is likely to say if you voice misgivings about viewing a particular film together. "Don't take it so seriously. I just want to be entertained."… In this paragraph from the Apostle John's first letter, he lays out why this kind of thinking is naïve and risky. Our natural desire for the pleasures our society promotes, he points out, needs to be set in its larger time-eternity context.
Interact with God's Word
1 John 2:15
- What attractions that the world offers do we naturally crave?
- Is worldliness simply external—indicated by the places we go and the things we do? Is it basically internal—revealed by a hunger for things and for personal or fantasized sexual gratification? Or is it both?
- According to John (in v. 15), what will crowd out your love of the Father?
- If the reverse is true, how can you crowd out love for the world?
- Why (according to v. 17a) is hanging on to a worldly outlook short-sighted?
- On the other hand, what emphasis (according to v. 17b) carries a long-term payout?
Spend Time in Prayer
Ask God to displace any disproportionate desire for entertainment with a growing sense of fulfillment in doing His will.
1 John 2:15-17
15 Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world. 17 And this world is fading away, along with everything it craves. But if you do the will of God, you will live forever.
Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
Lord, the entertainment I'm exposed to could easily deflect my mind and heart from Your truth. Help me make sound choices.
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