Our Light's Aint Shinin'

Christians, more specifically Adventists, have lost their purpose in this world. I'm not talking about everyone, but I am talking about A LOT of us. We have latched onto "the world's" mentality of having our cake, and eating it too. We want to do what Maria did in The Sound of Music and be one with the church, while we do whatever the heck we want. We want to have a personal relationship with God, while listening to what we want, going where we want, and watching what we want. Do we not realize that our goal, our purpose in this world isn't just having that close relationship with God?

My Journalism class was have a heated, LONG discussion today about movies, how they effect us, and Christians and what movies they watch. I quickly realized that the state of mind of many of the "christians" in our class was completely and utterly WRONG. A verse came to my head during that discussion. It comes from Matthew 5:15-17 and it says "...Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

I mean, that verse perfectly describes what Christians should be in this world. That light is us, it's who we should be. And that bowl is the movies we watch, the TV shows we expose ourselves to. When we watch movies like Saw, movies that glorify murder and violence, we are suffocating the light that God gave us! We are supposed to be shining examples of God's mercy, His love, His character. How can we be examples, how can people see the difference in us, if we are watching the same garbage they watch and enjoying it. One person gave the excuse that we watch that stuff to see where people we are trying to reach are coming from. Which is the most ridiculous thing I've heard of. We don't need to wallow in garbage to know it smells. Our lights should shine, people should look at us and say hey, that person is different, that person is a christian.

Christians don't want to give up what they have grown to love to do. We don't want to stop watching things that somehow appeal to our senses. If stuff that God is expressly against appeals to us, then we've got some digging and some praying to do. Someone said that the stuff they watch doesn't effect their relationship with Christ. But this can't be true! You can't do something that God says "I find this wrong, this is evil" and think that He's fine with you beholding that. That's like being in a relationship, and yet sleeping with other people. You have that person you connect with, and yet you are sharing pieces of you with all these other people. It's not possible to have a healthy relationship if you are doing that. But people have stopped thinking of Jesus as a real being, something that is really there, standing over your shoulder, seeing, knowing, caring. So to us a "good relationship with Him" is talking to Him before bed and when we wake up, skimming through the Bible. But this isn't how it should be.

I could go on forever on this. And trust me, I'm preaching to myself. I'm not the perfect Christian, but I try my best. It just made me incredibly sad to see the mindset that young Christians have allowed themselves to get into. It's mind boggling.