The mind-numbing value-shaping power-combinations within the mass media and
entertainment industries are continually pushing the envelop. The
obsessive-compulsive fixation with the preoccupation of music, art and
fashion with the vulgar and ugly is reaching the saturation point. Was John
Updike thinking of the Hollywood/Television axis when he wrote:
“Sex is like money, too much is not enough”?

Out of their own mouths.. Actor-Producer Woody Allen commented:

“There’s no garbage in California. That’s because they turn it into
television shows”.

Is there any question that Hollywood, Television Networks and the
entertainment industry in general would see their culture-corrupting power
greatly diminished, if not neutralized, if the majority of professing
Christians in this country found their chief source of heart satisfaction
and pleasure in the pure beauty and holy joy of the Lord?

How can we say we believe the Word of God regarding the eternal tragedy of
human beings living trapped in a state of spiritual death, and continually
waste hours and precious dollars on violent, lust-laden entertainment and
other distractions which dull our spirits and dim and even destroy our
eternal vision? If this can be called Christianity it is an innocuous
watered down version; a minor modified addition to what really matters most
to us: the pursuit of personal pleasure.

When our affections and feelings are unconsciously drawn away to focus
primarily on the “things of the world” our spirits are gradually but
dangerously defiled. As the virulent values of current secularized culture
secretly seep into our minds and hearts, the effect of their defilement is
the erosion, if not eradication, of our sense of the eternal.

Although nothing can destroy the life of God in the heart of the true
believer, the continued influx of falsity and the corrosive values of the
world-system cloud our perception of Divine

truth, and our spiritual power, often imperceptibly, is neutralized. The
Word of God becomes ineffective in us; a dead-letter with no power to
sustain the soul against tests and temptation.
Those born-from-above should be strong enough in the Spirit to handle the
corrosive impact of the world-system, but though we seek to maintain a life
of purity and obedience, the sheer volume of moral corruption and spiritual
declension in the environment can subtly distract us from our “sincere and
pure devotion to Christ”.

“And set your minds (and keep them set) on what is above (the higher
things), not on the things that are on the earth.” – Colossians
3:2, Amplified Bible

As the original Son of God lived in perfect, personal fellowship with His
Father, so the Father desires that same relationship with each of His
children. Our Lord Jesus promised, provided, and commanded, nothing less.
“Dwell in Me and I will dwell in you. (Live in Me and I will live in
you….)” “I have loved you, [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My
love [continue in His love with Me].”
– John 15:4, 9 Amplified Bible, Emphasis added.

After praying specifically for His eleven disciples the Savior prayed:
“…also for all those who will ever come to believe in (trust in,
cling to, rely on) Me through their word and teaching. That they all may
be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they all may be
one in us.” – John 17:21, Emphasis added

This “fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” is the
infinitely greatest good for man. It is the ultimate blessing, and the
source of beginning of all other blessings. And because of His great love,
this is His gracious desire for us, now and forever.
– 1 John 1:3, Revelation 21:3, Emphasis added

One powerful evidence of the new inward Life of the Spirit in the believer
is a growing sense of the eternal significance of the Bible as the actual
and accurate record of the revelation of God in history: the very Word of
God.
Can we imagine how stunted and impoverished our conception of God would be
if we were limited to our observations of man and nature as our sole source
of theological understanding?
It is not necessary for us to imagine. We need only examine the ideas of God
found in the man-made religions of the world from the beginning of recorded
history to the present.
When man rejects, or is without access to divine revelation in Scripture he
discloses his innate spiritual longings for something or Someone
transcendent by conceiving and constructing gods, hopefully, as sources of
power, and to provide some degree of comprehensibility of the mysterious. To
him the One by whom and for whom he was made remains “The Unknown God” of
Acts 17:23.
When we begin to recognize the spiritual perfection of the written record of
the New Testament revelation, it becomes evident that the real Author,
behind the human writers, was the Holy Spirit.
The indwelling Spirit of God is indeed the same Holy Spirit who filled the
Living Word when He visited this earth, inspired the authors of the written
Word that now covers the earth, and dwells in the spirit of every true
believer to the ends of the earth.
And with this holy Presence in the believer’s heart, a new purifying power
begins a transformation of the desires to a growing ability joyfully to
surrender to the will of God.
His holy will is disclosed in the moral and ethical principles revealed in
the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount.
A true follower of Jesus Christ wants, above all things, to be good; good as
measured by God’s clearly revealed standards.
With this progressive purifying of the heart and life there is also a
growing sense of the preciousness of Scripture.
How tragic that, for those living in willful unbelief, the truth of the Good
News of eternal life appears as bad news. Those who neglect, reject or seek
to destroy the Word of God revel something dreadful about themselves.
True Christians don’t worship the bible, for them it is not a sacred relic.
But since the God of the universe has chosen to reveal the truth of His
message of love and redeeming grace in and through it to our hearts, we will
reverence, cherish and yes, love it. If we had just one letter from our most
beloved in this world, how would we treat it? Would we not cherish it?
The following words could only have been written from hearts that were
filled with the assurance of God’s love for them.

“I will delight myself in Thy statutes; I will not forget Thy word”.
“Thy testimonies are my delight and my counselors”.
“O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day”.
“.I love Thy commandments above gold; yeah, above fine gold”.
“Great peace have they which love Thy law.”
– Psalm 119:16,97,127,165

“Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Word
was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.”
– Jeremiah 15:16