Christian Vs. Secular Entertainment

Prayer: Jesus I come before you now and ask that you bless those reading these words today. I ask that you give me the words to write and that my praise be as incense rising up to you. Be glorified in everything I do Lord. Amen

Verse of the Day: "But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the LORD!" Psalm 115:18(ESV)

Worship Song of the Day: 10,000 Reasons by Matt Redman

Today Id like to tell you a bit about Christian vs. secular entertainment. What you are probably aware of if you have been reading my blog is that that worship extends beyond Sunday when your singing in church to the music you choose to listen to and sing a long with in the car. If listening to and singing along with Jay Z all day or Kanye West or Metallica or whatever it might be that is worldly how much harder will it be to focus on the king of kings in your life. It extends to the movies you choose to watch, the TV shows you watch, or even the video games you play. I'm sure you have heard the phrase good stuff in and good stuff out, but bad stuff in bad stuff out in regards to your diet. This is true in the physical but it is also the case in the spiritual. If your filling your head with ungodly music, images, etc all day long then what good fruit are you going to produce?
I understand liking different musical styles. I myself am very eclectic. I like everything from rap and hip hop to country but if I choose to listen to secular radio with those styles I am most often going to be exposed to a lot of ungodly principles. If I'm listening to Eminem all day then I'm doing myself no favors in my spiritual life. The good news is that for pretty well every genre of music out there, there is a christian alternative. Instead of listening to Eminem or Dr Dre I listen to Lecrae or KJ 52. Instead of Metallica I listen to Skillet or Thousand Foot Krutch. You will find that christian rock and pop and rap has come a long way in the last 20 years. In fact you have probably heard Skillet on the mainstream Rock station. There is some cross over there. I will say I don't always listen to christian music in the car but its on more than anything else in the car. I would encourage you do decrease the amount of time you expose yourself to secular entertainment and instead fill that time with more christian entertainment or more time with God.

The same extends into the other forms of entertainment. If your watching most secular movies they are giving you a skewed version of the world. If every movie your watching has nudity or bad language will that not over time start to impact your mind. If you say no then your lying to yourself. I'm not saying secular movies are bad there are some good ones out there that are family friendly and have a good message but what I am saying is you have to guard your heart and your mind more carefully than we tend to do. Video Games are another area that you should guard yourself. Is your library of games a bunch of M rated games? Mine has a lot of them. If your exposing yourself to that hours at a time then how will that not impact your mind at least some. The same goes for all entertainment. So lets see if we can limit our exposure to these forms of secular entertainment.

Here is my challenge, can you limit your secular entertainment to 1 hour a day? This includes TV, Movies, Music, and Video Games? Or perhaps for you, you need to start smaller than that and increase your Godly entertainment to an hour a day. Either way do something to fill your mind and spirit with less ungodly things.  Lets make this a 1 week challenge. If you willing to try to limit yourself to 1 hour of secular entertainment a day that is awesome. If you feel you have to commit to something less than that then by all means do so. It likely will be hard because it will mean choosing between some TV shows and probably cutting out all non christian movies completely for that week but you will find it equally uplifting and rewarding to do this.

Well that's it for today. Let me know through comment or email or facebook me if you are taking the challenge. I will even give you some of my favorite christian entertainment for you  to try out below. Blessings my friends and praise be to the Alpha and Omega.

Your Brother in Christ,
Brian

List of Christian Music:
Air1 Radio
Christian Top 20 station on IheartRadio
Lecrae(Hip Hop/Rap)
KJ 52(Hip Hop/Rap)
Jamie Grace(Pop)
Skillet(Rock)
Owl City(Pop)
Jeremy Camp(Pop/Praise)
Jars of Clay(Sort of Aleternative/Pop)
Hawk Nelson(Punk Pop)
Five Iron Frenzy(Ska)
Toby Mac(Hip Hop/Pop)
Randy Travis(Country)
Bruce Carrol(Country)
God's Country Radio

There are countless Praise and Worship people Id suggest but a few of my favs are
Matt Redman
Chris Tomlin
Hillsong United
The City Harmonic(They are different for a worship group)
Paul Baloche

Also a good resource for some christian bands is A-Z Christian Bands and Genres