I Pray the Lord will Awaken You, By JP

July 1, 2022

To Whom it may concern: The piece “Born again and Amish” is not scriptural. The Bible says, “Avoid all appearance of evil…Flee from it…” That includes this paper and the TV. We don’t want such material in our home. TV is not for the Christian. Many lies, impurity, shooting, etc. are on this box. It is not for the Christian!

You, as the writer, may be able to control what you watch, but do you expect all to have the same control or guidelines? Our children are human and will often do or watch and look at things behind our backs – I feel this is giving Satan a finger into our homes, and in the end he will take the rest of us!

Thank you. I pray the Lord will awaken you and help you to see the truth!  —JP

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Dear JP,

As followers of Christ, we must all do our best to decide what is right and wrong on issues that are not specifically addressed in the Bible. I admire you for wanting to protect your children from any potential evil that could be delivered into your home through a TV. No one can argue that there is much television programming that promotes evil. When our children were young and at home, my wife and I did not have a TV for the same reason that you do not have one. We didn't want our children to be exposed to any evil through television. However, we did have what was, at that time, called a "TV Monitor/Video Combination." It was a TV that could only play videos that we owned. We only owned Christ-centered videos that were spiritually edifying for our children. Most of them were Bible stories.

A TV can be used for good or for evil, just like a gun or a rifle. Your husband's rifle can be used for evil, to kill people, or it can be used for good, to feed your family by shooting a deer. We use our TV, not for evil, but for good and for what glorifies God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christian TV programming has introduced millions of people around the world to Jesus Christ. I am sure that you will agree that is a wonderful thing.

My wife and I also led our children to faith in Jesus Christ at young ages, so each of them were born again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Because of this, they had a strong desire to obey Jesus and please God.

When the only reason that children (or adults) don't do evil is because their culture makes it impossible for them to do evil, then they aren't motivated to avoid evil because of their love for God or by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in them. They avoid evil only to maintain the approval of others who are watching them. That is why all such people (both children and adults) lead double lives. They have a public life in which they appear to be good, but they have a private life that is not near as good! When they can do evil without getting caught by their parents or their peers, they often yield to evil. This is true of all people are who are religious but not born again, whether they are Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish or Amish.

As I have often said, you can take a pig, clean it up real nice, tie a bow around its neck, and sprinkle some perfume on it, but it is still a pig! If you let him out of his cage, he'll go right back into the mud! And that is why all of us need to be truly born again. Being born again dramatically changes us on the inside, and only then does the Holy Spirit actually live in us to guide us in the paths of righteousness. Born again people don't need cages to restrain them from evil. They are "new creations in Christ."

Again, I'm glad that you are a good mother who cares very much about her children, but I must ask you the most important question: Have you been born again? Have your children been born again? Jesus said that unless we are born again, we cannot see, or enter, God's kingdom! When you have the Holy Spirit in you, you can be an even better mother! And when your children also have the Holy Spirit living in them, it is easier to be their mother!

— David Kirkwood

With all this being said, we are to make sure that we dress modestly.

“In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array” (1 Timothy 2:9).

I will close with the following two verses and with encouragement to please search the Scriptures daily!

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rm 10:9-10).

 

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