Keep Looking Up!
Here’s my dilemma. I’m taking some much needed time off. My wife is in Texas attending to family business and I’m relaxing, reading and winterizing our yard. This morning I made a terrible mistake; I tuned in to Christian TV. Now, I need to blog some steam out of my system….bear with me.
In a short 23 minutes of “Christian” TV I listened to the following:
1. A painful song loaded with sappy sentiment about, “lately I’ve got leaving on my mind…”, sprinkled with the vocalist’s admonition to his audience, “I’m tired of this ‘ole crazy mixed up world! How many of you join me when I sing, ‘lately I’ve got leaving on my mind?’”
(this singer sported a hair sprayed mullet, a colorful ‘80s sport coat and 2 tone shoes…my dad always said, “never trust a man wearing 2 tone shoes”)
2. A “commentator” behind a “news desk” telling me that he has “good news”. What would that “good news” be? His sources tell him that a nuke has been smuggled across the Mexican border into the U.S. And…
3. If you don’t know Jesus, why don’t you give your heart to Him today. As we close today, “Keep looking up!” Hmmm, looking up should be pretty easy given the low point of this pit.
The network broadcasting this misery cut away to their promo at the end of the show and told me, “…we’re presenting the finest in family and Christian entertainment”. Lovely.
On behalf of pastors and Christians everywhere, please forgive us! On behalf of Christianity down through the centuries, I’m sorry we’ve become this bizarre caricature. In this corner of the world, please hear this one voice in the wilderness, “TURN CHRISTIAN TV OFF!” I know…I should have heeded my own advice.
OK, OK…that’s it, that’s all for today….I’m on vacation…I’m going outside to pick apples in my yard. I’ll be singing, “How Great is Our God!” and praying, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN!”
5 comments:
Your right Pastor,
All ya hear is tears in my beers...oops wrong genre, I mean all you hear and see is them sitting around campfires in their spiritual bomb shelters singing rapture songs, and smiling dreamily as they think of the coming fiery nuclear judgement on the heathens.
Unbelievable! That is so sad what is being expressed by Christian television.
Sounds like we need more than a radio tower, so that real Good News can be heard.
Amy
All I can say, this is the reason this blog is in my bookmarks.
Thank you for being.
I am new to Pastor Randy and I must say the Podcasts, DVD's, Live Sermons, and blogs I have digested to this point have been life changing...for real, but I read this post a week ago and it just isn't sitting right with me. I have come back to it this evening to get it off my chest...I am sure nobody will read this at this late date, but at least I can get it off my chest. One of Pastor Randy's teachings that stick's with me daily is that there is no burden greater than that of a judgemental heart. This blog just reads with a harsh tone of judgement to potentilly well intended souls, and certainly there is more that one member of the Living Word congregation each week with a mullet and/or two-toned shoes who may not take the attmept at humor in the good natured manner it was intended....
For the last comment let me say that my heart is always on my sleeve for all to see and hear. If for one second I thought that my prophetic observations were judging fair minded, good intentioned folks, I would not have offered them. But what I observed and what I commented on here is a reflection of matters far deeper than that. (On a side note, the archives of Living Word will confirm that one of the mullets that used to enter these doors was sported on my head.) Other than that I leave one more thought that has bearing here: I offer my directness in the same spirit as when Jesus left the impression that a woman He was ministering to was a "dog" under the table. Sometimes God will offend our minds to find our hearts.
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