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entertainment, a devotional

Posted by: empalo <empalo@...>

This is by Richard Mummau and I personally found it very good and
wanted to share it with you sisters in the Lord.
Pat

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For a devotional I'm using Tozer Quotes on **Entertainment**.

**********Entertainment**********

WE NOW DEMAND GLAMOUR and fast-flowing dramatic action. A generation
of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is
impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals.
We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with
God. We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away,
hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another
gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a
religious adventurer lately returned from afar.
The tragic results of this spirit are all about us: shallow lives,
hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun
in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious
externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the
mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These
and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and
serious malady of the soul.
____________________
WE HAVE BEEN FORCED TO look elsewhere for our delights and we have
found them in the dubious artistry of converted opera singers or the
tinkling melodies of odd and curious musical arrangements. We have
tried to secure spiritual pleasures by working upon fleshly emotions
and whipping up synthetic feeling by means wholly carnal.
____________________
THE THINGS YOU READ WILL fashion you by slowly conditioning your mind.
. . .
The same thing is certainly true of the power of modern films on the
minds and morals of those who give themselves over to their influences
____________________
TODAY MORE THAN EVER we Christians need to learn how to sanctify the
ordinary. This is a blasé generation. People have been over stimulated
to the place where their nerves are jaded and their tastes corrupted.
Natural things have been rejected to make room for things artificial.
The sacred has been secularized, the holy vulgarized and worship
converted into a form of entertainment.
____________________
IN THIS DAY WHEN SHIMMERING personalities carry on the Lord's work
after the methods of the entertainment world, it is refreshing to
associate for a moment, even in the pages of a book, with a sincere
and humble man who keeps his own personality out of sight and places
the emphasis upon the in- working of God.
____________________
WITH BIBLES UNDER THEIR arms and bundles of tracts in their pockets,
religious persons now meet to carry on "services" so carnal, so pagan,
that they can hardly be distinguished from the old vaudeville shows of
earlier days. And for a preacher or a writer to challenge this heresy
is to invite ridicule and abuse from every quarter.
____________________
IT IS NOW COMMON PRACTICE in most evangelical churches to offer the
people, especially the young people, a maximum of entertainment and a
minimum of serious instruction. It is scarcely possible in most places
to get anyone to attend a meeting where the only attraction is God.
One can only conclude that God's professed children are bored with Him
for they must be wooed to meeting with a stick of striped candy in the
form of religious movies, games and refreshments.
____________________
MANY ARE SETTLING FOR far less than God is waiting to give. They try
to stay happy by adding something to their religion that tickles their
carnality from the outside. They introduce converted cowboys and
half-converted movie actors, and I think they would even stoop to
talking horses and gospel dogs to be able to join in saying, "We had a
wonderful time!" They will pay a big price to feature some "ninety-day
wonder" so they can get the people to crowd in.
____________________
IN OUR DAY WE MUST BE dramatic about everything. We don't want God to
work unless He can make a theatrical production of it. We want Him to
come dressed in costumes with a beard and with a staff. We want Him to
play a part according to our ideas. Some of us even demand that He
provide a colorful setting and fireworks as well!
____________________
A GREAT COMPANY OF EVANGELICALS has already gone over into the area of
religious entertainment so that many gospel churches are tramping on
the doorstep of the theater.
____________________
ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR current errors is the notion that as times
change the church must change with them. Christians must adapt their
methods by the demands of the people. If they want ten-minute sermons,
give them ten-minute sermons. If they want truth in capsule form, give
it to them. If they want pictures, give them plenty of pictures. If
they like stories, tell them stories. If they prefer to absorb their
religious instruction through the drama, go along with them-give them
what they want. "The message is the same, only the method changes,"
say the advocates of compromise.
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God bless each one of you real good.
Keep on Keeping on.

In Him,
Richard Mummau
Jesus Christ is Coming Soon, Are You Ready to Meet Him.