We live in a world of 24/7 entertainment. Nonstop movies, TV, music, videos, and games are all on demand and most kids are involved in this fantasy world and to some, it is all they know. Kids love the distraction, the excitement and the resulting euphoric feelings they experience while watching, hearing and immersing themselves into a virtual world of seemingly harmless entertainment. But like Pinocchio the wooden boy, are we walking into the devil’s snare?
Is this world and all its things trying to ensnare our children into accepting that the world and all its things are good and to reject the slower-moving, less interesting, harder-to-enjoy real-world of chores, homework, spending time with people, and learning to know people instead of the make-believe world that is seducing them?
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15
Hosea 4.6 tells us that the God says his people (children) are being destroyed for a lack of knowledge. What does this passage mean? Does it mean we are not educating the kids with enough worldly knowledge to obtain higher job skills? Does it mean we should engage our children into more and more worldly information and to let them do what they want, when they want, and how they want? Or does it mean that they are being destroyed because they lack the saving knowledge of God’s word, His knowledge, and His wisdom, much of what is in the Bible but most in the Holy Spirit who is meant to dwell within us?
Jesus Loves the Little Children
There’s a song about this, it’s quite popular, and it’s true. God loves children. If anyone is noticing, He creates them at quite an amazing rate. He gifts people with the opportunity to raise children so He may co-parent the children with us. He expects us to take care of them, to bring them up in HIs word, and to never keep them from Him. How and why do we do that?
“But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.””
Matthew 19:14
Sometimes we do it on purpose and sometimes it is done by accident or because we lack discernement. We keep children from God on purpose when we neglect their education about God, keep them away from church, and do not share our relationship with God with them. We keep children away from God by accident when we inadvertently cause them to stumble or we lack the saving knowledge ourselves. And I get it, many people do not have a loving relationship with God or have clear understanding of what the Bible says. The sin of this world constantly demands attention while we all try our best to raise these children and grandchildren up to be good people. But how is it possible to raise kids into good people without God?
Do What You Want – You Do You – Be Yourself – You Can Be Anything You Want to Be
“O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
Matthew 26:39
All this header tells us is that we can do whatever we want, which matches Aleister Crowley’s theology of “Do What Thou Wilt” and his satanic order instead of what God says we should do. God says obey His commands, to listen to His voice, to be as He created us to be, and that we were created for a time and a purpose such as this, but not to be whatever (an eternally dangerous concept) we want. If we truly love God, we will listen to Him and the people who follow Him. We will listen to the Bible’s word and do what Jesus told us to, “not as I will, but as You will.”
Check Your Neck
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
Matthew 18:6
Many believe the above statement in Matthew 18:6 is about abusing children and while it is true that we must keep children from being abused, we must reflect on this verse to understand what Jesus meant by it. He meant that we must not cause children to sin and we sin by keeping our children and keeping our children from Him. We cause our children to stumble when we do not grow them up in His word, His love, and His teachings. When we cause children to sin, we are at risk of hell ourselves. This is the checking our neck moment. Do we have a millstone around our neck because we intentionally or unintentionally caused our children to sin?
Quick Test
- Do we read the Bible in our homes? Do we discuss what is read?
- Do we pray often and help the children learn to pray?
- Do we teach our children God’s word and what is good and evil?
- Do we discuss with our children examples of how the Bible relates to modern day good and evil?
- Do we depend on the world to teach our children what is good and evil?
- Do we allow our children and grandchildren to do whatever they want, watch what they want, listen to what they want, and eat what they want, and never monitor it?
- And here are some big ones: do we eat meals together, break bread together, disciple each other, and keep an honest and open dialog with them to see if anything is secretly causing them to stumble by being unaware?
I have seen people expose their children to bad things, often times unaware of what was in the entertainment they were viewing. I know, not long ago, I too inadvertently did when I thought it was okay to watch the movies, listen to music with harsh or evil lyrics. If you have time, please, do a study of the lyrics of the songs your children and grandchildren listen to, it’s an eye opener! It is imperative to keep young ears, eyes and minds from hearing the words sung or rapped to a cool beat unabated when it is programming them to accept evil as good and good – as evil.
Dancing With The Demons
Have you seen the dance routines of the little girls in the dance competitions? If you have and you consider yourself to be a Christian, you must watch what the kids are doing, moving, wearing, and acting out during these routines to see the evil from the perspective of devil to see what it really does. Does it cause people to lust? Does it cause girls envy? Does it cause the girls pride? Does it cause them to want to use the dance routines to solicit attention while not dancing? Once girls know they can get attention from boys and men alike by moving a certain way, they have been introduced to sin through seduction.
The newest dance competition routines appear to a God-fearing eye as stripper routines for children. They cause the girls to expose themselves repeatedly to the audience while receiving attention from the audience they crave. We must all see these dance studios and the training the kids go through for what they are – exotic dance training. Is this what we want to teach our young girls? How to seduce audiences of men and women into watching them perform? It’s dangerous and it has all the markings of causing our little ones to stumble when the girls learn they can use their bodies as weapons to seduce and causes the boys to view their friends (sisters and brothers in Christ) as an object of desire. If you question what I am saying here – ask yourself one question, would any competition be as interesting to watch if the kids had modest, loose fitting clothes on?
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Smart Phones or Sin Phones?
Just yesterday, I saw our neighbor’s girls out in the front yard doing dance routines in front of a cell phone – probably producing a video for TikTok. Every time a car drove by, they would freak out and stop what they were doing. I wonder, why are they embarrassed by the thought of being seen by a person in a car driving by, but have no reaction to the idea that hundreds, thousands, and even millions of eyes could potentially be watching them through the video they produced? Yet, many parents are too busy to notice what their kids are doing, much less what their kids are watching, singing, saying, or even producing online. I pray this convicts us all to monitor our children’s phones better and to check if they are getting in over their heads or in sin.
I Went On TikTok With My Kids And Was Shocked By What I Found
My older kids were raised with a smartphone and I regret ever allowing it. When I first got them for them in 2009/2010, it was completely new and I had no knowledge of how addictive the phones, the apps, or the content accessible from the phones would be to my kids. I now know it caused harm, I just didn’t know that it was so dangerously addictive to them. While I regret buying the phones, I take ownership of it. I have to, you see, I am their parent. They looked to me as the guide in this world of what was good, what was evil, and what was permissible or not. I simply was ignorant at best, but culpable at worst because I didn’t stop their cell phone plans when the effects became real. I didn’t monitor their use as I should have and as every loving parent should monitor their kid’s phones and especially their internet access. The little ones I am currently raising have a different mindset because of it. I do check, help, guide and manage what they do, because it is important to their life with God.
No Magazines Needed
When it comes to pornography, when I grew up, the only way you would ever see nude pictures is if your brother or father would have a magazine and leave it where you could get to it, which is probably the traditional way. I also knew where store owners kept it in the liquor and convenience stores in California and they had it discreetly covered up where you could only read the titles of the magazines. But everyone should now know that pornography, and the worst kinds imaginable at that, is readily accessible, to each and every phone, tablet, computer, and device that is connected to the internet. It’s also readily accessible on nearly every platform Big Tech has created! Twitter, snapchat, TikTok, Facebook (community groups), and others do very little to stave off our kids from accidentally or purposefully obtaining the content. It’s devastating to young minds to see it, especially the stuff they produce today. There is no wonder that the pornography industry is the most lucrative business there is and the appetites of people for more dangerous pornography is becoming voracious and insatiable because of the easy access and constant production of it.
‘Mommy-ran accounts’ and the dangerous paedophile rings preying on kidfluencer content
As Christians, we must recognize the harm pornography does to our minds when it steals from our relationships, causes evil fantasy to tempt us, and causes enslavement to it. It is the most addictive thing in our human lives because it is sin. There is no way of getting around that. It is sin, and if we do not protect ourselves or our kids from accessing it, we may be causing our necks to receive a millstone. Have we checked our necks lately? Are we culpable? Do we cause our kids to sin or keep them away from the truth that there is sin at all? It’s time we all get corrected and recognize how devastating these ideas, images, videos, are to our children’s minds and how it may be causing them to be led on a path to hell.
When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
Consider carefully what is before you;
2 And put a knife to your throat
If you are a man given to appetite.
3 Do not desire his delicacies,
For they are deceptive food.
Psalms 23:1-3
Forgiveness
When we sin, we must acknowledge that there are consequences to our sin. Whether it is played out in our lifetime on earth, or eternally after we die. Sowing and reaping is something we must all be aware of and teach our kids about too. There are consequences to lying. adulterating, hating, having unforgiveness for others, being jealous, being prideful, rebelling, murdering (physically and via our tongues), and sexual immorality. The reaping part is where many are missing it. They don’t analyze what they are reaping, either now or eternally, later. Thank God there is Jesus!
God is forgiving. He knows when we get it wrong and when we get it right. Everything we do is recorded in heaven and there is nothing He does not know about. He still loves us. He created us and He loved us before the foundations of the world! He knows we are sinners and He also has paid the cost for all of our sin. He sent His only begotten son to us and we hated Him. We nailed Him to a cross and tried to destroy Him. Yet, He still forgave us all! Why?! Because that is His nature and it is the loving father that He is. We all need to know that and our kids need to be raised knowing Him and knowing what He commands of us. There is a reason Hosea 4:6 says my people are destroyed for a lack knowledge. It is because there are rules this life and we must obey them in order to grow up into the sons and daughters of God we were created to be. He is saving us from satan and He is saving us from ourselves.
I write this message not to tell you how bad people are, and some really are, but to tell you how good God is, and He is as good as it gets! I write this to encourage all of us to seek God daily to ask His advice and to have an open relationship with Him to ask Him anything. I’ll let you in on a little secret, He answers back and He is waiting to hear from you! He let’s us know when get it right and when we get it wrong. It’s all a process and a journey. He seeks to not lose any of His children and you are His child. He loves you as a good father would, and He seeks to grow you up into the son or daughter that you were meant to be. That means it will be hard sometimes! It will be exhausting, but He refreshes us. It will be scary, but He is our comfort and deliverer. It will be painful sometimes, but He is our healer. And while there is an enemy in our world that is fiercely seeking to devour us, God protects us from our enemy as long as we fix our eyes on Him and keep moving forward.
Lastly, I pray this message is received with a heart of understanding. It’s not my intention to send out evil messages but to send a message of hope that when we do what is right, everyone will do well. Our children need help and their children will need help too. But we all have this. We have a helper in the Holy Spirit who will guide us to all truths. I am thankful that God did not kill me in my sin, but He gives us an opportunity to grow, learn, and share time with Him in the process. He has given me gifts in the physical and the spirit that are true treasures and I am so thankful He is God and I am not.
Blessings,
Darrell
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10