04/13/18 MONSTERS COME IN DIFFERENT PACKAGES
Most of us have seen movies or TV shows depicting ego maniacs as leaders of families or groups. We also realize that there have been patriarchs and matriarchs who have brutalized and oppressed family or followers while wielding a Bible, such as Jim Jones, Brigham Young, John Calvin.
But sometimes the oppressor has been a dissatisfied, "other driven" person, who rose up from the ranks, seeking to replace the principles and even beneficent leadership, such as Lucifer, Absalom, Alexander and a host of world leaders, past and present.
In the "old days" we knew who the good guys were because they wore white hats. As truth has been overtaken by optics and brazen disrespect and bold lying, it is not always easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys.
Today it seems that there is a great emphasis in entertainment to make the bad guy into the hero, or at least make the bad guy into either a victim or a character who deserves our sympathy. In either case, through violence or vulnerability, the bad guys get the cheers and anything resembling law, order, decency, morality gets the jeers. After all, we have been taught to believe that anyone who comes across as a true and faithful must be a liar.
Entertainment does shape our thinking about our values and our relationships. There was a time when society recognized and honored those who possessed what they professed.
Don't let culture, don't let the spirit of the age direct your thinking.
GET grounded, STAY grounded in the word of God.
FIND truth, FOLLOW truth.
THINK ON THESE THINGS.
Philippians 4:8-9
8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
