Welcome to the ULC Minister's Network

Pastor Charles Stilwell ULCM

Sapphries

  • THE SPECTACLES OF SODOM -

    Word for the Month Dec.1st: 2 Peter 2:7

    Friday, December 1, 2017

    In 2 Peter 2:7 it is written that God “delivered righteous Lot who was distressed by the depraved conversation of the wicked.” Lot lived in Sodom. Sodom was a city of depravity. How did Lot deal with it all? His family was the only island of morality and faith in a sea of moral evil. How did he raise his children in Sodom? How did he interact or have “fellowship” with the citizens of Sodom around him? How did he involve himself in Sodom’s government? What did he do concerning Sodom’s pastimes, entertainments, and spectacles? If this sounds totally hypothetical, it is not. It is burningly relevant. We, as Lot, live in a day of moral and spiritual depravity. We are surrounded by it. It’s everywhere. It’s on the internet. It’s in our magazines. It’s in our government. It’s in our schools. It’s on our television sets. How do we deal with it? In this month ’s message, we’ll focus on the pastimes, entertainments, and spectacles of our time as in that of Sodom. There was a time in the early days of television where that which was broadcast on American network television was overall more pure, more moral, and more wholesome than the reality of daily life. Sexuality was never depicted in any meaningful way as existing outside the marital bed. Language had no curse words or profanity. Faith, religion, ministers, and believers were depicted in a positive light and family was celebrated. Those days are long gone. What now emanates from our television screens would have been unfathomable to those of the 1950s and even to us of a few years back. We must understand that an increasingly apostate, anti-biblical, and anti-Christian culture will naturally present increasingly apostate, anti-biblical, and anti-Christian entertainment. And so we have watched as the entertainment industry has grown increasingly profane, vulgar, depraved, defiling , anti-Christian, and, in some cases, outright satanic. As believers, the danger is to grow used to such things, to gradually accommodate oneself to the new and anti-God morality, to no longer be shocked by it, to absorb it in the pursuit of entertainment. We must recognize such things for what they are – that which wars against our faith, our God, our salvation, and our souls. Had we lived in the days of ancient Rome, we could not allow ourselves to partake in the blood spectacles of its arenas. Nor can we partake of that which would defile us. Even if it is the most celebrated Hollywood spectacle in years, if it contains that which goes against our Lord and the most precious thing we have – we must reject it. We must draw a line in the sand. And if that should one day mean unplugging altogether to such industries, then that’s what we must do. Our salvation, our walk, our lives, our souls, and our eternities are too important to defiled and threatened by the spectacles of S odom. This month, draw your line in the sand. Unplug from whatever is not of God and life, and plug your heart all the more into His presence. And may God greatly bless you as you do! Your brother and co-laborer in His love and service, Jonathan

    See Message: Food of the Priests 
    Scripture: Scripture:: 2 Peter 3:17

    Rabbi Jonathan Cahn