Hollywood Horror

This continues to address questions from a young woman, whom was trying to work through some very hard questions about life! 

Interestingly, I did break my promise to myself not to meet anyone whom I know from the internet and conceded to spend some time with her and her mother during a business trip.  She is an incredibly bright young woman, well studied and very much torn over being in a non-Christian family.  Her mother, a lawyer, was very interesting and in our conversations I would guess is not that far from waking up to Christianity.  But, the world is a strong pull…..

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Buffy, horror, vampires, slasher movies and their ilk, are all meant to instill fear in you.  Movies have a very limited range of emotions they can play upon and fear has always been a strong draw.  Why do people ride a roller coaster or visit a house of horror?  Fear is a rush!  But, on the negative side, fear is not from God.  It is not an emotion that He wishes for us – fear comes only from Satan. 

Now, watching Buffy certainly is not going to condemn you to Hell, nor will it separate you from God.  But, it definitely does not reflect any part of God and can condition your mind to think in ways you might not otherwise – ways that separate you from finding God when you need Him or being able to hear His quiet voice when he tries to lead you.  It can train you to fear the unknown.  And, with fear, you become an easy target for evil to play upon your mind and emotions. 

I have many friends whom are now adults and completely wrapped up in the Goth lifestyle.  I can show you where it leads, in flesh and blood - straight to drugs and immorality.  None of them woke up one day and said, “Gosh, I’d like to spend this weekend watching slasher movies, getting total stoned and then wonder what it was I did with whom later!”  Remember, the goal of evil – once you are a Christian – is to neutralize your testimony.  Plain and simple.  It comes in easy to follow steps – each step leading you further away from the true Christ.  And you never see it coming!

Fear, mental anguish, physical pain, even violence are not beyond the other side in their attempts to neutralize your Christian witness.  Add to that drugs, sex, computer games, TV and sports – anything and everything to keep you busy and as far from being an active witness as possible.  As you get older, there are a ton more distractions out there waiting to lure you away from being any kind of a witness as a Christian.  All you have to do is be willingly molded by the world around you, and failure will find you.

God’s desire for us is to live a life pleasing to Him and yes, some of the things we do in ‘innocence’ can cause us to have problems we might not have had otherwise.  Begin by asking God for forgiveness for what you may have done which was unknown to you as having been wrong.  Ask Him to show you things in your life which you need to correct – and then be willing to correct those things, be that attitudes with parents, what you see or listen to, or how you spend your free time.  Pray for your room, ask God to protect your room from evil, to protect you while you sleep, to protect your dreams, to keep evil from having any influence over you.  Then trust in God to answer your prayers and push this from your mind (do not worry about it!).  You may have to pray this way nightly for years until you find yourself free from fear, or maybe only once.  You only have to ask once– God will respond, He promises to.  So, when those fears crop up, know they are just fears – God has already protected you as you asked, it is just your mind playing tricks on you.  Have the faith to say, “Thank you God for protecting me” – then go to sleep.

No evil has anymore power over you than you allow it.  But exposure to evil does make you less sensitive to it, until you can not see it even if it hits you in the face (remember my friends?).  Do not go looking for evil or trouble, but do not be bashful about praying for your own protection when you think you are in difficulty.  Prayer should always be our first response.

In the end, only you can decide what it is that you want to expose yourself to.  Only you can control what it is that will go into your mind and therefore become the basis for how you will live your life in the future and how you will make your decisions.  Yes, sometimes that means we have to choose the less fun path, less fun activities, less fun movies-TV-music; but, in the end, it is how we face God that is the point of our entire existence.

Take care, I will add you to my prayers.  Remember that Satan was defeated long ago and has no power over believers.  Let me know if this brought up anymore questions.