As you may recall from Part I of my series on “Why ‘Refined4Him’”, I mentioned in one of the closing paragraphs that you would be shocked at the sanctification process that God has granted me and that I consider myself “set apart” from the world, but not “better than” the world (also defined as being “holy”). This is assuming that you survived reading my last blog entry. I sure hope so! (Romans 12:2, James 4:4).
I would like to take a moment to discuss what I/we believe (the “we” being my wife and I) and why we set ourselves apart from worldliness. We choose not to participate in sin (obviously), but we also take it a step further in that we do not participate in things that do not edify nor glorify our God. Many would consider this being “better than”, or “holier than thou”. Well, we are “holy”. You see, “holiness” is not being above someone or something, but being separate from them. We consider ourselves human and still prone to sin and we still need Jesus to get us through the days. Someone who is “better than” usually thinks not to need Jesus because they are on a “higher plane”. Trust me, my wife and I are still very humble. (2 Corinthians 7:1, 1 Corinthians 6:20, Romans 3:23). Oh, sorry! I’m just ranting on.
We believe that sin is relevant. And we do not pat sin on the back or believe in covering it in sugar. You can spray perfume on cow manure, but it doesn’t change what it is. Sin is not something that God approves of and it causes separation between us and God. If you don’t believe me, then why did His only begotten Son die on the cross? (John 3:16-21). There are many things that we consider sin/abominations (or things that are bad examples of a disciple) that many this day and age do not. From smoking to homosexuality, to gambling and back. But don’t worry, the blog posts are coming on those.
There are many people who are stunned to learn that we do not watch TV or have one in our home. OK…now that you have picked yourself up off the floor, let me explain. It all started about three years ago, give or take. We belonged to the dish family. We indulged every night in all kinds of shows. We kept up with the Kardashians, drooled over the latest Hollywood sleaze on TMZ, enjoyed all the sexed up, violent cop shows such as Law and Order and CSI. Our free time was spent drooling over TV. As a matter of fact, our oldest son spent hours a day entranced by it’s glow. Then God began “refining” us after we left the church we were attending at the time. Most people at that church thought we left God too, but the truth is that He hammered our hearts with His will. But that’s another story for another day. We realized that the TV was nothing but expensive smut. So we dropped down to the “family package”. This only offered us the ability to continue to make our son a zombie. So we got rid of the dish and went to the converter box. All seemed well, with the exception of commercials that advertised sex or the sexy shows that were to come on later. Then one night as we were watching The Wheel Of Fortune as a family, Ms. Vanna White was adorned in a very immodest outfit. “That’s it!” I said. And out the door went the TV. You see, we have a standard as to what we allow our eyes as a family to see. If it goes against our values, then it is trash. Violence, cussing, sexual immorality, immodesty, and everything else that TV has to offer goes against what we believe and therefore is not allowed in our home. Many people cuss around children this day and age and say “Oh, they just hear it at home. They’re used to it.”. Not in my home. As a matter of fact, if you cuss in my home I will throw you out.
So now we do this thing called “talking”. Interaction as a family I know is a scary thing this day, but we took the step and not once do we miss the TV. We also spend our time doing unheard of stuff like “playing with our kids”, “reading the Bible”, “singing hymns”, and “training our kids in the love and teaching of God” (Colossians 3:16, Ephesians 6:4). Man! What are we? Monsters? We do not consider it a sin to watch TV. However, we believe what you feed your soul is important. How do you expect to grow in Jesus when you spend your free time watching the devil’s work? (Matthew 6:24, 4:10). Someday we will have to answer to God on how we used our resources (time) (Matthew 25:1-30). I would rather my Lord be pleased with what I have done, not me trying to explain myself. So to those people who keep calling me to offer us a TV: Thank you, but the reason why we do not have a TV isn’t because we cannot afford one.
If you know us, then you know that we are no strangers to financial struggles. Many people have told us that this would be solved if my wife would get a job. Well, you see, we choose poverty. We sacrifice financial ease in order to fulfill God’s calling for the raising of our children. It makes no sense for us to pay total strangers to raise our children for us just so my wife can make a couple of extra bucks. We would be turning our children over to the values and beliefs of others who may not share what we believe. Then we turn them over to the ungodly public school system to be taught that God isn’t real, Jesus is wrong, and it’s OK to be gay. Talk about sacrificing your children! Just to make extra money? Is it worth it to lose your children to the ways of the world? To see them fall away in their adult years because they were taught two different ways of thought and living? To pray that they choose the right path? Why even give them the wide and crooked path as a choice? (Matthew 7:13-14).We don’t think it is worth it. We would rather be poor and trust God for His provisions than to have two incomes to get what we want, while handing our children over to a broken system. Therefore we choose to raise our children ourselves and homeschool. (1 Timothy 4:6-16, 6:3-4, Titus 2:1).
Quiverfull? Many don’t know what this means, but for those that do fear has been struck in their hearts. When people think of quiverfull, they think of America’s most loved/hated family- The Duggars. What quiverfull means is that we surrender to God’s will the size of our family. Children are a blessing and not a curse, as many modern families tend to believe. God has planned how many children He wants us to have. It could be three or thirty. It is up to Him on how many blessings we are entrusted to raise in His way. So many people think that this is irresponsible family planning. Hey! We follow biblical principals. If you think it is irresponsible then you need to complain to God about it. What I think is irresponsible is the swipe-swipe-swiping of credit cards to buy useless junk that will just break or end up in the landfill. So many people want to rack up credit cards and debt, but limit how many children they have. The Bible considers children a blessing and debt a curse. (Psalm 127:3-5, Psalm 128, Romans 13:8, Proverbs 22:7).
We also believe that women should dress modestly, hence Vanna White’s offense that I had mentioned earlier. We believe that the sexuality of a woman should be reserved for her husband, not for every other man to drool upon. Not to mention when a woman dresses provocatively, whether in church or in public, she is using her body to attract men in a sexual/lustful manner and causing any married men with wandering eyes to commit adultery in his heart. I seriously doubt this is pleasing to God, so not just do we not partake, but we teach our sons to look away and choose not to dress our daughter(s) in that way either. So no, we will not be buying pants for our daughter(s) that says “juicy” across the rear end. Do we seem like horrible parents yet? (1 Timothy 2:9, Matthew 5:28, Romans 14:21).
This is most, but not all of what I, and my wife, believe in. I am not saying that this is what we believe, and that you are wrong if you don’t follow suit. This is what God has called us to. And we are pretty sure that we aren’t nuts, being that there are scriptures in the Bible to back up our beliefs. If you are offended that we are offended by underdressed women, sin, public schools, daycare, TV, and Vanna White’s dress, then you again need to talk to God about it. We are only following His will, not our own.
I shared with you last time about where I came from and how I was saved. This time I shared with you what I believe and the scriptures that I believe represent this. I wanted to elaborate more on the “sanctification” that has taken place in our lives that I touched on in my last blog post. You see, just three years ago not just were we watching smut on TV, but we also believed that modestly dressed women were nuts, quiver full was a religious cult, and even about five years ago discussed what public school our children would be in. It was God’s conviction and calling that has led us to where we are and where we will be heading. We thank Him so much for this and I am eager in anticipation to know why He has called us in this way, yet so many other Christians are not and live by a worldly standard. Again, this post wasn’t meant to seem “better than” the world, but that God has called us to be “set apart” from it. I hope you enjoyed getting to know me a little better this time around, as I have been a virtual “Batman” in the blog world. Lurking in the shadows behind a mask. There is one more blog post on this series as to why my blog exists and who I am. Thank you for your time and God blessJ
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