Video games in Christian homes

I still remember the day I got my PlayStation 2. It was the greatest day ever! I immediately plugged it into the television and started playing. I would play hours every day and I immediately became addicted. When I got in trouble, I would be grounded from them. That was the one thing that I loved enough to be a punishment that made me change.

Then I got my Xbox 360. The first game I ever played with it was the Kung Fu Panda that it came with. When I saw the graphics, I was amazed. I played and I played and I played. Most of my middle school and high school years were full of Call of Duty, Batman Arkham, Halo, Skyrim, and so many more games. I landed my first job and began spending  much of my paycheck buying new games and upgrades for my Xbox. I have to say, there were multiple games that I have accumulated weeks of gameplay. I was addicted to them.

Then I stayed the weekend with my girlfriends family in New York and something strange happened. There was no television or Xbox in the room and I was driven to leave the room and connect with the people outside the door. My eyes were opened to the chains that a controller had around my hands.

Because of this, I made the hardest decision in my life to leave my Xbox and television at home when I came to college this year, I've begun understanding more and more about the effects of video games in my life.

This is what I learned about video games.

Video Games Can Be Addictive

When we do not regulate our time, we can easily find ourselves addicted to video games. Video games are continuously giving young people and adults an adventure that they never want to end. Without regulation, we are setting ourselves up for many hours and days and weeks and months of lukewarmness and lifelessness.

Video Games Can Destroy Relationships

 I have accumulated many months of gameplay over the years in video games. MONTHS! And I know I'm not the worst out there. Months of time that I could have spent with my family, months that I could have spent with my friends were spent with virtual family and virtual friends. With relationships that never last longer than the story mode takes me. I spent countless hours building those relationships while neglecting the ones that last forever. I've spent hours trying to heal the broken hearts in a code of numbers while neglecting the broken people around me. I lost so many years due to video games that I wish I could get back.

Video Games Can Replace Your Reality

Sometimes video game addicts replace reality by purchasing an alternate reality. We think our real lives are so dull and meaningless compared to the lives that we can live inside a video game. I mean what is the point to the Sims video games? You do the exact same things that we do in real life, yet we choose who we love, who loves us, who to friend without conflict. Our lives within the video games become our reality and our reality become the virtual.

Video Games Can Become Your God

What do I mean? God told Moses that "you shall have no gods before me." Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength." How can we do this when all we do is play video games? And when we are away from the console, all we think about is the video game. When I would be in school, I would daydream about video games instead of think about God. When I would go home, I would play video games and forget to spend any time with God. I talked about video games and rarely mentioned God. Video games took the top spot in my priorities. I budgeted my time around my video games. They became my God and my life was making no progress.

And my favorite principle.

PLAYING VIDEO GAMES IS NOT A SIN 

After saying this, notice I used the word "can" in all of the other principles. Video games are healthy when they are regulated. I still play video games, but not near as much as I used to. Video games are great stress relievers when the world becomes too much. They're also FUN! 

Video games only get in the way when you begin to stop progressing in your Christian walk. If video games are taking you away from your Jesus time and your relationship with God, cut off the time you spend playing. Be careful. We need to spend our lives honoring God. This means putting Him first in our lives. 

Make a difference in the real world more than in the virtual world. And have fun playing!

 

The New Drug

Have kids? Be aware of the new drug that is impacting to lives of millions upon millions of of youth and adults today.
Don't have kids? This drug has terrible effected and diminished the lives of so many people and lead to thousands upon thousands of rapes and murders.

This terrible drug industry generates $13 billion dollars in the U.S. alone. Much more, overseas.

9 out of 10 boys and 6 out of 10 girls are exposed to and experience this drug before they are 18.

50% of men in the church claim to be addicted to this drug.

56% of today's divorce cases are caused by this drug.

This drug causes the same chemical effects in the brain that drugs like cocaine can do.

This drug is causing thousands of people to seek stronger and more damaging and illegal outlets when it fails to satisfy.

This drug industry is providing the majority of funding of sex trafficking in the world.

This drug alters the brain and is extremely addicting, setting off the reward receptors in the brain.

The addiction to this drug is very hard to quit and get rid of (almost impossible.) There is always a desire for more to those who are addicted.

Oh, by the way, this drug can be accessed for FREE!!


What kind of drug can make this big of an impact in the world yet we don't treat it as an epidemic!?

Wanna know what it is?

It's PORNOGRAPHY.

Before you begin to defend the myth that pornography is "normal" for people to engage in and be satisfied with, realize the damaging effects that this drug has on people. Yes, it is a drug! A narcotic can be defined as "a drug or other substance affecting mood and behavior and sold for non-medical purposes, especially an illegal one." The effects that pornography has on the brain or in the lives of people who indulge in it is incredible! Porn addicts end up secluding themselves from their families, spouses and friends. Why? They also live in shame and regret from their actions. But most of all,
 Because Porn Kills Love.

This is the main theme of the organization Fight the New Drug. What I am most interested in is the fact that this organization is not a Christian organization. So, to all of you who think I'm posting this to push a theological value of mine, realize this: Even the secular world is beginning to see the disastrous results of pornography and lust.

Many of the women displayed in pornographic material are sex trafficking victims or the "advertisements" of pimps. (Remember that if you are an addict.) Many of these girls are often forced to have sex at gunpoint behind the camera's. We need to realize the horrific nature of this industry and stop it!

Television shows and movies are beginning to add sex scenes to appeal to the audience of this porn-induced world because they cannot gain people's interests otherwise.

I could go on and on about the dangers of porn but I need you to remember this.
Jesus tells us that if a man were to look at a woman lustfully, he has committed adultery in his heart.
That means, if a man looks at pornography, he has gone all the way and slept with her in his heart. If that man is married or dating he has cheated on his significant other when he decided to look at porn.

Porn kills love.
Porn kills hope.
Porn kills souls.

Find help. Find accountability. Find God.
He will help you find a way out of this lifestyle. "For there is no temptation that has come upon you that is not common to mankind. But God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. And when you are tempted he will give you a way out so that you can endure it!"

It's only through God that you can conquer this. He will get you out if you call on him.