Who have you invited into your home?

Would you invite someone to your home at all hours of the day or even overnight – whom you knew would repeatedly use God’s name in vain, spew profanity, slip out frequent “F” bombs and other filthy speech, even while repeatedly lying and openly committing fornication or adultery?  Would you invite people into your home who would routinely parade themselves in the nude and be committing vile acts of depravity, when measured by God’s word? 

You wouldn’t, you say.  But I suggest that you and I too may be inviting such people into our homes more often than we realize.  “How?”, you ask. Well, start thinking.  But let’s start with this verse in Genesis 1.

Genesis 1:4b – “…and God divided the light from the darkness…”

God made a separation between light and dark.  He draws a line in the sand between the holy and the profane. He doesn’t want His children messing with filth, with the unholy, with things dirty. And let’s be frank: at various times in our lives, we all have done that.  I certainly have, and have had a ton of stuff to repent of.  Yahweh calls us to come out of Babylon and not be part of this world’s ways.  We are to love the people of the world -- as Yahweh himself does and sent His only Son to die for all everyone in the world.  We love the people but not their ways.  Remember, “God so LOVED the world…” John 3:16.

God put the light on one side and darkness on the other.  Gen 1:4b – he divided the light from the darkness.  We need to quit reading the Bible just physically – but more spiritually.  Don’t think of that just in terms of physical light and darkness at creation, but think of it spiritually, a guiding rule that directs the way we think and live and breathe and move.  Divide the light from the darkness.

Are you separating the light from darkness too?  Am I?  Children should be like their father, and walk and act and live like Him.  Where in our lives are we trying to mix light and darkness and pretend we are truly children of the light? Where?  If the living God divided the light from darkness, what right do we have to ever try to reunite light and darkness, good and bad, holy and profane? 

You can’t overcome darkness with more darkness. No, as children of the light, we have to bring in our Abba’s light.  With enough light, the room becomes bright with no darkness at all. God’s children should never try to reunite what Elohim has divided.  He divided the light from the darkness.  Think of this spiritually.

Click on “continue reading” to the bottom right area – to see how we may be casually inviting darkness into our lives and evil concepts and darkened people into our homes.

Now back to whom we’re bringing into our homes.  TV.  Cable TV.  The big cable channels are now broadcasting into our homes scenes that weren’t even legal some years ago.  In years past, anyone bent on seeing smut would have had to go to dirty smutty movie houses in the inner city to see what is now readily available in our homes, for example. 

We’ve been called to be separate and different in the conduct of our lives.  To be holy.  To separate the holy from the unholy and profane. Especially in that sanctuary we call “home” – where we DO have more control over what is seen and heard within that space! 

So who’s in your home?  Sure, you have Yahweh’s word on your desk – and all that light. But are we also watching movies that drag His holy name in the mud?  Do we just say, “Well, if we’re ever going to be able to watch a movie nowadays, we’re going to have to put up with a few “F” bombs, a few OMG’s expressed, and maybe the occasional nudity?” 

Really?  Our homes are our castles. They should be our sanctuaries away from the filth of the world. Even sitcoms and daily comedy shows constantly portray or graphically discuss topics like – how quickly one could lose his/her virginity, homosexuality, fornication, adultery, profanity and constant lying.  We can have our choice of several movies on any given night portraying graphic violence, murder, mayhem, torture, drug dealing, war – all in the name of “guy films”, action films.  Really? 

We would never welcome someone inside our home who is in the act of fornication or adultery, or who is spewing out profanities one after the other, or who is ridiculing righteousness, or who is topless or naked – but yes, we do invite them in, via the shows we watch. 

I’m frankly hoping most of you reading this are thinking, “What is he talking about? What cable shows is he talking about? We hardly ever even watch TV.”

IF, on the other hand, you are thinking I’m making much ado about nothing, and you’re “mature” enough to handle the F bombs and profanities without it affecting you, then you’ve been kidnapped already by the god of this age.  I’ve always wondered why it is considered “for mature audiences” when the worst smut and filthy language is being used.  Why is the word “adult” often put in the same breath with the terrible sins of the world?  I want my children and grandchildren to feel that truly mature and godly adults would have nothing to do with typical “mature audiences” fare. 

When we participate in viewing all that – are we dividing the light from darkness as our Abba did – or are we enjoying the darkness more than the light?  We are being watched right now. Are we on God’s side – or the world’s side?   Remember Yeshua lives inside of us by His spirit. We are the temple of Yahweh’s spirit.

WHAT are we making Yeshua see through our eyes? What is he hearing through our ears?  And could all that be happening right in our own home, where none of this slop should ever be seen or heard? 

And yes, I preach to myself as well. We are committing to become even more careful than ever about what we are bringing into our sanctuaries.  Let’s conclude with a few reminders from our Master:

Romans 12:2 –
“Do NOT be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” 

We should not want to be like the world. We should not want to fit in to the world’s ways. Or as Paul says – “Don’t be conformed to the world…”

Ephesians 5:8-10
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.”

Romans 13:11-14
“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”

John 3:19-21
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."

John 8:12 
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."

1 John 1:5-7
This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Let’s follow our dear Father: divide the darkness from the light. Let’s stay in the light. Let’s beware of what darkness we may be bringing into our home and our lives.  Monitor the shows that are running in your home.  Bring every thought to the captivity of the obedience of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).