Yesterday I told you I would share something that had really blessed me from my Beth Moore Bible Study of Daniel. If you enjoy Beth’s studies, you HAVE to do Daniel! It’s awesome.
Some of you have read here about how much I enjoy music. It has always been a part of my life. I never liked the “acid rock” as it was called but mostly the “pop” music that was popular in the 60s and 70s. After I got saved, I would walk out of stores where the music was so loud and offensive. Music styles have changed over the years but there has always been a message in music, sometimes not a very clear message either.
In this study Beth compares our world today with Babylon ~ centered around SELF. No arguments there. People seem to want more~clothes, money, happiness, entertainment, etc. Entertainment is the specific area she was addressing when she said
Nothing is wrong with wholesome entertainment. A Babylonian musician, however, plays a Babylonian tune. And what is more intoxicating, more aluring than music? Why are some of us moms so particular about our children’s taste in music if not its profound influence? Perhaps Babylon’s musicians~not unlike our own~played loud, rhythmic melodies of carnal pleasures, warping the listener’s sense of reality. Can we spell MTV?
Beth further quotes Eugene Peterson who said of the world today,
We try to get [joy] through entertainment. We pay someone to make jokes, tell stories, perform dramatic actions, sing songs. We buy the vitality of another’s imagination to divert and enliven our own poor lives. The enormous entertainment industry in America is a sign of the depletion of joy in our culture. Society is a bored, gluttonous king employing a court jester to divert it after an overindulgent meal. But that kind of joy never penetrates our lives, never changes our basic constitution. The effects are extremely temporary~a few minutes, a few hours, a few days at most. When we run out of money, the joy trickles away.
When our girls were small, we taught them a song that said, “Oh be careful little ears what you hear.” I think that applies to all of us. I don’t know about you, but I find a lot of today’s secular music extremely offensive to my ears. I don’t choose to listen to it, but our girls do. Yes, I pray for them.
Beth ended that lesson by stating that “Satan is the cheater and Babylon is his queen, offering false fulfillments for any taker.”
I say Amen! 
Great post Beckie….and don’t even get me started on “Gangster Rap” with it’s vile lyrics about violence against women.
Beckie, your comments are so true for todays world.My feast is up. Baba
Beckie,
I had forgotten that song “Be careful little ears…” Boy that opened floodgates of memories for me!!
I think societies have almost always sought out entertainment. I agree that ours is sometimes troublesome.
I went through a time, just after I became a Christian where I thought all secular music was EVIL. I can’t say that I agree with that today. I DO tell my children to be careful what they listen to…after all, garbage in/garbage out…
Great thoughts!! Thanks for sharing.
Susan
Amen to that, Beckie. Very rarely do I listen to secular music. But those pieces are by choice. I do not listen to any secular radio station. All my radios are tuned into to KFLR Family radio–the biggest Christian station in our state.
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Believe it or not, but I wake up every morning with a praise song in my head
Thank you for sharing what you have gleaned from Beth’s Daniel study…
Blessings to you and yours.
Amen! I’m very picky about the music I listen to for that very reason.
Yes… MUCH of today’s entertainment is HORRIBLE! This was why I quit watching television all those years ago. I find that about 95% of what is on television – including the commercials – to be OFFENSIVE in one way or another! It’s either language, violence, sex — or just general UNhealthy attitudes! (such as the reality tv and the little cat-fights instigated and then choosing one person to “vote out”) I look for music that uplifts and wholesome entertainment! I find sticking to that plan keeps me pretty happy!