I’m sure most of you have heard of this saying and if so you are wondering why on Earth it showed up in a Christian blog. Up until a few months ago I was a Talker and as much as I wanted to change, no matter how hard I wanted to, failure was always the end result. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why until I went to an amazing Christian camp known as Wild Week. While there and in the time immediately following that amazing experience I realized what I was doing wrong, the tungsten filament to my otherwise perfect light bulb (Geek reference, sorry). If all that you consume is garbage, whether it be your musical tastes, the news you follow, the company you keep, you will never get anywhere. To put in rather bluntly poop is poop, it will never become a diamond. Being a Christian our fruit would be acting in a manner that would remind the world of Jesus. I know for a fact that Jesus would never talk about shooting up people, prostitutes, doing drugs in anything resembling a positive light. So let’s take a peak at music first then shall we?

A really popular band right now is Fall Out Boy and their most popular song at the moment is “Thanks for the Memories”. You can find the lyrics at this link: http://www.metrolyrics.com/thanks-for-the-memories-lyrics-fall-out-boy.html . Having listened to the song I can see where you could find it enjoyable, it sounds upbeat and catchy with a great rhythm and pleasant vocals. Most teens would think much of it, but when you actually stop and look at the lyrics what you find certainly contains nothing pleasing to God. The song talks about one night stands in such a manner that you would think he enjoyed it and think that, though this one went sour, I’ll move on to the next girl. Let’s stop right there and blast that little gem all to pieces. First off the bible condemns several times sex out side of wedlock just look here:

• Exodus 20:14 (NLT) “You must not commit adultery.” Adultery is having sex outside of wedlock, even in your mind it still counts, just look at Matthew 5:28 (NLT) “But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
• Proverbs 5:15-17 (NLT) 15 Drink water from your own well—
  share your love only with your wife.
  16 Why spill the water of your springs in the streets,
  having sex with just anyone?
  17 You should reserve it for yourselves.
  Never share it with strangers.

I could go on and one, beating this horse to death but I think you get the idea. Drugs are not specifically mentioned in the bible but just look at 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NLT) 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. This can also be tied back to promiscuity and a multitude of other issues that I am going to hit on so bear that in mind, look I even made it bold so it’ll be easy to find and refer back to. Think about it, does anything good come from drugs? Science keeps proving that drugs harm the body, killing brain cells and in general just making harder for a person to do the right thing. Even more simple than that is the fact that the bible says that we must still follow the laws of the land in addition to the laws of God (Titus 3:1).

Murder is wrong, everyone knows it, its in the Ten Commandments and it is still illegal most everywhere in the world today. There are exceptions to the rule like self-defense but that is entirely different to straight up murders.

The excuse that some Christians give is that all the good music in secular and that the lyrics don’t affect me. Both of these statements are still excuses, and as well all know, excuses are like rear ends, everyone has them and they all stink. First off the APA or American Psychological Association published a study shown here: http://www.apa.org/releases/violentsongs.html that directly links violent music with an increase in violent behavior. Once again proving my point that, if you put garbage it, that is all that’s going to come out. The other claim that all the good music out there is secular and it all has those kind of subjects is simply preposterous. For every band and genre of music out there, there is either a secular version that plays the same great music that will get you moving without relying on dirty lyrics and curse words to get their point across. For help with this just turn to www.pluggedinonline.com or to http://www.christianitytoday.com/teens/features/alternatives.html or http://www.musicalfish.com/alternatives.html for help with finding the good stuff out there and the Christian alternatives to the bad.

Now all of this has been aimed squarely at music but it also applies to movies, television, and books just as well. Trying to live a life that is pure and pleasing to God while still subjecting yourself to all of this is impossible, even if you think you can control it, your thoughts will still continue to wander into areas that God abhors.

Check back tomorrow when I take a stab at profanity in any form