Poke'Mon ExposedWritten by Annagail Lynes
Have you seen Campbell soup commercial about two brothers playing a video game. The one where their mom calls them to eat. One video game monster says to other, "Don't worry. They'll be back. They need us." Then monster whispers, "I hear footsteps," obviously convinced it was kids coming to finish their game. As mom turns off video game, you hear "Oh no! It's mom!" Most find this commercial amusing, maybe enough to write "Campbell's soup" on their grocery list. Seeing nothing odd about it. After all, kids playing video games are commonplace scenes in our society. Now consider this next scene: children, maybe your younger brothers or sisters, are playing in school yard. They are running around, waving sticks in air. Summoning spirits by screaming, "Spirits enter me." Across nation, this scene too is commonplace. Why would kids do that? Where were they taught this? According to Berit Kjos website (http://www.crossroad.to), government schools from Pacific to Atlantic are teaching students pagan formulas for invoking "angelic" or "demonic" spirits through multi-cultural education, popular books, movies and television shows. But video and role-playing games, such as Poke'mon, have only attributed to problem. Since release of Poke'mon trading cards, children have been stabbed and beat up by classmates, demanding Poke'mon cards. Young adults have stolen money from their mothers' purses and others have broken into houses. All to collect Poke'mon trading cards. “Once we realized demonic force involved with Poke’mon, we banned everything from our home. At first, kids were resistant, but after we flooded them with information concerning how and where Poke’mon derived they were very open to doing what was right in sight of Lord,” Joni Lamb, mother of three children,. says. As you log onto Poke'mon website, you find objective of game spelled out for you. "Welcome to world of Poke'mon, a special place where people just like you train to become Number-One Poke'mon Master in world." What is a Poke'mon? A Poke'mon is an unbelievable creature that its own unique fighting abilities. One of these creatures can grow and transform into an even more forceful creature. There are currently 150 types of Poke'mon. How do you become Number-One Poke'mon Master in world? In an episode, boy hero, Ash, had seized his fifth Poke'mon. According to his mentor, he had to catch a lot more Poke'mon if he wanted be a Poke'mon master. The mentor told him that more Ash caught and trained, more power Ash would have for future battles. From this, clearly you have to catch all 150 Poke'mon to gain number-one status. How does Poke'mon and other video and role-playing games affect your mind? By giving you a seductive vision to become a Poke'mon master. As a Poke'mon master, you are guaranteed supernatural powers. Just as an addict, more you get, more you need. To top it off, after every episode of Poke'mon television series, you are commanded "gotta catch 'em all." On Berit Kjos website, Susan Gavano, also a mother of three children, states "From what I hear, he [her son] and two other out of 23 children in his class are only ones who aren't addicted to it. No one at his school now is allowed to bring in their Poke'Mon cards, it got too out of control."
| | Struggling With AddictionsWritten by Annagail Lynes
What kind of bad habits do you struggle with? Most people think that when they come to Christ that their bad habits will magically disappear. And some church people act like if you have any bad habits in your life that you must not truly be saved, but that couldn’t be further from truth. Christians or not, we are all people, and people make mistakes. People have bad habits. If you are anything like me, you have poured your heart out in counseling sessions with your church leaders, stood in prayer lines, repented and vowed to do better. And still found yourself giving into that temptation next time it presented itself, leaving you asking, “What’s wrong with me?” Nothing. There is nothing wrong with you. The very fact that you are concerned about it is a good sign. It’s people who won’t admit they have a problem that should worry. Everyone, at one time or another, struggles with some type of bad habit or addiction. Maybe it’s shopping too much, smoking, drinking alcohol, pornography, coffee, sweets, etc. People don’t want others to know about their problems, so they hide them in closet, hoping that no one will ever find out about their secret. When a problem is hidden in dark, it will continue to haunt you. But once it is brought into light, that is when you will be able to overcome it. A bad habit or addiction is anything that robs you of your time with God, that you feel that you must hide, that hurts your health or health of others or is against Word of God. It is important that we guard what we are feeding gates of our heart–our eyes, ears and mouth. Looking at pornographic magazines or watching R-rated movies causes those images to enter our eye gates, and once there, our minds store those images for safe keeping. Then at most awkward moments, it will replay those images. Maybe in your dreams, when you are praising God at church or when you are kissing your girlfriend. Perhaps you don’t watch anything objectionable. Instead your vice of choice is heavy-metal or rap music that talk about killing cops and degrading women. At first, you may just think music has a nice beat, but after awhile, even though, you are not consciously listening to lyrics, those words–the ones about murder, drugs and sex–will seep into your subconscious. You will find yourself getting into trouble because you have a shorter fuse than you used to. You will blur line between right and wrong. You won’t remember why having sex without a marriage license is sinful, why stealing and lying are immoral. All because you didn’t guard what you let through your eye and ear gates. How do you overcome bad habits and addictions in your life? 1. Repent. I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” If we didn’t struggle with problems in life, there would be no reason to repent. However, we do, so we must ask God to forgive us for our wrongdoings. He is a gracious God who promises to forgive us when we repent. The mistake most of us make is in hiding our sin from God. Somehow we think that we can hide it from One who sees all and knows all. Run to God when you slip in your recovery. Run to Him when you sin because He is on your side. He is not sitting up in Heaven, waiting to pounce on you anytime you make a mistake. That is not who He is. God is love not hate.
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