Page 121 - Overcoming Addiction

world visual imagery. TV, movies, books, magazines, newspapers, billboards,
the mall, the beach, and billboards. Everywhere, we find ungodly images which
unconsciously make their imprint on our soul. Like our sense of smell, we quickly
reach the point where we no longer notice. The images create desires that bring
us to failed marriages, financial ruin, and condition us to operate according to
the rules of the world...
I can attest that this works. For thirty years I saturated myself with the
culture with a primary focus on business. Each night, I would come home and
turn on the TV while reading the newspaper, business magazines and journals,
and assorted business and self-improvement books... I was 110% focused on the
things that were most interesting to me and I was exposing myself to everything
else in the culture as a part of the process.
In 1997, the Lord woke me up and taught me the absolute truth of His Word
beginning with "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Sometimes
change occurs slowly, but my bad habit was used for good. I was already
spending 110% effort pursuing the things that were most interesting to me. Now
the fear of the Lord made it extremely important to me to understand what He
had to say and, without any conscious effort on my part, I completely quit all
media (newspapers, magazines, TV, movies, all of it) and began to focus all of
my attention on the Bible. At first I understood very little, but I continued
because I was certain there were answers there and I wanted them...

I did this for about a year before I saw another TV program. When I did, I
was amazed and appalled. I could not believe what had happened to the shows
and the commercials. I simply could not stand to watch even a few minutes of it.
When I read newspapers and magazines I could see the bias and the blatant
promotion of radical viewpoints. In short, I could now see plainly what I was
blind to before. As time goes on, that vision continues to improve.

Consider this challenge for a moment. If you read in today's paper that
terrorists have poisoned selected water supplies throughout the United States
what would you do? Would you continue to drink from the tap as long as it
tasted ok or would you begin drinking only purified, filtered water? Your soul is
being poisoned as we speak and the only solution is to cut the poison off and
begin drinking only from the Water of the Word. Try it for 90 days. Cold turkey.
Take all of the time you spend now reading, viewing or listening to any worldly
media or entertainment and devote it to prayer and reading and hearing the
Word. Spend it with your children. Then, test your eyesight. Pray that the Lord
will allow you to see through His eyes and read Time magazine and watch a
couple sitcoms at random. Look at the covers of the girls and women's
magazines in the grocery store checkout line.

When the boiling frog is removed from the hot water before death and
allowed to cool, he will jump out if replaced in water of the same temperature. So
will you. We are feeding our flesh and starving our spirit...
My prayer is that you and your family will take the challenge. You are, and
are continuing to be, poisoned. Yet, you will never know if I am right unless you
take the test and detox. Your life and that of your family depends on it.