By Gary Andrews
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Television is one of the most advantageous items to have in the home or it can be the absolute worse item to have in your home. It all depends what you use it for and what you take away from it.
News cast tell us what is going on in our community, weather broadcasts keeps us up to date with what we can expect now and over the next few days, and there are some very entertaining family shows, even though they are getting fewer and fewer each year. Soap operas have been on the air for many, many years and people get really involved with these characters and, on occasions, try to compare their everyday living to what is a non-factious show.
I really do have to say that some of these shows are actually company for the lonely in the world and the ones that are in their homes with nowhere or no way to go. The largest problems with television, to me, are the reality shows.
Even though it takes skill and tremendous determination to handle some of these shows, many of them are strictly giving people false hope and leading them to a path of destruction. Some of these shows are about the rich and famous and their home styles, which in my opinion, is very boring and not worth watching. Many of them have no talent and are only on television because they have the money behind them to do so. Today’s public viewing is encouraged by these people not realizing they could be watching something totally useless to what their life is all about.
We all need to be setting our own standard of life and making it the best we can. One of the best quotes I have heard came from William Arthur Ward when he said, “Each of us will one day be judged by our standard of life, not by our standard of living; by our measure of giving, not by our measure of wealth; by our simple goodness, not by our seeming greatness.”
For us that know Christ as our Lord and Savior, we know the end results of our life. In Colossians 2:16-17, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”
It is my hope that all of us realize that these fantasy shows on television are just that: fantasies! The only real hope that we have is in a relationship with Christ Jesus and that only comes from His free gift of Salvation. All we have to do is ask Him into our heart and receive and believe on Jesus for our eternal home. Once we do this we realize that heaven is our home, everything else this world promises doesn’t have anything to wish for. All of us want the desires and pleasures that this world offers, but these have no promise but a quick fix to our selfish satisfactions’.
Prayer: Father God, thank you for your love and free gift of salvation.  Thank you for allowing me to be your child and know that everything on earth will pass away but I will have eternal life with you. I pray that all will come to realize this also. Amen.
(Suggested daily Bible readings: Sunday – Ecclesiastes 5:18-20; Monday – Psalm 103:5; Tuesday – Revelation 1:8; Wednesday – Luke 18:18-29; Thursday – 1 Peter 1:3-9; Friday – Proverbs 23:17-21; Saturday – 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12.)
Gary Andrews is the author of Encouraging Words: 30-days in God’s Word. To obtain a copy go to his website www.gadevotionals .com