I Love Witchcraft

By Michelle Angel (a very dear friend)

I love witchcraft.

Yes, in my heart is the sin of the love of witchcraft. Now before you envision me with a pointy hat dumping vials of animal organs into a boiling pot, let me expand....THAT *kind* of witchcraft is disgusting. Appalling. Forbidden!

What I confess to loving is the subtle, sweet, princess fairy tales where Cinderella is turned into a princess through witchcraft and *gentle* sorcery from her fairy godmother, Belle lives in a magical castle that is cursed, and Rapunzel utters demonic incantations with her magical hair.

But wait! Aren't those just kid movies? Yes. Yes they are.

And I grew up watching them.

And I loved them.

And because of my lack of discernment, my kids grew up watching them.

Awhile ago we lost Tangled. It was a gift we received at Christmas, (possibly purchased by me) and I wasn't sure where it scampered off to. Well, a few days ago the kids found it and my daughter started singing along to the magical song. I was HORRIFIED.

I said "Mikayla! Honey, you can't sing that! She's using witchcraft and a demonic incantation to heal Eugene. We can't watch this any more."

In fact, we couldn't watch almost ANY of our Princess movies anymore, as we couldn't think of ONE that didn't use magic, spells, incantations or curses to promote the girl to royalty. And how many more promoted witchcraft? It's one thing if the Villain is using sorcery and they are evil, and the children know they are evil...but what about when the hero/heroine is using it? We just can't have these types of movies anymore.

But THROW THEM AWAY??? That's just crazy.

Extreme.

Unreasonable.

Or is it? The Lord strictly forbids witchcraft of any kind. FORBIDS. So why do I find it so easy to overlook my favorite Disney movies and make an exception for those? Aren't we self proclaimed Christians?? Don't we profess to Love Jesus with our whole hearts? Then why in MY heart do I find it so difficult to rid our house of our love for godless, pagan, magical movies, like....Sword in the Stone? Peter Pan? Beauty and the Beast?

What IS witchcraft, anyway?

Simply put, it is wanting to be a spiritual "mover and shaker" without submitting to God. James 3:15 Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.

Revelation 22:15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Witchcraft is one of the tools Satan uses to lure people away from God. And in my case, it has already worked, since "giving up" several childhood movies seems downright impossible, maybe even unnecessary. Why is it so hard to give up something so meaningless anyway?

All the rest of the day I wrestled with God about our childhood Disney movie collection. My conversation went something like this:

"They're *just* kid movies. They *just* have a little bit of witchcraft/magic/sorcery in them! That's harmless, right?

Right, God?

God?

.....It's sin? Well, can't I just keep a little bit of it?"

And God says, "Are you really asking ME, the HOLY LORD GOD if it's okay to keep a little bit of your sin?" "Please God, won't you just let me keep a LITTLE BIT of my sin? It's warm and soft and comfortable here...with my childhood nostalgia, my popcorn and my sorcery filled Disney movies...that mock Your Holiness and are opposite of Your ways..."

And so the conversation went down with the kids the next day.

There were tears.

There were questions.

("Why did you even let us HAVE those movies if you knew they were bad, Mom?")

There was repentance

...As the children and I got down on our knees before the Lord and asked for forgiveness.

For placing things as an Idol before Him.

For being a willing party to witchcraft which is despicable in the Lord's sight.

For aligning ourselves with Satan in the form of our entertainment and nostalgia.

For not discerning these things SO MUCH SOONER.

The kids rid our collection of MANY movies.

Even the utterance of any "magic words", MUST GO, my kids decided.

I confess, they were more strict than I was... which shames me.

Our idols will be dealt with.

It is no sacrifice.

The Lord is gracious and merciful to us as we seek to purify ourselves before His Holy throne, so that others may see us and proclaim that He is the Lord.

He forgives our sins!

He heals our brokenness.

Joy comes with the morning.

And so does new movie shopping.

 

What idols are in your home that you need to get rid of?

By Scott Brown of NCFIC

"This morning in our family devotions we saw in Genesis 34:2-4, a father (Jacob) appealing to his children to abandon their idols, change their garments, and make a new start. We talked about how God has given us a new day, to identify our idols and sins and begin afresh.

"And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone." So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem.

What a great way to start your day. What idols do you and your children need to rid your lives and home of today?

Idols For Destruction

R.C. Sproul Jr.


I’m confident that many Christians have not slept well these last few nights. I suspect that tonight they won’t do much better. Over the last several days, as I write, the stock market has not performed well. It has reached a five year low, having lost over forty percent of its value since its peak. It is not difficult to muster sympathy in these difficult economic times. Forty percent is rather much to lose, though only slightly more than half of seventy percent.

I lose sleep at night not because Christians have lost forty percent of their investments. I lose sleep at night because Christians are losing seventy percent of their children. They spend their days in institutions where Jesus doesn’t matter. Seven hours a day, 180 days a year, Jesus doesn’t matter. I am not surprised that when they graduate Jesus doesn’t matter to them. The children of professing Christians who are schooled by the government are more likely than not to reject the faith. And we’re worried about our stock portfolios.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that where our treasure is, there will our hearts be as well (Matt 6:21). Our treasure is in our treasure, rather than in our children. We lose our children by the millions, but only cry when we lose our millions. The Christian church is a willful band of idolaters. We send our wives off to work because we worship mammon. We send our children off to “free” schools rather than private schools where Jesus is honored because we worship mammon. And we mourn at the death of our mammon, rather than the death of our children’s’ souls.

Every time tragedy hits, Christians fall back on this same chestnut of wisdom- we pray that so and so will learn something important from all the suffering. My prayer is the same. My hope is that as God destroys the idols in His church, as He shows that He is almighty, rather than the almighty dollar, that His people will repent and turn to Him. My prayer is then that He might turn our hearts back to our children, that we might in turn raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. God could do this. Or, He could lead us into physical starvation, even as we have starved our own children of His Word.

The more likely scenario is this. Professing Christians will continue to cry out to Washington to be their savior. Washington will continue to fail. And some, a very few, but some will in their financial pain turn and repent. Narrow is the path of life, and wide is the way of destruction. Before you get on your knees, asking God to deliver us from financial calamity, confess your sins. Confess that all of us, even those who homeschool, value too much that which bears Caesar’s image, and to little that which bears His image. Then, do not ask Him to fix your portfolio. Ask Him to help you invest in the only investment that bears dividends into eternity, your children.

by RC Sproul Jr. of
http://www.highlandsstudycenter.org/index.php