Why Is Anyone Surprised At What Happened At The Super Bowl Halftime Show?

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 4, 2004
(Romans 1:21-32)

Yes, they knew about him all right, but they wouldn't admit it or worship him or even thank him for all his daily care. And after awhile they began to think up silly ideas of what God was like and what he wanted them to do. The result was that their foolish minds became dark and confused. Claiming themselves to be wise without God, they became utter fools instead. And then, instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they took wood and stone and made idols for themselves, carving them to look like mere birds and animals and snakes and puny men.

So God let them go ahead into every sort of sex sin, and do whatever they wanted to--yes, vile and sinful things with each other's bodies. Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they prayed to the things God made, but wouldn't obey the blessed God who made these things.

That is why God let go of them and them do all these evil things, so that even their women turned against God's natural plan for them and indulged in sex sin with each other. And the men, instead of having a normal sex relationship with women, burned with lust for each other, men doing shameful things with other men and, as a result, getting paid within their own souls with the penalty they so richly deserved.

So it was that when they gave God up and would not even acknowledge him, God gave them up to doing everything their evil minds could think of. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness and sin, of greed and hate, envy, murder, fighting, lying, bitterness, and gossip. They were backbiters, haters of God, insolent, proud braggarts, always thinking of new ways of sinning and continually being disobedient to their parents. They tried to misunderstand, broke their promises, and were heartless--without pity.

They were fully aware of God's death penalty for these crimes, yet they went right ahead and did them anyway, and encouraged others to do them, too.

Why is anyone surprised at what happened at the Super Bowl Halftime Show? For anyone that has been reading the Devotionals I have written for the last 4 1/2 years, what happened during the Halftime Show of the Super Bowl last Sunday is EXACTLY what I have been telling you about. Why would you expect anything else from this hedonistic world where people are living their lives void of God? Let me give you something to think about that I will come back to at the end of today's Devotional. THE WORLD DOES NOT CARE WHAT WE THINK NOR IS THE WORLD AFRAID OF US. Let me take this thought one step further, the world gets a perverse delight and ENJOYS mocking God and His children.

Probably the first place to start in talking about what happened Sunday, is who to blame. Let's start with the NFL. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue's outrage was laughable. Unless you have a short memory, the Super Bowl Halftime Shows have become raunchier each year. Just last year, the headline performer was Britney Spears slithering across the stage in next to nothing. Oh, in case you forgot, that is the same scantily clad Britney Spears the NFL used as their headliner on their music special to launch this past football season. Additionally, every NFL team has "cheerleaders" which are gorgeous young women wearing next to nothing "performing" during the game in well choreographed sexually suggestive dance numbers. Lastly, when the NFL hired MTV to produce their Halftime Show, what did they think they were going to get, a high school marching band? The NFL sadly turned to using sex to sell its great game many years ago and they got exactly what they paid for Sunday.

Next is Viacom. Viacom is one of the world's largest media conglomerates and owns CBS and MTV. Viacom also owns UPN (the network Liveprayer is on), Paramount motion pictures, VH1, BET, TVLand, CMT, Spike, Comedy Central, Showtime, Flix, The Movie Channel, Kingsworld Syndicators that owns the Oprah Show, the Infinity Radio Network, Simon and Shuster Publishing, and Blockbuster just to name a few of their holdings. For them to act like they did not know what their organization was doing on a worldwide broadcast reaching over 100 million people is ridiculous.

Then there is MTV. From this cable network that has great programs like Jackass, the Real World, and a steady diet of garbage television, mixing in music videos that should be R rated, why would anyone expect any less than what they got? You had rapper P-Diddy, Nelly with his great hit about it being hot outside so take all your clothes off, Kid Rock with his disgusting lyrics and performance wearing a cut up American Flag, former Mickey Mouse Club member and boy-band singer Justin Timberlake with his raunchy sexual song that set the stage for him pulling Janet Jackson's top off, and of course Miss Jackson herself. MTV on their website promoted for days leading up to the Super Bowl that there would be something "shocking" at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. With that line up what could have been shocking other than what actually happened.

Lastly, the ultimate blame has to rest with Justin and Janet. The only thing I will say is that when I see them, Britney, and the rest of the pop music crowd today, I can only think of that verse in Mark chapter 8 that says, "what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul." Sadly, these young adults have sold their soul for a few moments of fame and fortune. The sad reality is, these are the people many young adults look up to and want to be like. Their influence is even greater due to the fact so many young adults are growing up in homes void of God and often with no real role models in the home.

Welcome to secular television and we Christians are partly to blame. We abandoned the secular television world many years ago to go set up our own Christian networks. We were too lazy to compete with the world so we simply left secular television and now we are outraged when the world promotes its sinful agenda. While this was going on Sunday, on NBC's BRAVO was a "Queer Eye" marathon followed up by several hours of specials glorifying gay marriage. I hate to tell you this, but Andy and Opie are not going fishing anymore, the days of Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke sleeping in separate beds are over, and Lassie is NOT coming home.

Much of the outrage yesterday was expressed because this cheap publicity stunt was done at a time when the "children" were watching. You have got to be kidding me. These are the same "children" we baby-sit with the television that lets them see things like this and MUCH worse daily! These are the same "children" we allow to listen to music with lyrics that are poisoning their minds and shaping their thoughts in such a destructive manner. These are the same "children" that are playing video games where they get to be a pimp, a drug dealer, a prostitute, and score points by doing drug deals and killing people. These are the same "children" who are accessing on their computer every type of evil imaginable. To be brutally honest with you, the 2 second flash of Janet Jackson's breast is tame to the majority of the images our "children" are being bombarded with every day.

As much as I will applaud whatever action the FCC takes, it will be viewed as little more than a speeding ticket by Viacom. I support the efforts by all of the various family groups, but the reality is they have done little to slow down the degradation of our culture. The world is simply NOT AFRAID of the Christian community and will continue to press forward with its unGodly agenda without any fear of repercussions. Let me say this again so you understand it, THE WORLD DOES NOT CARE WHAT WE THINK NOR IS THE WORLD AFRAID OF US. The world gets a perverse delight and ENJOYS mocking God and His children.

I love you and care about you so much. I can only pray that things like what happened last Sunday at the Super Bowl Halftime Show will help you to see a bit clearer some of what I have been trying to share with you these past years. The obvious question of course is what can we do. There are three things we have got to start doing immediately. First is evangelism. The only real answer to these issues is seeing people won to Christ and having their hearts and lives changed. That is the ultimate solution and something each person who knows Christ must get serious about doing.

Second is taking Christ BACK into our culture. We must get serious about taking the hope and love of Christ TO the people. Christians have to be involved in secular television, radio, publishing, advertising, and all other vehicles that take messages daily to the masses worldwide. We no longer can just accept, "you can't say that." The world says what it wants every day and we have got to start being bold in proclaiming the truth of God's Word IN PUBLIC. It can be done, we just need people bold enough to put themselves in the right positions to do it.

Third is the Body of Christ becoming one, really one. We have allowed satan to divide us and because of that, our voice is never heard. There is going to come a day, very soon I am afraid when we will not have the luxury of being divided. We will be forced to become one just to survive. Until we are able to speak with one loud, clear, bold voice the world is never going to pay attention to what we say.

I have spent many of these past 36 hours with God. I am more aware than ever of the role God is calling Liveprayer to play in these 3 areas I have just shared with you. I am going to be even bolder in my efforts to reach the lost and help them come to know Christ. The new LPeMail can be a big part of helping us to reach more people who are lost and without hope. My passion for the Liveprayer TV program on the UPN network is greater than ever. This is a unique program on secular television network that is making an impact with an audience that is 95% non-Christian. Lastly, I am becoming more aware that God is calling Liveprayer to be a unifying agent in the Body of Christ so we can have that one loud, clear, bold voice proclaiming the truth of God's Word to this lost world we live in.

I will be praying for you today as you spend time with the Lord in how you can be more effective in these three areas. Witnessing to people will help lead more people to Christ. Living a Godly life before others and taking a stand for Christ at school and on your job is a way to take Christ back into the culture. Lastly, we must each do our part to tear down whatever man made walls we have erected that divide us from other brothers and sisters in Christ if we are going to be heard.

Our hope and the good news is that we know in the end God wins. Our purpose in this life is to serve and glorify Him. This world we live in is lost and hurting and we, those who know Christ as our Savior have the answer this world is desperately seeking. We can no longer be passive in our efforts to win the lost for Christ, we can no longer isolate ourselves from this world that we live in, and we must come together as ONE BODY so that our light can shine bright in the darkness. Individually it is but a flicker in the vast darkness, but as ONE, it is a great beacon of light pointing the lost and hurting to Christ!

In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller

If I can help you in any way you can contact me through my personal email at bkeller@liveprayer.com.

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