What's Your Influence?

Socrates once said, "Let me write the music of a nation, I care not for who writes its laws for I will control its people." Do you think that’s true? Did you know that the average teenager listens to about 10,500 hours of music from grades 7-12? That’s almost as many hours that a kid spends from 1st Grade to High School Graduation!

Look around sometime and you will see kids on skateboards, walking, or in groups with their little Ipods in their ears and you will notice that they, for the most part, dress the same, act the same, talk the same, and in some cases, walk the same. The word "influence" in the Webster’s 1828 dictionary means, "a power whose operation is unseen and known only by the effects."

Do you think that you are influenced by music in any way? Can I ask another question? Does the music that you listen to promote morality, ethics, good behavior, and respect to one another? These are just things for you to think about. The one time owner of MTV, Bob Pittman, said, "The strongest appeal you can make is emotionally. If you can get their emotions going, you’ve got them. At MTV we don’t shoot for the 14 year olds, we own them." That’s a pretty strong statement coming from someone that you don’t even know!

Psalm 101:3 says, "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes, I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave unto me." Why would he say that? Because he knew the value of influence and his soul before God. God commands us to keep ourselves Holy and pure before Him, and to be an example to those who don’t know Christ. 

I am not saying that music in and of itself is bad; it is what they promote that is wrong. We use the band Junkyard Prophet for the very reason: to combat every bit of immorality, to bring knowledge, virtue, and God’s standard in order to revive the conscience of America and to those who will listen. You gotta ask yourself and wonder if those who write the popular music of today care about how you will become, or is it about what sells? 

Would you let someone come into your house and teach your kids how to swear, lie, kill, cheat, and be unfaithful in marriage? You would say, NO! But do you allow yourself or your kids to listen and be subjected to those very things because of the "beat" that sounds cool? In Matthew 18:6, Jesus said, "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea." 

You will be held accountable someday when God shall judge the world in righteousness (Psalm 9:8), and you will be responsible for every idle (empty, worthless) word and thought (Matthew 12:36). This is your soul that we are talking about here. Jesus knew this when he said in Matthew 5:29-30, "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast if from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." The value of your life is more important than things here on earth, and it is Christ that we should live for. Don’t just take my word for it, seek Him and He will show you and you will find out for yourself. Thank you again for taking the time to read this, and God bless you seeking Him. Amen.