Where have all the hero's gone?

WHERE HAVE ALL THE HERO'S GONE

I've been sick for a few days and have spent more time than usual in front
of the Television. We like many of you have several hundred channels from
which to choose and we almost always choose from our 5 or so favorites. Not
surprisingly, we almost never watch the major networks, NBC, CBS, ABC, etc.
We normally watch something which presents the values and principles we hold
dear and refuse to go along with what society finds "entertaining" to use
the word loosely.

While I was unable to do much else I scanned up and down the channels and
found almost nothing I wanted to watch, but did end up watching The Western
Channel quite a bit. Then I got out a DVD with old Gene Autry and Roy Rogers
movies on it.

As the old song says, "My hero's have always been cowboys. For years I have
had a poster in my office of The Lone Ranger, one of my personal favorites.

I watched a biography of Gene Autry also and was impressed with the fact
that the man he portrayed in the movies was not far removed from the real
man. He had values and morality that were real, not just an actor following
a script. Sadly today we see very little of that from what is termed as
"entertainment" today.

I admit that there are some wonderful actors and actresses today and
occasionally a movie that presents entertainment without dressing it in
immorality or blood and gore, but not very often. More often than not
anymore, they try to convince the audience that immorality, homosexuality,
lying, stealing, cheating are things which someone should accept as the way
things are now suppose to be.

That may be what many people accept as "normal behavior," but I'm not one of
them!
I cherish the life lessons taught by the entertainers of days gone by. More
often than not they prayed to God, they went to worship in some church, they
presented messages on Christian morality and Family values as being what
life was about. These were the rule, not the exception.

Where have all the hero's gone? Sadly, there are few before the eyes of our
nation or our world today taking a stand for the things that really matter.
Those who do stand for what is truly "right" according to God's word are
often ridiculed or persecuted. The wise king Solomon wrote in Proverbs
14:12-13, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads
to death, even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in grief."
(NIV). Another translation puts it this way, "There's a way of life that
looks harmless enough: look again, it leads straight to hell. Sure, those
people appear to be having a good time, but all that laughter will end in
heartbreak." (MSG)

So, where are you looking for your hero's today? Let me suggest that you
raise your standards and look to God's hero's, not man made hero's. What are
we to do with the actors and actresses, television programs, movies, DVD's
and videos that proclaim an ungodly message? God answers that question
through King David's writings in Psalm 101:3. Notice these words of wisdom:
"I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall
away; It shall not cling to me." (NKJV).

Russ Lawson