June 27, 2013 
“War And Violence should not be entertainment!”
These were the words I received from a spirit nudge yesterday whilst trying to find PS3 games suitable for Vini (12 years old) to play at my home when he visits with my brother Ben and his wife Rosie.
My background with video games…
I’ve played video games my whole life, starting with ‘Pong’, then my Dad bought a ‘ZX80’ & a ‘Video Genie System’ and all I remember playing on it was ‘Space Invaders’. Then came the ‘Commodore 64’ and we broke many joysticks playing ‘Way Of The Exploding Fist’ and many more fighting and shooting games, then the ‘Commodore Amiga!’ This was a fantastic games machine in the late 80’s & 90’s and really stepped up the quality and quantity of these genres.
Now The PlayStation…
Since I was a boy i’ve always wanted the most violent and brutal shooting and fighting games but nothing could be made as there just wasn’t enough processor speed or memory to do the job.
I’ve always thought playStations are amazing, I’ve owned a ‘PlayStation 1 & 2’ and I currently own a ‘PlayStation 3’ used as my DVD player for bible studies (this still makes me smile).
Since the release of the ‘PlayStation 1’ I’ve loved playing ‘Tomb Raider’, ‘Resident Evil’, ‘Silent Hill’ and ‘Grand Theft Auto’, GTA was especially brutal and pushed the boundries of just how wrong can we make a game, but I loved it!
📖 Verse 4 2day!
Romans 12:2 (NIV)
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Back to childhood…
War and violence are horrific, brutal, destructive and uncaring, it leaves a trail of devastation through generations. It doesn’t matter which side you’re on, it still kills husbands, wives, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and on, and on, and on….
Are we that tangled up in the worldly culture that we have been deceived and we don’t even know it?
Is God trying to steer you away from something you know you shouldn’t really be doing?
Are you just a fan of Jesus? Or do you know him? Do you trust him to transform your life with the renewing of your mind, and turn you into the person that God wants you to be, and not the person the world wants you to be?!
🙏 Prayer 4 2day!
Father, please help us to be aware of the world and its destructive popular cultures. Help us to be the people you want us to be and not the people that blindly put idols on the throne where you belong, Amen.
iChristian 
Really real post Steve! My brothers have always loved some of those violent games, where my favorites were the Mario games on the Nintendo! HAHA! William and started playing a game on the PS3 called “The Last of Us” Yes it’s violent but the story is amazing! I’m always so torn as to how to spend my spare time and how to please God constantly! For the kind of world we live in, some things shouldn’t be focused on, like these crazy addicting games. Love this post 😀
Thanks Amanda for this honest comment!
Over the last couple of years, God has been trying to clean out all of the junk/idols i’ve piled up on his throne. It was like i was tithing with my life and wondered why Jesus wasn’t clear in my life, Jesus says he wants it all and has been working on peeling my fingers off what i thought was ok.
This is why i started this blog to try and share the act of being transformed with the renewing of your mind and try and encourage other Christians to remove the junk and idols from God’s throne.
And now i have my Christian brother Ben’s son Vini coming round to play on the PS3 its vital that we as Christians don’t just blend into the world, but shine our lights to glorify God and not war or violence.
The world is watching and everything we do will help draw them near to God, or take them that little further away, and this really worries me!
Hope i made some sense here! lol
You did make a lot of sense! Right now William and I are trying to clear ourselves of unhealthy TV! Haha! So I completely understand. Love what you are doing and what your blog is all about 🙂 keep it up brother 😀
We recently took away all violent video games from our boys with much resistance, I might add. We initially allowed them because “all their friends,” even the ones from good Christian families had them too. We realized how much playing those games were affecting their attitudes and we went against popular thinking and did what we knew to be best for our family. It made us pretty unpopular in this house for a couple weeks, but they haven’t said a word about them for some time now. I appreciate your point that we can’t base our decisions on what those around us find suitable, not even in something that seems trivial like a video game. Thank you sir!
Thanks Valerie for sharing your story with me about how you loved your kids enough to protect them from this huge problem!
As followers of Jesus we are called to shine his light, but instead we often just blend into the world and not actually change much at all, this saddens me!
Here in the UK, Call of Duty is the biggest game ever and a lot of Christians i know still play it too, its a sensitive issue but God has put it on my heart and i don’t want to just ignore him!! 🙂
I love this post, Steve … as a mom of three boys, I admit that I have been way too lenient with gaming … Thanks for this today, brother …
Thanks Heidi! As i had no church experience at all growing up and i didn’t find Jesus until i was 30, this has been a huge problem for me as its just what everyone else does and the more violent the better! But God is really on a cleaning mission with me at them omen so i just wanted to share!
I grew up constantly on the Commodore 64. We loved the Micropros games. None of it interests me any more…too many other much more important things to give my time and attention to. I appreciate your thoughts on this.
Hi, yeah i’m finding that the more i desire to follow Jesus and get to know him, there simply isn’t any time for playing these games as i don’t want him to keep weeping over my life, i want to please him instead!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, its great to see you here!
Whoot-whoot! Bravo, Steve. You got the message. ‘Nuff said.
Yeah i sure did! Now i’m putting that into action! 🙂
What comes in through our eyes, ears, will come out of our mouths and actions. Thanks Steve for posting this!
Amen! This is such an important message, thanks for sharing! God bless you. 🙂
Thanks so much for talking about this “sensitive” subject. Satan is very sneaky and deceitful…and gets in any way he can…and entertainment is at the top of the list. May God continue to bless you!
Thanks so much for adding to my post! He really is trying to deceive people and keeping them numb to the consequences of all this pollution.
God bless you.
Thank you for this! PS – Pong and DigDug were my games back in the day!
Cool! I never played Dig Dog but i played Hover Bovver on the Commodore 64 which was at a similar time i think. 😀
Never been much of a video-gamer but agree it would be a better world without all of the TV, movie and video game violence. Unfortunately we are very much in the minority 😦
I’ve not picked up video games heavily minus tomb raider 2 and watching a friend play silent hill over and over. So, I don’t struggle as much as I used to with the video games but I do struggle over the violence on movies. Ultimately, I just want to get rid of the television and declutter. Sounds crazy but I’m on board with this whole lets not portray this violence and crud as good any longer. God is on the move, blessings to you Steve.