We’ve tried the fields of prosperity and wealth, they have not given us the harvest we truly longed for. It is time to turn to the fallow fields, the fields we have ignored. Sow righteousness. Reap love that will not fail. God will turn up in ways that we had only ever dreamt of, and he will come with the refreshing rains of righteousness.

It is a valuable distinction to make, that money is not the root of all evil, but the love of it. Yet even here, the distinction may deceive us, or at least, our heart may. Your heart, like mine, is a powerful force. The heart sings a seductive song that the mind finds difficult to resist. Like Tolkien’s depiction of the Dwarves who loved gold above all else, the more we have the deeper we dig*. Our pursuit of wealth unearths dark places where danger has lain dormant, but is now ready to rise up and devour.
Yet, we have no need to turn to Tolkien for such truths; long has the relationship between riches and ruin been known, and there are many who have warned us of the perils. Yet we rarely listen. One such voice of reason comes through the prophet Hosea. As he delivers a message of warning to God’s faithless people, his own experience with an adulterous wife becomes the image through which God demonstrates his relenting love. As God pours out his heart to his ‘bride’ who has wandered far from him, he reveals again the lust they had for wealth.

Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built; as his country improved, he improved his pillars. Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars and destroy their pillars.  (Hosea 10:1-2 ESV)

“The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built.” There is a direct relationship between wealth and our lustful heart’s tendency to pursue anything else but God. Here sits the deception of our heart.
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 A man filled with divine wisdom has within himself an entirely new standard whereby to judge of truth and to regulate his life! As the Psalmist expresses, “Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me” (Psalm 119:98).

The fear of God is the essential part of true wisdom. As Solomon has said, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding!” (Proverbs 9:10). Even though this Godly wisdom may be reputed as folly by the ungodly world and considered an indication of a disordered mind, it most assuredly enlarges the understanding and elevates its possessor above those without it. Yes, and above others also, who in natural capacity and scholarly achievements are far his superiors!
The fear of God, if I may say so, opens a new world to him in those who possess it! Consider two people, one lacking formal education and the other well-versed in arts and sciences.
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 I want to present one important secular voice who speaks to these matters. I refer to Neil Postman (1931-2003) and his very important 1985 volume, Amusing Ourselves to Death. I have quoted from this book often, but it pays to share even more of it here. By offering some choice quotes I might convince some of you to go out and get a copy and read it for yourself. Postman looks at this further in Ch. 11: “The Huxleyan Warning.” He starts with these words: “There are two ways by which the spirit of a culture may be shriveled. In the first — the Orwellian — culture becomes a prison. In the second — the Huxleyan — culture becomes a burlesque.” (p. 155)

As we all should know by now, the best way a tyrant can keep the masses in control and prevent them from challenging their overlords is to keep them distracted – usually with endless, brainless entertainment. It is the old ‘bread and circuses’ routine to keep people enslaved without them really even knowing it.
Such is the all-powerful impact of entertainment that most Western churches have also fell under its spell. So many seem to think the only way to compete with the world is to become just like the world. Just consider the recent “strip show-like” entertainment offered at a men’s conference and all the bruhaha which followed from that with Mark Driscoll and John Lindell.
Thankfully some Christian leaders have been calling out this obsession with entertainment. One voice in the wilderness in this regard was A. W. Tozer. He often spoke out against this. For example, he said that the church
appears to have decided that if she cannot conquer the great god Entertainment she may as well join forces with him and make what use she can of his powers. So today we have the astonishing spectacle of millions of dollars being poured into the unholy job of providing earthly entertainment for the so-called sons of heaven. Religious entertainment is in many places rapidly crowding out the serious things of God. Many churches these days have become little more than poor theatres where fifth-rate “producers” peddle their shoddy wares with the full approval of evangelical leaders who can even quote a holy text in defense of their delinquency. And hardly a man dares raise his voice against it.
And again:
It is now common practice in most evangelical churches to offer the people, especially the young people, a maximum of entertainment and a minimum of serious instruction. It is scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend a meeting where the only attraction is God. One can only conclude that God’s professed children are bored with Him, for they must be wooed to attend a meeting with a stick of striped candy in the form of religious movies, games and refreshments.
One last remark by Tozer: “Jesus Christ never offered amusement or entertainment for His disciples, but in our day we have to offer both if we are going to get the people – because they are common Christians.”
But here I want to present one important secular voice who speaks to these matters. I refer to Neil Postman (1931-2003) and his very important 1985 volume, Amusing Ourselves to Death. I have quoted from this book often, but it pays to share even more of it here. By offering some choice quotes I might convince some of you to go out and get a copy and read it for yourself.
His opening thoughts as found in the Foreword of the book I have quoted before, but they are germane to his whole argument and thus worth sharing again:
We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.
But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another – slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.
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