Field Of Dreams: Delay– 40 Years
According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection.
Numbers 14:34 (NKJV)
I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
John 17:15-18 (NKJV)
When the children of Israel refused to face the giants in the Promised Land, God exiled them from it for 40 years. In God’s Word, 40 is significant. It notes a time of testing or judgment.*
Consider a Hollywood parallel:
On November 1, 1968, the Motion Picture Association voted out what was known as ‘The Hays Code.’ ** First written and formed in 1930, it was a moral compass for movies. Its first sentence read:
'If motion pictures present stories that will affect lives for the better, they can become the most powerful force for the improvement of mankind.’
Its principles included:
'The sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.'
Hollywood bigshots replaced The Hays Code with what became our film rating system. Virtue was sidelined and seldom called up– while Christians sat back… or cheered with the group.
The growing result? For 40 long years, bad grew bolder– with an in-your-face smirk.
A handful of Christians worked in the field– but most criticized mainstream media, so mainstream media criticized them. In this fight, no-holds-barred sin reigned… and rained.
Dams broke. The entertainment industry became a wild ride in rushing rapids. It circled the earth like a tidal wave– sweeping innocence away in its wake.
One non-coincidental parallel:
40 years after the Hayes Code’s demise, AMTC,*** the business I started with my mother to help talented people move forward… made a life-changing turn toward Jesus– as Actors, Models, and Talent for Christ, (following my own commitment to Christ).
Yes, the darkened stages of media grew massive when most Christians left the field. But God now turns that growth to His purpose.
How?
He STILL sets the boundary for waters. The wave now carries HIS Living Water. Darkness has set the stage for a new dawn, and it's a lovely Son-rise to witness.
Field Of Dreams: Delays– 40 Years (Part 11)
* Significance of the number forty: http://www.ecclesia.org/truth/40.html
** The Hays Code: http://www.artsreformation.com/a001/hays-code.html
*** AMTC originally stood for “Actors, Models & Talent Competition.”
NOTE: This is a 2023 update of a 2013 Carey Lewis Devotion. You may see notes to 'Actors, Models & Talent for Christ.' If you think you're not in show business, think again. Shakespeare said, 'All the world's a stage and all its men and women merely players. Mostly true. But you're not merely players. You are messengers and ambassadors for the King of kings.