Some of us can remember the days when newspapers were the most significant source of information in the world. During the first quarter of the 20th Century, children and teenagers used to stand on street corners all across the country selling newspapers while shouting:
“EXTRA … EXTRA … READ ALL ABOUT IT!”
The headlines covered everything from assassinations and wars to scandals and tragedies. Beginning in the 50’s, newspaper publishers got smart and introduced the idea of “Junior Businessmen” … enticing the same kind of enterprising young people into walking entire neighborhoods gathering “subscriptions” and delivering their “papers” door-to-door. As a side note, those same young people were responsible for “collecting” the payments for said subscriptions. And if a particular subscriber didn’t pay up when the “paper boy” came to collect the monthly fee, it came out of the boy’s pocket … not the publisher’s. What a scam!
At any rate, any observant reader of a newspaper could recognize (over a long period of time) that the “stories” were basically all the same every day. Murders, thefts, wars, financial woes, deaths, scandals, tragedies, sports and medical news were the main staples with a few human interest stories thrown in to break up the monotony. Not to mention page after page of advertisements!
The only thing that changed daily was the “time”, “place” and “personage” of those same recurring themes. In other words, the phenomenon eventually created the expression:
“NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS!”
Hmmm … sounds like the newspapers deteriorated into becoming the devil’s mouthpiece by bragging about all the evil he had been able to produce over a 24hr period worldwide … and making sure that the world knew about it!
Did you catch that?
In 2021, NOTHING has changed. It’s the same garbage fed to humanity over and over again. Only now it’s not just a few newspapers, radios and a 3-channel television set … it’s EVERYTHING!
The internet, smart phones, social media, newspapers, magazines and 24/7 cable TV with 100’s of channels … they are all functioning with one purpose in mind:
To spread Satan’s propaganda throughout the globe and getting the world’s population so engrossed in what he has to say (and what he is doing) that they become totally IMMERSED and DISTRACTED in his activities rather than God’s!
What does this mean now for the average day-to-day Christian? Well, it can get a little bewildering and complicated.
We are instructed to “be as wise as serpents” (i.e. informed) in this present world, but at the same time we are to be as “harmless as doves” (i.e. keeping our walk centered in Christ). We are also instructed by the Word to “put on the whole armor of God”:
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
Though we are corporally one body in Christ, this “wrestling” takes place on an INDIVIDUAL basis. And it’s for our benefit … not the world’s!
Shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus was recorded in scripture as praying to the Father concerning His saints versus the world:
“I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.” (John 17:6)
“I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.” (John 17:9-10)
“And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.” (John 17:11)
“I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” (John 17:14-16)
Let those words sink into your heart. They express a deep truth that (silently) affects many Christians today.
In the Old Testament, there was a man of God named Lot. He was Abraham’s nephew. And he chose early on to dwell in Sodom because the “plains were well-watered there”. In other words, it was a PLEASANT place to raise his family and flocks.
However, the people that already dwelt there were not God-fearing. They were ugly monsters! So much so, that the scriptures declare that Lot…
“… dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds” (2 Peter 2:8)
WOW! How many Christians in today’s environment are undergoing the same treatment?
But we have a choice. We do not have to allow our hearts and minds to linger and be intrigued with every piece of evil activity that is being broadcast to us on a daily basis by Satan’s Broadcast System. We can choose to be informed just enough to garner the wisdom of God concerning such activities, but at the same time, keeping our spiritual focus totally upon Christ!
Lot’s wife (even as the angels were literally pulling Lot and his family out of Sodom before its destruction) had become so enamored with the pleasantries and fond memories of her life there, that she became disobedient to God at the very time she should have forsaken all. She “looked back” at the life she was losing and was immediately turned into a “pillar of salt”!
When warning the disciples of the days immediately preceding His return, He specifically instructed them (in one of the shortest verses in scripture) to:
“Remember Lot’s wife.” (Luke 17:32)
She had become DISTRACTED!
The Apostle Paul both encouraged and exhorted the disciples of this very thing:
“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.” (1 Corinthians 9:24-25)
Being “temperate in all things” involves not only our physical bodies, but also our minds, hearts and affections in this present world.
So … let our spiritual eyes KEEP FOCUSED on the finish line and run our race to win!
Setting our…
“…affections on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Colossians 3:2)
And keeping our…
“…heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs4:23)
Knowing that…
“…(we) are dead, and (our) life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall (we) also appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:3-4)
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