I read an interesting article today entitled, “Why Much of What Our Media Says is a Lie.” This may sound like a “duh” statement; and yet, the author’s findings hit a cord with me.
“We consume an enormous amount of media. Entertainment media from music to movies to television, and data from the Internet fill several hours each day for most people living in developed countries – particularly children. Most entertainment media are represented as being a reflection of typical or majority lifestyles, values and conduct. However, [those in the] media are more and more in the business of creating trends (my note – from selling products to agendas), suggesting lifestyles and remaking values and moral codes. A few hundred individuals (media executives, producers, directors, moguls) influence virtually every movie or TV show we see, [including] the music we hear. And this tiny “cultural elite” is widely removed from the mainstream.”
A few hundred people are attempting to shape Western civilization through controlling what is seen and heard through electronic means. Furthermore, as the entertainment industry creates more and more ways to get their message into your head, it becomes even more crucial to filter through the massive amounts of data you’re receiving each day. I like, but modified, what a famous philosopher once said, “It is the mark of a biblically educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
As believers, as long as we live on this planet, we can’t accept everything at face value. The days of computer generated graphics and photoshopped pictures are here to stay and will only become more convincing. Also, many “Christian” media outlets, thought to be safe, are being purchased by those who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. This all adds up the fact that you must keep feeding your biblical filters truths from God’s Word, listening to and talking with Jesus throughout your day, and then choosing to follow where He leads, not where the few would like you to go.
Set “FREE” Nowww

Where is your hope planted today? I love what Isaiah tells Israel and to all of us, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever” (40:6-8).
Isaiah nails it right on the head. If our hope is based in ourselves and/or our ability, some person or set of circumstances (“my life will get better when…”) we’re in big trouble! Our hope will be like the grass – here today and gone tomorrow (for those who mow lawns, you know what I’m talking about!). But Isaiah goes on to say in 40:31, “Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.” How can he make such a statement? Our God and His Word were here yesterday, are here today and will be here tomorrow. We can trust His Word. What He starts, He can finish, which is the basis for our hope!
Our hope should be in the truths of the Word of God and the power of His Spirit. His Word will never fail. His Spirit will empower us to take the faith steps we need for victory today. He will finish what He started and those changes will make your life better, which will turn your hope into reality. Now there is a reality show – your changed life!
S“E”t Free Nowww

“Man, I can’t believe it. They’re all gone!” We went out to our backyard to inspect our peach and pear trees the day we got home from vacation. What we found, or didn’t find, ticked us off. I couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing. All our fruit was gone! Every last peach and all but a few small pears had been stripped from our trees.
The only logical conclusion to our dilemma was that someone had come into our backyard while we were on vacation and stole our fruit. Who would do such a thing? We’d been violated. Our property had been trespassed. Beyond this was the fact that we’d given away a lot of our fruit knowing we still had more to harvest when we got home. Now we had none!
I was sharing this story with our new neighbor so we could watch out for each other. Once I got done telling him what happened, he told me what really happened. Squirrels. He and his wife watched the entire thievery from their balcony. Squirrels climbed into our trees and took our fruit. You should have seen the look on my face, squirrels? Yup, squirrels.
Our logical conclusion was not the only logical conclusion to what we were seeing. We can jump to easy conclusions that can be wrong. As believers, we must learn to reason through life using scriptural reason, as human reasoning can lead to inaccurate conclusions!
If you want to live near Jesus and experience all that He has for you, learn to lean on His understanding, not your own.
S“E”t Free Nowww

“Men are relatively easy to kill, way to easy if you ask me, but changing their hearts – that’s where the heavy lifting comes in.” This statement reflects the hardest reality I face as a pastor.
I encounter so much human carnage – lives, marriages, families, businesses – you name it, it’s all affected by the truth of this statement. God in His infinite wisdom chose to give humanity a choice called free will. I can’t make people want to change or choose to trust in Jesus; thus carnage ensues from their bad choices.
I’m in Exodus in my BIG reading where Pharaoh is basically telling God where to get off the train. He was personally experiencing the hand of God and still would not bend his knee. At times, I have to admit, I’m just like him – stubbornly clinging to my way of thinking and living. I know my way of living doesn’t satisfy and will put a strain on my relationship with Jesus causing me to feel even more dissatisfied with life.
Then I read in Matthew where a couple of blind men were given back their sight. They couldn’t see what God was doing like Pharaoh had. Yet, they surrendered their will and asked for help. The true miracle was not in the blind now seeing, it was in the blind abandoning their hope in themselves to trust in Jesus.
“Lord, increase my faith in You so that I will exercise the truth I already know to see You change my life where I will experience true satisfaction today and tomorrow.”
Set Fre“E” Nowww

I want to talk about another implication from yesterday’s study in Science magazine. Could it be that we crave constant electronic stimuli because we’re afraid of what goes on in our own head and heart? Do we continually strive to bombard our ear drums and retinas with streaming data because being still means we have to deal with the “traffic” that already exists in our head?
Ourselves and/or our pasts caused by ourselves and/or others can create such head noise that it’s simply easier to drown it out with our smart phones, which can stimulate both our eyes and ears at the same time. Hey, the more the merrier, right?
Wrong. Attempting to drown out that head noise doesn’t work. It’s already in your head and forms the basis of your decisions. Remember, what goes into or is already in our heads will come out in our behavior. It’s time to pick up our biblical tools of peace and quiet.
“Be still and know that Jesus is Lord.” Be still. Let Him bring up what head noise He chooses to deal with at the moment. Then choose to trust Him by using your biblical tools to let Him heal your past. Be still. Cease striving to change yourself by allowing the Spirit to transform your character into Christ-like character. Do this and you will know that faith in your God works in the real world in which you live.
The Scriptures teach that a mind stayed on the truths Jesus gives us from His word will be kept in perfect peace. Jesus is the truth that sets us free from all the head noise we’re trying to drown out. We don’t have to be afraid of the quiet, if we know who’s there with us. We don’t have to be afraid of ourselves, if we’re allowing the Spirit to make us more like Jesus.
This past vacation I unplugged from my electronic gear (email on iPhone, books on my iPad) for periods of time to simply sit on my porch watching streams of water run by my cabin (that’s my foot by the way!) and listening to the wind blowing through the tall aspen trees. Yeah, there was some head noise to be dealt with. Yeah, there was past stuff that had to get cleaned up. Yet when I used my secure child of God biblical tool – I’m loved, accepted and reconciled with my God – peace came over my mind. True peace and quiet does indeed do the mind and body good.
“S”et Free Nowww