Genesis 18:21 – I will go down now, and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know.
When I was a soldier in the 80’s, I pretty much figured out that television news reports were often staged, manipulated and exaggerated, if not totally fabricated. CNN led the way. I was unknowingly involved in some of the things staged by television journalists. Been leery ever since. Even before the rest of the world caught on. People thought I was wierd…. Some still do probably, ha ha. Just don’t believe much in what you hear or read. (Except for the Bible).
I have been flying into Managua Nicaragua going on 5 decades. Once we break through the clouds I can see lush green hills with cows grazing. No matter what is going on in this volatile Central American country, the cows never change. Although I know they’re not the same cows, they look identical to the ones that were grazing during the dictatorship, revolution, civil wars, hurricanes, coups, plagues, scandals, earthquakes, changes, droughts, famine, economic depressions, cordobas falling, dólares rising and falling, economic booms, tourism increases or declines. The cows are just black dots on the hillside, happily munching away. They are blissfully ignorant of the news reports of gloom and doom. As long as there’s grass and water, they’re happy. Nothing changes.
I tend to do exactly the opposite of what reports tell me to do at the first whiff of any kind of agenda. Better put, I am extremely cautious of all reports. Doctors, for the most part; will absolutely terrify you with reports. (Fortunately that is not the case for me here). If you google their reports it’s even more horrifying. Then your well meaning friend comes along with a story that’s even scarier than google. And after all that fear mongering you found out it was nothing at all. Reports, more times than not,
will suck the life out of you. Don’t listen to them assuming that they are completely correct. Many times they aren’t and they will kill your joy, and that is the source of your strength if you are a believer.
Nehemiah 8:10 ~ For the joy of the LORD is your strength.
That’s why I tend to overreact when it comes to sensationalism. Believing reports (which were hardly never true) caused me to make the stupidest decisions of my life. Bad reports can also come in the form of malicious gossip. For example, people post the most ridiculous things on Facebook only because of a rumor, gossip, report, or statistic, or the news said so. I have lost friends only by saying I don’t believe the news, and refuse to research stuff online like polls or statistics or reports because everything is skewered. I don’t have the time nor the interest to do so, because I don’t believe any of it. I don’t believe the president. I don’t believe in social media. I don’t believe statistics and scientific reports. I don’t trust the science because scientists are people. People are corrupt, so their reports are corrupt. Science is only theories. These theories are disproven all the time. (Look at your high school natural history books if you don’t believe me)
There is no such thing as your truth or my truth. There is only one truth, absolutely every other variation of that one truth is a complete lie. Truth can not be diluted. 1% of untruth in a statement makes the whole statement a complete lie. Jesus is the truth.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life
I believe God, Jesus, His only begotten Son, His Holy Spirit and the infallible Word of God. If anything is not aligned with that, or if I’m not an eye-witness, I remain neutral. God knew this. That’s why He sent His trustworthy Angels (in the opening verse) down to check things out for themselves. People lie, repeat lies (which is lying), exaggerate (which is lying), don’t tell the whole truth (which is lying) or are mistaken (which is not telling the truth, which technically is lying).
One of God’s attributes is ‘never changing’. He doesn’t change. He doesn’t panic. He’s there, no matter what, doing what He always does. We as Christians should be like that. Like the cows. The world, it’s problems, enemies, disasters should leave us un-flustered. Sure, be compassionate to help those in need, but be like the cows. Don’t change. Like the cows, like God Himself, and the Apostle Paul can say, none of these things move me.
Acts 20:24 But none of these things move me.
When you are unmovable you are steady. Good soldiers, businessmen, doctors, policemen, lawyers, dads, etc all get terrified at times, but they just don’t show it. Their fear doesn’t change them. People trust people that don’t fly off the hinge. People want to see Christians like that. They watch us as we watch God. As we are transformed slowly but surely into Christ’s image. As we become ‘never changing’ (like Jesus) we have a better and better report. Not a bad, manipulative report like tv news, but a good one, a good and a positive one!
1 Timothy 3:7 Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without