Mark Affleck

Why Are These Images Chasing Me Around?

January 13, 2018
Spiritual Growth

Our entire value system is under siege as the world slides into a bizarre paradox where the unreal is real.  

Cosmetically appealing slop is supported by a media that feeds it inexorably to a panting and ever-expanding audience. The tabloid explosion is feeding our fascination with the prurient. TV talk shows have become theater to help us feel better about ourselves because can tell ourselves that, by contrast, we are not that bad. And the Internet is chock full of every brand of evil imaginable, and many brands unimaginable.

Just like mammoth ice shards that slowly melt from glaciers and calve into the sea, our values are melting one drop at a time right before our eyes.

This is not an indictment of the media. We are getting what we request. And it is up to us to withdrawn that request. We must take this warning seriously for us personally and our families and aggressively process everything we see and hear through God’s filter. We should watch out for the forces that would delude us into emasculating the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors we learn through a Bible-based filtering process. We should turn toward God.
  
For me, I ask God to guard my mind and heart and soul. To give me the strength to elevate his truth and his reality to the top of everything I see. To have God help me process the world’s imagery that courses through the cinema of my mind and chambers of my heart.
  
And he comes through every time. Here are a couple of examples—1) When my television remote gets “stuck” on the wrong channel,  I change it; and 2) When my eyes drift to a woman in the wrong way, I tell myself she is a child of God and so am and then move on.  
  
And I always make sure my mind and heart are fully stocked with God’s Word.
  
“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Psalm 119:11

HOW ABOUT YOU?

Are you keeping an eye out for what’s real (God) and what is unreal (Media)?

“Brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8
  
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5
  
1 John 2:16          Psalm 106:13-15          Colossians 3:1-2  

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