Good Morning Friends,
“Be careful,” Jesus warned the
disciples. “Watch out for the yeast of
the Pharisees and that of Herod.” (Mark 8:15)
The world can have a powerful effect on what
we believe and what we feel and what we do.
I enjoy watching reruns of the television
show The West Wing. The dialogue is
crisp. The actors do a good job. The setting draws in its audience. But the attitudes in the show toward the
things of God are not those that are encouraged in the Bible. The morality that is embraced by the show’s
primary characters is not the morality that God encourages us toward. That show, and others like it, can slowly
dull our moral and theological senses so that we become more inclined to
embrace ideas we would not embrace if we thought them through more thoroughly
from a biblical perspective.
And The West Wing is one of the tamer shows
that has been on television lately.
The daytime talk shows are less subtle in
their influence. They are deliberate in
their attempts to sway the minds and hearts of men and women.
And there are many other forces in our
culture that would seek to turn us toward a philosophy and a lifestyle that is
contrary to the Lord. Some of those
forces are religious in nature -- some born of science -- some born of
philosophy -- some of politics -- and some of other realms.
And what is true in our day was true in
Jesus’ day, too. The Pharisees had a
philosophy and they sought to gain disciples to follow their way. Herod, too, had a way of looking at life and
at the world that he wanted those in his kingdom to embrace with him. And both philosophies -- the Pharisees and
Herod’s -- were antithetic to the teachings of Jesus.
“Be careful,” Jesus said. “Watch out.”
That was advice to His disciples then … and it is His advice to His
disciples now. Be alert to what the
world is trying to say. Guard your mind
and your heart. Test what you hear
against the only absolute standard that deserves our whole-hearted trust -- the
Bible, God’s Word.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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