Whose news do we listen to?

1 John 4.16-18

And so we know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love. God is love. Those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.17 This is how love is made perfect in us: that we can be without fear on the day God judges us, because in this world we are like him.18 Where God’s love is, there is no fear, because God’s perfect love drives out fear. It is punishment that makes a person fear, so love is not made perfect in the person who fears.

How many times do we allow the evening news or the morning newspaper to contextualize our perspective of the day?

We allow the media, the very same media whom we accuse of such liberal bias and hostility to our beliefs, to shape our approach to our day, to our world.  Funny as in ironic, don’t you think?

Once in a grad school class, the professor said that if some major happening was reported in the news and that wasn’t in our Sunday sermon, then we were dropping the ball.

Really?  I mean, do I forget Psalm 46 or run scared and preach fear like the doubters in Psalm 11?

(Psalms 46:2-3 MSG)  We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom, courageous in seastorm and earthquake,
(3)  Before the rush and roar of oceans, the tremors that shift mountains. Jacob-wrestling God fights for us, GOD of angel armies protects us.

God tells me that even if the mountains fall into the sea I don’t have to fear.

Do bad things happen?  Yes.  Should we at times address these issues?  Yes.  Should we allow the evening news to dictate our preaching schedule?  I think not.

Read the paper, listen to or watch the news on radio or television.  What is the dominant emotion that is stirred?  FEAR!

And I just believe that we, as children of God, shouldn’t be so afraid.  And I believe God agrees with me.  Chuckle.  Maybe it’s me agreeing with God.

Connected with God through our love for him and our love for others, our perspective of this world will take a very different shape.  We see people less as enemies, less as competitors, less threatening, and, yes, we see them more as our God sees them.

How disheartening it can be to listen to the radio and hear Christians bemoan the state of this world.  Our problem is really that our “worlds” may be falling apart, but God’s world will never be shaken.  Our agendas of morality, justice and the American way may be endangered but not God’s plan.

Nope, not one itty bitty part is changed by all the bad stuff we report.

We haven’t forgotten who rules after all, have we?

So maybe our fear needs dealt with through a life of love?  It seems that is what God is saying.

I like that idea!

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