A Word to the Wise: Avoid the Sensational, Spurn the Sizzle
Oct. 30, 2024
Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer
Guest(s): James Spencer
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 10/30/24. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.
Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.
Sam Rohrer: Hello and welcome to this Wednesday edition of Stand In the Gap Today and hard to believe now under a week from the constitutionally scheduled day of voting November 5th, though it does appear that history is already being set with over 51 million Americans having already voted. Now, from all appearances, the high stakes nature of this election, in my opinion, promises a range of potential historic occurrences, not just these 51 million prevoters or voting ahead of time, but events I believe that could occur before next Tuesday during the election, or certainly after November 5th. Although the potentials and what they are is not going to be the focus of today’s program here, what is the focus of today’s program, however, is the news coverage and media strategy to which we’re all being subjected and we’re witnessing in the often wild and unhinged coverage of the election, but certainly not at all limited to the election.
Sam Rohrer: And while the globalist antichrist worldview behind the controlled American news, media has its own sinister and evil goals and strategies for what they report and how they report it. I think today most people in their heads at least know that modern journalism is more like highly developed propaganda designed to deceive than to impartially inform. All of us are nonetheless impacted by it, are we not? Now in the end when truth is rejected and pragmatism is therefore embraced as our culture has fully done well, similar techniques are chosen by the marketers and the narrative shapers frankly, on all sides because in simple terms, they’re convinced the world is convinced that this approach works. And because it works, that’s pragmatism, not because it is right. The end result is that great harm is done to the foundations of truth and freedom and all that we’ve come to enjoy in our nation today. I’ve asked Dr. James Spencer, president of the DL Moody Center and author of the book, Christian Resistance: Learning to Defy the World and Follow Christ, which is available at Amazon. If you want to look at it there, I’ve asked him to join me today for a discussion of these topics. The title I’ve chosen to frame our conversation is this, a word to the wise, avoid the sensational and spur the sizzle. Alright, Dr. James Spencer, thanks for being back with me today.
James Spencer: Yeah, thanks for having me on. I love the title,
Sam Rohrer: A couple of those words actually I’m going to question you about, because you wrote at least the sensational and the sizzle. Not put it quite the way I put it, but I think people will understand as we get into it. But you’ve been with me before and each time I think the programs have been relevant, God honoring and edifying to our listeners. I think today will be that same as well. But earlier this month you wrote an article that was published in the Washington Times that was entitled How Christians Can Avoid Media Burnout and Apathy from News Coverage. And then there was a subtitle there that caught my attention. It was this MSM or Mainstream Media encourages voyeurism, inactive compassion rather than love. And it really caught my attention and so I’d like to talk to you about that today because in that I think he positioned a problem, a cause, and I think posited a solution.
Sam Rohrer: Here’s where I want to go with it. In that article you started out by commenting on that while you decided to watch some news, regular occurring news for the first time and a long time, you said you observed hurricane recovery efforts, the US elections, the wars in Israel and Ukraine, all big things. But you said the bulk of the coverage was the passing saga of Sean Diddy Combs and a surprise Biden appearance at a White House press conference. And then you said this, I want to go from here. As I watched, I felt mixed emotions. On the one hand, I was thankful to have some idea of the world’s events. On the other hand, I lamented the fact that so little had actually been said about any of those events. Now with that in mind, can you share some more about these things as providing evidences of the real problem confronting all people today, including Christians?
James Spencer: Yeah, I will say when I first started writing the article, the approach that I was planning on taking was the irrelevance of some of these events that are reported. And I was thinking to myself that something like the Sean Diddy Combs incidents. When I started writing, I first was thinking these are just irrelevant. They’re such pop culture sort of nonsense and they’re only news because it’s a big rap star and have all these celebrities surrounding it. I think that’s still partially true that the celebrity angle on that story was so big and that’s part of the reason why it’s so huge. But as I was writing the article, I just had this sort of moment in my soul where I thought to myself, this isn’t irrelevant. This is an extremely relevant story, it’s just that I’m disconnected from it. I don’t know anybody who’s ever been to a Diddy party.
James Spencer: And so I don’t have any particular personal connection to it. That doesn’t make it irrelevant, it just means that I can’t do much about it. There’s nothing that I can reach out and do. And so what the subtitle that you mentioned, mainstream media, voyeurism and Inactive Compassion rather than Love for me, that Sean Diddy Combs story was my moment of voyeurism, inactive compassion instead of love. There’s no way for me to reach out to somebody who’s been involved in that situation. I mean, I suppose I could try, but I don’t even know how I go about it. And so all I have now is this story and I can watch the story, I can understand the story, I can hear from people who have been involved. I really can’t do anything. And so part of what I think we see on the news is that we need to be careful that we not sit back and dismiss these tragedies that are happening.
James Spencer: I wasn’t in North Carolina, I’m not affected by the hurricanes. That doesn’t mean it’s not relevant, that just means that I’m at a distance. And so we need to be asking ourselves not just is it important for us to know what’s going on in the world? Sure, but is there a way for me to plug into this or am I really just interested as if I’m watching the news, sort of like I’m watching reality tv? And that sort of gets at the idea of what I mean by sensationalism. Is this a gripping story? Is it a catchy story? Does it have some sort of gossip rag sort of feel to it that I’m connected to? Or am I watching the news to try to understand what it looks like for me to love my neighbor? And I think I was getting sort of caught between those two polls and as I wrote the piece and as I reflected on watching the news that day, I realized a lot of the times when I’m watching the news, when I’m reading articles, I have a purpose for it. But there are other times where I’m just being a bit of a looky-loo.
James Spencer: I’m just looking in and saying, I need to know what’s going on. I can’t really do anything about this. And so that’s what I mean by inactive compassion.
Sam Rohrer: Okay, and I think that’s great. Dr. James Spencer and ladies and gentlemen, we’re focusing today, is this a word to the wise? Avoid the sensational spur, the sizzle. It all has to do with the way information is being presented to us, layered down upon us with a direction and flow through it that ends up frankly at the end of the day bewildering us or saying, what in the world do I do about it? Which is exactly the point we’ll continue in the next segment. At one point in the distant past that which can be thought and perceived by human intellect was termed knowledge. Again, what are we talking about today? We’re talking about things, right? That’s something that God created us as human beings to be able to do. He gave us an intellect, an ability to process various things coming into our head. Well, that was termed knowledge at one point.
Sam Rohrer: In the Book of Proverbs, there’s a pathway actually given that leads to the wise use of true knowledge that begins with a person deciding to fear God. You’ll find that in the first couple of chapters there, fear God seek truth and knowledge. And when combined with these foundations of fear of God and truth in place, then wisdom or the wise use of knowledge can result. Now over time as knowledge increased human civilization moved into, well the industrial age, and according to wiki quote.com, which I looked up, and here’s just as it appears today, it says this, the industrial age has now moved to an economy based on the manipulation of information and hence they say the Information society. So we live in the Information Society. When I consider the definition of inform, which is from where information is derived, I note that the root comes from the Latin inform is informo meaning to shape or form to shape or form.
Sam Rohrer: Hence, it fits the modern Wiki definition of manipulation of information, or I will add the manipulation of words and thoughts and herein lies the challenge. I’ve thanked all Christians and truth seekers in our day when contemporary news communicates information, but by their definition means the manipulation of words designed in essence to shape. Interesting, isn’t it? This stands in sharp contrast to the definition of knowledge, which means a clear and certain perception of that which exists or of truth and fact where we can have no knowledge of that which does not exist. But God alone possessing a perfect knowledge of all his works. And then it says human knowledge is very limited. Now that definition by the way, comes from the Webster’s dictionary of 1828, which I go to regularly because it reflects a biblical worldview of God in truth. And James, by the way, I thought it was interesting when I went that direction trying to look at this. The word information is not even in the Webster’s dictionary of 1828 in form is, but not information. So it’s very interesting. But before we move into some of the consequences which you talked about in your article in the Washington Times of modern media communication, anything to add to what I just shared before we get into the consequences?
James Spencer: Well, I would just say one of the things that we need to keep in mind is that information knowledge is not just factual. It’s not just a true or false proposition. Normally, we also embody, we know through embodiment. And so if I were to say to you, do you know how when you’re riding a bike up a hill, you know how your quads burn when you’re pedaling that bike up the hill? If you’ve ever done that, if you’ve actually experientially ridden a bike up the hill and felt that sensation of your burning, your legs burning as you’re pedaling up the hill, you know that. But that’s not a true or false. That’s a thing that we’ve experienced. And I think part of the challenge of modern day media is that we are no longer really experiencing one another. We are separated from one another through the technology, through the devices. And these have fundamentally changed the way we relate to one another, which also contributes to the ease with which we can be manipulated through
Sam Rohrer: Information. That’s excellent. Lemme go right into it because in that article we’ve already been talking about some of this manipulation by definition, shaping of thoughts and actions, attitudes of people. One of the consequences you cited and you referred to briefing in the last segment was this. You said this, there is a sense in which the news encourages voyeurism and inactive compassion rather than love. Okay, build that out a little further if you don’t mind. As far as what you mean. Obviously you’re identifying that as a negative consequence, that’s not a good thing.
James Spencer: Yeah, it’s interesting, I’m stealing this a little bit from Augustine. One of the things that Augustine talks about when he talks about love of neighbors, he says that all people deserve to be loved equally. Unfortunately, none of us can actually love all of our neighbors equally. We just have a finite capacity to love. We have finite resources. We have finite ability to reach across distances and actually provide sort of love and care that we might like to our neighbors around the world. And so what he suggests is that there are certain people who have been placed in our orbit, in our local community and that these are the people that we need to focus on showing our love to. Now, Augustine obviously lived before the information age. He lived before the digital age. He wasn’t watching the news on online or streaming it anywhere. And so as we look at what we’re doing now with the news, what we’re getting is we’re getting a lot of information, we’re getting a lot of story, but really they’re almost superfluous for us because most of us can’t do anything about those stories.
James Spencer: And so we are seeing a broader world. We may have certain implications of what we could do in certain instances. I mentioned the hurricane before I could plug into a ministry that’s helping the hurricane victims voting I think is an easy way for people to go out and actually participate and it can be a good way to love neighbor. But ultimately a lot of these other stories we’re seeing are just superfluous information. They reinforce the fact that the world is broken, that it needs to be fixed and ultimately beyond prayer, is there much that I can really do for those situations? I don’t think so. And so this is what I mean when I say voyeurism is that we really take no action on much of the information that we get in a daily basis. We are just filling our heads with it. And that creates this sort of inactive compassion, this voyeurism that allows us to look and see to not actually do anything to love.
Sam Rohrer: Okay, and that is interesting because the Christian life is all about embracing truth and then acting upon it. So the inability to take an act upon it, which comes back to how can we honor God, how can we accomplish truth by living out being a light and salt in this world more or let’s put it in that perspective, we’re encouraged as what you’re saying, to actually sit lethargic or apathetically. Very interesting. Now, tied to that, you also made this observation, you said this quote, ask Christians are presented with the various stories on the news. We need to keep our collective calling to love God and others at the forefront of our thoughts. We need to avoid being drawn to the sensational end. Okay, now we’re reiterating several of the thoughts that we’ve already established, you’ve already talked about, but build out a little bit further on the sensational and into that there was something you referred to as the sizzle as well, but anybody who is involved in the print media or any kind of media at all, particularly the video that type now there is everything it seems that is the sizzle, it is the sensational.
Sam Rohrer: Okay, build that out, illustrate that a little bit more. And then the danger of focusing on the sensational and or the sizzle and perhaps including that, what the media is actually doing so much with that. What is the goal?
James Spencer: Yeah, well I think I’ll start with that last part. The goal is to capture our attention. And so what I would say is that Christians do need to recognize that giving our attention is a theological act. When I think about the fear of the Lord in the Old Testament, it is primarily a matter of giving God our attention in any given moment. When we fear the Lord, we are attending to God in that moment. And so our attention has theological implications and the news media tends to try to get our attention and it tries to get our attention in part by putting out stories that are shiny and new and interesting, sensational. The best way I could probably explain that is it’s the difference between a dog bites man story and a man bites dog story. Dog bites man is relatively mundane. Dogs bite people all the time.
James Spencer: And so we’ve probably all seen that and experienced that and it’s no big deal. But man bites dog, you don’t see that very often. That’s a sensational story that’s novel. It’s got a sense of freshness to it. It will probably catch the audience’s attention. It doesn’t matter whether it’s that important, it just matters that it’ll catch our attention. And so that’s what I mean by sensational. We often see this when we are seeing coverage of let’s say pastors who have had a scandal at their church. I don’t have any particular problem with news outlets covering scandals, but I think the way they cover scandals leans toward the sensational. So we don’t see a lot of coverage of the underlying problems that really cause this scandal to happen or allowed this scandal to emerge in a church. What were some of the administrative processes and policies? How is it that people allowed this individual who’s now been involved in the scandal to get by with being a little bit too brash or a little bit too arrogant over the course of multiple years? That’s not what we look at. We just look at the sensational aspect of the fall. We look at what’s interesting, we don’t look at what’s boring,
James Spencer: But oftentimes the boring is actually the really important stuff.
Sam Rohrer: James, it makes me think a little bit years ago we used to talk about, at the end of the day you’d say, now what’s the moral of the story? What did we learn from it? That’s what you’re saying that’s absent. We hear all about the trappings of it, ladies and gentlemen, the shiny this and that. What gets our attention draws us to a headline, but then what’s the point of it? And that’s part of what we’re talking about here today. When we come back, want to move a little bit more into the solution now, a little bit, a lot of consequence and talk about consequence a little bit more and then into, I’ll say the truth model. Well, if you’re just joining us right now, we’re right in the middle of today’s Standing the Gap Today program here on Wednesday. And our theme is this, a word to the wise, avoid the sensational spur, the sizzle.
Sam Rohrer: And my special guest is Dr. James Spencer. He’s president of the DL Moody Center that has a website@moodycenter.org. He’s also written a book, Christian Resistance Learning to Defy the World and Follow Christ That’s Available at Amazon. I encourage you to visit those sites, but James, as we’re talking through this matter of the media communication, we’ve defined that information, not the same as knowledge, put it that way. We went through some of those things. You identified some of the consequences of a media system such as we’re witnessing today, volumes of information from all types, all directions, too much to be processed on one hand, very negative and content on the other hand. And as you’ve said, and we’ve talked about numerous times, one of the things you’ve identified is that it can titillate the senses, capture our attention, become the glitter of the gold, the sensation or the sizzle, but it ends up without a motivation to do anything biblically correct productive with it. So it leads one all the culture to apathy perhaps or something of that type, but certainly not the manifestation of the love of God, which we are all commanded to embody. And that is a most serious thought. So I’d like you to expand upon that a little bit else before I have. You define what the standard is. We’re describing what is the normal right now, but any other consequences that you’d like to identify here right now other than what we’ve identified already?
James Spencer: I think just one other one that I’ll highlight because I think it’s relevant to pastors and churches specifically, but in our current media environment, there is a bifurcation of the news that we are hearing. So if you think back to when I was growing up, we had the news on at six o’clock or seven o’clock and there was one or two or three national news programs and they pretty much all covered the same thing and they largely covered it in the same way. Now with the internet, you can actually be on social media hearing it from an influencer who’s covering a particular topic in a completely different way than the 900 other influencers who are also covering the topic. And so as a pastor seeks to shepherd a congregation, he’s not looking out at a group who have a unified understanding of what’s going on in the world.
James Spencer: That person is looking out now at a group of people who may have vastly different points of knowledge, vastly different understandings of what’s important, vastly different ideas about what is relevant. And so there’s not a unification of knowledge. There’s this bifurcation of it, a splintering of it, which I think will make the work of the church that much more difficult. We’re going to have to figure out where is our common ground here? How do we understand the common good and how do we avoid becoming tribal as we sort of set ourselves within our little own little media ecosystems? How do we avoid being tribal with that ecosystem and stay connected to and really committed to the body of Christ?
Sam Rohrer: Alright, now let’s just shift here now, consequences of a system we’re describing, everybody’s being subjected to it. In essence, we’ve already talked about it. We’re in a culture that has thrown God off long ago. Truth has fallen in the streets long ago. Truth does not reign. Pragmatism, reigns where individuals seek knowledge basically to affirm that which makes them feel good, not necessarily at all what God defines to be good or true. Alright, so things have changed. So let’s establish the standard. I’d like to have you establish the standard now of what ought to be when it comes to communication, evaluating the media, all of that kind of thing as we have right now. How ought to be?
James Spencer: Well, I think how it should be is that we are all recognizing some sort of good and the good. The common good has to have a claim on us. And so in other words, we’re not choosing the good, we’re not setting a value on it. It just is good. It’s got some authority, it’s got some teeth and all of us are subject to that. We’re all in some sense obeying that good. And so as media experts, as people who are writing, as journalists are investigating as they’re doing all these different things, what they’re trying to do is they’re trying to abbreviate, they’re trying to make a story simple enough that we can understand it and really grasp what it is, but it’s always linked in and subject to the common good. And so beyond the truth, beyond these other things that we’ve lost, I think we’ve just lost a sense that the good has authority over us.
James Spencer: And so we’ve got to get back to something like that. We’ve got to have some sort of moment where we recognize that the good actually has a claim on us and that by making everything optional, I choose what I would like to see. I choose what I think is good. I choose what I think is interesting. That’s not our best situation. Our best situation is recognizing that there is a good out there and that we are all subject to it, that we all need to serve one another in relation to that. Good. Now I’m using the word good instead of God because I don’t want to get into the, obviously I’d love to have everyone give their lives over to Christ and be saved, but at the end of the day, that’s probably not something that’s going to happen. And so instead of using God, I’m using the good.
James Spencer: And I think that God’s goodness does shine through every culture, every society, as long as we’re willing to recognize it, not choose it, but recognize it. So I think that’s what has to happen. I think the media landscape has to shift back to something, not what is going to draw our attention, not what is going to pay for more advertising on their websites or something like that. It’s going to be what is going to shape a community of people into a society that does the good, that cares for their neighbor, that actually helps one another that isn’t going crazy and anxious watching all of this crazy media stuff going on. And so I think that’s where we have to get back to. And the news outlets have to have some responsibility there to say, is what I am putting out actually going to help create that type of society or is it going to detract from it?
James Spencer: And us as readers have to ask the same question and is endlessly looking at the various polls that are leading up to the election really helpful for me? Probably not because they don’t mean anything. At the end of the day, the vote is the vote. And so we’re going to find out who becomes the next president. We don’t need to be obsessed with every poll that comes out, but many of us are. And that’s not good for us. It’s not good for society and it tracks us from loving God, a neighbor in the ways that we could be doing if we weren’t so stink and obsessed with all of this information that we’re confronted with
Sam Rohrer: Information, therefore not being the goal, but truth, biblical knowledge being the goal. That’s where some of this comes. But what we’re talking about when you’re talking about a media or journalist needing to consider that which is good for society or whatever, that’s almost an impossibility, isn’t it though, James? We’re really talking about world views. On one hand, we’re talking right now about a biblical worldview, a God-centered truth centered worldview as compared to that which is controlling the media, that’s giving us our information that has thrown off God. How can they know what is good and even try to exalt that when they don’t understand what it is.
James Spencer: So what I would say is I don’t know that it’s an impossibility. I would say it’s fleeting. I would say that there are times where we even see this biblically. There was a Pharaoh who knew Joseph and that Pharaoh exercised his authority appropriately with regard to Joseph so that when Joseph’s family came over at the end of Genesis into Egypt, the Pharaoh says, yes, settle your family here in Goshen. If there are any of them who are useful, make them shepherds over flocks. That king was not, I don’t think converted, I don’t think the Pharaoh was a Christian right, but I think that he recognized something good. He understood that Joseph’s God was blessing Egypt through Joseph’s work and so he was amenable to Joseph. It’s fleeting in the sense that we also have a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph and who misrecognized God’s blessing as a threat and then oppressed the Israelites, which ultimately leads to the Exodus.
James Spencer: And so I see something very similar here. I think that there can be a recognition of the good. I do think that the media can recognize good things. I think they can recognize evil things and I think that they can orient themselves to help others understand that and live towards some sort of virtuous life. Now, do I ever think that’s going to be sufficient to bring salvation? Absolutely not. But I do think that it can help our society get a little less sick. I think that it can demonstrate that goodness is still there and let people recognize it. It is absolutely fleeting. We’re always going to grasp it and then lose touch with it, grasp it, and lose touch with it. I think it’s always to end up like that because there’s no way for fallen humanity to hold tightly to any sort of system for the long term. We just can’t do it. We’re always going to pervert it. We’re always going to distort it. So yeah, I would say it’s possible, but fleeting.
Sam Rohrer: Alright, excellent. Build out on that leg. Gentlemen makes me think of this. At the end of the day, Solomon said at the end of the day, all things considered, there are two things all people must do. Fear God, keep his commandment. Now if the person chooses to fear, God puts them on a path to truth. Their eyes will uncover, they will discover truth. If they reject God, I’m going to submit. They will not come to truth. That is choice. We all make it. We’ll be back in just a moment with some further concluding thoughts. Well, as we go in the last segment here, often we call it our solution segment today presented a problem, a media manipulative in words and all of that. It’s overwhelming. It leads us by what is done to apathy and not an acting out of that which God would have us to do.
Sam Rohrer: And so we’ve talked some of these things through today, but we’re all impacted by it. So need to conclude with, right, how do we handle this? Being aware that there is a system of communication in this information age that does not have guys at center. Therefore, the intentions as God designed for it is not there and it’s impacting those of us though who are believers or are truth seekers. Alright, here’s a little bit of a dilemma. So James, let’s go back here. I’d like to wrap up with this in mind. In your recent times, op-ed there you wrote, you pointed out this, I’m just going to quote it. You said this quote, while information is seemingly unlimited, we’ve been talking about that just more than we can handle. You said, our capacity to absorb and to act on that information is definitely finite. You cited that election seasons, the time in which we are right now, for example, and you say, can divide rather than unify us.
Sam Rohrer: You also noted that elections or election seasons are even having an impact on our mental health and causing arguments that are drifting family and friends away from each other. Part of that negative impact of all that’s happening. So now with all this being the case and it’s indisputable, some of those things you just said there, we all agree it’s obvious. Let’s talk now biblical solutions. How can people note the evil hold to the good? How can they reject the deceptive, embrace the solid, discard the sensational, and refuse the sizzle? I’m going to say it for the substantive. This is a big choice. This is wisdom is really needed for all of this, but we’ve got to let people here now with, all right, we got an issue. So how do we deal with it?
James Spencer: I like to think about this first. I think we have a process problem. A lot of times when I get into conversations with people who are disagreeing, for instance, over who they should vote for or what have you, and they allow that to divide them. What I see are people who are misguided, they’re mis ordering their priorities. And so the top priority should be that we are loving God with all we are and loving our neighbor as ourselves. And so I don’t know that I’m really concerned about who people vote for. I am concerned about the reasons they’re voting for them. I’m concerned about the way they’re advocating for them. I’m concerned that they glorify God in all that they do and that they give God a good reputation in the way that they advocate for their political participation. So overall, I think there’s a way for us to look at these interactions and say our priority, what we’re always doing as Christians is loving one another, encouraging one another, critiquing one another, but seeking to conform one another to the image of Christ.
James Spencer: We’re not seeking to get somebody to vote for our candidate or another. That’s a very secondary or tertiary issue. But our first issue was always, how do I help this person who’s a member of the body of Christ with me to conform to the image of Christ? And so I would say that if we approach our conversations with that as the lens, that we’re going to have much different conversations than we would if we’re approaching it as I think my candidate’s right for this country. Your candidate’s wrong for this country. Let’s duke it out. I don’t know that that’s the right starting point for a Christian conversation. I would also just say that as we look at some of the challenges of the news, one thing that I’ve personally done is I watch it much less frequently than I used to. I find that once a month is probably good enough for me.
James Spencer: I’m not real active on social media. I do scroll occasionally just to kind of keep up a little bit. But I don’t do a lot of watching of the news or checking out social media for the news. I tend to read my news as opposed to watch my news. I think it cultivates more active engagement. And so I would say staying away from the news a little bit more frequently, engaging it less frequently is the way to say that. And then also choosing the right medium with which to engage it. Reading it instead of watching, it tends to activate your brain and you tend to be a little bit more critical and a little bit more careful about what you’re reading. I think those are some really good practical tips for navigating this misinformation that often comes out. And then I would just say finally, with regard to the apathy that can develop, we have plenty of opportunities in our backyards to love people.
James Spencer: Let’s take those. If we really want to know what’s going on in the world, part of what the world has are people in our local communities that we could actually reach out to and serve in a much more immediate fashion than we ever could affect even a national election by voting. So let’s get out there, hit the streets, find the people we need help in our local area and do that. If we set aside our devices and all of our scrolling and all of our craziness and watching whatever 24 hour news cycle we’re involved in and we just went out and cared for people, I can almost guarantee that we are going to develop a different sort of view of the world and a stronger understanding of who God is by serving those around us as opposed to watching what’s going on in the world.
Sam Rohrer: You know what, we could go so much deeper into that, but I think I’m listening to what you are sharing and I’m saying yes, I agree. I agree. Because in essence, what you summarized by saying is what we all believers should do, and that is make our priorities, God’s priorities. I was thinking about this as well, is that it’s good to question our own selves and say, what makes me excited When I get up in the morning, what’s the first thing that I want to do? What provides real joy? And sometimes like what I do here on this radio program, I have to be looking at news events and that kind of thing, and it has an upside and has a downside. One, I know what’s kind of going on, but on the other hand, I wish I didn’t know. And if I weren’t doing it for this program, I would turn off probably most of social media and other forms because it all is providing conflicting information as we’ve described it, not knowledge. So there’s a lot of choices and wisdom is required in this process. It’s not an easy thing, is it?
James Spencer: No, not at all. And I’m in the same boat as you. I keep up the news in part because I write and I want to know what’s going on in the world so that I can write. My practice has always been to try to reframe those things typically and theologically, and to offer that take on it. So anything that I’m reading, I’m constantly asking myself, how does God’s word inform this? How does it change it? How does it supplement it? And that does get me excited because at heart, I’m just a big theological geek. I mean, I love doing Bible and theology, and so that has been my way of navigating all of this different information we get. But it is about wisdom. It isn’t easy, I think, to see how God’s word applies and changes the way we view the world. It takes hard work, it takes effort. And I’m grateful for the privilege to have studied at upper levels of academics so that I have some skills to do that. But I don’t think it’s out of reach for anybody to do that.
Sam Rohrer: No, it’s certainly not. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m just going to close here very briefly in prayer. Heavenly Father give wisdom to those who are listening to this program today. Those who have stayed with us through this program, if they have ears to hear and they have eyes to see. And Lord, we all with sorting through the many things that are being thrown at us in this days of deception. Lord, help us to anchor into thy word, which is truth and truth alone, and to guide our steps. Lord, as you promised it, will we commit these things to you? In Jesus name, amen. Dr. James Spencer from the DL Moody Center, thank you so much for being with us again today. Their website, moody center.org. A lot of information there encourage you to go and visit that now our website. Stand in the gap radio.com. Get this program on their website or on the app, has transcript available with it. Read it and listen to it again. Send it to a friend.
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