Oct
5
2012
Sound Bites
Posted in Christian Worldview 1 Comment
My early years were the days of black and white television.
When I was about ten years old, we got our first colored TV.
Back then, it was more a piece of furniture than a television.
The screen was so small compared to the large case that surrounded it.
I remember watching The Wizard of Oz and actually seeing the yellow brick road…yellow!
Turning on the TV would always take a few minutes.
The grown-up in the room explained, Just wait…it needs to warm up first.
TV tubes would blow out…a service man needed to be called.
Modernity!
Whenever a family got something new, pictures were always taken in front of it.
TV…Piano…Grandfather’s clock…
It wasn’t bragging so much as pride of ownership.
Parents that grew up in the Depression were used to having very little.
They took pride in their hard work and their ability to provide.
Provide not only the necessities…but the extras, too.
Television, back in the sixties, had three main channels.
You got your reception from a set of rabbit ears that sat on top of the TV.
They always needed to be adjusted in order to make the picture clearer.
Reception could also come from an antenna on your roof.
Digital conversion has shut down analog television.
Antennas and rabbit ears are a thing of the past.
Television programming would go off the air during the night.
Programing resumed between 5:00-7:00am, usually with the National Anthem playing and a picture of the flag on your screen.
In those days, TV news was aired live at 6:00 and 11:00.
Dinner was finished, and some would choose to stay up until after the late news.
One famous anchorman always ended his broadcast with…And that’s the way it is.
He became the credible face of the news.
If something major happened, regular programing was interrupted.
Your program stopped abruptly…to be resumed after the breaking news.
I remember this happening the day President Kennedy was shot in Dallas.
Today, with our twenty-four hour news channels, everything is deemed newsworthy.
But is it?
Many have trouble distinguishing an important news story from a filler segment.
Everyone comments right away through social media and everyone is an expert.
Spin rooms put their slant on the news, so you don’t even have to think for yourself.
Sound bites are our new way of obtaining news.
Sadly, this truncated, sometimes inaccurate portrayal, formulates opinions.
When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.” So, he married Gomer, daughter of Diblaim and she conceived and bore him a son. (Hosea 1:2,3)
Can you see it now?
Man told to marry unfaithful woman…story at 11:00.
Sound bites…sensationalism…bait and hook.
It seems strange to us that Hosea would be obedient to such a directive from God.
Stranger still that Hosea knew exactly who to marry.
Gomer would have two more children with Hosea…a daughter and then a son.
Often, God used the lives of His prophets as visible, object lessons for His people.
In this case, God was trying to show, through Hosea’s life, what it was like to be HIM!
God, the Faithful Husband…and Israel, the adulterous wife.
I will show My love to the one I called ‘not My loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not My people,’ “You are My people;” and they will say, “You are my God.” (Hosea 2:23)
When Hosea preached God’s message of reconciliation to the people, they knew that Hosea was talking from experience.
They were the adulterous ones…in their pursuit of other gods.
Yet, even in their adultery, God remains faithful.
Our twenty-four hour news would cover the story very differently.
It would do a segment on what makes Gomer unfaithful.
It would interview Hosea and see how he feels about the whole situation.
Paparazzi would attempt to take pictures of their home…or the other men in Gomer’s life.
There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land…My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge…a people without understanding will come to ruin.
(Hosea 4:1,6,14)
The only way to verify sound bites is with Truth.
The only way to know Truth, is to know the Word of God.
God’s Word is not applicable to just some situations.
God’s Word is the only final authority in matters of faith and practice!
There will always be slant or bias presented in the sound bites.
There will always be sensationalism to attract attention…and try to change opinions.
Through it all…above it all…before it all…stands the Word of God.
Unadulterated Truth.
There will always be slant or bias presented in the sound bites.
There will always be sensationalism to attract attention…and try to change opinions.
Through it all…above it all…before it all…stands the Word of God.
Unadulterated Truth.
Very true!