What do we know about Reality if our notions of Nature come from National Geographic specials; what kind of Faith do we have if we get our theology and religious experience from televangelists; what kind of families will we create if we follow the scripts of situation comedies?

The God on the TV ministries is a small “God” indeed. We have gone from “God the Creator” to “God the Favorer.”

Rather than inspiring us to action, television has the effect of numbing our nihilism for just one more day.

No wonder we are disconnected with reality and incapable of Truth, Goodness and Beauty.

Now, we live in a world where children are killed by the millions every year, and where governments must bribe people to have children.

Self-acceptance is not about excuses; it is about no longer disowning significant parts of the self. My fears and profound feelings of inadequacy are important to acknowledge, but they are not my whole being. They are my mountain to climb. We all have a mountain. It is easier to climb once you accept that you had no head start in the race of character development, no jump start on the human condition of perennial fear. The only advantage I have over many others is the massive comfort afforded by capitalism’s material progress — which may actually hinder my character development if it has any effect at all.

Thank God for Christmas, the birth of Christ allows you to view the world in the most powerful way. Try this: While driving your car, look at the stop light as a signal from the Almighty: the green light indicates Divine acceptance, allowing you to pass through without trial; the red light represents the blood of the slain Christ, the only reason the light ever turns green for you in the first place.

Climb your mountain, and celebrate the green lights along your path.

The demon of self-doubt destroys your inner world, which destroys your outer world. Never lose faith in your ability to achieve values. As long as you have confidence in your abilities to actualize your cherished goals, nothing can get you down. Darkness seeks to destroy your confidence indirectly, through promoting pseudo-confidence: by enticing you to pretend you control the universe. Once you learn that you are not God, you can start to build true confidence in your ability to discover worthy goals based on Truth, and have confidence that the universe will align with your goals.

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…”

A.T. Pierson (1837-1911) preached at Charles Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle for several months during Spurgeon’s illness just before his death. Pierson wrote a book called “The Prophetic Element,” in which he observed:

(The prophetic element) is one of the seven elements which together constitute the whole body of the Word of God, namely, History, Biography, Prophecy, Ethics, Devotion, Messianic Revelation, and Spiritual Guidance. This prophetic element pervades all the rest. It is the eye of Scripture, with supernatural vision – backsight, insight, and foresight, or power to see into the past, present, and future. It is, therefore, the miracle of utterance, as other miracles are wonders of power, and evinces omniscience, as they do omnipotence, thus reflecting the image of God.

Great practical advice for everyday life. But what does this say about the philosophy of modern technology?

The “Jot” is actually the 10th letter in the Hebrew alphabet, the “Yodh.” It is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. The “tittle” is the little point on the upper edge of the yodh.

Every atom of Scripture is significant: the phrases, word-choice, grammatical forms. God instructed his prophets to verbalize Divine communications in a precise manner. “Every word of God is pure” (Proverbs 30:5).

Thoreau was right about the telegraph, and its degrading effect on the American mind has been multiplied by television and the Internet. We live in a world of context-free, irrelevant information… and we’re sinking in it. Information has been degraded to a kind of commodity, the meaning of which doesn’t matter.

So, what does it matter?

When information was tied to a meaning, it was both local and actionable. All the information you dealt with before the telegraph had a direct purpose for your life; information meant action, knowledge meant power. Little wonder why our minds are so off-balance: we live lives as mere spectators, facing problems which we have no power to change.

Context, Please

Shut off the TV. Leave the internet as often as you possibly can. The Information Age is a trap. Get involved locally. Maintain a more immediate relationship with people, places and events. Go on a low-information diet and you will never go back to the muddy view of reality which you are currently watching. DEMAND that all information you encounter, even for a moment, has a direct relationship to your own life — that it offers you opportunities to act.