Television, radio, the internet, social media, books, newspapers, movies, and magazines—all these are forms of mass media that invite the world to accept a particular point of view. The purity of the information they provide depends on whose hands it comes from and what purpose it serves. In one way or another, however, all information shapes my thinking and changes my life, filling the empty shelves of my little house of happiness.
One distinctive feature of our time is the rapid transmission of information to every corner of the world. We have grown accustomed to it, and it has become part of our lives. It seems that a person is now defined by the saying, ‘You are what you know,’ or, ‘Tell me what you watch, and I will tell you who you are.’
Friendship, communication, relationships, and love have moved from the real world into the virtual one. People have become dependent on this second reality. As a result, new psychological disorders have begun to appear. Most of the prosperous, developed world has fallen into electronic slavery to its information devices and can no longer imagine life without them. This is a sad picture of our time. It has come and become part of our reality. We must live with it and act wisely.
It is becoming clear to me that all this has been given to us from above for a particular purpose. We are to give every person the opportunity to learn something vitally important and to receive additional information that can lead to salvation.
The internet has a unique characteristic. It belongs to no one, and across its vast expanse everyone can publish whatever they want and consider necessary, while anyone can find whatever their soul desires. This human invention can be a great blessing to me or a terrible curse, depending on how I use it and what I publish.
Holiness means my complete dedication to God in the realm of information as well. God calls me to possess this purity and to bear an uncorrupted witness about Him through every resource to which I have access and where I can publish anything. When my life is weighed, I believe my social media pages and everything made public on them will testify very clearly either to my holiness or to its absence.
There was a time when I did not have the fullness of light and published what I considered right. But truth entered my life as well. It revealed the sin and impurity of my former views and understanding, and it called me to repentance. My repentance means that I no longer desire to watch or share anything indecent or impure and that, whenever possible, I remove what I previously published in ignorance and foolishness.
Absolute purity is the motto of holiness. God will accept nothing less, nor will He allow into His Kingdom anything that contains the seeds of rebellion and revolt, love for the world, or impurity.
What amazes me most is that, while God sees humanity selling itself into slavery for next to nothing, He calmly and gently offers a way of deliverance from this yoke. He offers Himself in His fullness, and dependence upon His power, as the only way out and the only worthy substitute. The Lord has made Himself so accessible across the internet that everyone who seeks Him can find, know, and understand Him. Knowing this, the enemy of souls has offered a vast amount of false information that misrepresents God’s character and testifies against Him by portraying Him in a false light. To understand the truth, one must know the One Who is the Truth. This is possible only through personal communion with God and the personal acceptance of Jesus as one’s Savior from the power of sin. And the Lord sets us free.
All the information we allow into our minds changes us and our way of thinking. Whether we want it to or not, when we decide to watch something, we unwittingly come under the influence of the person who created the information being presented and unconsciously agree with what we have seen, thus making it part of ourselves. If we have a pure spiritual filter, we recognize what is impure and reject it forever, never to touch it again. But if I have no protective mechanisms, all the garbage being offered enters me unhindered and defiles my conscience. We are transformed into the likeness of what we behold and become what we have believed.
Our brain has the unique ability to remember everything that enters it through our eyes and ears and to retain this information throughout our lives. What I use to fill the cells of my memory can lead either to my destruction or to my blessing. The enemy of souls knows how to direct my carnal nature toward what I have allowed into my mind and how to replay it in my memory. Satan knows how to remind me of something evil with which I once filled my mind. I cannot simply erase it from my memory, because I myself allowed it in. Yet such evil can be resisted by power from above, and I can receive that power only in response to my repentance, my sincere prayer for help, and my complete dedication to God.
For many people, it would be a great blessing not to have smartphones, tablets, social media, the internet, television, or radio in their lives. Unfortunately, we have surrounded ourselves with these sources at our own expense—and we continue paying for them. Yet even in this situation, God gives us the power to choose.
Humanity is losing the ability to think independently amid such an abundance of information. People refuse to think and make decisions, giving others the opportunity to do it for them. It is even said that whoever controls information controls the world. Meanwhile, intelligence declines, the ability to analyze grows dull, a video longer than three minutes is no longer interesting, and a message longer than one screen is not read but merely scrolled past. Just as it was said of people at the end of time that ‘they did not consider,’ so it is being fulfilled. People believe whatever is presented to them without trying to understand whether it benefits them. Will I be saved by possessing this knowledge?
Everything has become mixed together. Truth and falsehood have been skillfully blended, and the chosen people, without thinking, drink a full cup of this wine of Babylon. But Babylon has fallen, and we should come out of her.
My victory and holiness may consist not only in taking all these things and throwing them away, but also in using them, while they remain around me, to instruct, edify, and teach others in love and righteousness by choosing and presenting what is pure and useful. God teaches us this as well.
Love knows how to recognize danger and makes a conscious choice when entering questionable territory. It is very cautious and selective about what it allows into my mind. Love may accidentally find itself in the enemy’s territory, but it reacts immediately and leaves that place, deciding never to visit it again.
Pursue holiness, without which we will not see the Lord and will not be able to live in His presence.
To help others, I must begin with myself.
Every piece of information becomes part of the furnishings of my little house of happiness. It creates a cozy atmosphere within it, or it brings darkness and anxiety. Holiness in what I watch, read, and listen to protects my happiness from being destroyed from within and creates in me a thirst for pure spiritual food that makes my life even more beautiful and interesting. And love receives all this and covers it with its presence and hospitality.
Bible verses for this chapter:
Philippians 4:8; Romans 6:22; Revelation 21:27; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Psalm 51:10; 101:2–4; 1 Peter 4:3–4, 8; James 1:27; Matthew 6:22–23; Isaiah 60:1–5; Ezekiel 37:26–28; Hebrews 2:11; 12:14; 1 John 2:16