WHERE IS YOUR ANTENNA POINTED?
READ: JUDE 1
But now I find I must write about something else, urging you to defend the truth of the Good News. God gave us this unchanging truth once and for all time to his holy people. (V. 3)
In her book, “Tunnel 29,” British Journalist Helena Merriman documents the rise of one of the most repressive communist states ever to exist—the East German Republic. At the end of WWII, Germany was divided into three geographically distinct spheres of influence. The southern and western parts were controlled by the British and Americans, while the eastern part of the country was left to Soviet domination. Communist educated, and completely ruthless, Walter Ulbricht became the unchallenged leader of East Germany–a Russian puppet who exercised control by fear and intimidation. The state controlled every aspect of your life dictating where you worked; lived; shopped; what you read; what you watched on tv and heard on the radio; and if and where you went to school. Their repression of basic human rights, including the freedom to worship, was aided by an elaborate system of informants–one for every 63 people. They even had people watching to see that your TV antenna was not pointed in the direction of West Germany. Thousands of people a year were jailed as the government attempted to supplant truth and freedom with the lies of the communist party. They even erected a 63-mile wall, topped with barbed wire and guard towers, to keep thousands of people a day from fleeing their grasp. Thankfully, on October 3, 1990, with the break-up of the old Soviet Union, the wall came down and Germany was reunified.
Reading Merriman’s book was a sober reminder of the intense pressures facing those who profess the truth of the Good News today. Today’s prolific mass media venues are filled with constant streams of counter Christian messages trying to get us to embrace the values of this world. These are the proclamations and musings of the “scoffers,” described by Jude in 65 AD, whose purpose is to create divisions among us while living for themselves without any regard or fear for God’s Holy Spirit. They are the people who want you to turn your antennas of life toward their never-ending broadcasting signals heralding the importance of money; power; and self-sufficiency while minimalizing the role of any “higher power.” To avoid allowing them to gain control of our physical, moral and spiritual lives, a condition that will only plunge us into gloom and darkness, we must continue to build our earthly characters upon the foundation of our holy faith; the leading of the ever-present Spirit; and the solid rock of Jesus Christ.
PAUSE FOR REFLECTION AND PRAYER
When was the last time you checked the direction of your spiritual antenna?
Dear Jesus, you have the words of eternal life and joy, help me stay tuned to them and not the noise of this world.
You’re Brother in Christ,
Fred Ailes