According to a 2015 article in Time Magazine, the top ten television shows of all time include Friends, Breaking Bad, the X-Files, Game of Thrones, Seinfeld, the Sopranos, Saturday Night Live, I Love Lucy, Mad Men and the Simpsons. While five of these programs were comedies, the others contain adult content, graphic images and violence. Based upon the series chosen on this list, American audiences are searching for something to laugh at and tune into nteresting dramas. In order to grab someone’s attention, producers focus on the darkness within souls to spice up weekly episodes.
“The eye is the lamp of the body; so if your eye is clear [spiritually perceptive], your whole body will be full of light [benefiting from God’s precepts]. 23 But if your eye is bad [spiritually blind], your whole body will be full of darkness [devoid of God’s precepts]. So if the [very] light inside you [your inner self, your heart, your conscience] is darkness, how great and terrible is that darkness! – Matthew 6:22-23
When tragedy strikes in the form of mass shootings, blame immediately goes to guns and gun owners. After the facts reveal the true motives of any massacre, some of these events may be blamed on terrorism, others on bullying and some remain unexplained. Whatever the inspiration may have been, rarely do experts, media panels or psychologists point the finger in the direction of Hollywood. From time to time, mature video games that desensitize the frailty of life receive a portion of the blame. Yet, unless a shooter survives their day of reckoning, no one will ever know for certain why school shootings happen.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin, 1 John 1:5-7.
The word light appears 272 times in the Bible. Meanwhile, darkness is mentioned 162 times. Two of Jesus’ disciples highlight the positive aspects and negative concerns of these terms. According to Matthew, darkness is like a poison that corrupts hearts internally before external actions magnify evil from within. John takes a different approach, comparing light to a truth detector. Anyone who pretends to be a Christian while maintaining a relationship with darkness is a fool. The ultimate goal is to expose any darkness within you by daily reading and studying the Bible. Although Christians can’t control what Hollywood or others do, the decisions that you make will determine your destiny. May the light of Christ guide you through the darkness.
by Jay Mankus
ExpressYourself4Him 