Biased Reporting...

If I remember correctly, when I attended St Eugene’s Catholic School in the fourth through sixth grades, we always had the week after Easter off for our Spring vacation.  This always seemed a little weird to me because everyone else (at that time) had the week before Easter off.  When I asked my teacher about it one year, she replied among other things, that it was more appropriate to celebrate all that Jesus did for us after the event than before it happened.

So, I guess that is one reason that I am continuing to explore the different events of the Easter season during this week following our celebration last Sunday.   When I read about Jesus’ departure from the earth some forty days after His resurrection on Easter, as found in the first chapter of Acts, I had some revelations of the angel’s words to the disciples as they stared into the sky.

First I thought it was interesting that the story records no fear on the part of the disciples as the two angelic beings talked to them after Jesus went up in the clouds.  It would seem that supernatural sightings were getting to be the norm around Jerusalem at that time starting with the angels at the tomb and then Jesus’ appearing and disappearing at will before their eyes!

What really caught my attention though, was the significance of the events that were spoken of by the two angels at His assumption into heaven.  Acts 1:10-11 says: “They were staring into the sky as he departed.  Suddenly, two men in white clothes stood near them.  They asked, ‘Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking at the sky?  Jesus, who was taken into heaven, will come back in the same way that you saw him go to heaven.’ ” (God’s Word ©)

As I meditated on these words, I realized that although Jesus was going to return in the same manner in which He left, that there are going to be a few very distinctive differences.  Jesus came the first time as the Lamb of God, but He will return as the conquering hero, the Mighty One of God, The Great Judge!  When He left only a couple handfulls of individual’s witnessed the event.  According to Matthew 24:30, when He returns EVERYONE on earth will be aware of the event!  The scriptures state: “All the people on the earth will cry in agony when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds in the sky with power and great glory.” (God’s Word ©) 

I am amazed more and more at the blatant discrimination that the press displays when reporting on events that entail the lives of well-known Christian personalities.  Just yesterday I read a critical report on a comment that Pat Robertson made on the 700 Club concerning the reasons why it is easier for people in 3^rd world countries to receive miracles than for those in countries with great technological and educational advances.  While this is an obvious fact to the thousands of Christians who have plied the mission fields over the last few generations, it was laughed upon and openly criticized by the worldly news media that sent their reports over the information systems across our country.  The great evangelist Smith Wigglesworth made a prediction about this very same subject in the late 1930’s as new medical remedies were beginning to advance.

An even more blatant example of this unfair treatment surrounds the majority of reports coming through the major sports networks whenever the subject of Tim Tebow comes up.  Now I must say that I have not really followed his career in detail, but a slight bit of research will clearly show that the man is a VERY talented athlete who holds many collegiate records, brought his team to National Championship games and titles, won the coveted Heisman Trophy award and once he became the Bronco’s full time quarterback in his second year in the NFL, he led them to their first AFC West title in six years.

Yet to hear it from the sports writers and media announcers you would think that he was a total flop!  To me it seems that the media can’t wait to take a swipe at him, and I think it all centers around his out-spoken stand for his Christian beliefs on and off the field.

What is exciting to realize though, is that when Jesus returns with a dynamic trumpet call (See: I Thessalonians 4:16), the media announcers covering the earth shaking event as well as the entire world as they witness it unmistakably before there very eyes (most likely through live TV/Satellite/Online coverage), will no longer be able to deny what Pat, or Tim or you and I have been declaring and living before them!

You see, while we believers look at this life through the eyes of faith, the unbeliever does not and cannot see what we see because he or she does not have the capability that we have.  Their spirits are as yet unregenerate and they can do nothing except be led by their physical senses and natural reasoning.  Therefore it is not unusual for them to react to the supernatural events of God the way they do.

And even though we may sometimes get upset at the way the world reacts, I don’t think that we should be surprised when you consider the reasons behind their actions.  Our job is to continue to follow Jesus’s Great Commission as found at the end of each of the Gospels (the most popular accounts found in Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15-20) and help more and more of the individuals in the world to become Born-Again to the spiritual realities, God’s supernatural powers and abilities and His loving plans for mankind.

Have a great day.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting TO SHARE today?”