The Impact of Influencers in Today’s 24/7 News Cycle

When I was just a boy, I had a paper route. Everyday when I would get home from school I folded my papers and started out delivering the news. Imagine, waiting until 3 or 4 O’clock to get your news! It is hard for me to even imagine it and I delivered the paper. Today, we live in a 24/7 news cycle and instant updates. It is hard to keep up. Every morning I get an email from a news organization. It is their ‘Morning Brief’. They highlight five or six stories to bring one up to speed on the happenings around the world. Yet, even then some of the stories have changed considerably by the time I open the page. Time is moving at a extremely fast clip, it is hard to keep up, if you blink you might miss something.

This 24/7 news cycle with updates at your fingertips can lock you in and it is hard to take a breath. Yet, with news so in your face these days there are some still who are oblivious to what is going on in the world. Oh they have their phone in their hands but they are playing games and scrolling Tic Tok. Their algorithm is full of cat videos and silly dances being performed by people they don’t know but follow and like and comment as if they do. Everyone is influenced by something or someone. You have news anchors who influence your opinion based on what network you prefer. As well if you aren’t into the news you are influenced by social media influencers. There are even ‘Christian’ influencers out there influencing the mind of their followers. The question is what or whom influences you?

I only want One influencer, the Ruah ha’Qodesh, that is the Holy Spirit. His role is to influence us towards the Word of God. To meditate on it day and night. Soak in it like a sponge. So that when others are around us they too end up under the influence of the Living Water of the Word. When you take a sponge full of water from the sink it drips everywhere, that is how we should be. So saturated by the Word that wherever we go we leave a trail behind us of living water. The Holy Spirit through us influencing those around us by our word and deed. When others bring us news our filter should be the Word. When others bring us ‘entertainment’ our filter should be the Word. When others bring us the ‘Word’ our filter should be the Word.

Let us consider together Psalm 1 . . .
“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the Torah of YHWH, and on His instruction he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.” If you honestly desire to know YHWH in His fullness you must know His Word, His Torah, His Instruction. Not only to know it but to believe it and to obey it.

Psalm 1 continues . . .
“Not so the wicked! For they are like chaff driven off by the wind. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For YHWH guards the path of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” The wicked do not delight themselves in the Torah.

Is it only the wicked that turn their back of God’s instruction?

How would the Berean’s receive this statement?

Those in Brea were limited to the ‘Old’ Testament, we have the writings of the Apostles too. What can we find about “winds of doctrine”?

What are the implications?

This is the Way of the Rabbi,
You are loved,
cj