Latest / Beliefs, Ballots, And BullDawgs / Thursday May 28, 2026
Transcript
- Greg: Good morning, everyone. It is Thursday, May 28th. I'm your host, Greg Miller, and this is the latest episode of Beliefs, Ballots, and Bets. ⁓ today's scripture comes from the book of Isaiah, chapter five, verse 20. Isaiah tells us, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Short, compact verse, not ⁓ not overly difficult to translate or understand it. But this is this is kind of one of the the bolder verses in scripture to me. And then especially in the the culture and the world we live in now, this is this is addressing moral confusion. And this is something we see constantly in the world around us today. And it's it's warning us that, hey, you know, when when society starts celebrating the wrong things, when when people around you are are calling evil good and good evil, you know, we see it all the time. People people mock doing the right thing. And we we live in that kind of world and and when you live in that kind of world, things can get upside down pretty fast. The the Bible here in I Isaiah is calling us to to pay attention to to what people celebrate. That that will tell you so much about the culture you're in and and the the folks you're surrounding yourself with. You know, we we see it every day, especially in this this social media generation with this this viral outrage culture where I mean in in essence so many times and we can all point to specific examples. People are financially rewarded for stupidity. People are given accolades for being morons. ⁓ and that is just that's become the social media economy. That has become the norm ⁓ where we're just the seeking attention has become more powerful and more prominent than anything. And and so many times you see this where bad behavior, like not even questionable behavior, but flat out bad behavior gets glorified and and gets promoted. We have we we see this all the time with some of the popular streamers and some of the popular online personalities where, you know, we we've started to confuse popularity with wisdom. ⁓ attention has become far more important to most people than than the truth or reality. And you know, we have to be aware and that that's what Isaiah is calling us here in this scripture is, you know, just because the world around you is celebrating something doesn't doesn't mean it's good. You know, we see it all the time. We're you know, people essentially now people people even cheer for destruction. ⁓ you don't have to go online and spend a whole lot of time to to find examples of people, you know, intentionally attacking each other, tearing each other down. There's there's an essentially a a humiliation culture. We're we're all familiar with with posts that are just simply rage bait, just trying to get somebody fired up and and to get a get a reaction. You you constantly see see public meltdowns all the time and And then on the opposite side of the public meltdowns, you'll see you'll see people come post stuff that they're trying to be so genuine and real, and and you know it, it's it's completely fake. There's nothing authentic about it. You know, it it's it's crazy in in a lot of ways, and and this social media has just exacerbated this. We no longer are tolerating dysfunction. We we're marketing it, we're we're encouraging it. And and I think that that what Isaiah is calling us here, and it's something we're all aware of, but sometimes we just have to sit still and and put process it and and really deal with the reality of it is your environment shapes you. We all know this. You know, I have I I've I've heard several people say it, but I I give I give credit to Pastor Chris Hodges at at Highlands Church. You know, he he always says, show me your friends and I'll show you your future. And this is a hundred percent true. You know, ask yourself who who do you admire? You know, what sort of behaviors and activities do do you reward in in the people around you? ⁓ you know, what kind of behaviors do you do you laugh at a or encourage? ⁓ versus what do you what do you admonishment or or criticize? ⁓ pay attention to the world around you and and and pay attention to what the world around you and the people around you celebrate. ⁓ it's a crucial bit of information that that will really let you know where where the the where everybody lines up and what's really important to people. ⁓ but Being aware of what the world around you and the people in your circle are celebrating is is very important. But it's way more important to be aware of what you celebrate because that's what the Bible's calling. We it it's it's on what we reward, what we give positive attention to, what we celebrate says a lot about who we are. ⁓ speaking of celebrating and what we won't be celebrating, we won't be celebrating yesterday's record. That was a pretty gross 0-3 day. ⁓ nothing else we can say about that. We just got to move on. ⁓ that brings us to 29 and 24 overall. So we're still still a little ahead of the curve, but we've we've definitely been sliding in the wrong direction here in the last week or so. ⁓ we only came up with two plays today. The model likes two. We're going with the LA Angels and the Detroit Tigers over the total of eight and a half. and we're going with the Toronto Blue Jays on the road at plus one ten ⁓ versus the Baltimore Orioles. You know, as we as we try to wrap up here and and we we come up with our little summary and and it's it's real simple. It's a short verse and it's just calling us to to pay attention again, to pay attention to what's celebrated around you. But we have to remember that just because something is is celebrated and popular, that doesn't make it right. And and we're called to do what's right and we're called to live our lives according to to what Jesus prescribed for us. ⁓ even when the whole world seems to to shout it down and and criticize it. And in a lot of cases we we see we see it all around us. The world celebrates things that we know to be the absolute antithesis of our faith and our belief system. And and we're just called to stay strong and be aware of it, but but it it it should it should draw you to want to be closer to Christ and live more like Christ and less like what's being celebrated in the world around you. As always, guys, I appreciate anybody that's listening to this. If if you are like it, share it, subscribe, do whatever. ⁓ hit me up on Facebook, TikTok, whatever, and we'll ⁓ we'll chat. Let me know if there's anything you wanna talk about. And as always, guys, get in your Bibles, say your prayers, love one another and tell the truth. God bless.