Today, we focus on the critical theme of refocusing our lives amidst the rapid advancements in technology and artificial intelligence. As we navigate a world where digital tools can easily dominate our attention, it’s essential to remember that our relationship with God must remain our primary focus. I share insights on how to maintain spiritual grounding, emphasizing that while technology can be a useful tool, it should never take precedence over our calling as individuals in Christ. Throughout our discussion, I highlight three foundational truths that remind us of our unique purpose and the grace we have been given. Join me as we explore the importance of anchoring ourselves in faith, even amidst the noise of the digital age.

Takeaways:

• In a rapidly changing technological landscape, we must keep our focus on God and his calling.
• The advancements in technology should serve as tools, not as the center of our lives.
• Our identity in Christ is unique and should be prioritized over any technological influences.
• We are entrusted with the responsibility to represent God's love through our actions and interactions.
• Living in a technology-driven culture requires conscious effort to maintain our spiritual focus and integrity.
• Our future holds unimaginable glory, and our actions today can impact eternal destinies positively.

Links referenced in this episode:

• mybible805.com
• bible805.com

Welcome to the Hobo Soul Podcast of Road advised from the Bible and from me, Yvon Prehn, someone who's a little further down the road of life. I'll talk to you every Tuesday and Thursday for about 10 minutes.

And if you'd like more in depth information on walking with Jesus, you can find that on my www.bible805.com website. For now, let's get started on our topic for today, which is

Episode number 65: Refocus your life in the midst of technology and AI.

Here's our verse for today. It's from Philippians 3, 13 and 14, and here's what it says.

"Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have yet taken hold of it.

But one thing I do Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward and in Christ Jesus."

The last few years have been a whirlwind of changes in technology.

Our phones literally have more computing power than mission control had when they first sent a man to the moon.

Any question we want answered, day or night, is available to us from AI images that used to take thousands of dollars to commission and create that are just now available with a simple prompt.

It's amazing all of the things that we can do with a with technology, with our computers, our phones, and it's easy to let all of this become a driving force in our lives.

Yet in the midst of all of it, I want to take a few minutes today to remind you that though technology changes and this flood of innovation is never going to cease, our minds and our hearts and our focus on God shouldn't really change. We need to have a solid anchor in the midst of all that.

And I'm hoping just in the next few minutes to give you some inspiration and a little bit of Anchorage to help you in this.

Because our technology driven secular culture, while it can be invigorating and exciting, it will most likely not inspire you to think or act in a Christlike way in your everyday life. The characteristics of servanthood, sex, sacrifice, humility, love, relying on God to help us.

These don't come naturally and they don't always come with the tools and technology. Now, the concept of reverent others is useful here.

This is the term that is used to the idea that we tend to order our lives, often unconsciously, by the group of people that we're around.

Now, I've used this a lot of times in Bible class to talk about how you need to be around people, even in Your church, who have the same value values you do, who are really into God's word and things like that.

But I've been thinking about it recently and more often than not, I think that a lot of people referent others has become a computer generated bot, you know, something that AI came up with. Now please know that I'm not into AI bashing here. I use AI a lot. I'm learning more and more about it, but. But we have to keep controls on it.

Now I have a ChatGPT agent that I've called Raphael. And if you don't know what an agent is, just a program that will do things for you. And I give names to everything.

My car's name's Gabriel, you know, I mean, I name everything. So I named my AI agent Raphael, and I've had Raphael create beautiful PowerPoint covers for me.

I just had him finish a suite of images for a new series that I'm going to be doing on the Trinity, PowerPoint, a notebook cover, a book cover, all of these sorts of things. But Raphael has his limits and I've told him I create all my own content. Now he wants to do stuff for me.

I have him create an image and he likes to make suggestions. Oh, would you like me to actually make the notebook for you or to do a lesson for you? Where do I go? Nope, that's not what I want him to do.

I do all of my own writing and teaching and putting together the lesson.

Now I know Raphael could write all my scripts for me and do them really quickly and even this podcast instead of agonizing over them and praying about them and all of that sort of work that I do. Raphael could do that, but I don't let him do any of that. I don't want to model myself after all the stuff that's always been been on the Internet.

It's in the agonizing and talking to God about the content that I share with you that I feel God really wants me to talk about, that goes far beyond just a mishmash of things that a computer program would pull together.

Again, what I want to do, and I'm not AI bashing computer bashing, any of that is I want to remind you of how special and unique you are in God's creation. That verse that I talked about, focus on your past or what's present.

With technology, your focus should always be on your calling as an individual in Christ Jesus, on the work that we're all doing for the Kingdom of God now to kind of help ground you.

I Want to share three foundational truths to remind you as you live your life and do your work as a human soul, not a technologically programmed entity. Foundational truth number one. We serve a holy sovereign and yet astoundingly personal God.

Our lives and our work should reflect who we belong to and our reverence of Him. We don't serve technology. We need to learn about it, get good at using it as a tool. But remember, it's only a tool.

And though our God is holy, he set apart in ways we can't imagine. And sovereign, He. He's in charge of everything, and yet he allows our free wills. He is also astoundingly personal. God is. He loves you, he hears you.

He wants a personal, interactive relationship with you. He has time for your every sigh, every desire, every quiet prayer, every wish as big as AI sometimes seems.

Our God is far above with truly unlimited bandwidth in how he hears and cares for us. Sometimes people are hesitant to pray or interact with God because they think he has so many bigger concerns.

Oh, he's got world hunger and he's got wars and he's got this and that. Yes, he's got all that and he handles them all. But he still has time for you.

Now, if it helps, and this is an illustration that has helped me, let's say, the computer program Claude many of you are familiar with, it's an AI program. Claude can do massive computational programming.

And yet, if you have Claude on your computer, he still has time to create an image for the birthday card you want to send to a friend. Now, your birthday card doesn't take away from Claude's massive computing power or his focus or anything else. He doesn't say, oh, that's too small.

I don't have time for that. Now we laugh because of course we know that Claude has a bandwidth to handle all of that.

But remember, Claude's just a speck of dust compared with the bandwidth of our Creator. He has time for everything about you. Number two, foundational thought. Our lives are ones of unimaginable grace.

The Creator of all things honored us with the responsibility to live a life as his representative for him to share the good news of salvation in Jesus and to show his love for the world. You turn that divine love into tangible actions on how you do your work and your acts of caring. Tech can't do that.

You can treasure that, treasure every tangible touch, everything that you can do to show Jesus in our world. Number three, Foundational thought. Ours is a future of unimaginable future glory. The eternal destinies of people are changed.

Heaven will be different because of the life you're living, because of the work you do, the lives you touch as you live as God's representative.

Now, I don't know where you are today in the sea of tech changes and challenges, but wherever you are, take a few minutes for a reset focus on your uncreated creator. You aren't a bot. You don't need any tech or programming or anything else to be all God wants you to be.

You can use tools, but don't be overwhelmed by them. You can be at peace as you ask Jesus to help you press ahead with a renewed energy and focus to be all he created you to be.

That's all for this podcast, for transcripts, links to related material, and much more to help you learn to know, trust, apply and teach the Bible, go to www. Bible805.com for now, let me end with this benediction and prayer.

May you walk each day surrounded by the gracious love of the Father, guided by the gentle wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and conscious of the astoundingly real presence of Jesus, who will walk with you until you're no more a hollow soul, no more a transient, wandering heart, but at home in the kingdom prepared for you with your God forever. Amen.