Christians and social media

The night before last (Tuesday) I dedicated two hours to systematically going through my Facebook friends list with one specific question in view: what are my fellow church members posting regarding current events? Why? Curiosity and to be informed.

I found many good things, and for that, I thank God.

However, I must say, it was, to say the very least, and all too very often - by no means an edifying exercise. I would certainly not recommend this exercise to the faint of heart and I would warn the depressed or doubting to not do anything like it. And, given the dates of posting, it was apparent that such matters have only increased in darkness and intensity over the past several weeks as a national election date draws ever closer.

It was as if I was witnessing points of light being dimmed, or even completely overcome, by darkness. (sigh)

As I scrolled and read, five passages of Scripture kept popping up in my mind, firing off like popcorn. What were those passages? Here they are (with my own application points inserted in all CAPS, within brackets).

Our Lord Jesus said ...

1. "I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter [VIA SHARING ON SOCIAL MEDIA]." (Matthew 12.36)

An apostle of our Savior said ...

2. "[POSTING] Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes [ON SOCIAL MEDIA] — these are not for you." (Ephesians 5.4)

3. "Let your [SOCIAL MEDIA] conversation be always full of grace ..." (Colossians 4.6a)

An unknown preacher, inspired by the Holy Spirit said ...

4. "Make every effort to live in peace with everyone [ON SOCIAL MEDIA] and to be holy, for without holiness no one will see the Lord." (Hebrews 12.14)

And our Lord Jesus' half-brother said ...

5. "With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image [VIA SOCIAL MEDIA]. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! My friends, this can’t go on. A spring doesn’t gush fresh water one day [OR POST] and brackish the next, does it?" (James 3.9-11)

And so ...

Let us re-dedicate our tongues and typing fingers to the Lord, my brothers and sisters. May we do that by re-dedicating our heart to him in repentance and profession of faith. Daily.

And may we never forget that along with our God who knows even the motives unknown to us that help give rise to our thoughts, feelings, words, and ways, a world full of people, yet to believe, are also closely watching us and reading us, along with brothers and sisters of greatly varying degrees of strength, burden, understanding, and maturity.

Let us not stumble, and let us not unwittingly lead others to do the same, or worse. Rather, may we be an example of humility and godliness not only to fellow all believers, but to all who are yet to believe.

Deliver us from evil, Lord. Grant us, by your grace, to rise to this occasion, reflecting your light, and by no means, or media, adding to this world's darkness. Amen.

Grace and PEACE, my fellow sheep.

--David Smith

The Church - What Are You Looking For?

An anonymous story tells about a husband and wife who visited Hawaii for a lengthy vacation. While there they attended church services at a small church known for its informality. The husband related, “One Sunday a deacon asked me if I would usher at the morning service. I protested that I was much too casually dressed. ‘At home,’ I explained, ‘the deacons always look for a man wearing a tie when they need an usher.’ The deacon laughed and replied, ‘Over here, we look for someone wearing shoes.’"

The aim of this article is not to discuss the “worship wars” that have affected even some very  conservative churches in America, including some churches of Christ. That war is over what to wear (suits and ties and “dress” clothes versus more casual wear that “dresses down” instead of “dressing up”), over what and how and who is to sing (voices only or instruments, praise teams, “traditional” or “contemporary” songs), drama teams, etc., etc. Without getting into a discussion about these things (and  discussion is needed), one thing cannot be denied – what people call “the church” and what “the church” does in worship services and other facets of its life, and what people look for in a church has dramatically changed in many cases and places over the years. A “KUDZU” cartoon several years ago by Doug Marlette comically illustrated that many moderns show up at church looking for other things besides God and spiritual guidance and help. The strip showed the preacher, Bible in hand, standing in front of the church house door. A large and aggressive lady has him cornered and is working him over good.  “WHAT?” she exclaims sternly. “No tanning salon?! . . . No juice bar?! . . . No fitness center?! . . . No jacuzzi?! . . . No sauna?! . . . No bowling alley?! . . . No skating rink?! . . . No ATM?! . . . No McDonald’s?! –– AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A HOUSE OF WORSHIP?!”

Entertainment, excitement and ecstatic experiences head the list of things people seek at church these day. But is it possible God might be looking for something different than what the “user-friendly-religion, meet- all-my-felt-needs crowd looks for in a church? The apostle Paul wrote ROMANS to a group of God’s people at first century Rome, an amazing but very immoral city were pagan religion and immorality of every stripe were prevalent and popular (Romans 1:18-32). As a part of his introduction to the book of ROMANS, Paul wrote words which suggest the kinds of things God looks for in His church. Read Romans 1:8-13 and you will be amazed at what you cannot learn about this church. You cannot learn who the preacher or the elders were, how large the assembly was, how much money they took in each week, what if any kinds of  “ministries” they had, or how many people they were baptizing, I am not suggesting these things are unimportant. I AM suggesting Paul’s focus is on things like gratitude and faith vs 8), serving God (vs 9a), the gospel (vs 9b), prayers (vs 9c), concern for the will of God (vs 10), spiritual gifts (perhaps “blessings”), spiritual strength (vs 11), mutual encouragement (vs 12), and spiritual “fruit” (vs 13). Search the New Testament and you will find these are the concerns that saturate its pages. What kinds of things are you looking for at church?

Think about it.

--Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

Surrendered to Jesus, or Negotiating?

 A young lady at an upscale department store perfume counter looked at a bottle of perfume and sniffed it. “I like this,” she said, ‘but I don’t want ‘Surrender.’ Do you have anything called ‘Negotiate’?” A primary definition of surrender is to give one’s self up to another. That latter definition gets close to the idea of what it means to be a follower of Christ. In the words of Jesus Himself in Luke 6:46, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” There are many followers of Jesus who never really make a a full surrender to Jesus. They seek rather to "negotiate” with Him. They give some of themselves to Him, but not a full- scale, “none-of- self-and-all-of-Thee, I-surrender-all-to-Jesus ” kind of surrender. Instead they surrender enough to get into Christ (Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:27), but not enough for Christ to actually get into them and take over their lives (Galatians 2:20; 4:19; Colossians 1:27b). The result is a “Christian” who surrenders a little time, treasure, and talent but never really surrenders self.

 The apostle Paul is one of several personalities in the New Testament who truly surrendered to Jesus Christ. You can read about his dramatic conversion story in Acts chapters 9, 22, and 26. Suffice it to say his surrender was complete. He became, of course, the great apostle to the Gentiles, wrote much of the New Testament, and established churches all over the first century Mediterranean world. After he came to Christ he gave himself to telling everyone he could get to listen about the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Romans 1:1 he described himself this way – “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.” The Greek word Paul used for “separated” has to do with setting boundaries. Paul’s life had a boundary around it. He was bound by his surrender to Jesus to give himself completely to the gospel and the great work of saving souls. To use terminology sometimes applied to athletics, Paul was “all in” with the gospel. And being “all in” compelled him to go “all out” all the time for lost people. I recently came across some fascinating and thought- provoking research by the Wall Street Journal that relates to our subject. About six years ago the Journal did a study of televised professional football games that revealed something remarkable. The average professional football game is three and one half hours long. That’s 210 minutes. But if you tally up the time the ball is actually in play, the action amounts to a mere 11 minutes. Meanwhile, commericals took up 63 minutes; shots of players standing around 67 minutes; shots of coaches, the crowd, cheerleaders, etc. 36 minutes; replays 15 minutes. Astoundingly, the ratio of inaction to action is 10 to 1! That’s the nature of football. Even so, surely we can still see an application. Many members and even many congregations of Christ’s church, sad to say, reflect a similar ratio of inaction to action as regards serving God and being surrendered to gospel acitivities, especially reaching out to lost people around us. We do a lot of “churchy” things–but how often are we talking gospel with people? None of us can be an apostle Paul, but if you would follow Jesus a surrender to Him as Lord is non-negotiable. A song teaches, “If you cannot sing like angels, If you cannot preach like Paul, You can tell the love of Jesus, And say He died for all.” Think about it.

 Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

Act 1:7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

It was a question every Jews wanted to know and the apostles asked Jesus when He appeared to them after His resurrection: “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). The Jews had long been expecting the Messiah to come as a king and conqueror and freed them from the bondage of the foreign kings. Already they had been through three former kingdoms, Babylon, Persian, and Greece, and now they were under the rule of the Romans. It had been more than four hundred years under foreign monarchs and still no sign of deliverance. They had come to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah who was to come. Naturally, they posed this question to Him.

Christ answered: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power” (Acts 1:7).

It is a reproof, not only to them, but to those in all ages who seek to know "the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." Since the day that Christ ascended into heaven, people have always been curious to know when He is coming back again.

Daniel told a Babylonian king that God “changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings” (Dan 2:21). God did everything according to His time-table. He changes times and seasons. Christ said to the apostle: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.” It is not for us too. The secret things belong to God (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Our concern should never be when Christ is coming. Christ already said: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matthew 24:36). That time and season belong only to the Father. The jobs for us as Christians living today are:

1. To PREPARE for that day. Christ likens His second coming to the days of Noah (Matthew 24:37-39). The world refused to take heed of the warning from Noah and as a result, when the flood came, they were unprepared and perished. Christ wants us to be ready when He comes: “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:44).

2. To be WATCHFUL. Christ likens His coming to a thief in the night. No one knows when a thief will come. But they are always mindful of him and keep their doors securely shut. We are to be watchful for our souls. Christ says: “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matthew 24:42). It means we are to take heed, to be on the guard. Peter warns: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,” (1 Peter 5:8).

3. To SUBMIT to the will of God. "It is not for you to know" (Acts 1:7). Don’t guess and don’t believe anyone who tells you he knows when the Lord is coming again. We long to know many things not revealed, but the Lord says, "It is not for you to do." What that have been revealed to us are sufficient for our living and salvation (2 Timothy 3:17). Let us be content with the information that God has revealed to us and follow those things that have been revealed.

4. To be BUSY in the kingdom. Christ told the apostles who asked the question: "Ye shall be witnesses unto me" (verse 8). Today, we don’t witness for Christ, a phrase which the denominations like to use. But we will continue to preach the gospel (Mark 16:15). We are to get busy like Noah. We are to warn men about the second coming of Christ and the judgement that follows (Mark 16:16). We are to be busy while we wait for His second coming.

5. To remain FAITHFUL. The winner is the one who finishes the race. Paul could confidently declare: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). Can we declare the same words when we are on our death beds? It is not how we start the marathon but if we finish it. Heaven is for those who completed the race: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Revelations 2:10).

When is Christ coming again? It is not for us to know. But let us be ready when He comes.

Jimmy Lau

Psa 119:97  Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.

Act 2:46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.

The first century Christians did not have today’s so called “church buildings.”  They didn’t erect any church buildings. Members opened up their homes and they met in homes. We have examples of the church that met in the house of Aquila and Priscilla (Rom 16:3-5; 1 Cor 16:19), house of  Nymphas (Col 4:15), and also in the house of Philemon (Philemom 1:2).

Does God need a house? He who made the heavens and the earth, does He dwell in temples made with hands? (Acts 17:24). The church is not a building. The “church” comes from the Greek word “ekklēsia” and means “a calling out”. It refers to a group of people who have been called out of darkness into the marvellous light of the gospel (1 Pet 2:9).

We all want healthy small groups. The early churches did just that. They “break bread from house to house” (Acts 2:46). Breaking of bread is used in two different senses. First, there is the breaking of bread used in connection with the Lord’s Supper, a memorial to remember Jesus’ death and to declare His coming again (Matt. 26: 26-29, I Cor. 11: 23-34). This “breaking bread” of the Lord’s Supper was a regular and constant act of public worship performed on the "first day of the week" in which the early church engaged (Acts 2: 42). The Christians met on every first day of the week "…to break bread", referring to the partaking of the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20: 7).

The second sense of "breaking bread" also refers to the common meals which they took daily (Matthew 6:11; Luke 24:30).

I know that some contend that the “breaking bread from house to house” mentioned in Acts 2:46 can mean only the common meals. Their argument is that the bread and the meat must refer to the same thing. I beg to differ. First, the Greek form does not differentiate the bread in verse 46 and verse 42. If it is Lord’s Supper in Acts 2:42, it is Lord’s Supper in Acts 2:46.

Second, they forget that the first century churches did not immediately meet in large church buildings after Pentecost; but members opened their homes and there the Christians met and worshipped.

Third, the “bread” and “meat” refer to two different activities. One is worship and the other fellowship. They worshipped and they ate their meals together. The church at Corinth certainly did that and abused it when they did both together (1 Corinthians 11:20-22).

The early churches “continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). They were engaged in teaching and learning (apostles’ doctrine), fellowship and worship (breaking bread and prayers).

We love small group fellowship. We have a programme called “home zone meeting.” It is an activity in which members who live in the same area assemble together for fellowship and devotion. It does not replace Sunday worship but is an activity carried out on weekends or weekdays. We encourage every Christian to participate in home zone meetings. It is a time for fellowship and studying the word of God. It is not just a group of people getting together for fun. While fun is important, small group Bible study offers a safe place to grow, ask questions, learn, encourage, grow, and fellowship. More importantly, studying our Bible in a small group setting also helps us to apply what we learn as we encourage one another in handling life issues. When we are involved in a small group of other believers with varying backgrounds, we can come alongside one another to teach, encourage, edify, and help one another.

Solomon wrote: “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend” (Proverbs 27:17).

A knife is sharpened by another iron. So, a man is sharpened by the presence of his fellowmen through conversation and deeds. When we invest our time, resources, energy with our fellow Christians, we will be encouraged by each others’ words and works. We can also use it as an evangelism tool to invite our friends for this meeting.

In home zone or small group meetings, we can reach out to others who are struggling against the attractions of the world. In return, we revive ourselves from the lukewarmness of sitting in the pews. When we love God, we will love to be with the people whom God loves. We will be exhorted and encouraged in the faith through mutual encouragement: “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works” (Hebrews 10:24).

Jimmy Lau

Psa 119:97  Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.