Monday, February 6, 2012

Friends, Facebook and Clothes

 


Today I want to talk about 3 things- Friends, Facebook and Clothes. Why these three things? You may ask. In my life all three are very important to me. They may be very important to you as well, but God has shown me through His Word recently how these 3 areas in our lives can be used to His glory and as a blessing into our very own lives and the lives of others, especially! those who do not know or have a relationship with Jesus.

We all have friends and want friends. This is universal. Therefore, it got me to thinking...What is a friend? The Lord guided me to these words in John Chapter 15 Verse 12, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." After reading this I thought to myself, How do we love each other as Jesus commands, and loved us? You might be asking yourselves this very same thing. Just a few verses later the Lord gives us the answer. Jesus says, "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you."

By those amazing words we can see and know that a true friend is someone who loves another as God loves us, and shares what God has told to them. You may ask yourselves, well what has God told me? The entire Bible is God's voice speaking to us and our lives. As we spend time in God's Word, learn what He teaches us through His Word, and share it with others, we are being a true friend to them. As if that wasn't enough of a blessing, Jesus also shared with us how we remain friends with Him. It's no mystery, but I'll leave that up to you to find out. All you need to do is open your Bible (and if you don't have one I can tell you this, the best investment you will do with your money is buy one. If you can't afford one, your local church may have one to give you and if you come on into Potential Church we'll gladly give you one) and read in the Book of John Chapter 15. It is all there. Now, don't stop there! Take all of God's Word in...as with friends, you simply don't stop with one conversation. 

Now if anyone is wondering why I want to talk about Facebook, it's because I wanted to show you the difference between TRUE friends as the Lord Jesus defines it, and friends how the world defines it. For the most part our friends on Facebook consists of people we have never met, nor spoken to other then a quick press of the [Like] button, possibly our opinion of something they posted, and the infamous invite to play some game, join some cause, or the ever present help needed in farmville (this was big in 2010-2011). Some friend connections are due to many other reasons as well. Now in real life you may have a few friends, but on Facebook you could have hundreds possibly thousands. I myself have 444 Facebook friends and I would say between 30-40 of them I've actually seen, spoken to, and even spent time. With God it's about loving people and sharing His Good News with them. On Facebook it's about numbers. Actually today (being February 6, 2012) I saw for a moment on tv, the show "People's Court," and the defendant and plaintiff were actually in court due to miscommunication on Facebook. How crazy is that!? They're talking about "unfriending," each other, and something called "Blasting," the others business on Facebook. They were quote unquote friends yet they end up in court over silliness. As I have shared, TRUE FRIENDSHIP is not as the world defines it, but as the Lord Jesus defines it. If you put God's Word to the test and into practice you will actually see the results always being for the good.

Don't let this discourage you from using Facebook as it's a tremendous platform to share the Good News of Christ. Amen. Here's how you can use Facebook to share God's love with many others. What you learn from Church, reading God's Word, and also putting it into practice in your life is share it on Facebook. That simple. The goal is to be the same person everywhere you go and Facebook is somewhere your time and attention goes to.

Our clothes, I also wanted to talk about because if you are like me, you want to match your clothes, always be comfortable, and look your best. For myself, I have been known to wear hats, and watches a lot to match my outfits. The same way we give attention to our outward appearance, God's Word teaches us to give that same attention to the inside/or inward appearance. How so? You may ask. Let me share with you how so. God's Word tells us to clothed ourselves or "Put on Christ." I'm one to ask questions, and if you're like me, you're asking yourselves, how do I put on Christ and what's the wrong things to wear? If you come along with me to the Book of Colossians and turn to Chapter 3, you will read what not to wear (sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed) as well as lying to one another, but then we see what to wear... clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience). As well as..Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Amen.



It's my consistent prayer to utilize all that is at my disposal to share with YOU the pages of God's heart, that are now the pages of my heart, and hopefully will become the pages of your heart to continue sharing. Amen!

As always...YOU ARE LOVED.



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