It's free to use the social networks, and this also means that you can literally say whatever you want, you can post pictures and videos and other media items - freely! The social networks allow you not only to connect with people you know, but with people you never met nor will ever meet, with all kinds of superstars and dignitaries, famous people or infamous persons, and you can "become best friends" with people you have no idea how they look like, what do they really do, what's their personality like, etc. Many times I am asked - probably TOO many times I am asked, Stefan, do you really know EACH and EVERY ONE of your over 2.8K friends on Facebook? Do you know each one of your over 1K followers on twitter? I stopped trying to answer this kind of questions, even though for a while people would start naming my friends and asking me "how did you meet them? Who are they?"
But what about expressing Christ on Facebook? How about speaking the Word of God on twitter? What if we +1 the articles and websites with spiritual and nourishing food? How is our being on the social networks - do we use these intensely personal and private websites (which happens in public...) together with the Lord? Have we ever asked the Lord to be with us as we browsed our friends' pictures on Facebook? Have we ever prayed for our followers or the ones we follow and chat with on twitter? Did we ever ask the Lord's advice and feeling as we use the social networks? Or do we just post how we feel ("I'm bored", "what is everyone doing - I'm dead bored", etc - the most popular status updates), what we think about (cool quotes from famous rappers, movies, world renown philosophers, inspirational quotes, etc), or where we're going / what we're doing... ?
No, we don't have to be super-spiritual while using Facebook or twitter, we can and should write things we are interested in, but what if we share with the ones we're friends with / the ones we follow something of our enjoyment of the Lord? Have you ever felt responsible for your friends on facebook? Has it ever crossed your mind that you owe the gospel to each and every friend you have on facebook? You may be among max. 100 people in school, but the average number of friends one has on facebook these days is close to 500, and on twitter is rising up to 100-200... We as Christians - no matter how we feel, what we had for breakfast, or what we are thinking of right now - owe all the people we interact with THE GOSPEL!
And the gospel is simply the Word of God! If we enjoy something in the Word, why not share a verse on Facebook as a status update? If we enjoyed a song or a hymn chorus, why not share it either on twitter, on facebook, in a facebook group or on a facebook page, on our google + stream, or even as our Skype status! All these means of communication and interacting are just helping us express how we really feel - we love the Lord Jesus! "I don't care now how I feel / I just know that this is real / And I know - O, Jesus, You're alive" in me! This is the reality! The Lord Jesus is living again IN ME, in YOU, wherever you are!
Are you on facebook? The Lord Jesus is right there with you on facebook. Are you tweeting away all kinds of random things going through your mind or some feelings you wish you had? The Lord Jesus is inside of you as you punch in the keys or gently touch the touch-screen keyboard of your smartphone! Our being on the social networks with our friends is so that we would bring our friends to the Lord, pray for them, and then "give them food"! We have the food - we have Jesus Christ as the tree of life, we eat Him every day, He is our constitution, and... we can minister food to others! A Tweet like, O Lord Jesus, I love You! - so real, so genuine, coming out of your inner being, is so much better and more helpful than your opinion on the recent football game!
... the question still remains. Am I one with the Lord Jesus as I am using Facebook? Do I express the Lord as I tweet, check into foursquare, +1 things away, or share links on the social networks I'm active on? ...
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[what do YOU think? What is Your experience related to using the social networks and also touching the Lord as we post stuff there? Did you touch the Lord in this aspect as you were "networking"? Share your experience / opinion below...]
Thanks for share. I like your blog, and before I didn`t know if I should erase my facebook account or not, because I didn`t feel that it could be usefull, and one day you told me that we need reedemed the time and in facecebok, and I really aprecciate that you share the blog godman and cristaliation study of psalms, Thanks so much I really like and enjoy so much, even in sometimes when I coudn`t go to the meetings but I could read the portion of Psalm or the blog godman and OH Lord JESUS! I feel like infusion of life!!! Its the body! and His precious members and since that I was encourage to share, perhaps a hym , because I love to sing the precious hyms or a small portion, I want to can write like you....
ReplyDeleteBut definetely the facebook can be usefull to preach the high gospel!! we have this precious Gospel!!! and facebook can be usefull for share it!! Praise the Lord!!!
Of course you know that I fully agree with you. But as I was reading it I was reminded of something I had been reading earlier in the day. It was from the Crystalization Study of Psalms (msg 11). The brother sharing was talking about the ministry of the new covenant and the fact that it is produced through sufferings. As an example he shared a little of the testimony of Watchman Nee. And this was what really struck me: (referring to Watchman Nee's letters to his family at the end of his earthly journey)
ReplyDelete"There was no mention of God, Jesus, or the Bible, for he was not allowed to do so. Nevertheless, in these simple, human phrases written in the midst of great suffering, even physical suffering, we can perceive and touch grace."
I think this was...I don't know striking because I realized, like you said, the most important thing is to contact the Lord in ALL of our activities. When we allow the Lord full access to and full reign in our being, when we gain the riches of Christ through our daily experiences of Him, then in our person we become a reproduction of Christ, so when we interact with people, whether face-to-face or online, then what they touch is grace, what they receive is a supply and what we become are channels of blessings to those around us.
Oh how great our need is to be constituted this type of persons.
I don't know about you, but I just feel, we cannot but cry out to the Lord for His mercy that He would do this work in us, that He would be reproduced in us...
Lord Jesus.