Using Facebook to Follow Jesus

I want to take you on a little journey that I really believe Jesus started me on years ago. I will try to keep this to the Reader’s Digest version, because it’s been going on for 15 years now. And I do not want to dwell on the current events. But…take note: with the health ailing condition of my family and with what’s happening, I have to admit that I have allowed myself to be right at the edge of pure fear.

So here’s where Jesus started working on me in 2005. I told him that I could not continue with this life I’m wrecking and gave it completely to Him. And that is where it starts. Just prior to that is when Facebook started as a company and began a social media campaign to sport their software to bring people together. Hah! How could I include those two polar opposites in the same paragraph? Jesus and Facebook? As time went on, I joined up, added family, friends, co-workers, school friends, people I hadn’t talked to in years, everyone! But then Jesus tapped me on the shoulder and started to show me something. I can have many friends, (that could drive me crazy), but only the friends that I follow, their posts will show on my timeline for me to read. Hmm..? So in other words, stay friends, but unfollow the offensive or negative ones who post. Yeah, this might be a little technical, but some 15 years later what do I have? 

When I open Facebook, I see Scripture (MANY a day), I see posts about great things, creation, God-sightings, encouragement, wisdom. Positivity!! Life! And sometimes some “Ouchies”…Oswald!!

From the churches that I have been to, I have gained friends who post Scripture, Godly sayings and many uplifting things. The people who I thought would do great posts, don’t, and the people who I thought would never post anything, post great things!

I follow musicians who point to God and reveal His glory.
I follow pastors and churches who put great posts up each day.

I follow some popular Authors who post great sayings.

So here’s God at work in something. One night I grabbed my phone. It was on the FB app, and I accidentally and unknowingly added this lady from Turnersville. She accepted the next day and I was thinking this was crazy, but she knew my cousin from their church. She had just been through a brain trauma in December and is praising God for her miraculous recovery. Wow. I shared my story that I posted on LFA God Stories about my intestines, and she was overwhelmed at how God got us to share our stories. She needed to see the work of God in my story, and I really needed to see the exact same in her story. She posts Scripture many times a day! That’s exactly what Jesus wants in front of me.

So back to the “edge of pure fear.” How has this Facebook thing helped me? When I open it in the morning, I see verses, sayings and usually something that pertains to what I’m going through. Yep, that’s all God’s doing there. And as my family is going through this troubling time, I have been able to see the “fear not” that God has emphasized in Scripture. Why? Because God is in control. 

“The only comfort we all have is because God is sovereign and because he transcends everything and in everything, he has his purpose and his purpose is good, good for us and glory for him.” John MacArthur

Psalm 16:1-2.  Preserve me, O God, for in You I take refuge.  I have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord; my welfare has no existence outside of You.”

Yes God can use this Facebook thing for good. It is all about how one sets things to work. As I look at it what it helps me do is keep my eyes on things above. A renewing in my mind about who is in control. I need that.

—Brian Rainey

Forget the Vest

If God is your Father, the Son is your Savior, and the Spirit is your indwelling Helper, you have hope no matter what you’re facing.

The words bounded off the page and hit me between the eyes, then landed in my heart with an attention-getting and profound thump. Does anybody else beside me need some hope these days? It seemed Paul Tripp knew exactly what I—and maybe you—needed to read today. Has that ever happened to you before? I suspect our dear Father in His grace just might have something to do with that. I read on in New Morning Mercies, my daily devotional by Paul Tripp. I must admit, though, I wasn’t exactly prepared for what I read next. It didn’t start out very hopeful.

“Who in the world do you think you are? I’m serious. Who do you think you are? You and I are always assigning to ourselves some kind of identity. And the things that you and I do are shaped by the identity that we have given ourselves. So it’s important to acknowledge that God has not just forgiven you (and that is a wonderful thing), but he has also given you a brand-new identity. If you’re God’s child, you are now a son or daughter of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. You are in the family of the Savior who is our friend and brother. You are the temple where the Spirit of God now lives. Yes, that really is true—you’ve been given a radically new identity.

“The problem, sadly, is that many of us live in a constant, or at least a rather regular state of identity amnesia. We forget who we are, and when we do, we begin to give way to doubt, fear, and timidity. Identity amnesia makes you feel poor when in fact you are rich. It makes you feel foolish when in fact you are in a personal relationship with the One who is wisdom. It makes you feel unable when in fact you have been blessed with strength. It makes you feel alone when in fact, since the Spirit lives inside of you, it’s impossible for you to be alone. You feel unloved when in fact, as a child of the heavenly Father, you have been graced with eternal love. You feel like you don’t measure up when in fact the Savior measured up on your behalf. Identity amnesia sucks the life out of your Christianity in the right here, right now moment in which all of us live.”

This is just what Erik and Greg had been preaching about a couple of Sunday mornings ago. We do too often forget who we are and we write, or worse, let someone else write, some kind of ugly name in glaring four inch letters on the back of the orange vests we wear. We allow those names to define us and dictate how we live. They are names of our shame. They are names that make us forget who we are. We lose hope.

But Jesus wants us to stop hiding in fear and to refuse to be defined by our shame. He asks us to tear off those vests and, in the most unexplainable, undeserved and extravagant exchange ever conceived, allow Him to graciously place on us His own glorious robes of righteousness. Can you just imagine? Jesus takes away all our sin, guilt, shame, and brokenness, things that have held us captive, and He carries it to the cross. He took it on Himself and bore the punishment we deserved—and then offers us His very own righteousness. What a costly transaction for Jesus!  

In my very active imagination, I’d like to think these new robes He clothes us in will also have a name delicately and beautifully hand-stitched in gold script. What will yours say on the back?

Paul Tripp concludes his thoughts for the day.

“If you’ve forgotten who you are in Christ, what are you left with? You’re left with Christless Christianity, which is little more than a system of theology and rules. And you know that if all you needed was theology and rules, Jesus wouldn’t have had to come. All God would have needed to do was drop the Bible down on you and walk away. But he didn’t walk away; he invaded your life as Father, Savior, and Helper. By grace, he made you a part of his family. By grace, he made you the place where he lives. And he did all this so that you not only would receive his forgiveness, but so that you would have everything you need for life and godliness.

“So if you’re his child, ward off the fear that knocks on your door by remembering who God is and who you’ve become as his chosen child. And don’t just celebrate his grace; let it reshape the way you live today and the tomorrows that follow.”

So what does the back of your new robe say? Mine says “Grateful, chosen, cherished child of the King!” I know. That’s a lot of words. It’s my imagination, okay?

And I laugh thinking about what will happen when the bullies of this world or those in my head start to call me names and remind me of my fears, my past, my shame,  and my failures. With great confidence I will cry, “Leave me alone! My Father’s bigger than your father!”

I don’t have to run. I don’t have to hide. I am never alone. I have a true identity given to me by my God.

Now that gives me hope.

In quarantine or not.

—Eileen Hill

Join the Son by the Sea

While this will be published after Easter, I’d still like to share with you an experience that my brand-new wife and I shared during Holy Week. We watched an interesting film: 2018’s Mary Magdalene. The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) says about it: “Twelve men heard and spread the message of Jesus. Only one woman understood it.”

Very little to go by, there, I know. That terse summary is actually true, and it does present Mary as the protagonist—i.e., the central character, who propels the story forward. But it also presents a unique vision of who Jesus is: one not at all seen in classic Hollywood productions.

The film presents Mary’s story, and says very little about the story we already know, that of the Gospel of the risen Jesus. The film assumes we’ve already got His story embedded in our heads and paints a unique picture of Jesus.

Before and after the resurrection, He’s not the classic, well-kept, well-combed Jesus we’ve all come to recognize from films like The Greatest Story Ever Told or Kings of Kings. No, this Jesus has a rather slovenly appearance. Compared to the apostles, and unlike what we’ve seen elsewhere, this depiction of Jesus is one where He is physically indistinguishable from those around him.

The Jesus of the Mary Magdalene film is one of us. He is a man who is approachable. Other than when he is confronting an afront to His father—the turning of the temple from a house of prayer into a den of thieves (Matthew 21:13)—he is soft-spoken. He listens to those who seek him, and he’s not in a rush to get anywhere.

As one of us, Mary Magdalene presents the Lord as the Prophet Isaiah presents him: one who has “no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him (Is 53:2).

As the approachable one, we see Him inviting us to “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Here, we’re reminded that because we have “confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus … [we may] draw near to God with a sincere heart” (Hebrews 10:19-22). We’re convinced by this film that we who are weary and burdened can come to Him who can give us rest (Matthew 11:28).

Mary Magdalene presents us with a Jesus that, if you want to hear his voice, you have to listen to Him closely. This presentation reminds us of the God who is soft-spoken, the one who spoke to Elijah not in the wind, not in the earthquake, and not in the fire, but in the gentle whisper (I Kings 19:11-12).

This film reminds us that God is a listening father. It echoes the Psalmist who says, “The Lord hears when I call to him” (Psalm 4:3), who also says those who call out to God in their distress are heard by Him (Psalm 55:17), and that the needy are heard by one who does not despise his captive people (Psalm 69:33).

As one in no rush to get anywhere, this film’s Jesus reminds me of the nature of God. This depiction helps me to remember that “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” and that “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:1,11), that our times are in His hands, not our own (Psalm 31:15).

Indeed, we are living in some crazy, uncertain times, right now. We’re in a time of captivity, when we must remember some key things that will help us to survive:

·    We must keep our focus steady upon He who died and rose again, on our behalf

·    We must remember that we have a heavenly Father who loves us, who, exemplified in His son, is approachable, in our times of need, and must be closely listened to

·    We need to recall that God is in no rush to get anywhere and is in no rush to get us anywhere, either

The final scene of Mary Magdalene was the most touching, for me. It shows Jesus risen and—again, in no rush—just sitting on a rock overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Mary approaches and she also rests with Him there, overlooking the sea, and they talk about the Kingdom.

If we can imagine Mary representing the church, we can also consider ourselves, as part of the Kingdom. We can imagine ourselves sitting and resting alongside the sea of our lives, with He who became one of us; we can recall the approachable one with the listening ear, He who is in no rush to get us anywhere, yet ready to fill us with more of Himself and take us from place to place—in His time.

Maybe, in this time of imposed pause, we can recall that God has a place beside the sea prepared for us to commune with Him. He was here with us and is here, again, sitting and waiting for us to join Him.

—Kevin Hutchins

Fragrance and Spoken Words, A New Pandemic

What do fragrance and spoken words have in common? And why do we urgently need them during this time of pandemic crisis?

Fragrance and spoken words share one thing in common--they influence. The other day I walked into a public restroom, and I was met with a very strong and pleasant fragrance. I could tell it was a fragrance a male would use. As my senses encountered the pleasant smell, my experience in that bathroom changed. I went from that strange feeling sometimes I get when using a facility that is not what I am used to at home to hey, I feel welcomed and comfortable here! Weird as it may sound, the fragrance I encountered that day influenced my experience. 

Spoken words have no less influence. We all know that, right? Did you notice where your thoughts went when I posed the question this way? Spoken words can encourage or discourage someone. They can confront or affirm our thoughts. Some words can build or destroy aspirations, hopes and even dreams. There are words that welcome us, and there are words that make us feel as alienated as if we were actually geographically distant from the person uttering those words.

Influence. Fragrance and spoken words exercise inescapable influence!

The apostle Paul speaks about both of these realities in 2 Corinthians 2:14 and Ephesians 6:19 (I encourage you to read these!).

In the former passage, Paul affirms that God always leads His children in "triumphant procession" in Christ, and that God also makes the "fragrance of His knowledge" known everywhere His children go.

In the latter passage, Paul asks other believers in his time to pray so that he will be given "divine words" when he boldly speaks to reveal the mystery of the Gospel.

These two passages clearly demonstrate that as the children of God we bear the "fragrance of His knowledge" and we can potentially speak "divine words" that reveal the mystery of the Gospel of Jesus.

One application I see is that whatever fills us these days will translate into the fragrance we carry wherever we go, or wherever we are staying. If fear fills you…the fragrance you carry will most likely be fear. If hope informed by who God is and what He says fills you..then the fragrance you spread around will have a different influence. The good news is that God does offer to fill His children, with all of Christ’s resources and life,  through His Holy Spirit.

Here is another application that is accessible to all disciples of Jesus. We can pray! We can, like the Ephesian believers, ask that God will give His children around the world "divine words" to reveal the mystery of the Gospel to a land that is in need of knowing and accessing our marvelous God! We can also keep it personal and ask God to give each one of us opportunities to do so. The good news is that the Holy Spirit is constantly looking for disciples willing to partner with Him in what He is doing in this world. Even better, He promises to empower you so as to bring glory to Jesus!

What are you filling yourself with in these days?

What do most of your prayers sound like?

How is the Holy Spirit inviting you to partner with Him?

We can wear the best fragrance and lead the world around us with words of life given to us.

—Diego Cuartas