As part of my service to my local church, I manage the church’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.
If you’ve been following along in the past month, you might be asking right now: “Wait a second, I thought you left Facebook?” I did. I wondered how it would be perceived by some to abandon my personal use of Facebook and still agree to manage the church’s account. Sure, some of my reasons apply there as well, but the bottom line is that I’m doing that for the church not for my own personal edification.
What amazes, disheartens, and even surprises me are some of the things I see from the people connected to the church. The post by Mark Gungor the other day on “Just Believe?” still replays in my mind. As a piggyback off that post, verses out of James kept replaying in my mind.
As part of my daily activities with the page, I like to reach out and wish people a happy birthday from the church. Recently I went to someone’s page to do that and was shocked that this person’s profile picture was of them sitting and facing the camera and holding up their middle finger very prominently. I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked but I was. I went to the person’s “Info” tab to see if maybe the friendship was some sort of accident on either of our parts.
I was even more shocked to see that the very first item on their “Info” page was their religious preference. In all CAPS it said “CHRISTIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Christian.
Really? Middle finger and all?
It’s not my place to judge and certainly I’ve experienced situations where maybe things aren’t entirely what they might seem. In fact, it’s my belief that this person needs prayer and someone to reach out to them to help them out.
But if I’m wrong, I think this is exactly what James was thinking when he wrote:
For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. –James 1:7-8.
More and more it seems like we (and yes, I need to add myself to this category) seem to forget who we are ambassadors of when we say we are “Christians.”
James also reminds us:
What use is it, my brethren, if someone says has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? –James 2:14.
Hey Christian: it’s not enough to say you are a “Christian.” It’s not enough to just say “I believe in Jesus.”
How can I say that?
Because even the demons believe in Jesus. In fact, they probably know Jesus better than we do at times.
How can I say that?
Mark’s gospel tells us that the “Legion” of demons possessing the man of the Gerasenes, when they saw Jesus from a distance,
ran up and bowed down before Him; and shouting with a loud voice, he said, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!” –Mark 5:6-7.
Did you get that?
The demons ran up and bowed down before Him! Why? Because the demons know who Jesus is!
Christian: if the demons show reverence for God, then how much more should we? How ought we to live? Are we to shout that we are “CHRISTIAN!!!!!!!!” and then put a picture up of us flipping off our friends?
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that gave may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? –Romans 6:1-2.
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do no let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the law but under grace. –Romans 6:11-14.
Don’t take the name of Jesus in vain. I’m not talking vocabulary. I’m talking ambassadorship. If we say we are Christians, then we should act like it as a lifestyle. No, we aren’t perfect. Yes, we will fail and fall. But to practice the old life of sin is like a dog returning to its vomit (2 Peter 2:22).
Thoughts? Do you disagree? Let me know in the comments.
May He Increase!
I am guessing this person with their middle finger was 24 years or younger. I’m just wondering what you may have said to that person? It’s very interesting on how 16-24 year old Christians behave. There are a few things I have noticed with my own son and with those in our youth ministry.
They haven’t found a way to follow Christ and be cool among their friends. They don’t realize that they will be safe and accepted by society for being good and acting more Jesus like. Some young adults, especially in High School, make fitting in a survival mode. They do this so that they can just get by in the horror years of youth.
My thoughts are, what can we say to these young people to help them stand up for Jesus in all aspects of their life. Or do we do the older person’s response and just shake our heads at them.
This kid has friended the church but have we friended him?
I walked away from the Catholic church at age 17. But the road away started long before that.
Looking back, I can see very clearly why I left: I had no relationship with God. I didn’t know who He was. I never had an in-depth prayer life nor an understanding of the Bible beyond a basic understanding of the life of Jesus.
That is a travesty, and I know that is what is happening with our youth today, in general terms. I’m not an expert on youth ministry by any means. I’ve gotten so “old” in the last 20 years that I’m not sure I’d know how to connect with that age group. My boys keep me young, but I still feel so out of touch with what their issues are nowadays.
My heart aches for this person I mentioned in my post (who shall remain completely anonymous: gender and age-wise). I will be praying for this person that God would shine a light in the darkness and lead this person to a saving knowledge of who He is.
I think the heart of the issue with the youth and their struggle to “be cool among their friends” is that they really haven’t come to terms with who Jesus is. My gut says that they don’t realize that Jesus isn’t some historical figure, He was God incarnate and came to save us.
Just like I said in my post, the demons know exactly who Jesus is and they bowed down before Him. How much more should we bow down before Him if we say that He is our Lord? Again, I’m not excluding myself from this in the least. I fail at this more than I care to admit.
It’s a heart-issue. We all need a new heart–not a cleaning of our old one–and one that is filled with the love of Christ. Once you have an encounter with the living God, there are no friends or family that could ever take His place.
I totally agree with Jack and Joe why would someone do something like that and call themselves christians but i am not too judge either great article i will say a prayer for all christians this morning
Hey Scott,
Thanks for the comment. We definitely need to keep us all in prayer that we all walk our talk. This is probably the one thing–if we all did it more diligently–the world would come to know Jesus through our example. They don’t want to hear words, they want to see action.
When we take the name of Jesus, we immediately put ourselves in the Christian fishbowl where the rest of the world stares at us and watches that our words match our actions.
You will know them by their fruits.
Matthew chapter 7, is very clear… that of all the people who “emphatically” call Him Lord….”Lord,Lord”……of these people….only a “few” are genuine. It’s all about a lost doctrine……”regeneration”.
Ike,
Thanks for the comment. I’ve heard Chuck Missler say we are to be “fruit inspectors.” Tongue-in-cheek, perhaps, but the point is well-taken I believe.
Lost doctrine, yes, but also rampant Biblical illiteracy as well. I fear that the Bible isn’t being taught much anymore. Or, we just aren’t spending enough time in the Word and searching its depths for what God wants to say to us.