Jeffrey Smith's Blog

So I Tweet, Yeah

 

That’s right, my title is biting off TLC a little. That’s aight. At least this thing ain't called "Red Light Special".

 

“I have tweeted 4 times and updated my Facebook status twice today”. Ten years ago only a modern day John the Baptist or Nostradamus would have any idea what the heck that statement means. Social networking is simply a game changer when it comes to the way people communicate and relate to one another. “Oh my gosh, I follow you on Twitter” is definitely an awkward way to introduce yourself to someone you’ve never met face to face. Today, you can instantly connect with anyone in the world. I just Skyped on my laptop with my friend in Australia who was on his iPhone in his front yard.  Texting allows us to skip the formalities of hi, how are you, and get right to the point. By the way, Texting surpassed phone calls in 2007 and it will never go back again.

 

Since it is inevitable that technology will keep connecting people on almost unimaginable levels in the coming years, it brings up important issues for Christians regarding proper protocol when using social networking or technology.

 

One in five divorces occur as a result of Facebook. That’s a lot. Although I have read statistics that indicate the total percentage of affairs have not drastically increased in the last 20 years it is still significant that the way they are occurring is so prevalent.

31% of internet affairs turn into physical affairs.

I have counseled many people that have fallen as a result of Internet affairs. It is heartbreaking.

 In a recent totallifecouseling.com article 3 main reasons for affairs using technology or social networking are listed.

• Easy Access
• Lack of Boundaries
• Refusal to take Responsibility

This article is not a Christian article. If the secular community recognizes the danger of social networking I believe the Christian community should be even more aware. The generation that is emerging is doing so never having known any other world without instant connectivity.

 Between 1991 and 2006, the numbers of unfaithful wives under 30 increased by 20% and husbands by a whopping 45%. This was before the social networking explosion that would occur later that year. These numbers come from a study conducted by David Atkins of the University of Washington Center for the Study of Health and Risk Behaviors.

 

Now what can we do?

Romans 14 rules. In a nutshell it is saying what is good for you might not be good for everyone. Be careful that what you do is not just good, but be careful that it appears good.  Check it out…

 

Romans 14:16-17

16            Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil.

 

1 Corinthians 10 keeps going deeper.

 

1 Corinthians 10: 23-24

23            “ I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive.

24            No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.

 

I love this so much because I believe we spend too much of our time trying to fit everything in life into two categories that we think are the only two important things in life:

 

1. Sin

2. Not Sin 

First of all there is an unseen concept that complicates these two…sins of omission. What we fail to do at times makes us equally as guilty as what we do. It is certainly important to know whether we are in sin or not but I believe we leave out two important categories:

3. Is this good for me?

Just because something is not a sin doesn’t mean it pleases God. R.A. Torrey so eloquently describes where this truth can lead us. “If we make it our study to find out and to do the things which are pleasing to God, He will make it His study to do the things which are pleasing to us.”

We wonder why God doesn’t move in our lives when we are occupied with things that are not necessarily a sin, but neither are they pleasing to Him.

 4. Does this look good to others?

 This flies in the face of the “be yourself, who cares what anyone thinks” attitude that is so prevalent in the world today. We actually should care about what people think when it comes to the way we represent Christ. We should also be constantly cognizant of the way our decisions could affect others.

 

In order to keep this blog from exceeding the length of the combined works of Homer I am going to give some principles for married couples to consider and some principles for single people to consider when connecting with others through technology. My commentary on each will be brief, as I will let you investigate and formulate the reasoning behind each.

 

1.    Carefully consider the picture you upload, including your profile pic.

 

• You may have a body that looks like it was carved out of marble (probably not) but your pictures send a clear message to others.
• Some people will stumble because of your picture.

 2.    Private messages (or excessive public messages) to members of the opposite sex should always be minimal.

• The line between teasing and flirting can be nearly indistinguishable. It is easy for people to get the wrong idea.
• Married people should consider drawing clear cut lines as to what is acceptable for their social networking behavior.
• When I receive messages from members of the opposite sex I rarely answer them. I’m not being a prude, I just want to be safe.

 3.    Be careful who you “follow” or become friends with.

• There are many different uses for Facebook and Twitter. Some “friends” are certainly made for business or marketing purposes, but if people post questionable material on their pages or statuses not only could it be compromising for you, it also could reflect poorly on your witness.

 4.     Never, under any circumstances, speak negatively about your spouse or                         significant other and do not talk about how lonely you are.

• This is a cattle call for inappropriate “comforting” from the opposite sex

 5.    Never, ever, ever, ever, play Farmville.

• No comment

 

The worst kind of bondage imaginable is adding ridiculous, legalistic rules to our lives that God could care less about. This blog is meant to encourage free people to continue living free by guarding against potential hurt or damaged caused by carelessness.

These are not rules, they are ideas that can help us bring more glory to God and our relationships.

Oh, BTW TLC, the "down low" always takes you lower than you want to go.

Now excuse me, I have to update my status.

 

Fear vs. Hope

Living life with a Biblical worldview can sometimes be uncomfortable when conversations with certain people reach a point of contention. Such a moment occurred with me the other day when I was asked, very frankly, by a self proclaimed atheist if I believed in a literal hell. My answer apparently enraged her. She considers the notion of hell to be a contrived means of manipulating weak minded people into following a bunch of made up rules so that organized religion can manipulate people to eventually drain them of all their money, intelligence, and free-will. (or something like that) Though it is not a very original argument, I was enjoying the conversation.

She told me that I can only compel others by fear because of the prospect of hell. This brings up an interesting point. Can we effectively preach the gospel without preaching hell? 

A couple of points to ponder.

1. Jesus clearly taught on hell.

 Matthew 8:11-12, Mark 9:42-48, Luke 16:19-31

2. Since God is omnipresent, hell is the presence of God in His full judgment and wrath.

3. Hell is just because God is just.

4. Hell is ETERNAL.

There is no such thing as just disappearing when we die. Jonathan Edwards said,  “Wicked men will hereafter earnestly wish to be turned to nothing and forever cease to be that they may escape the wrath of God.”

When I answered the lady I was talking with I told her that I am compelled to preach BECAUSE I believe there is a literal hell. I told her my favorite part of the preaching is actually the hope of finding Jesus.

We need to preach with a balance. Preaching only hell would promote fear with no hope. Preaching only hope would make people lax because they wouldn't understand what they were being saved from. Luke 19:10 says that Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. He came to save people from what??? Hell. 

Talk about hope, but don't back down from reality. People need the truth even if it is hard to hear.

Living Martyrs

I received an email from a person who was thinking about the story behind “How He Loves” by John Mark McMillan. If you are unfamiliar with the story I suggest that you search You Tube for the testimony, it is powerful. The idea is that a young man said in a prayer meeting that he would die if it led to a youth revival in this nation. That night he died in a car accident. The song was written by his best friend the next day about the young man meeting God for the first time.  This email was pressing on me because the person was wrecked at the fact that they did not believe they could literally lay down their life for a stranger. They began to feel guilty because of their concern for their children and their own life above self-sacrifice. I have been studying a lot lately about love. The giving of one’s self to prefer another, actually really simple, yet complex stuff. I wanted to post my response to the email in this note as I felt it shed some light on this subject of sacrifice. I asked the person if they would mind me posting this in my blog and they said, “No”, so here it is: It is a process, when living for Christ, to become accustomed to death.  I believe when you look at the apostle Paul, he typifies this statement perfectly. He was already used to death BEFORE he came to Christ, the killing and persecution of Christians. We find through his writings even more talk about death. "I die daily, It's no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me, to live is Christ to die is gain", it goes on and on. The thing that makes this dudes life so legitimate in this area is that he spent so much time in jail learning how to die to himself, then he eventually had his head cut off. So he could be described as having "a life of death". When you are maturing in Christ, or even extremely mature in Christ for that matter, it is easy to ask yourself the question, "Do I have what it takes to lay down my life ?". Sometimes this is more of a contemplative thing as we try to search ourselves for fortitude. But as we see with Paul, the laying down of one's life is a process of maturity. When Jesus said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for a brother", there are so many layers to that. The first layer of that is "love your neighbor as yourself", not running into a burning building to try and see if you can rescue anyone. If literally dying for another person were the purpose of our lives, it would be extremely non-spiritual to choose a career that was not life threatening. There is a death that must occur in order to truly PREFER someone over yourself. That is hard enough by itself. As beautiful as the story is of John Mark McMillans friend who said he would lay down his life if it brought revival to this youth of this nation, it is not any greater of a statement than people who die daily to themselves, that Christ may have His way in the lives of everyone they meet. In fact it is the SAME THING. I would call this, with great respect to all men and women who have literally given their lives for Christ, being a LIVING MARTYR. The thing that becomes so difficult about being a living martyr is how many TIMES you must die.  Google "Maximilian Kolbe" and read his beautiful story. It is self-sacrificing to say the least, but I believe we must learn to give our life away regularly in order to fulfill our greater destiny or else martyrdom would be the goal of our faith. The Bible says it is appointed ONCE for man to die, then the judgment. When we leave this earth, it is at our appointed time. Everyone dies. Making sure everything in between was the way the Lord wanted it is the hard part. God bless There is a lot of dying to do while we are living. Luke 9:23-24 23 Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."

No Fear

I recently had a telephone conversation that affected me deeply. As a parent, I have been humbled many times by the truths I have discovered through the honesty of my children. (Apparently I look scary with a beard and "Mommy and Daddy shows" are not fair...good points.). I don't mind learning from others, even if they are much younger than I am. A few days ago I came across the work of Lila Rose, a 20 year old student at UCLA. Ms. Rose is a pro-life activist and the president of Live Action Films, a youth led human rights movement dedicated to the respect and protection of all human life including the unborn. She began this type of work as an assignment in high school, and she continues it with her organization. Ms. Rose has made many headlines in recent years because of her undercover investigative journalism which has exposed many flaws in the system, specifically with Planned Parenthood. In her most recent video, Ms. Rose shows the willingness of a Planned Parenthood employee to ignore state laws which require the notification of authorities in the case of statutory rape. Posing as a 13 year old girl, Ms. Rose captures the entire incident on tape. I was shocked to learn that this organization receives over 300 million dollars a year in Federal funding. Her voice is being heard. I contacted Lila after seeing her videos. I wanted to know if she ever speaks to young people about her work and her beliefs. After a 5 minute phone call I was blown away by the passion and knowledge that she possesses for her cause. I was also further aware that media is no longer in the control of the large institutions. Because of technology and the internet, it is moving into the hands of those that are the hungriest. Lila Rose has not only helped polarized my beliefs on this issue. She has reminded me what it means to stand for truth without fear. Christ stood for truth without fear. A peaceful, passionate voice that spoke truth to the world. He lived without fear. In John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". In John 6:35 Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty". Not exactly playing it safe. Jesus spoke truth so loudly that the book of John goes on to tell us that many of His disciples turned away and followed Him no more. I hope I live the same way...without concern for what others will think about truth. Let us not concern ourselves with who will leave us if we speak truth, but who will be set free when they hear it. Thank you Lila. I'll end by quoting John 4:18: "No fear exists where his love is. Rather, perfect love gets rid of fear, because fear involves punishment. The person who lives in fear doesn't have perfect love".