Let's Make a Deal

There are some good things about social media.

Social media allows us to reconnect with people we may have lost touch with.

It also allows us to maintain connections with people we know.

It can also allow us to make brand new connections.

Social media can even allow us to share our faith.

Social media also presents us with a new set of problems.

Although we can renew connections or make new ones, social media can make these relationships superficial in nature.

That is because these types of connections require little effort on our part.

Even something seemingly good like sharing one’s faith can be problematic.

Scripture reminds us how important it is for us to share our faith.

Mark 16:15 (NET) - He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

This is far more than simply clicking on “like” or “share”.

Even some of the things that social media asks us to “share” are problematic.

Some, in fact, are not sound from a scriptural viewpoint.

Some promise that if you “share this today then God will bless you financially tomorrow.”

Some even try to blackmail us stating if you “scroll past this without sharing then you really do not love Jesus.”

At best these are attempts to apply human reasoning to God.

In John Chapter 9 the disciples tried to apply human reasoning to God.

Jesus saw a blind man.

His disciples assumed that it had to be either the man’s sin or his parents’ sin that caused his blindness.

Jesus corrected their thinking.

John 9:3 (NET) - Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but he was born blind so that the acts of God may be revealed through what happens to him.”

God chooses His blessings for us and those blessings are not dependent on what we choose to do.

This is especially true of “financial” blessings.

If you think about it, some of the most faithful people are not financially successful by the world’s standards.

Similarly, the amount of love we have for Jesus cannot determined by a picture on the web and whether we decide to share that picture or not.

In the end, social media is a tool.

It is a tool that can be used.

If we are not careful, it is a tool that can just as easily be misused.

Blessings,

Jim Pokorny

The Other Brother Jim

Look for me at http://faithfulfeetteam.blogspot.com/ on Friday, April 15, 2016.

I’ll be back here on Friday, April 22, 2016