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Category: Series

  • Christ in the Center of How You Use Social Media

    Christ in the Center of How You Use Social Media

    By Paul Ntini

    Just like you, l am constantly finding myself browsing through Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Recently I’ve begun to think about how l present myself on social media, especially as a follower of Christ. I’m not an expert but I will share what I found out.

    Consistent with the Word

    Ask yourself, “What am I sharing or posting or even saying on social media? Is it in-line with what I claim to believe?” (1 Timothy 4 verse 16). Stop and think how your post will make Jesus look? Being His representatives should cause us to reflect on how we speak and act. This includes what we say and do on Twitter and Facebook .We should look at scripture and analyse our lives closely.

    Listen and Understand

    Read your post once, and then again. What would you say if you were on the receiving end of it? When you are commenting or giving an opinion on a post, how would you take it? You need to listen to what is actually being said rather than what you think is being said. You need to think critically. Be quick to listen, slow to speak and to become angry, especially when you ‘think’ the post is about you (in most cases this is a false presumption).

    Do not post and just say whatever you want to say. Remember for every idle word we speak we will give an account on the day of judgement (Matthew 12:36, 37). Therefore examine your heart, because out of your heart, your mouth speaks (James 3). If your heart is ugly, you will say things you shouldn’t and it’s not something you can control (Despite why you think). Changing the heart starts with trusting in Christ and spending time daily in his word (James 1:23 – 24). It also means, in the spur of the moment, instead of responding in anger to a post, considering your own heart and deciding the best action. That may mean consulting other Christians or maybe… maybe you shouldn’t respond at all.

    Angry and Irritated? STOP

    Stop, stop, stop posting if you are angry or irritated, for where there is anger godlessness is always right there. “The anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God” (James 1 :20). Another option is to pray for yourself and the other person. We are called to be a family of believers (Ephesians 1:5), one that is attractive to non-believers (1 Peter 2:12). Anger only breaks down relationships. Instead, it makes sense to consider wisely ways of replacing your anger with ways that will encourage or build up others. Praying, and not posting can go a long way to strengthening a family or looking attractive. If you really feel you need to speak to the person, don’t do it over social media, and rather speak to the person face to face.

    Nowhere in the bible is ‘shaming in a public platform’ acceptable in any instant, so why do it? Attitude is the cornerstone of life, having a loving attitude is helping another person. It is important to remember that tearing someone down with words can stay in a person’s long term memory for many years. What’s worse on social media is that you cannot delete it and everyone can see it.

    Stirring the Pot

    Naturally we love controversy, because we are sinful. In our culture everything is one click away and everyone has an online platform of followers overflowing with opinions. Stay away from silly myths and old wives tales. Let us train ourselves to have nothing to do with godless conversations (1 Timothy 4 verse 7). Most controversies on social media have nothing to do with Christ. We should stop starting fights on social media, keep our mouths shut and spare ourselves a world of troubles.

    Promotion

    May we please promote Christ and his word on social media rather than ourselves? Have you thought about how it would actually look like if we all promoted Christ and his redeeming, amazing grace on social networks? We love to promote how happy we are and how amazing our lives are (which most of the time are lies anyway). We want more likes and more followers. If we are sincere in our walk with Christ, we should be making others want to follow Jesus in all of life. That includes social media.

    Remember, “All things were created for Him and by him “(Colossians 1 verse 16). We need to show people what Christ is doing with his creation that exalts him. Share upcoming events at your local church and what is happening in the life of the church. Share sermons with your friends, as well as what Christ is doing through his people. As believers our primary identity is in Christ and not in likes and followers. Our validation comes from the God not Instagram.

    Wisdom from the word

    “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise” (Proverbs 10:2)

    “For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, Let them even be taken in their pride, and for cursing and lying which they speak” (Psalm 59:12)

    “For in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity. But fear God.” (Ecclesiastes 5:3)
    “Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers” (2 Timothy 2:14)
    “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths , but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs , that it may benefit those who listen“ (Ephesians 4 : 29)

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  • Love

    Love

    Let’s talk about love…

    Our culture’s view on love

    I wonder what comes to your mind when you think of love? I know what comes to my mind: a song I heard on 94.7 the other day. Yes, sometimes I listen to Joburg’s number one hit station. And the hit at that time was “If it ain’t love, then why does it feel so good” by Jason Derulo. The rest of the lyrics are borderline ungodly so I’m not even going to discuss what he was on about. If it feels good according to Derulo it has to be love. Or how about this quote I saw on a poster? “Love is missing someone whenever you’re apart, but somehow feeling warm inside, because you’re close in heart.” We all tend to have all sorts of emotional, warm, fuzzy feeling associations when it comes to love.

    Is love that feeling you get when a flood of uncontrollable tears rushes down your face as you exchange your vows on your wedding day? Or is it being overwhelmed by the joy of holding your firstborn for the first time in your arms; accompanied by another episode of uncontrollable tears of Joy? I’ve never experienced this, it happened to a friend of mine . Is that what love is?

    It is what we see in “Rom coms”. It’s our music. It’s deeply entrenched in our hearts. I love this person. Things just feel right when I’m with them.

    Our view of love leaves us wanting

    Here’s the thing that we all know: this sort of thinking is not only deceptive and fleeting, it doesn’t help us when crunch time comes. Think about it. What happens when you look at your spouse with this thought, “I know I said ‘till death do us part’ but right now I feel like arranging the death part? What happens when your lovely bundle of joy can’t stop crying and you haven’t slept for days? Those feelings seem to become distant memories.

    We therefore need to rethink our understanding of love. And we need to do so by looking at God’s perspective on the cross. So what does the Bible have to say about the emotion of love? Does it shed any light on the topic of love? And what are the practical things that can help us with this emotion?

    The biblical view of love

    Now this is going to revolutionise your thinking. It revolutionised my thinking last year. Love is not an emotion. I’m pretty sure that’s not news to you. You’ve heard it before. But do we understand it? Because when the bible speaks about the best way someone has displayed love, it shifts our attention to a man on a cross. And the bible claims that we can’t truly love others, or even understand love if we don’t understand that cross.

    When God calls husbands to love their wives, he points them to the cross (Ephesians 5:25). That is clearly despite their feelings. When was the last time you felt like dying for someone? Look at how he encourages believers to love one another:

    7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation (sacrifice that paid) for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (1 John 4: 7-11)

    True love is derived from ultimate love. And the ultimate way in which someone has loved was the cross. God moving towards underserving people and dying for them. It was selfless. It was for the benefit of others. It wasn’t about how we made him feel, in fact it was contrary. We were unlovable. And if we don’t understand ultimate love, we will remain trapped in what our culture tells us.

    Practical things to help us.

    So, I think we need to come to our senses. We need to look at that selfless man on the cross. And having seen the beauty of what he has done for selfish people like ourselves; we need to push against our culture’s selfish view of love. To look away from ourselves and to look to Christ. If I see the beauty of the cross I will not want to ‘seek my own way’. That is as practical as it gets. It has to begin with how much I grasp the message of the cross.

    When I understand it, I will not ask what would Jesus do, but I will ask: what has Jesus done? And how does He call me to live and behave differently? So let’s do a little test to put some meat on it.

    Let’s insert ‘I am’ in that Corinthians scripture where it says ‘love is’…

    I am patient and kind; I do not envy or boast; I am not arrogant or rude. I do not insist on my own way; I am not irritable or resentful; I do not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoice with the truth. (1 Corinthians 13: 4-6)

    How are you doing in that? In what places are you struggling? I think if I were to be honest. I fail this test. And the only way for me to do all of these is to look at the one who has done it all. He is the one I ask for strength.

    Think of the times when you are tempted to seek your own way. Whether it’s being impatient with a family member, struggling to love your spouse, wanting to come back from work and zone out, or not desiring to engage in conversation with your child. At that moment ask yourself this question: how can I be loving at this very time?

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