WHAT FACEBOOK HAS TAUGHT ME

THE FACEBOOK GENERATION

I think I might be the last person on earth to sign up for Facebook. It seems like everyone has carved out their little place in the Sun on the internet. Its a place to share everything from the mundane to things profound (although it seems that most of what is posted falls in the "mundane" category.) I suppose I signed up with Facebook with the intent of letting people know about upcoming events related to our ministry and to keep in touch with friends around the world. And, for that purpose, it has worked well for me. On the other hand, Facebook has been an eye-opening experience for me.

SLAP-IN-THE-FACEBOOK

As you know if you are a Facebook-er, your "friends" are recommended to you by the way they are connected to other friends you have. Everyone who is a "friend" of your "friend" will eventually be recommended to you as becoming a possible "friend."  So, if you are a Christian, most of the people who are recommended to you probably share that in common with you. Sometimes, I have been surprised (no - shocked!)  by some of the things that "Christians" have posted on their Facebook pages. Recently, for example, I opened my Facebook to find a very crude cartoon posted by a woman I didn't know. At some point she had either requested to become my friend or was recommended to me because we "shared" a friend. Along with the crude cartoon she had posted "OMG" and "LMFAO." The first acronym stands for "Oh My God" (an insensitivity to the sacredness of God's name and title) and the second I will leave to your imagination: Laughing My F__ A__ Off.

Instead of checking my FACEBOOK I felt I had checked my "SLAP-IN-THE-FACEBOOK."

DECEPTION

[NOTE: To protect her identity I am not using her name and I deleted her from Facebook so no one could identify her. I seek only to use her as an example of a larger problem]

I have often said that the thing about deception is that it is just so deceiving! I commented on the woman's posting of the crude cartoon and asked her if she knew the meaning of LMFAO? )  There was a slim chance that she was naive and unaware of the meaning of the well known acronym. But I found out that she was not naive as I hoped. She was playing the game of "self justification." She replied by saying it could mean many things to different people. OK, let's be intellectually honest by admitting that 99.9 percent of people who read LMFAO do not try to find an alternative meaning to that acronym. Everyone knows what it means.

I'M SORRY IF...

After rationalizing her use of "potty humor" she said "if I offended you I'm sorry." That of course is really a non-apology. It is a way of saying "I am not sorry I posted what I did but I am sorry that you are such a hillbilly that it offended you." Her additional comments went on to make light of me for daring to question her posts. So, to learn more about this person I visited her page. That's when it got really interesting. Instead of a photo of herself, she had a poster which said "I am God's Favorite Child." Along with posts about Jesus and love and bunny rabbits, there were many more posts which were laced with vile profanity and crude humor - all of which I would be embarrassed to share with anyone.

BEHOLDING THE GLORY OF GOD

To coup de grace, however, came when I checked the "info" portion of her page. It read "I am beholding the glory of God." Really. I humbly submit that over the last few years I have come to know a little about beholding the glory of a holy God. Not a lot - but a little. Enough to know that it is impossible for one to truly be "beholding the glory of God" while at the same time finding humor in the sewer of this world. A river of living water can not belch polluted water. What is in the heart eventually exits through the lips.


WHAT FACEBOOK HAS TAUGHT ME

I wish I could say that this experience was one-in-a-million. Unfortunately it is not. While some do use Faceboook in a way that is edifying and honoring to Jesus, much of what is posted on Facebook by those professing to be "Christians" is not fit for publication. Facebook has taught me that the Church is in deep trouble. Our hearts are so detached from truly beholding the "glory" that our lives are wallowing in the filth and  "gory" of what the world has to offer. Herein lies the difference between the Last Days compromised Laodicean church and the emerging Bride of Jesus: the former has made peace with sin. The latter is at war with it.