Facebooking

I joined Facebook about 6 months ago and I've been fascinated with the social interaction there. I have contacts there whom I don't know well but we are now getting to be good friends. All because they read my Facebook comments and I've read theirs.

Online social interaction is hot right now. It is a tool for those who follow Jesus to make connections, to go where people are and become sympathetic friends.

I am not suggesting we become superficial contacts interested only in sharing the gospel and then moving on to the next conquest. But I think we can use this tool to touch others' lives in meaningful ways.

I found an interesting blog about ways to use Facebook. Take a look here and see if you get any ideas for making a difference in people's lives.

Servants

We handed tissues and listened quietly as our friend sobbed with agony. "I'm tired of my life. Does God even care anymore about me?"

The week before, another friend had stood defiantly. "God doesn't care. I've prayed and I've even fasted but he's not coming through for me."

On cue, we began our litany to prove that God cares. He'd provided finances at critical times. He'd protected children on the highway and friends in illnesses.

"Well, he doesn't care about me. I feel cursed."

So then we gave our litany on the value of hindsight. We now understood what we had not known before. God had prepared us for some upcoming event by a difficulty in our lives.

The point, as I look back, was to show our friend that God has purpose. But I think we might have been more honest had we said, instead, that we didn't always know why he allowed something. We live in an imperfect world, our days weighed down by consequences. We can waste a lot of time seeking answers to "why" questions.

But now I would tell my friend that we are servants. If the Master chooses to tell us why he's placed us in a particular place, then we're fortunate. Our place is not that of an informed confidant but of a beloved servant. Our task is to listen to our Lord and not our own desires. Our task is to trust and obey.

Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. 1 John 3:24

Making choices

Abi felt sweat trickle down his back, his teeth gritty from the dust off the hardened road. He shifted the backpack slightly and kept moving.

“All right, you fool, you done your mile,” a gruff soldier growled at him. “I’ll find another.”

But Abi shook his head. “Where are you going?”

“What game are you playing?” the soldier leaned toward him. “You are done! Don’t you know the law? It doesn’t matter where I’m going because you don’t have to go. Now give me my backpack and be off.”

Abi kept walking. “I’ll go on with you. I can carry the backpack another mile.”

The soldier shook his head. “You’re a fool.”

“Yes,” Abi nodded. “I am a fool.” They walked on and then Abi asked, “So where’s your home?”

“Near Rome,” the soldier said. “I’ve only been here a few months.”

They walked on, the soldier’s sandals crunching on the sand.

“Why are you walking on with me?” the soldier asked. “I don’t get it.”

“The first mile was your choice,” Abi said. “The second mile is my choice.”

“No other Jews do this,” the soldier said. “They want freedom, too.”

Abi smiled. “They don’t know Jesus.”

“What has that to do with carrying a backpack?”

“Jesus taught us not to put ourselves first, but to love others.”

The soldier stopped walking. “Even us?”

“Even Roman soldiers.” Abi shifted the backpack again.

“This is something I don’t understand,” the soldier admitted. “Tell me more.”

It is said that followers of Jesus can only do self-sacrificial work if a supernatural work has been done in their heart. It’s that hard to do.

Looking for any backpacks to carry today?

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you
Matt 5:44

The giver

Pulling out his pocketknife, Dan sliced through the Christmas wrap, careful to run the blade along the edge of the box. Probably a dress shirt in the latest color. Too light for the wrenches I asked for. No chance it’s a new work shirt.

He freed a sweater from its box and smiled at his wife, holding it up in front of him. “This looks warm!” he said broadly. “And the color matches my eyes, right?”

Sue laughed at him. “It makes you look so handsome! It goes with that blue shirt I gave you for your birthday. It’s cashmere!”

Dan laid the sweater back in the box and watched his daughter open her gift, planning his next trip to the tool store. Now that Christmas was over, he could go get the wrenches. Wonder if there’d be an after-Christmas sale on flannel shirts? What was cashmere anyway?

As Sue carefully removed the paper from Dan’s gift to her, she radiated joy. Candles! A weekend getaway to the spa! Oh, and that new blouse she’d shown him last week. He must have asked Sarah for the right size.

Finally, she thought. One year he’d bought her an iron, so proud of all the features. Easy to clean, lightweight so it didn’t hurt her shoulder, great warranty. But an iron? It still hadn’t worn out.

He’d started asking for a list after the washing machine fiasco, but she’d worked him through that, too. Men have lists, with non-gifts like tools or flannel shirts. Women don’t have Christmas lists. That takes the surprise out of it. He just had to pay attention to hints. And see? It had worked this year. He’d heard about the new blouse and now it was hers.

Finally he was seeing how to give a real gift.

Dan, meanwhile, carried his sweater into the bedroom. Did he hang it up or stuff it in a drawer? He couldn’t wear it to work and he hoped he didn’t forget to wear it sometime to church, so Sue could see it. The kids had bought him some cologne and he put it on the sink in the bathroom. He had to remember to wear that sometime, too, when they were around so they could smell it.

He changed into work clothes. Sue’s car needed an oil change and then he would fix Justin’s door, where it stuck on the striker plate. Sue wanted a shelf in the closet and he could get that put up today, too. He’d try to pick up the wrench set later in the week, before he changed out the brakes on Sue’s car. He’d noticed the back step was slick. Sue had nearly fallen on the ice the other day. He had an idea on how to re-route the gutter so water didn’t drip on the sidewalk.

Good thing Sarah had clued him in on the spa idea. He sure didn’t get this gift-giving stuff.

Friday Five: Servant

Five comments on a servant:

It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. Mt. 10:25

Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will proclaim justice to the nations. Mt. 12:18

No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Lk 16:13

At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' Lk 14:17

But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Phil 2:7

And a few servants:

Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God's truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs. Romans 15:8

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God- Romans 1:1

Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, testifying to what would be said in the future. Heb. 3:5

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. James 1:1

Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 1:1

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, Jude 1:1

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, Rev 1:1