I’m on a social media fast today in a hotel somewhere in Phoenix. This means I fast from all social media so I can rest, study, and even write without distraction while I focus on God, worship Him, and focus on who I am in Him. I am reading, “How to Read The Bible For All It’s Worth,” by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart.
Page 109 through 110 brought me up short. So far, I had been reading about Hebrew narrative and how the Old Testament narratives implied things, definition of what is cultural and what is truth, and what something meant then and what it means now. As I read, Redefinition, I knew that this is the kind of truth that I am trying to share in my life with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in America:
“Redefinition. When the plain meaning of the text leaves people cold, producing no immediate spiritual delight, or says something other than what they wish it said, they are often tempted to redefine it to mean something else. An example is the use often made of God’s promise to Solomon as it is narrated in Chronicles (2 Chron. 7:14-15). The context of this narrative clearly relates the promise to “this place” (the temple in Jerusalem) and “their land” (Israel, the land of Solomon and the Israelites). Understandably, many modern Christians yearn for it to be true of their land wherever they live in the modern world–and so they tend to ignore the fact that God’s promise that he will “hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” was about the only earthly land God’s people could ever claim as “theirs,” the Old Testament land of Israel. In the new covenant, God’s people have no earthly country that is “their land” –despite the tendency of some American Christians to think otherwise about the world. The country all believers now most truly belong to is a heavenly one (Heb. 11:16). (emphasis mine)”
Pastors periodically talk about examining ones spending habits on their checking account to see if God is a priority. What do we spend most of our money on? Are we investing in God’s Kingdom or in pleasure? The same should be said of auditing our own social media profiles. What is posted most often on your social media expresses the depth of your faith, your heart, whether it bleeds from pain and anger or oozes political angst. Do we wish death on our enemies even in a joking way?
“Sarcasm is anger gone underground and come back up in a clown suit,” says Patsy Clairmont, a Women of Faith writer and speaker. Our citizenship is in Heaven as believers. How can we reflect this in our postings and honor the country in which we live?