I realise that the title of this blog may scare a few people but lately I have read so many thoughts and platitudes on social media, even from high profile speakers that I am compelled to write. I write with a heavy heart because I believe, generally speaking, we are giving out false information to believers. Let me try and explain what I mean.

Here are some of things we often say as Christians:

“Good morning, this is God, I will be taking care of your problems today so just relax and let me take care of them.”

“Remember that God is always with you and He wants to fight for you. When he allows difficult situations to come your way, you can put your trust in him to be in control and cause everything to work out for good in the end (Romans 8:28) so no matter what happens, hold your peace, remain at rest.. and trust God to fight your battles.”

“God is in control”

“It must be God’s will for this to happen.”

“Whatever happens must be God’s will”

“The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still.”

You might be thinking, ‘what is wrong with any of those sentiments – they sound lovely and we’re only trying to comfort each other.’ Unfortunately, that is just what they are ‘nice sentiments.’ Don’t go away yet… We have been so blasé with these kinds of comments, that when it goes badly wrong, the church is left floundering, disappointed and confused as to what actually just happened. The devil is more than happy for us to spout out these words because he knows they won’t work automatically. Stay with me, this will get better – honest!

I’ve got lots of stories I could tell to illustrate what I’m saying but here are just two.:

We once worked with a guy who was very high up in the Elim movement in Africa. We thought he was a great guy (in the main, he was) and we worked very well together. One day we awoke to the news that he had been killed in a motorcycle accident and we were devastated. We couldn’t understand why this had happened and we talked to God about it. We asked things like, ‘where is Psalm 91?’ ‘What about Romans 8:28?’ and so on… As the days went by, it came to our attention that this guy had been living a lie. He had been deceiving many people that felt too afraid to speak out whilst he was alive. Why do I tell you that story? Because if we had heard that he had died, without knowing the full story, we would have spent the rest of our lives wondering why on earth this happened to someone who was a leader in the Church and seemingly a man with good character. Living the way he did most certainly did not affect is eternal status – he went to heaven BUT did it affect his life on earth? Did it affect his connection to God? I absolutely believe it did. God will not be mocked and, if we don’t take his word seriously, we are asking for an early exit.

The devil is too clever for disconnected Christians to fight him.

 Another guy we worked with in Africa also worked for us in Sporting Marvels (a sports ministry in Wales) as a prayer co-ordinator and he died prematurely. We were all shocked!! Big tributes were paid to him because we thought we knew him inside out and then we found out he was married to two people. He had two families and they didn’t find out about each other until the funeral. Has he gone to heaven? Yes I believe he has. Had he lost his connection to God and the ability to be effective for Christ on earth? Yes he had.

The problem is, we think we know. We think that we know a person. If we don’t ask the tough questions, the church just thinks, ‘Oh well, this must have been God’s will!!” We get passive. The truth is, in a lot of instances, if we knew the person, if we knew some background, we’d be more likely to say, ‘Oh… maybe that’s why that happened, maybe they were disconnected’ Much, much harder to take this approach but, in my opinion, it’s far better than the random way we just say, ‘God’s in control’ that’s too easy to say.

Don’t you think that’s an easy cop out? I do. I think we say, ‘God is in control’ far too easily. I think God, occasionally but more than we imagine, is saying, ‘this is nothing to do with me!!’ It’s because of your choices that you are where you are right now.

The verse mentioned above in Romans is the one quoted very often… ‘All things work together for good.” And we leave it there…. It actually says, ‘All things work together for good FOR THOSE WHO LOVE THE LORD.” I could explain what I think loving the Lord might look like but I’m going to say what it doesn’t look like instead. Let me stress at this point that I am talking about deliberate, long-standing choices in the following list and NOT a one-off blip. It’s important that you understand that. We all mess up most days if we’re honest but, if we are close to the Lord, we quickly confess and keep a short account with Him. I’m honing in on prolonged bad choices here with no care for God or others:

• Holding un-forgiveness
• Lack of commitment to church
• Too much alcohol
• Pornography
• No prayer
• Lack of understanding of the Bible
• Control and manipulation
• Anger
• Jealousy
• Sex outside of marriage
• etc. etc.

As Christians, our job, after we’re saved, is to give ourselves the best possible chance of making it on earth. I believe, I know not everyone does, that whatever you do after you’re truly saved, you will go to heaven but if you want a John 10:10 life, you’re going to have to work at it. The days of being passive and saying things like, ‘God is in control,’ yet living exactly how you want, are over. We MUST be more responsible than this and make sure that when our storms come, and they will and sometimes they are fierce, that we are in a great position to fight! The key: Prepare before the storm hits.

So, has God got anyone’s back? Yes He has. Can anyone be confident in such scriptures as, ‘The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still?’ Yes they can. I have two very dear friends who are going through health battles right now but I’m confident they are fighting from a strong position. God has the backs of those who are seeking to follow him, who are seeking to love him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, to love their neighbours as they love themselves and, the hardest one of all, to love one another as he has loved us. Yes it’s a tall ask but, if we’re not at least trying to work at these things, in my opinion, I don’t think he has your back…….

If you’re interested to read more of my thoughts, here is the link to one of my books:

“Get your feet off the Table”

 

 

One of the things I used to hate about high school (there were a few but I will stick to one!) was walking home in the cold and rain – the rain thrashing my legs as I lugged my body up the hills to my house – I shudder as I remember those days! During my time in high school, I had a paper round – the things you did for money! I earned the grand total of a penny per paper and it was just once a week, I couldn’t have coped with one every day I’m sure. I could either do it on a Wednesday or a Thursday. So many weeks I made the fatal error of not doing it on the Wednesday meaning I HAD to do it on the Thursday come rain or shine. Occasionally I would make the decision to deliver the papers on a Wednesday which made the Thursday afternoon walk home on these weeks, bliss! For these 5 years of my life, I had a routine. I knew my way home, I did it automatically, I didn’t have to think about the streets I was walking on – I knew it well. Our lives go in seasons and so my ‘challenge’ for this blog isn’t really about seasons of routine but rather lifetimes of routine.

I heard a speaker once talk about going home a different way and his point was, if you do that, you will see different things, meet different people, possibly meet new challenges, especially if you’re on foot.

When we first moved to Tanga, 4 months ago now, we knew no one except the Tanzanians who we’d worked with for 17 years – we had no social mates and, fortunately for John and I, we love each others company and so we made it work and it gave us the time to write and develop ourselves. I have to admit though I really missed doing coffee or lunch with girlfriends. I did. In fact, let me interject here, I hope you’ve all freed up your diaries for November! I’m happy to say, it is beginning to change and just the other week, we were invited to a BBQ and I was like a little girl going to a birthday party! I felt so excited that we were going to a social event! That night turned into the start of a friendship that we feel will continue to grow into a close one. We’ve talked recently about the challenges that living in Tanzania bring – and, again, there are many frustrations, BUT I would not swap it because of the richness it has brought into our lives.

We’ve talked on our ‘Under the Banda’ broadcasts (you can access these here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0HhuWHmhj4) about spaces and about how God sometimes leads you into openness that seems lonely and scary for a while and you have to learn new lessons whilst in that space. What we have found though is that, after a period of emptiness, He begins to fill that space with people, experiences and things that we would never have known had we not taken those steps. I can’t imagine my life if I had stayed as that schoolgirl delivering newspapers once a week metaphorically speaking. What about you? How do you know what is ‘round a corner’ if you always ‘go home the same way?’ Has your life become such a rut that you never do anything new or different? Maybe you always have the same meals on a Thursday, maybe you take the same thing to lunch every day, maybe you ‘crawl’ into work every day yet you can’t stand what you do. How tragic is that? What you eat is neither here nor there – it’s not tragic but you should try something new, you never know, you might even like it; however, spending your everyday life doing something you’re not enjoying, and you’ve been doing it for years, is. It is tragic. I’m not saying you should walk into your dream job at age 15 and you’re sorted for life – we all have to go through a process of getting to that place of satisfaction in our work/life balance. I have done my fair share of naff jobs so I know all about that season. But what I am saying is, life should be good! God breathed his life into us for us to have an adventure – I’m having one and I hope you are too and, if you’re not, change it. It is in your hands. If you’re in work reading this (I hope you don’t get sacked!) let me challenge you to find a new route home tonight! Who knows what you will see.

Beth and I will be talking in more detail about how to live a John 10:10 life at our conference, ‘Brave,’ in November. We have some amazing plans so you should think about coming – the only proviso is, you must be a girl! Sorry boys! Go to our website and click on ‘events’ for more details, I promise you won’t be disappointed! www.agapelife.co.uk.

The world doesn’t care anymore about what Christians disagree with – it really doesn’t! It really doesn’t! So we are just going to have to go about it in a different way. We are going to have to show that, if lived properly (that’s another blog!) the Christian life holds the most benefits both on earth and in heaven. Who is that up to? You and me! It’s our shift, so let’s get on it! John 10:10

This question was sparked in me by a Bible verse that a friend of mine put on Face book the other day. The verse was this:

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

It’s found in 1 John 4:7-8.

John’s life message and mine is the Royal Law, as many of you reading this would know. If you don’t know what that is, write to me: deb@agapelife.co.uk and I’ll gladly explain it. Do we live it fully? of course not…. But it’s verses like this that make me realise and remind me how serious it is! God isn’t joking about this stuff. He says if you don’t love, YOU DON’T KNOW GOD! Oh my word…. I’ve written other blogs on Facebook before and you can find them by going to my blog page http://www.debbullock.wordpress.com if you want to read them but this is a new slant I’d like to challenge you and me with. Facebook is about sharing your life, your joys, your sorrows, your achievements, your photos etc… and we all know we check more than once how many ‘likes’ we’ve had, we look down the list and say things like, ‘wow, so and so liked it!’ or ‘ no ‘likes’ from so and so!’ Don’t pretend you don’t do that because you do. It’s how we’re designed, we want to be liked, we want to be celebrated and we want to be loved. After all, the people that we have on our particular face book pages are supposed to be friends… but what about when those friendships break down? What about when we fall out of favour with one another? What happens then? How do we manifest that on Facebook? This is how: we stop ‘liking’ things that each other writes… Pathetic aren’t we? I’m not writing just to you, I’m writing to myself. If we’re Christians, we are commanded to love one another and if we don’t then, according to John, we don’t know God. Let me challenge you, however you feel towards a person, even if they’ve done something terribly wrong, they still have worth as a human being – you don’t have to agree with the choices they may have made but we are absolutely duty bound to love each other. Does not ‘liking’ something I put on Facebook mean you don’t love me, to some degree, I think it does. I see it as a lack of wanting to celebrate my life. The challenge is to ‘like’ more things than you have done in a while on someone’s Facebook status’ – It takes less than a second to click that mouse and, even if they don’t ‘like’ you back, you’re doing what’s right and sharing the love of God all the time even if you don’t feel like it! Let the past go and let’s celebrate one another more. I’m sorry for the times I haven’t ‘liked’ a particular photo or status because I’m struggling with the person who’s written it. That’s bound to happen, we have an enemy who wants nothing more than for us to all go off one another! That’s not what’s going to speak to the world is it? So, if you or I want to know God then we need to make sure we love one another and, in the 21st century, rightly or wrongly, one of the biggest ways we can do that is on social media. If it’s so painful, then break away and delete that person – I think you have permission to do that – but, if you still have them as a friend, then that means something. So love them by celebrating who they are – if we’re on the same side, then let’s train our weapons on the real enemy and not each other.

“He who does not love does not know God….” At least think about it….

I usually need inspiration to write and that inspiration comes in a variety of forms. Sometimes it’s because of a bad experience, a good experience, a conversation or, as in this particular case, a movie! Movies are a favourite past time of mine and I don’t mind how many times I’ve seen them. If they’re good, I’ll watch them over and over again. Just as well for this blog because I’d seen this particular film a couple of weeks ago but watched it again the other day because my husband, John hadn’t seen it. I don’t usually watch them quite so close together but when you’ve just moved to Africa and you only have a certain amount of baggage allowance, our DVD selection is slim to say the least! Fortunately, for me, my hubby will watch chick flicks and I’m grateful for that!

So, the movie that inspired this blog was, “In her shoes.” I won’t tell the story – wouldn’t want to spoil it but I do want to pick up on one particular line that I had missed in all the other times that I’d watched it – proof enough that you need to watch a good movie more than once! One of the girls in the film has a ridiculous amount of shoes and she explains to her sister that the reason for this is that they make her feel good when she’s sad. The line that she said that sparked my thinking was:

 “Shoes always fit!”

It is unusual for me to walk past a shoe or a bag shop and not stop to have a look – John often says, ‘what is it with women, bags and shoes?’ I don’t want to put every woman in the same basket of course but it is a well-known fact that most women do love bags and shoes. Having heard that line in the movie, I began to wonder, is the reason that we love them so much is because they do always fit? Our bodies, which let’s face it, unless we are disciplined, or young (your time will come!) fluctuate up and down. Millions of women spend countless pounds or dollars on the latest diet fad. Summer is on its way and I bet some of you who are reading this are determined to get into that size 6 bikini?!?!? Even though we said the same thing last winter, this year it’s going to be different. How do I know? Because I’m on the same quest! Not the size 6 journey I hasten to add! That was a joke for affect.

Shopping for clothes maybe difficult or even embarrassing for you – I know this through experience – when I went back to the UK after living in Africa for the first time back in the late ‘90’s, we hadn’t been back for 2 years and I hadn’t stood on a weighing scales in all that time. We were going to my cousin’s wedding and I had to buy new trousers. I had gone up two sizes and I was horrified! Even recently, a week before my daughter’s wedding, I tried my dress on again and couldn’t fasten it! I went on a major ‘starvation’ diet for a week and I did manage to get into it! It isn’t a nice feeling being overweight and, thankfully, I am on my way down. For a lot of women, their weight is the biggest battle they face and, for some, it’s a lifetime battle. And, it’s true, the older we get, especially if you’ve had kids, it’s harder than it was to lose weight. Can it be done? Of course, but you’ll have to work at it, there are no magic formulas. If I want to get a bikini body, then I’m not going to be able to drink 6 cans of pop or eat junk all day every day, that’s not how it works!

HOWEVER, shoes and bags are a completely different scenario! I have been size 6 in a shoe for as long as I can remember! However much my weight and shape may have fluctuated over the years, my shoe size has stayed the same! There is no embarrassment when you’re looking at shoes – making sure no-one sees what size you are, no embarrassment looking a handbags and wondering if people (mainly girls who can be pretty nasty at times! Just ask Vivien in ‘Pretty Woman!’) Whispering, ‘she’ll never get into that!’ There just isn’t any of that! Is that the psychological reason why we love them so much? I don’t know but I think I may have hit on something.

As I’ve already mentioned, I live in Africa now where my shoe collection is basically down to flip-flops! I have one pair at the moment (see picture) – give me time, I have my eye on new pair BUT I did bring a couple of pairs of highish heels with me because I missed them last year when I was here. The places where you would go to wear a pair of heels are very few and far between especially where we live but I have them with me and I am sure I will wear them because I, along with millions of other girls, love shoes and I won’t be deprived, Africa or not! My bag collection isn’t much better either but, again, I did bring my Radley bag and a couple of others that don’t really ‘match’ Africa but they’re mine and I’m a girl!

So, hear endeth my thoughts on bags and shoes. It might not change anyone’s life but hopefully it’ll bring a smile to your face the next time you go handbag or shoe shopping! If you’re going for a little black dress fitting, you probably shouldn’t eat chocolate or crisps before that fitting, if you’re going for a new pair of shoes, eat away!!! Happy shopping!

One day this week, I was thinking about the people who once acknowledged Christ in their lives and no longer do so. In particular, the people who have made a conscious decision to turn their back on God and, in some instances, declared themselves as atheists. Not so much the people who have slowly moved out of that relationship with God through a series of choices, hurts, pain, and disillusionment etc. – I have some sympathy for this group because I know that on so many levels, church has got it wrong and it has let many people down. I think these people love Jesus still, somewhere deep down but struggle with church. Let’s face it, who hasn’t!? No, this blog is addressed to those who once believed in God and now they don’t think He exists.

 The reason we have Christmas, as you know, is because we celebrate the birth of Jesus. That is the one and only reason Christmas exists, the one and only reason we have a holiday during December. There is great pressure to start calling it ‘Holiday,’ which is simply ridiculous! We are never asked to consider changing the name of any other religious holiday so why this one!? I think it’s because the powers that be (read that as you will) know that if we acknowledge that the Saviour did come 2014 years ago, then not only do we have to receive that information, we have to believe all of his life and all of the words that he said while he walked the earth. This is a step too far for so many. So ‘they’ would rather sweep the truth of what happened, when Jesus was born, under the carpet, call it ‘Holiday’ and have us all just have a nice time with family and friends. ‘Holiday’ actually means ‘Holy day!’ by the way – don’t you think that is slightly ironic when they’re trying to get away from it being anything like a holy day!

 It’s well documented that Jesus probably wasn’t born in December – we all know that – this is not a debate on that. The fact is, in the UK and all over the world, we celebrate the wonderful season – Christmas – because Jesus was born in Bethlehem and our world changed forever! This is when we remember! This is the event that we, as Christians, more than anyone else, can have a huge party! We celebrate, like everyone else, with our family, our friends, we give and receive gifts, we laugh and over-eat! (Perhaps the over-eating isn’t such a good thing! Haha!) Plus, we know the real reason!! What isn’t there to party about!

 Like I said at the beginning, if you used to celebrate Christmas as a Christian and today you find yourself somewhere outside of that due to a variety of reasons, may be due to no fault of your own, come back to the party, you are more than welcome to join us – I trust that would be your experience whichever church you went back to. If, however, you used to celebrate Christmas as a Christian and you’ve now decided that there is no God, can I kindly ask you to get out of our party – this is our time, you can’t have your cake and eat it. You made your choice and, as far as I’m concerned, you shouldn’t just be able to ‘pop into’ Christmas. There is no getting away from the fact that this is a religious holiday – you know it – so your ‘RSVP’ should read, ‘sorry I can’t make it.’

 My prayer is that you will re-consider your choice to deny the one who gave you life – your ‘invite’ will be re-instated in an instant.

 To Christians all over the world who may read this, can I say have a brilliant Christ-mas and a wonderful new year – if you know the reason for this time of year, you are doubly blessed so go and walk in that blessing! See you in 2015!

The things you see when you haven’t got a car in the UK can be mind blowing enough but walking around in Tanzania is something else.

The house that we are staying at the moment is about a 20 minute, uphill walk to the main road. We have done it many times now and, quite honestly, we enjoy it! Except when I’m carrying 3 bags for a road trip! – More on that later!

Our walk takes us through villages where women have set up their stalls hoping to sell a few bananas to anyone passing – we’ve bought some – there are kids playing and shouting ‘wazungu’ (White man) to us as we pass by. What a funny thing to shout! ‘White man!’ I wonder what would happen if we did that walking around our home towns?!? Here, it is the norm. If we had a car, we wouldn’t hear them, we wouldn’t have bought bananas from that little, ramshackle stall.

Once we get to the main road, we can walk into town which takes about 45 minutes and is, potentially, safer or we can get on the local transport – matatu or daladala which could be seen, by some, as insane and unthinkable (15 years ago, I would have been part of that ‘some!’) but it gets you to town much quicker (hopefully) and it costs about 10 pence!! Perhaps that’s why people think it’s insane!!

Getting on bus in the UK is a very civilised affair. You wait in a queue, pay your fair and take a seat. Daladala – not so much! The ‘conductor’ – he doesn’t have a uniform or a ticket machine  – hangs out of the window and bangs on the side to tell the driver to stop! He stops whether the people want to get on or not. We have seen them persuading reluctant travellers to get on board! There are about 15 seats but that doesn’t stop them piling people on – 10 pence is 10 pence!

Even though there are many wazungu in this part of Africa, we have been the only ones of each of our journeys and we get comical looks, and smiles that seem to suggest ‘crazy wazungu!’ But we also get to smile back, ‘dance’ to the ‘inflight’ entertainment and meet new people. If we had a car, we wouldn’t have seen or heard the Tanzanians who travel on daladalas every day.

We’ve also travelled on the back of a motorbike – piki piki (off road I hasten to add! I’m not that insane!) It all adds to the adventure.

Once in town, we can get on with our ‘chores’ – paying for the TV so we can watch the premiership! (And other stuff!) Paying for our internet usage (only took us 5 times before we figured out how to pay it via mobile phone! How things have changed), then sorting out how to pay on a mobile phone in another office, being told to sit and wait and not having a clue what’s happening – if you know Africa, you know what I mean! Going to the ATM and hoping it’s got money in it, waiting for the whirring sound announcing the arrival of you cash is music to your ears.  Food shopping and lunch are always part of the deal on ‘chores Day!’ You just reconcile yourself to the fact that you’ll be out all day.

Beggars hoping you’ll drop a coin in, street hawkers hoping you’ll buy a bracelet or a map, vegetable stalls, cows, chickens and goats all attack our senses as we trundle through town. If we had a car, we would miss so much of this.

By the time we’ve done our chores, we’re ready for home. How shall we get home? Walk – definitely not, daladala? Nah, been there, done that today, piki piki – got too much to carry! (Phew!)   Taxi it is, door to door, service with a smile, costing much more than 10p but worth it every time!

Getting back to the ‘three bag’ comment. Recently we had to go to a conference in a place called Babati. We were going to be away for a few days. Carrying a suitcase from the house to the main road was a ‘no no’ – it’s not a nice smooth road that we could pull the case along on and trying to explain to the driver who would pick us up, where we lived, wasn’t going to happen so, on one of our other wanders through the villages, we passed a man who had a load of holdalls on a bicycle. We made his day – quite possibly, literally – and bought one for £8. ‘We’ll get all our stuff in there! John said confidently – I’m a girl and knew we never would. I was right, of course and this was the reason I was carrying 3 bags and John, drawing the short straw, carrying the over jammed £8 bag plus his man bag.

I have tried over the years to travel light but have accepted, by now, that neither can I nor do I want to. A girl needs her stuff! (Especially in Babati!) So, we left the house looking like two over-loaded donkeys.  We’d been going for about 10 minutes when this man stopped us, he was going in the opposite direction but he told us to wait and he would help us. He gave John his Bible and took the £8 bag off John. ‘Good swap’ I said! I quickly off loaded one of my 3 onto John and we were all better off! We shared the load. If we’d had a car, we wouldn’t have had that man’s help.

Do I want to live without a car in Africa or anywhere for that matter? No I don’t but, for a season, it’s an adventure. You see things you wouldn’t normally see, have conversations you wouldn’t normally have and everything takes a little longer. Plus, if we weren’t car-less at the moment, I wouldn’t have had this blog to write!

Try it sometime, change your perspective. Oh and next time you get on a UK bus, say a prayer for us!!

 

 

If God was on Facebook, what would He be like? Here are some of the things that I think would be His practice.

He would add every friend request

God wouldn’t have to wonder whether or not to add a friend request because He knows everyone! He wouldn’t be wondering whether or not they were just asking so they could hack into his account or whether they just want to be nosy – He would know the person’s motive right from the start….

He would like every legitimate status

Have you ever seen someone’s status and decided not to ‘like’ it because you don’t like the person who wrote it at that particular moment in time or anymore?? Don’t deny it! How do I know? Because I’ve done it! Aren’t we pathetic! The beautiful/awful Facebook does such strange things to our emotions and if we’re not careful, it has the capability of sending us into a depression for a whole day! God help us!

He wouldn’t delete anyone? Or would he?

Here is yet another dilemma with the beautiful/awful Facebook…. In a previous life before FB existed, if relationships, let’s say, ‘changed’ and, let’s face it, they do, that’s life, you just lost touch with that person for a while or maybe forever in some instances and, if it was a painful ‘separation,’ in time, maybe you healed from that and quite possibly picked up the relationship again even though it might be different from before. When a relationship changes with friends on FB, especially if it’s painful, every time you log on, you see their face or their status and it can be a reminder of the hurt that has either been caused you or that you have caused. (Let me say that I am not talking about serious break down here, sometimes you absolutely have to delete someone who is causing or has caused serious damage) So, what do you do? I think I have only ever deleted one person off FB and that was a reaction and probably unnecessary! Deleting seems so final. You may be trying to reach out to an estranged friend by ‘liking’ their status yet you are getting nothing back… it’s hard to bear especially if its Christians you are trying to bridge the gap with. So, what’s the measure we should use? Scripture says, that the measure we use will be the measure that will be used against us… ouch! What’s God’s measure? The Royal Law! That means that we should love everyone with the love that He shows to us! Ouch again! Would He delete anyone? I doubt it. His love for everyone is so far above what we understand and He always and forever keeps the Royal Law. I wish I did but I am certainly seeking to go that way because I know it is the only way to succeed as a Christian.

He wouldn’t write a status out of His emotions

Emotional status’ can be a dangerous thing – once you have let your fingers do the talking and you’ve pressed that ‘post’ button, it’s gone and your words are out there for the FB world to see. It has been said, ‘don’t write out of your emotions, they won’t represent you well.’ It’s perfectly true so before you press the ‘post’ button, ask yourself if you’re going to make people smile, think or just remember you, then hit that button baby! But, if you’re trying to score points, make people react to you, or tell an un-necessary piece of gossip, delete it! It’s never worth it…. And you may live to regret it. While ever words stay this side of your computer, they die, once you’ve typed it, they’re gone! You can’t bring them back!

He wouldn’t check the likes and comments every 30 seconds!

Man’s 3 basic needs are security, acceptance and significance. Adam and Eve had them way back in the beginning, but, when they ate that fruit – bye bye SAS!! Ever since that time, man has been trying to find those three things. Sadly, FB has given us a place to find those things temporarily! Like I said earlier, if you get no ‘likes’ it can ruin your day! How funny we are….. especially if we’ve written something that we felt was particularly world-changing! Haha! I read something the other day that made me smile – someone had tweeted about someone who had posted a photo, had no ‘likes’ and posted it again! Human beings are an odd breed. If you are one of those people who are totally secure and you hardly ever check your ‘likes’ then I take my hat off to you! Can you share your secret?

Will this blog stop me ‘misbehaving’ in all of the above – probably not all together because I’m human but I hope it might urge all of us on to be a little bit more gracious, wise and sensitive on the awful/beautiful Facebook that is with us for ever. I hope you ‘like’ my blog!!! HAHAHA!!