Confessions of a Recovering Facebook Addict

"THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH." (Romans 6:23)

Recently I decided to take a break from Facebook for 40 days. I found myself in a bit of a dry spell with God, and one of the things I literally felt consumed by was Facebook. It felt like my thoughts, my time, everything revolved around it. I couldn't work at home without checking it every five minutes, and I constantly had thoughts of: "Hey, this could make a cool status update..."

Whether it was to check my profile, change my picture, post status updates, view other people's status updates, or even spy on "friends" I haven't talked to since high school (some even elementary school), I could only imagine how many countless hours I wasted being consumed by it.

It got to the point where even when I just typed in the "www." in my web browser, it automatically guessed as a first choice that I'd be going to Facebook. My last weekly Covenant Eyes report before the break said I went to Facebook.com over 1,000 times in one week! I don't know about you, but I had a serious problem. It consumed me. It was hard going even a day without it.

That's what idols do. They consume you. They KILL you.

I find that when people pour out their entire lives for something other than Jesus, and it can be anything: sports, their job, music (I'll get to that one later), sex, whatever, it will leave you feeling empty and drained. Idols demand lots from you and give absolutely nothing back but a temporal, worthless high.

Facebook consumed me. Does it consume you? If it doesn't, then you can easily walk away from it. If you can't imagine your life without it, it's time for a break.

When people pour out their lives for Jesus, they find rest. Living for Jesus is hard, but pouring ourselves out for Him is the best thing you can do. Nothing compares to it. That's what He wants and that's what we need. If we pour ourselves out to other things: caffeine, Facebook, friends, social situations, etc. we will get drained. We will not be satisfied. We will be consumed. We will be slaves. We will be killed. We will be EMPTY!

By the grace of God I saw my flaw. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not anti-Facebook. As of today, I'm actually back on Facebook. Facebook can be a very valuable tool when used for the glory of God. It can also be even more valuable when Christ is at the center of how we the users view it. Yes, those are separate things. Remember, God can glorify Himself through a thought provoking status update, even though it was not initially used with the purpose of glorifying Him (God is really sovereign like that).

Does that also mean that one needs to only post "super duper spiritual" Bible and sermon things? No, I don't think so. People have personalities. It's okay to have funny things posted, but as long as Christ remains the center of them in your heart, soul, mind, and strength when you post them. Is Christ the center? Because everything is about Him. It's not just about commandments, but about Him.

So in regards to Facebook, I am still recovering. I can still be prone to idolatry again, because though I'm dead to sin, I still wrestle with it. I am not over this by a long shot, but I have just made a first step. I also rejoice, because in Christ I am not a slave to sin, but free in Christ (who I'm now a slave to, by the way).

One amazing thing about Jesus is that we can come to Him how we are, no matter the sin struggle. That verse I quoted at the beginning of this post has an end: "...BUT THE FREE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD."

Thanks for reading, being my friend, praying for me and standing by me.

God bless you,

Steve

Do you struggle with an idol? Check and ask God: "Search me and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." -Psalm 139:23-24

Praying Old Men

One morning this past week I was reading in the book of Ezra, a small book located just after 2 Chronicles in the Old Testament. At the end of 2 Chronicles, it described how the nation of Israel fell through invasion by the Babylonians. The surviving Israelites were herded off to Babylon where they would spend a prolonged period of time there.

There were people that day who witnessed firsthand the temple of Jerusalem, a temple they had gone to many times to seek God and fellowship with His people, be pillaged, burned and fallen. How heartbreaking that must have been! I'm sure many of those people were mourning much like Jeremiah, in repentance and sadness, thinking that day would be the last day they could ever freely worship God in a temple.

Israel screwed up majorly. She was a nation chosen, rescued and blessed by God in so many amazing ways, and at the same time she was a nation that was so unworthy of that blessing. From the day she was rescued from Egypt onward, many Israelites complained, bickered, argued and rebelled against God. He could have very easily snuffed them out, but being a God who is "merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love" (Psalm 103:8), He did no such thing until that day when He no longer could take their rebellion anymore.

Then in the book of Ezra in the craziest way possible, God opens up a door for the exiled Israelites to venture back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and city they saw get burned to the ground. Imagine being an old man, who maybe as a boy, saw the temple burn to the ground. Imagine the hardship he lived in as well while in Babylon, barely holding onto the God who loved Him. Then one day this boy sees what he thought would be the impossible: the temple he saw get burnt to the ground getting restored.

Ezra described the reactions of these old men: "But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid" (3:12).

No, I do not think those tears they were shedding were tears of mourning. They were tears of joy! Maybe some of them were praying fervently for decades that this day would come. And now....there it was! The temple that they knew and loved was being rebuilt!

So maybe you're someone who has been praying fervently for something amazing to happen in your life. Perhaps it's that a friend or family member can come to embrace Jesus Christ. Perhaps its financial troubles, sickness, or whatever. Maybe you've even been praying for some serious breakthrough in a ministry you serve in. My encouragement to you is this: KEEP PRAYING!

The all-knowing, all-powerful, completely sovereign God of the universe hears your prayers, and He can and will come to your rescue. Maybe it'll be instant, and maybe it'll be a process that takes decades, and you'll be an old man or woman when these things come to pass. Hey....that's okay! Regardless of this, rejoice that God is in control! Keep laboring for Christ and keep going. God will glorify Himself through what you're doing soon enough.

God bless you for your work!

Laboring with you,

Steve

Could We Handle Massive Miracles?

The Bible is chalk full of miracles. What is a miracle anyway? The wise Noah Webster defined it like this:

1. Literally, a wonder or wonderful thing; but appropriately,
2. In theology, an event or effect contrary to the established constitution and course of things, or a deviation from the known laws of nature; a supernatural event. Miracles can be wrought only by Almighty power, as when Christ healed lepers, saying, "I will, be thou clean," or calmed the tempest, "Peace, be still." (taken from 1828-dictionary.com).

They happen all over the place and the Bible recorded tons of them. What is interesting is that most of the miracles in the Old Testament are massive, large scale ones mainly impacting groups of people. Examples included the deadly plagues in Egypt before the Exodus, fire raining down from Heaven and consuming sacrifices offered to God, an angel from heaven rescuing Israel by wiping out an entire army, the sun standing still for an entire day, and much more.

The ones recorded in the New Testament that Jesus and the disciples performed were much more subtle: individuals getting healed or resurrected, water getting turned to wine at a party, thousands of people getting fed because of a little boy's lunch, a bunch of people praising God in languages they didn't even learn, and much more.

I say subtle because they still did cause awe, but at the same time they caused a different kind of attention. Instead of massively and instantly causing an entire group to turn to repentance, the miracles of Jesus caused some very different reactions in some people. For example, in the New Testament there were people who believed, but there were also people who either doubted, got logical, got angry, or even got scared. When two thousand demon possessed pigs ran off a cliff, the people in that village politely asked Jesus to leave. The Pharisees also saw Jesus' miracles and just got more upset! One of the first remarks out of people's mouths when they heard the disciples speak other languages was: "These people had way too much wine!"

In our Western American society that loves science, we try to rationalize every miracle we see, attempting to put it in this box, hoping to solve it with some complex formula. Television specials on the plagues of Egypt, for example, tried to through science put together this extremely unlikely series of events to try to solve how these plagues happened.

I've seen YouTube videos of people getting out of wheelchairs and walking or crippled people dancing, and then I look down at the comments and they are chalk full of people saying things like, "This kid is faking it..." or even things like "It's a type of hypnosis the preacher is using...."

It makes me wonder how people would react to the large-scale miracles nowadays as well. For example, if an angel came down from Heaven and wiped out an entire terrorist training facility right before American soldiers invaded it, would they get down on their knees and repent to Jesus, or just stand in awe at the time and then later try to rationalize the whole situation saying, "The government was just trying a new weapon...I guess it worked!"

Is that why miracles are hard to find in our society nowadays? Have our "advances in technology and thought" really caused us to be dumber in regards to how we look at miracles?

So let me ask you, if you are someone who wants a miracle to happen in your own life....Would you believe it if you saw it? Or even more importantly....Would you give God the glory? Would it change how you looked at Him, related to Him, and served Him?

Because that's what God's goal is in His miracles....yes, it's for our blessing, but it's also for His glory. Usually, those two things are pretty synonymous. God wants to be glorified, not rationalized. God wants people to stand in awe of Him, not ignore Him more and just explain Him away with science.

I could be way off on this, but it's just something to think about....Any thoughts? Post them on here. Don't be shy!

God bless you!

Steve

To Whom It May Concern...Thank you!

One of the two Stop & Shop Cards I

anonymously received in the mail.

Two weeks ago I got paid!

But it was significantly lower than I thought it would be. Since Christmas ended, finances have been tight for me. Hours at work got cut and more things got taken out of my salary check for The Navigators. Things were tight and I didn't even know how I was going to get groceries for the week.

Once again I found myself nervous and praying. How was I even going to eat? Could I actually make it this time? Bills were also looming over my head, including a monthly pledge that I had to a missionary. The thought of canceling a payment for this month

Then two things happened. One of them was that I visited some friends of mine who are partnering with me in what I'm doing and they gave me a whole lot of food when they heard I was in need. Their mindset was that God has blessed them when things were tight for them, so they in turn wanted to bless me in this season when things were tight for me. So to them...thank you very much!

Now the second one was very shocking: In the mail last week I received an envelope with no return address on it. Inside it were two $20 gift cards to Stop & Shop! I couldn't believe it! I don't know who that person is, though I'm sure I'll find out one day. Thank you very much, whoever you are! You are truly a blessing!

It's interesting how over and over in the Bible we're told not to worry and not to fear, yet when things get tight we always do. The popular passage in Matthew 6, Jesus tells us how God provides for tiny birds daily who don't have food pantries in their nests. He then tells us how God clothes insignificant flowers that die every year. And then He asks us these things: "Are you not more valuable than they? Will He not much more clothe you -- you of little faith?" (6:26, 30).

God does provide! When we give sacrificially, like what my friends did, God provides. When we honor Him, He honors us. Even at times when we don't honor Him, He STILL honors us. It's called grace, which is poured out on us thanks to Jesus.

So thank God for His provision and THANK YOU , Mr. Mystery Person for following Him. This verse is for you:

"Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce, then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine" (Proverbs 3:9-10).

Forgiving Myself

This past weekend, The Navigators had our regional Northeast Conference. There were over 200 students and ECSU had a record 30 students come out, including alumni and students from other local universities who have visited the club there. Highlights included good speakers, powerful testimonies, wonderful conversations, and empowering workshops. I had the distinct privilege at the conference to lead a workshop called "Forgiveness: the Necessity and Power of Letting Go". In it, I shared about how just like Christ forgave us of an enormous debt, we should likewise forgive others of their much smaller, yet still pretty significant debts.

The workshop environment was somber, as students were a bit reluctant to speak, but still they were very receptive. At the end, I gave them opportunity to write down in detail the grudges that God had put on their heart to let go, pray over them, and then as a symbol of letting them go, they would tear up the piece of paper and dispose of it. Definitely the loudest and most satisfying noise at the end was the sound of the tearing up of paper!

I received much positive feedback from students, and even heard a testimony of a girl who let go of a grudge she was holding onto for 3 and 1/2 years!

However I too, also participated in the exercise and found out that I had been holding onto a grudge for a long time. As I was writing in detail about it, I also found myself describing someone else....ME!

A good friend said to me once, "If you're looking around trying to find the person who needs the most grace and can't find them, it's probably you." I found in this workshop that God put it on my heart not just to bless others, but so that I myself could also be blessed. I needed to let go of a grudge that I too was holding onto very tightly.

It is a process, but I have and will continue to forgive the offenders, and above all forgive myself. I've written about this before, but it's amazing how even though in Christ, God forgives us of all our sins, we can still at times not forgive ourselves. In doing that, we can also ricochet our guilt off of ourselves and start blaming other people. That's what I found myself doing.

"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst." (1 Timothy 1:15 NIV)

We can in many ways blame others for our sin, but in reality, we are the worst. The one person who I know the most about is myself. I know in detail my past, my gifts, my talents, my weaknesses and many of the times which I have failed.

The beautiful thing is, though, is that God does not look at me and see my sin. God looks at me and sees His Son, Jesus. That's why in Him, I am called a saint.

God, help me in my life to be more of a saint, and less of a sinner. Continue to heal my heart and make it clean and open up my eyes to the sin in it so I can continually lay it down and be more like your Son. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Thanks for reading!

Steve

Image courtesy of necampusnavs.org, and was actually from the 2009 Winter Conference. The 2010 one looked very similar though!

Comfortable Christianity

This was written last October by me as a personal reflection to God. What does true Christianity really look like? Is it just praying, reading your Bible and getting plugged into a church....or is there more to it than that?

WARNING: The first part of what I am going to share in this post is graphic. If you're easily squeamish, please use caution when reading it.

Jesus Freaks, a collection of stories of Christians persecuted for their faith by D.C. Talk and Voice of the Martyrs is a book I recently found myself getting drawn to. The faith of the Christians described in this book is amazing.

One story described a Christian named John Jue Han Ding, a man in China who was imprisoned for his faith. In hopes of getting him to renounce his faith, the guards had human waste dumped on his head and was forced to eat his food like a dog as food could only pass through his soiled lips. He was then put into a prison cell literally filled with human waste and other common criminals who were told they would only be released if this man would give into their demands. So as a result John had to bear the persecution of these criminals torturing him for days. Eventually the guards gave up and wound up releasing John. (271)

Another story described a man in England in the 1500's named Thomas Hauker who was sentenced to burn at the stake for his faith. A friend approached him and asked one simple favor of Thomas before he died. He basically asked Thomas for a sign if God's grace was actually true: if the pain was tolerable and his mind was at ease as he was burning at the stake if he could lift his hands above his head right before he died. When Thomas was brought to the stake, he didn't move as his skin charred and his fingers were burnt off. People thought he was dead until suddenly his enflamed hands raised and he clapped them, rejoicing in God's grace and goodness. People watching it cheered loudly. (144)

Yet another story described a congregation in Peru in 1991 that lost their pastor, church building and some members lost their houses one night to terrorists. Despite all that, the next night they still met in the middle of a muddy street to worship Jesus.

And now I ask this: Where is our faith?

We get too ashamed to speak up about Jesus to friends, too scared to reach out to strangers, and too attached to our material possessions. A majority of us Christians in America just consume and become gluttons of the culture, isolating ourselves to Christian experiences and only hanging out with Christian friends expecting that the only people who are meant to do outreach to their local community are the pastors of their church, televangelists, and full-time missionaries. Except that Jesus called EVERYONE to go out there get uncomfortable and make disciples. We Christians can get too caught up in denominational and cultural inside jokes, church culture gossip, critique of Christian pastors, critique of Christian albums, purchasing of Christian t-shirts, political agendas, and consuming Christian music that at times we can turn a blind eye to the lost and dying world around us. No wonder when one approaches an average person on the street and asks them what they think of Christians and the church they reply with words like, "arrogant, narrow-minded, hypocrites," etc.

A majority of we Christians in America today can also get so consumed by food, technology, media, celebrity gossip, social networking and the like that we never even give Jesus a half hour a day of alone time with Him, just seeking His face. We'd rather indulge in our stuff, make a false idol out of the money we make and worship it by attempting to make more of it.

We Christians can even get too caught up in studying, apologetics, theology, seminary, historical background and other facts about Jesus and the Bible, but as we are sitting in a classroom getting too caught up in studying commentaries, the temptation is to turn Jesus into a series of facts instead of a loving God who desires to be with us. Could it be possible to forsake God's face for Greek and Hebrew Lexicon studies? As the Bible and its facts are so easily available, we American Christians can fall into the trap of only loving Jesus with our mind and ignore the heart, soul and might parts.

In case you didn't notice, I used the word "we" a lot because I am here too. I am comfortable. I love fellowship with Christians, I love Christian culture, I love studying God's Word and I love church on a Sunday morning, which all are amazing things, but lately I have realized that I have gotten too comfortable with them and have forsaken the God I love and His commandments. I love time alone with Jesus, but only on my terms. I fast, but only if I can cheat every once in awhile. I can study the Bible sometimes and forget to actually pray over what I read in hopes of actually applying what it says to my life. I can read verses like, "Blessed are the poor," and avoid a bum on the street and could care less about starving orphan-slaves in third world countries. I can read verses like, "Make disciples" and can too easily give up on people who God put on my heart to do just that.

This doesn't sound like a guy who is in ministry. Don't people in ministry have it all together? No, actually we don't. Sometimes we can act like we do though, that's for sure.

I don't want to be one of those people who critiques these things and does nothing about it. The temptation of writing blogs like this is that you can write about issues like this, get "Yay's" and "Amen's" from friends and then not do jack squat about it. I want to go out there and do something.

GOD HELP ME DO SOMETHING!

In Jesus' name, Amen.

What are you willing to do to get uncomfortable for Jesus? Fast? Pray? Give stuff away? What does it look like?

Working Just at ECSU

A tough decision made recently was for me to work ONLY at Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU), not at Manchester Community College (MCC). I came to this decision last month, when I came to a point of feeling overwhelmed by the number of hats I was wearing and the number of new and exciting things I was learning. Jeff Kraines, my campus director and boss, suggested it when I was sharing with him my frustrations and struggles.

I'll start with the hats....Last year I worked at Sports Authority four days a week from 6:00am to 1:00pm, I worked at ECSU once or twice a week, I worked at Manchester Community College, I made funding phone calls and met with partners, I volunteered at my local church, and I helped out at a local youth group.

Sounds like a lot of hats, right? The temptation sometimes in serving Christ is to over-serve. I want to serve Christ and make Him known, but I am only one man! I can only serve in the capacity that I am allowed. As soon as I start feeling overwhelmed and drained, something is wrong. I had to also say goodbye to the youth group I was volunteering at last year for the same reason. Saying, "No", to things is something I'm learning more about. In serving Christ in whatever capacity, I want to give 100%, knowing full well that God will bless it, not just doing it under compulsion because it's my "obliged Christian duty."

At the same time, I am very excited about this decision, because I get to put more focus on my alma mater. ECSU means a lot to me and it is a school I love very much. How I long to see more men and women there who are excited about seeking and serving Jesus!

So for the time being, it's just Eastern. I'm working with some students over there, and others who also go to local community colleges who come to the Christian club on campus. I reach out to non-Christian students, showing them that I'm not some freak just out to complete an agenda, but a friend who desires to get to know them and at the same time show them Jesus Christ. It's harder, it's slower, it's more time consuming, but I pray that it will be worth it. I'm also mentoring some Christian students on campus in both small group and one-on-one relationships. Thanks for your prayers and support!

Serving with you,

Steve