Is Jesus One of Your Facebook Friends?
I must start this lesson with an explanation of what facebook is to many of my older than college aged readers; however, I have seen a trend among many people my age getting their own facebook page recently. Several months ago I overheard my daughter giving my wife, Julie, a hard time for setting up a personal facebook page. My daughter was cool with me having a personal facebook page since I am involved in youth ministry, but she couldn’t understand why her mom would want one.
Facebook is an Internet based system of communication between friends. It started out in the college community of students, and I believe one had to actually be a student registered in a college to have a facebook page. It has now practically replaced the traditional e-mail for most young people today. I suppose the unsolicited “spam” in e-mail pushed the younger generation to seek a system of communication that only allowed participation among selected friends. (You have to give approval to allow a person to become one of your facebook “friends.”) I joined facebook in order to stay connected to my younger readers of A Good Word Ministry. I realized that my college friends were no longer reading my traditional e-mails. I do think as the “older” generation begins to move more into facebook, the younger crowd will seek a new system of communication that keeps us older folks out. I actually saw a posting recently on a college student’s front page of his facebook from his father reprimanding the student for not calling home for a few days. (Not the place to post a message like this.)
You may be thinking now, “OK Robby, thanks for the history of facebook, but what does this have to do with your title: Is Jesus One of Your Facebook Friends?” Good question. Many times during the week I receive a notice that “such and so” has asked to become one of my facebook friends. I then have the option to approve, reject, or ignore the request. If I approve, then that person is placed on my long list of friends on my facebook page, and I in turn become one of their long list of friends on their facebook page. I am honored when asked to be included in each requester’s list of friends, but here is what is beginning to happen:
I accept the invitation to be their friend, and then I send a personal note to my new “friend,” and I receive nothing back. (No response.) It’s like they are saying, “Hey, I want to add you to my list because you are a cool friend to have listed, but I don’t really want to actually communicate with you.” What concerns me is that I see this same trend developing in many young “Christians.” They have a desire to add Jesus to their “friend” list, but they really don’t want a personal relationship with Him. Is Jesus one of your facebook friends?
There is a very popular song that I really like. It is called A Friend of God. In the chorus, and I do enjoy singing it out loud, you repeat the phrase, “I am a friend of God,” over and over again. It does make me feel good to sing this song, but what makes me feel better is the fact that I know Biblically that I am also a child of God. (You can be friends with your children.) I caution you to be very careful in just being OK with being a friend of God. If your desire is to just have Jesus as one of your long list of friends for others to see, but have no personal relationship with Him, you may just get locked out of the House when it’s time to come Home.
Jesus gives us a parable in the Book of Luke chapter 11 about just being a friend. The Bible says, “Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.' "Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.” (Luke 11:5-7 NIV) The parable of Jesus goes on to tell us that the man inside the house did finally get up after the friend continually knocked on the door to teach us to be persistent in our petitions (prayers) to God, but I ask you, who was already in the house with the One who had the bread? His children! Where would you rather be, outside as a friend asking for bread, or inside with The Bread of Life (Jesus) as one of His children?
You may think at this point, “Well Robby, the friend did get bread. What is the advantage of being a child?” I say if your relationship with Jesus is only like one of your facebook friends, then you may later end up standing at the door knocking without getting any response/help. (He may stop coming to the door.)
Let’s look at Luke 13:23. Someone asked Jesus if only a few were going to get into heaven. (Who was going to get into heaven?) The Bible says, “Someone asked him, ‘Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?’ Jesus said, ‘Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, (there is that man in the house again) you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' "But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.' "Then you will say, 'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.' (You use to give us bread when we knocked!) "But he will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!' "There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, (a bad place to be) when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.” (Luke 13:23-28 NIV)
Here is another advantage of being a child of God instead of only having Jesus as a friend: Children receive inheritances! I’m sure that you may call me your friend, but I doubt that my name will be included in your will. The Bible says in Ephesians 4:11 that, “Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God…” (NLT) What is our inheritance? The Bible says, “For his Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God's children. And since we are his children, we will share his treasures – for everything God gives to his Son, Christ, is ours, too. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.” (Romans 8:16-19 NLT)
By now I hope that you are thinking, “Robby, I would much rather be a child of God. Perhaps my relationship with Jesus has been as if He were only a facebook friend - there only when I needed Him. How do I know that I am “really” a child of God?” The Bible says that, “His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.” (Ephesians 1:5 NLT)
He wants to adopt you as a child. So how do you become a child? “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. We know we love God's children if we love God and obey his commandments. Loving God means keeping his commandments, and really, that isn't difficult. For every child of God defeats this evil world by trusting Christ to give the victory. And the ones who win this battle against the world are the ones who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” (1 John 5:1-5 NLT) I repeat for emphasis, loving God means keeping His commandments. The Bible says, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” (Romans 8:14 NLT)
How is your communication with God? The Bible verse above said that it gives great pleasure to Him to adopt you into His family. Do more than just adding Him to your facebook “friend list.” Communicate with Him regularly; ask Him to be your “homepage” so that you will be part of the true family of believers. Also, more importantly, when you receive a message from Him, make sure that you answer back!
Robby
