Does Jesus' Great Commission include Facebook? Matthew 28:16-20

Friends, Facebook and God: Do They Work Together?

Matthew 28:16-20   NIV

The Great Commission

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

I hope everyone learns that it's possible to have a great time and act silly
AND be a Christian at the same time!

When you’re a Christian, you select your friends by different criteria than before God transformed your heart and life into living for Him. Once you’re a Christian, you don’t feel the same comradeship among most of your regular friends. This means you seek out other Christians, or other folks wanting to become a Christian.

This fills your need to be around others with a like-faith and like-minded ideals. Not all of these people will become your best friends. But this is the bonding type of friendship that feels more like family than just friends. These are the people that will pray for you through whatever trouble you face. They will know your financial situation if you’ve ever needed help, like me. Don’t forget that Christians are human, we expect the world to be aware of that. But we need to take a look at ourselves through human eyes and see where we are judging fellow Christians too harshly.. There will be some hard feelings because, even in a church, everyone has opinions of how things should be done.

But they provide an absolute necessity to a Christian. We need the time to refill the God-tank with friends that believe how we do. The longer we are away from our brethren from church, the weaker, spiritually, we are! The more time we spend on those lost to God, they draw what Christian fellowship they are getting from us, personally! We need a refill occasionally.

Have you ever wondered why we have church two times on Sundays and once on Wednesday? It’s spaced out evenly enough that if we reach non-believers and work toward The Great Commission as Jesus commanded of us, we will be spiritually dry, thirsting for church fellowship. God always sustains us and delivers us unto whatever our needs may be. But if God’s Holy Spirit is so active in our lives, we are drawn to other believers. We ALL get excited about what is happening in our community, church, school, hospital, wherever and everyone fills up with a Spirit of God that is excited to continue the good work! How is that not exciting?! Hallelujah!

I’ve always selected my friends based on a variety of factors. I have my best friends, and here I explain the sets of friends I have.

These girlies are forever locked into the BEST FRIEND category

These are the girls that physically and emotionally picked me up when I was at a low point in my life. We jumped in the car to listen to loud music, drive aimlessly and eat Taco Bell…with a Sonic Drink. No, I wasn’t in high school when this happened, they were, but I was not quite 30. These girls were my daily entertainment. We shared food, phones and computers. We took more than is a necessary amount of selfies of us out to do whatever it was we planned on. Mini-Golf, Movies, just driving around til we decided to head back to my house and we’d collapse in the living room with episodes of ‘Supernatural’ on marathon view. Marathon view means at least 28 hours straight. We lived on string cheese and white chocolate rice cakes. Coke, Mountain Dew and Iced Tea. We took our pictures every few hours so we could see how the marathon was effecting our appearance. These girls have moved away now for school. I cannot be any happier for them! Miranda is finding who and where she wants to be in life and I’m happy to see that a few pets have entered her life and I want to meet them! Lexis has just brought a 9.5 lb baby into this world! O,O I. KNOW!!!!!   I can’t wait to see how good of a mommy she is going to be to the junior senator. I love and miss my girlies so much! But, I know that they are there if I need something! They know that I’m always here for them as well. That’s the important thing.

Hide Yo Kids, Hide Yo Wives, We Be Heading to KC, YO!

Then, I have my absolute best best best friend of all time. Chadley. This is the person that knows me down to my bones. There are very few secrets kept here. I can say something I know he doesn’t want to hear and I can deal with his not wanting to hear it and if he stops talking to me for a while, I get it. I can make those really personal jokes that someone in passing would be dying to say, but they don’t have the friendship that goes with it for them to get away with it. I do. Somedays I push my luck with that and can and have made him upset. He behaves about like I do, so how do you apologize to a 3^rd grader? You stand in the driveway, not looking at each other, kick some dirt around, say you’re sorry, eye contact isn’t there for more than 10 seconds through the duration of the apology. Dude says she’s sorry, he accepts, explains a bit, nah, don’t worry about it, ok, we’re cool.  (Yes, I call myself a dude, it makes it easier when your best friend is a guy). But within a few seconds, we’re thinking of the next awesome road trip we need to embark on. Roadtrips are where true friendships are made….and tested.

My family is as twisted up as a good, healthy all-American family should be. We resent each other, we make jokes at each other’s expense. We cheer loudly for and against the myriad of teams between us that we love. Ah-Mazing food is always at grandma’s. My kids get super excited when we go to Mommo’s house. They know Mommo feeds them just about anything they ask for. We have Christmas holidays with her. My dad died several years ago, so it’s just my mom, my sister and her kids, and my family. My bestie has been adopted into the family now. We are just learning how our expanded family is going to create our own traditions.

Clearly, she and I need to take some pictures together!!! 

I have a second best friend. The only reason she is second is because he and I have a ton of things in common. He’s the buddy that we can talk about anything from any topic and we can just keep going for hours. But there is nothing that can replace the girlfriend that can relate to everything you think, feel and say. We don’t get to spend near enough time together without kids or guys being in the way, but these are the girls you get mani-pedis with! Eat really good ice cream with and not once feel guilty for it. We can decorate, create, cook, watch movies or just sit and talk for hours, and if the talking does stop, we have comfortable silences.

By and large, these friends are irreplaceable. I can’t find another one that is just as good. But they all fit into my life in a way that I can still build my relationship with God through. Either I minister to them in some way, or they are my refill from God. They minister to me by having the most fun known to man over trivia games, any board games. It doesn’t matter. Where I am lacking in my walk with God, He sends me a friend with that quality in abundance. The stubborn non-believer that tells me the Bible is just an old book, but it’s not real – Even if I stand my ground and say I disagree. This book is what I live my life by. We may never ever have a discussion about the Bible again. But I know that he will be watching what I say, do and type online.

This brings me to the question of the night: How does a Christian use Facebook? We know that we have our physical friends that will continue to support us in our Christian Walk. If you log onto my Facebook Friend’s List, you will see the people I talk to most.. No big surprise here as my top friends are the best friends I have in my life, the people that I check in with just about daily. They want to see my kids growing up, they want to join in our celebration for a birthday, new pet, new bathroom makeover…whatever we have in our life, these people are here to support us as they do daily.

Another group of people you’ll find me attached to on Facebook are the laughers. If  you know me, you know the biggest factor for who I hang out in life or online is their sense of humor. I love to laugh, make people laugh and generally smile for no reason. I’m a perpetual glass-half-full girl that can find joy in just about anything. For example, when I take a bath at the end of a long day and just want the jets to relax my sore body and discover Spiderman and some Bionicles left in the tub that my boys did not clean out as I had asked. Do I get angry about the fact that I discover Spiderman as I sit down? Sometimes…but I’m human. More times than not, I play with the toys while I relax. No really, I do. Want proof? Fine…

I have friends on my list that have some seriously crass ways of talking about anything. For a while I used to respond to things how they put it out. I didn’t like who I was when I was doing that. I felt like I was being a hypocrite and living a lie. But which life was a lie? Am I the vulgar, crass person that wants to cuss all day long, throwing words into places that don’t even deserve it? Or did I want to live for God even in spite of this new curveball? I chose to live for God. Sometimes I post things that are funny, but not worded correctly and I’ve shared them, anyway. I need to stop being lukewarm. I don’t want to hurt my God by riding both sides of the fence. If it’s worded too crassly, I leave it where it is, now. It doesn’t even bother me to pass it. If someone posts things that I don’t want to see, I can avoid one or two, when it moves past that to a regular activity, I hide their posts so I can’t see them. God intended this to be for His Glory. Anything that is glorifying God can be used as a tool to witness. If someone posts things on my wall or pictures that look like they’re just running their mouth, I ignore them or delete the comment if I have to. If what they say pertains to my belief in God, I will be more than willing to tell my thoughts of the Lord to them.

God has blessed me tremendously in my life and this last year it has been at least doubled. From relying on pain medication, the dreaded Oxycontin, for the better part of 12 years, to being completely pain medication free. No, I’m not pain free, and I don’t think I ever could be, but I have my life back. I would rather feel the pain in my ankle from an accident that cut the right foot off, than live one more day addicted to pain killers. It was a liberation! I know who liberated me, too. God’s hand is visible in every part of my life. I think God put me here for a reason and I’m finding my voice much easier by writing it.

Just remember, we ALL have a long way to go to reach heaven.
But it's going to be a great ride!

Yes, I am WonderWoman.
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Feel free to comment with ANY questions or comments. I know first-hand that accidental addiction to a substance a Doctor prescribed is very likely and a lot more common than I thought, originally. If I can’t be here to respond, please be patient and know that help is available in many places. It takes a very courageous effort to step out of your comfort zone to ask for it.

By the power of GreySkull, YOU have the power!!!!