Hi everyone,
Now to my point....
Have you ever thought about what it would be like to cook dinner for your family most days, only to have them say, "Not tonight, I'm eating elsewhere"? Occasionally, that's fine, but if it were a regular occurrence, we might begin to wonder what's going on.
I've been reading through 1 Timothy & 2 Timothy over the last few days, and I would like to share what I have seen about society in the last days.
2 Timothy 3 has a bit to say about the kind of people to avoid, then says,
"....from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
Then in 1 Timothy 4:3 "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;"
Paul warned Timothy to ensure he taught the word of God truly. He said in the last days, people would not want to hear the truth. Clearly, this was already happening in his day. But as I read it, I thought to myself, if this doesn't describe the influence of the internet, I don't know what does! No one needs to creep into anyone's home because we hold the world in our hands on our devices.
Within the palm of our hands, behind closed doors, we have countless voices, some good and some bad. But those people have NO RELATIONSHIP with us, they don't know our hopes and dreams, sins and struggles. They don't know our family situation or the community that we call our own.
What's more, there are SO MANY that we can become overwhelmed with ideas and have no place or context to work them out.
I know because I have the world in the palm of my hands as well, and yes, I get overwhelmed with it all as well.
1. Commit to being in a face-to-face, across-the-table, in-the-building, geographically local church community. (Proverbs 27:6,17)
2. Receive the Word from your local church pastor. He knows you, he cares for you, and he knows your local context. Relationship trumps content every time. (Hebrews 13:17 & 1 Timothy 5:17)
3. Be very deliberate in what your eyes and ears watch. Ask the question, "Do I need to know this?"
4. Finally, read a real, hard-copy paper Bible. One that can't be altered by technology. In a world where we cannot really trust what we see to be real, we can rest our confidence fully on the unchanging Word of God, which has spoken truth and life to every generation for thousands of years, and speaks to every possible context, whether cultural, class, nationality, or mental and soul condition.
I can tell you that each week, your Pastor is labouring in the Word to bring you something encouraging, instructive and nurturing. He lives in the same place as you, and he can speak into your life in a way that no online influencer can, including me!
Just like happens around the family table each day, someone who loves you has prepared the meal. Conversations, feedback, challenge, support and growth take place around that table.
Choose community, choose authenticity, choose local. Make online just complementary to the main diet.
With love,
Lynda
