Taylor, the Tiger and Twitter...
T-Swift, The Tiger and Twitter?
What do Taylor Swift, Tom Cruise, Tiger Woods and Tom Hanks all have in common? They all have names starting with the letter T? Well yes they do but that is not what I was going to say, but I appreciate that you were paying attention. No what they have in common is..
Drum roll please….
Nothing at all as far as I can tell, except that they all have five hundred times (at least) as many followers on twitter than Theologian John Piper. They all have more than triple the people who see what they say on a daily basis than the combined following of Piper, Douglas Wilson, Al Mohler, Kevin De Younge, Mark Dever and David Platt. If we add a Rick Warren we might get to half of what Tom Cruise has. Think about that for just one moment
Tom Cruise.
The luminary who starred in such amazing movies like Mission Impossible 1,2,3,4,5&6 (seriously how many of these movies are there?) Tropic Thunder, Rock of Ages and War of the Worlds…
The same guy who jumped up and down on Oprah’s couch for some unknown reason (please if you know the reason keep it to yourself) has a larger audience on a daily basis than John Piper.
Stop for a moment, go back and read that out loud…Tom Cruise’s thoughts, his opinions, his theology has 5.2 MILLION more minds it infects than Piper.
So what is the point of this mini tirade?
The point my friends is it’s time for us Christians to get off the sidelines and cut down on the Netflix and join in the debate.
Like it or not the people you care about are already out there, they are engaging. We live in a world where any opinion or thought we have can be transmitted to thousands even millions of people in a instance.
Yet to often as Christians we are withdrawing from the social media platform. Why is that? We have the most important message in the world.
So here are three points why we need to take back the internet and transform social networking.
1. We know the Antidote to cultures sickness.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 5:14-16 ESV
My Friends we know the cure to the curse, Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord is the medicine this world needs. We are the men and women tasked with sharing this glorious news with this generation…are we to hide it? If we aren’t sharing our light with the world are we being a good neighbour?
“For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."”
Galatians 5:14 ESV
If we withhold truth from the world are we really loving our neighbours as ourselves? Or are we just waiting for that perfect storm that our friends, co-workers and family members just ask us what is truth.
Social media gives us a platform to share truth to anyone who we are connected with in an instant. It gives us a way to stay engaged with people who we are separated by geography or time and it gives us a platform to show that there are people who will still stop and say “this is not right”
2. Our Opponents are not being silent.
Like it or not everyone is having some sort of idolatry thrown at them on a daily basis, whether it be pluralism, agnosticism or Islam our friends, coworkers and family are being evangelized. Our spiritual opponents are not remaining silent, they are pushing their propaganda every day twenty four seven.
What are we doing about it?
The truth is most of us are letting our Pastors, or the John MacArthur’s, John Piper or Francis Chan’s of the world do all the talking. The Sad part is though as good or as wise as each of those men are they will never have as big an impact on the people in your sphere of influence as you can.
David Platt says “How do you know God is working in the lives of those around you? God is working in your life and you have been placed around them”
There is no accident that you share a cubicle with Sally the Atheist at work, or that you bump into Billy the Buddhist at the gym every few days.
God is sovereign. That means those random connections you have in real life and on the web are all meant for a purpose. If you won’t proclaim truth around them, Oprah surely will…
3. We have unprecedented access to the body.
Simply put we live in a wonderful time where we can pull out our phones, open up YouTube and listen to some of the greatest preachers, theologians and bible scholars that have ever lived. We can instantly be filling our mind with God’s word whether we are stuck in traffic on the highway or mowing your lawn. Romans tells us to be transformed by the renewal of your mind, we live in an age where the good sound Biblical teaching is just a click away.
So my friends, let us not be a passive force awaiting a once in a lifetime opportunity to preach Christ under the perfect conditions and recognize that we are the light in the darkness, we have the tremendous privilege to be instruments in God’s mission to reverse the curse. We have been tasked to make disciples of all nations, that is not a command for just a few “special” Christians that is a call for all of us, to make disciples and advance the Kingdom.
You have been saved from something and for something. God called you out of your sickness to be his workmanship in his story of restoration.
The mission is clear. The Battle lines have been drawn. All we need now is to realize it only took 12 men to turn the world upside down, imagine what we could do if we got off the sidelines.
A Rebel with a cause
Chris Poots