Post details: Cyberfaith

10/13/07

Permalink 04:15:49 am, Categories: By Pam
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Cyberfaith

The Internet has made every believer a preacher. On the net, those who usually sit quietly in the pews every Sunday are given opportunity to speak. It is good to read expressions of the faith that are never heard. It is edifying to see how God is forming Christ in others and to be able to share fellowship in Christ on such a deep and meaningful level.

There is also a downside to this form of free expression. When all hearts are bared it is quite evident that each believer has a unique expression and understanding of their faith in God. It becomes evident that uniformity of believers in Christ was a denominational myth. Our need for the unifying factor of Jesus Himself is made very obvious for without Him this faith is utter confusion.

The confusion and our overwhelming human need for the security of uniformity cause us to divide much as the church has long been divided, along the lines of doctrine and simular understanding. Many of us, fleeing the division and strife of the traditional church and the religions formed around Christ, are now creating in cyberspace new religions as we gather with others on various web sites around the whats of our faith in Christ. What began as believers from many denominational backgrounds sharing faith in Jesus, centered upon Him, has given way to even more finite division than what existed in the church before the laity was empowered by the Internet to preach.

I for one am already quite weary of the division in the practice of cyberfaith and of all the cyberfaith wars. Jesus is not a video game. Jesus is not a religion to be fought for. Jesus is not a club to hold over the head of those we perceive as enemies. Jesus is the way we live and the way we treat each other. Our words are important and we will be held in account for every word that we have typed and sent out in the electronic world and either the good or the evil that those words unleash into cyberspace; an invisible world of invisible forces that shape the visible world in which we live. Every evil that we carelessly wish upon another and every bone of offense that we continually pick at is electronically recorded forever.

Let each of us who are in Christ remember our calling as Ambasadors for Christ, declaring the peace of God to a dying world. Let our every word be words of edification laced with the Hope that is only Jesus lest we cause one another to grow completely weary of well doing, lest we bring upon our own heads the destruction that we so often warn others of. Let each of us wait upon the Holy Spirit that our words would proceed from Him and that the Light that is only Jesus would shine brightly in a darkened world.

Comments:

Comment from: the_burning_bush [Visitor] · http://mere-devotion.blogspot.com/
Hi Pam,

I like your style. Steve says you leave a lot of terms undefined, but his demand for objectivity suggests that precise language can communicate whats going on inside of us.

In some ways your post here is a good response to that. Talk is cheap. People are starting new religions while sitting on their arm chair. It's as easy to fill a blog with words as it is to play video games, as you have said. Using technically qualified language only increases the magnitude of the phoniness.

The call to edification is a call to a seriousness that is totally foreign to the para-academic demands they put on you. You use your words to mean what you want them to mean, and people can only understand them if they want to understand them. I think that is excellent. It reminds me of the parables Jesus spoke.

In spite of their confusion, they do seem able to recognize the kindness of your tone (a tone, like 'Christianese' is a subtle between-the-lines attitude which is totally impossible to define objectively). This admission on their part clarifies the weakness they already associate with their views before they even begin typing.

I'm glad I found this place. This is my first time here. Do you have any interest in putting this address in your name on blogger? I would have found it sooner ...
Permalink 10/14/07 @ 00:35
Comment from: freebird [Visitor]
I for one am already quite weary of the division in the practice of cyberfaith and of all the cyberfaith wars.

This is true... especially if you're right and everybody else is wrong.
Permalink 10/14/07 @ 07:50
Comment from: Pam [Member]
Hi BB,

I'm glad you made it over. I only contribute here this is Trent's blog. I believe God will lead people here as He desires and often, He also leads them away. That makes me sad sometimes but I know God's purposes are served even in our human conflicts.

As for language, we all speak our own I think. When I speak of God I try to use Biblical terms but those terms do not have the commonality that they once had. The world is getting darker and the darker it gets the less that the Light that is Jesus is understood.

We build relgion like bees build hives. I think it is something we have to continually fight within ourselves. We continually make God over into our own image and then promote that image. God is faithful to smash all the images we create to maintain His relationship with us in Christ. This morning, I'm hoping that I am finally becoming mature enough to smash my own images upon the moment I begin to create them.

Parables are somewhat like a good painting that has recognizable form that speaks to everyone but also expresses Spirit which speaks to each individual. Those of us who are truly interested in ministering Jesus to a dying world must also speak according to that Spirit and be prepared for the various individual responses. Those responses are the work of God that we can't see the end of and really have nothing to do with us.

I'm glad you found us. You may not agree with everything you find here. We are all a work in progress and I may not totally agree with even some of the older things I myself have written. Some of what I write comes from me and the better stuff is made up of the words that God gives me. Forgive me of the first and be edified by the second.

Thanks for starting my day on such a sweet note.

Pam
Permalink 10/14/07 @ 09:42
Comment from: Pam [Member]
freebird,

Isn't this true of all of us? In reality, God is true and every man is a liar. We all build up our systems of belief and then God knocks thems down, not to destroy them, but to put them in their place because all any of us need is Jesus. I am a human being and often hypocritical, pointing out the defects of my brother or sister while being blind to my own. Please, forgive me.

Pam
Permalink 10/14/07 @ 09:45

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