It's not God's Best...

I often hear preachers and other TV and radio personalities using this phrase when describing sin.  Is it just me, or is saying "It's not God's best for you," a pretty wimpy way of describing sin?  Almost seems like we're saying even though it's not God's best for you, he's still mildly ok with it.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

An Open Letter To My Facebook Friends Part 2

Yesterday I posted the first part of this letter, which listed the things I don't like about Facebook.  So, just to be fair, I thought I would post a sequal and share the things I like about Facebook.

1. I love all the scripture and inspirational thoughts that people post every day.  Especially from those of you who are part of Connection Church.  Knowing that you are in the word and growing in God is so encouraging to me.
2. I love the pictures of your kids as well as reading the little stories, antidotes and accomplishments you post about them.  It truly brings a smile to my face and whenever I see your  cute little munchkins, I always hold my iPad up for Tracy to see.  Kid's are great and they need all the positive reinforcement they can get.
3. I love when people posts positive things about their spouses and how much they love and appreciate them.  There's way too much negativity in our relationships and anytime I see someone affirming their spouse, it does my heart good.
4. I love reading about families in our church hanging out together and developing relationships together.  When I read about dinners, outings and such, I alway comment to my wife about how much I love seeing new relationships formed in our church.
5. I love reading your posts about the silly little mishaps you have on a daily basis.  I think good, clean self-deprecating humor is good for all of us.  It keeps things real.
6. I love reading the life-giving testimonies about what God is doing in all your lives.  He is a powerful, almighty God, whose arm is not too short to save.  Lifting him up for all to see is such a powerful thing, no matter what the medium.

Well, there you have it.  I think Facebook, when used in the right way is such a powerful thing.  Let's continue to redeem it for God's purposes.

An Open Letter To My Facebook Friends

Facebook is taking over the world, which is cool.  However, with it's preverbal take over, I think we all need to think through how we should use it.  Therefor, I have compiled list of things that I see people putting on Facebook that make me cringe and the reasons why.

1. I don't like it when people aire the negative aspects of their life for all to see.  Life is hard enough and to constantly post about how bad it is treating you is unfair to the rest of us.  I know there are times when we have prayer requests or needs, however, why not send a private message to your closest friends that you trust will pray with you rather than posting it on your wall for all to see.
2. I don't like it when people brag about how great their life is all the time.  Listen, we all know you fight with your spouse on occasion, your kids aren't always the greatest and things aren't always exploding with your business.  Just like the extremes of negativity make people cringe so do the extremes of positivity.
3. I don't like the check-in feature of Facebook because it makes it way to easy to judge each other based on our ventures.  Allow me to explain, if you complain in a post about how broke you always are (a clear violation of my first point), and I see you checking into a different restaurant every night, you're going to get judged...like it or not.  Equally, if your always posting about how great things are and I see you checking into your therapist...well you get the point.
4. I don't like when people make statements that everyone knows the truth behind, yet are so evasive that it's meaning can be easily denied.  Statements like, "I'm just so over it..." in the middle of the weekday says that you're having a really bad day at work and you hate your boss(es) - and we all know it.  However, if the powers at be happen to see your post and confront you on it, you can easily say you were talking about something else...which makes you less than honest.  The web has become one big mask that is way to easy to hide behind.
5. I don't like when guys use careless phrases to talk about their wives.  These phrases include words like "smokin, stone cold fox, such a hottie", etc.  I think that your wives deserve a lot more respect than that.  Stop using "Ricky Bobby" words to describe them.  It's no longer funny.
6. I don't like getting invited to events from friends who live hundreds and thousands of miles away.  I feel bad when I have to put "NO, not attending" in the RSVP box.  Rejection sucks, whether it's a mile or 1000 miles away...just saying.

Well, that's my little Facebook tirade.  Tomorrow I will follow up with things I like about Facebook...just to be fair.  Feel free to share your Facebook hangups as well.