Time Slots

I have found myself asking this question recently: Is a series of 20 minute get togethers enough to be able to know someone? It may even be the same 20 minute setting every week, but if it’s online, and because of the way we ‘feel’ about the video or podcast, are we really that much closer to what that person is like during the other 23+ hours of the day?

When you were young, and maybe you still are, you deliberately took as much time as possible, over a long period, to get to know the love of your life. If you relied on the same 20 minutes, once a week, at the same time, do you think that would give you enough information to decide if you wanted to marry, and spend the rest of your life together? Not to mention commit yourself to all the financial and emotional needs?

The internet is a minefield, and I’m sure you already know that. But how seriously do we take some things that are said there, especially when they are said with some authority and conviction? I have learned recently, that a short 20 minute sermon is not enough to form a correct and accurate opinion of someone, and even more so if that time is pulled down from an untrusted website.

Like it or not, we can all crave a Godly figurehead that we can respect and look up to. We want to believe them when they preach, but does that short window give us enough time to throw our lot in with them, perhaps calling them our ‘example’, ‘mentor’, ‘teacher’, or even ‘Pastor’? There are many self proclaimed Bible preachers on TV and the internet who command a large following, and for many it’s all down to the 20 minute sermons they preach.

Some followers don’t even live in the same country as their leaders. So, when your life is falling apart and you need a counsellor, can you ask them to drop in and pray? If a loved one is at death’s door, who will be there with you to comfort? If you want your baby to be dedicated, will your distant ‘Pastor’ perform that sacrament for you? Marry you? Bury you? Who do you fellowship with, and who do you give your tithe and offering to? And the list goes on.  

It concerns me greatly that some very well educated, clever Christians are sucked into the ‘online church’ because it tickles their ears with what they want to hear, at least for 20 minutes a time. Is that really what is intended in Hebrews 10:24-25 by “ And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”?

Free?

In the beginning, the world wide web was introduced with a fanfare of freedom, uncensored useage, and unrestricted content, but especially free and unrestricted. Brilliant, a place where you can say what you like, display what you want, express yourself without worry, and no one will pull you up for it.

This past week the UK has seen the suicide of another teenage schoolgirl, who was cyber-bullied to such an extent she saw only one way to stop it. I said ‘another’ because this is not the first, and will not be the last. In the meantime, the anonymous bullies (that’s a nice word for them) slink back into the shadows where they belong.

Is this the way it should be? I am sure this kind of ‘freedom’ wasn’t seen as any way to abuse the privilege. After all, every freedom comes with cost and consequence. Now, late in the day, our politicians are trying to find ways to govern this kind of misuse of the internet social media sites. Oh hold on, isn’t this censorship? The very thing the advocates of the www were trying to avoid? In a word, yes, and rightly so. Do we really need websites which show child abuse, pornography, and gratuitous violence to name a few? While this is going on, there are those ultra liberals who reckon this is a price we pay for our personal freedoms. Eh?? Run that by me again, or better still, talk to the growing number of grieving families.

Rules in some form or another have been with us from the beginning. Remember Adam being told not to eat the forbidden fruit? The ten commandments? The rules of your local club, or your own church denomination? The speed limit? The laws of the land? All of these are necessary rules to live by, not because personal freedom isn’t important, but because we must take care of the greater good of our wider society and community. That’s just putting others before ourselves. It is no mistake that the best guide book in the world, the Bible has rules to live by. Some parts say ‘do not’ and some say ‘do this’, and every one makes our society a better place, while at the same time protects our own freedom. What’s not to like about that?

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16 NKJV

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 1 Peter 2:13,14 NIV