The Halftime Show

If you are a Christian, your social media posts are a part of your declaration to the world that you are in Christ. They aren’t some funny exempt area where you can be anonymous or frivolous with how you conduct yourself. It’s not the entirety of your witness, but it is not excluded.

I’m thinking about these things after, at the risk of sounding too harsh, being largely disgusted with absolutely everyone who posted online about the SuperBowl 2020 halftime show yesterday. The Christians I follow were pearl clutching, acting shocked by general human depravity and virtue signaling their horror that non-Christians were acting like non-Christians, and the non-Christians were highly defensive, citing female empowerment and drawing strange non sequiturs (your distaste for the show means you are racist, and enjoy seeing brown children in cages) and generally bending over backward to justify it all. Why work so hard to justify behavior that’s perfectly acceptable? Just let it speak for itself. If you feel a need to jump to the defense of the halftime show, I wonder if there isn’t inside you a deep down acknowledgement that something is off. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Christians, you ought to know better. What do you care most about- publicizing your tsk-tsk distaste for a culture that’s steeped in darkness and isn’t even aware of it? Or honoring the Lord by turning off the TV when things got inappropriate, setting a peaceable example for the people in your direct sphere of influence and showing a real example of how to exist in this world, enjoying the good without partaking in the works of darkness? Did you preach the full, true, beautiful gospel of reconciliation with a holy God or did you just condemn the behavior of the lost without offering hope? Did you know that you can do something virtuous like turn off the TV at halftime and then not even post on social media about it? Your Father in heaven sees and will reward you. But if you shout about it on the corner…. dang. I think you may have already received your reward.

The worst part about all of this is that it culminated in accusations of hypocrisy toward Christians. When Paul points out the Corinthian church’s hypocrisy before the watching world, he says it is to their shame. You are not here to condemn. You are here to shine a light. You are a city on a hill whose lamp must not be hidden. If you are prepared to put your fingers on the keyboard and decry the moral downgrade as evidenced in the halftime show (and yes, I would agree with you that it IS evidence of such), be prepared to offer the solution. And not just as an afterthought. The solution is Christ, and if you are not shouting His name as the solution to the heartbreaking publicly-applauded evidence of lost souls, then check your heart and see whether you truly meant to represent Christ at all, or if you simply meant to pray the prayer of the Pharisee- “God, I thank you that I am not like other people–robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this tax collector.”

We are all sinners, lost and in need of help. Avert your eyes and beat your breast in repentance of your own adulterous heart and hypocrisy before you open your mouth to condemn a dying world. And when you do open your mouth or place your fingers on the keys, give them Jesus. That is what they need. It is what you need, it is what I need. And thank God, He is a mighty Savior who is ready to forgive sinners, of whom I am chief.

My heart in this is not to condemn my fellow Christians but to exhort you strongly to wake up and conduct yourself with integrity across social media at all times and in all circumstances. I’m not any more perfect at it than you are, thank God for His grace and patience. But we must exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in our online presence or no one will ever believe us.

 

Is God Speaking?

I have never heard audible words from God. Having grown up in a charismatic church, I used to be much more careless about attributing my internal thoughts to God as Him “speaking to me” because that was the culture I was surrounded with and it was what I understood to be correct. But I have matured since then in my walk with the Lord, and now I am extremely cautious about that, because I have a much better grasp of how deceitful my own heart can be. I also have a very large book with all His words for me in it.

I do believe He directs me to certain scriptures that address things I’m going through or need to understand, and I do believe that He uses the words of others to encourage/convict/teach etc. I’ve even had really crystal clear impressions in my mind while praying that match up with scripture and that I have on occasion attributed to Him “speaking” to me, in a sense. But you know what? He is a comforter and a counselor, but he’s also a Mighty God. And close encounters with Him NEVER leave me feeling like I am free to be casual or flippant about it. On those occasions when I have genuinely felt His presence in the room, I am overwhelmed with the knowledge of His holiness, my sinfulness, and I’m on my face.

There is a controversy happening right now (on Twitter, natch) that itself really isn’t that important to know about, except that it invites some thoughtful discussion about this for Christians: how does God speak to us today? Are we invited to attribute the thoughts in our heart to Him as His actual words? When is it okay for a leader to get up in front of a group of Christians and non-Christians and say “God said ______” when what follows is not text straight from scripture, but rather a thought they had or an IMAGINED conversation? This never frustrated me growing up because I didn’t know any better, but now it really frustrates me because it often feels careless. There often is no distinction provided that “The Lord has been teaching me something lately, and what I’m sharing is an imagined conversation because I DID NOT actually hear words spoken to me, so check everything I say against scripture.” I do believe that the Holy Spirit does and has gifted some people with prophecy and that is a gift that is used today, so that’s not what I’m addressing here. I’m asking the average person, and even pastors, when is it okay to say “God said…” or “God told me…?”

My understanding here is that scripture makes it really clear in Hebrews 1: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.”

Am I missing something?