He has completely transformed. His face shines like the sun and his clothes are so white and bright you can barely look at them. His glory holds your gaze, but you then notice he is not alone. Elijah and Moses are there also, in the same glorious form as Jesus, and are talking with him. 

Not knowing what to do, you mumble something about building them tents. Before you can finish your offer, however, a booming voice from Heaven says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

The voice is so powerful and the vision so real that your strength leaves you. You fall to the ground in amazement and fear, when suddenly someone touches you on the shoulder and helps you up. It is Jesus, but this time he looks like a carpenter’s son again. Jesus encourages you and James and John, and then you head back down the mountain.

This story is called the “transfiguration” and it appears several times in the Gospels. Matthew 17: 1-13, Mark 9:1-13, and Luke 9:28-36. If you had this experience, two things are certain. First, you would never forget it. Second, you would never have reason to doubt who Jesus is.

We all want this mountain top experience. We want to see God’s glory in powerful ways, and that is a good thing. The problem is, most of us don’t know where or how to find it.

Fortunately for us, Peter wrote a couple letters and one deals with this subject. Let’s look at 2 Peter 1:16-21:

¹⁶ For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷ For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” ¹⁸ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. ¹⁹ And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,²⁰ knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.²¹ For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

This passage is amazing. It has been blowing me away for the past two weeks.

Let’s get this straight: This is Peter. Who saw the transfiguration. Who was on the mountain when Jesus’ face shone like the sun. Who heard the voice of the Father directly. Despite having this absurdly incredible experience, Peter says that there is something better than the transfiguration?!?!

That something better is God’s Word. Despite his experience, he knows that the Bible is the greatest testament to Christ’s glory and God’s existence.

Why does Peter think it is better? That will have to wait until Thursday…

1 Samuel ends the period of the Judges and begins the age of the Kings. It is a historical book and reads like a story about heroes.

There are three key leaders of Israel in this book, and each gets plenty of “screen time.” The first is Samuel, who is the final great judge of Israel and the one who anoints the first two kings. The second is Saul, who is the first King of Israel. Finally we meet David, who is considered the greatest King of Israel. In this book, we will see Saul’s honor declining as David’s honor increases. The story ends with the death of Saul.

Key Moments:

- Samuel hears the voice of the Lord as a young boy. As he grows, he continues to hear from the Lord and he is verified as a true prophet time and again (1 Samuel 3).

- The Philistines Capture the Ark of the Covenant. 1 Samuel 5 may be one of the best reads in the entire Bible. In it, the evil Philistines put the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant in their temple at the feet of their god. Only problem is, every morning they find the statue of their god has fallen and is bowing to the Ark. #Awesome.

- The people demand a King and the Lord decides to give them one. He warns them, however, that having a king won’t be as delightful as they imagine (1 Samuel 8:10-22).

- Saul is anointed and then announced as King. He feels unworthy, however, and so he hides among the baggage. His inability to love himself and need for approval from others costs him greatly later in the story (1 Samuel 10:20-24).

- Saul is rejected by the Lord two times for two different offenses. These cost him the throne and, more importantly, the blessing of God. First, he makes an unlawful sacrifice in an attempt to earn God’s blessing before going into war. Second, he did not destroy the spoils of the Amelekites like he was supposed to. He listened to the people and allowed them to keep the best of their livestock and all the rest that was good. (1 Samuel 13:8-15, 1 Samuel 15).

- David is anointed King to take the place of Saul. He is but the youngest of his family, and a shepherd, but he is God’s choice (1 Samuel 16:6-13).

- David defeats Goliath in one of the greatest David and Goliath stories ever. David’s victory comes because of God’s power, not his own (1 Samuel 17).

- Saul becomes jealous of David and starts trying to find ways to kill him (1 Samuel 18:6-16). Much of the rest of this book tells of Saul’s attempts to kill David, and God’s protection of the future King. Things also stay interesting because Saul’s son, Jonathan, is David’s best friend and they made a covenant with each other (1 Samuel 18:1-3).

- Samuel dies in 1 Samuel 25:1.

- As Saul continues to hunt David, his decisions become worse and worse. In 1 Samuel 22:17-19, he kills 85 priests he thinks are helping David and trying to hurt him. In 1 Samuel 28, we calls upon a witch to bring up Samuel’s spirit  in attempts to get advice.

- Ironically, David continually works to preserve and protect the life of the king. Twice he could have killed Saul in his sleep, but twice he let Saul live and asked Saul to start trusting him again. Saul agrees both times, but then quickly forgets (1 Samuel 24, 1 samuel 26).

- The book ends with Saul’s death at the hands of the Philistines, paving the way for David to become King (1 Samuel 31).

Important Themes:

- We must disciple the next generation: Few people did this well in Israel. Eli, the high priest who raised Samuel, had two worthless sons (1 Samuel 2:12). Even Samuel himself, who was a great prophet, raised sons who “perverted justice” (1 Samuel 8:3). We must make every effort to raise our children and the youth of our generation in the Lord.

- Trust your identity in the Lord: Saul’s main problem (in my opinion) is that he never trusted God’s love for him. He kept thinking he had to earn God’s favor and the favor of men, and this caused him to make very rash decisions that ruined his kingdom. You cannot love your neighbor as yourself unless you love yourself. A proper love for self only comes when we recognize God’s love for ourselves. This means that we must be hearing from the Lord on a regular basis. Good thing we have His Word!

- The Lord is the true King: This was true in Israel, and it is true today. God chooses and anoints the rulers in our world, and we should respect them, even when they are not perfect. David’s love for Saul as the “Lord’s Anointed,” even after Saul tries to kill him, is an incredible example of this.

- Victory comes from the Lord: David overcomes Goliath. Jonathan and his armor bearer defeat hundreds of Philistines (1 Samuel 14). How do these victories happen? As Jonathan said, “nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.” God is bigger than your problems, so trust Him!

- “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Enough said.

- David spends some time living with the Philistines because he had to flee from Saul. He respects the leadership there, and even has much success in the land. This seemed strange to me at first, but if you read Jeremiah’s letter to the people of Israel in exile, I think it helps. See Jeremiah 29:1-9.

How it points to Christ:

- The Introduction of the King. One of Jesus’s primary offices is that of our King. Here we see the first examples of what Kingship is, although they are imperfect pictures. In 2 Samuel, we will see more of David’s kingship and get some better foreshadowings, but nonetheless, Christ’s kingship is certainly foreshadowed in 1 Samuel.

- David is a shepherd who cares for and protects his flock (1 Samuel 17:34-37). Jesus, likewise, is the true “good shepherd” (John 10:11).

- David is continually rejected by the power of his day. Despite his constant innocence, they seek to take his life because they fear his potential power. The same thing happens to Jesus.

- Jesus is a direct descendent of King David.

*Photo: Gebhard Fugel [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

We are launching it big this week, and could really use your support. We’re giving away tons of bumper stickers and 10 free t-shirts! Winning is really easy, so you should definitely check it out. If you’re wondering what #LiveFully is all about, check out this sweet video or you can read our core values below.

Vision:

Our vision is to unite a global community that believes following Jesus is the most full life

AND

to positively change how followers of Jesus are perceived in mainstream cultures of the world

mission

to celebrate followers of Jesus impacting (not escaping) culture

and

to inspire others to do the same

convictions

Jesus alone redeems people and cultures

the redemption of Jesus transforms every area of personal life and positively impacts every sphere of cultural life

followers of Jesus should be most recognized for what they contribute to the world rather than what they are against in the world

In Matthew 26:53, Jesus gets arrested. Peter attempts to save him by cutting off the ear of a servant of the high priest. Jesus responds by healing the ear and saying, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?”

Jesus tells Peter that he can protect himself. But we often breeze through this passage without thinking about what twelve legions of angels truly means.

Now, a Roman legion was typically composed of 5,000 men.

That means, Jesus could have (12 x 5,000) 60,000 angels come to his aid in an instant. This number is probably not the exact number of angels, but rather a large number Jesus chose to symbolize the help he could get if he wanted.

Now, 60,000 angels is a lot. But we tend to underestimate the power of angels. We see them as cute little characters made of plastic in our manger scenes.

In reality, every time someone met an angel in the Bible they were TERRIFIED. They thought they were as good as dead. Some people did actually die.

In 2 Kings 19, we see King Hezekiah praying to the Lord for protection. A huge Assyrian army is marching to destroy Jerusalem, and Hezekiah’s people have no chance of victory. He and all the people pray and fast for protection, and the Lord hears their cry. He defends them against the Assyrians in dramatic fashion.

In the middle of the night, 185,000 Assyrian attackers are killed. By angels. Actually, scratch that. They were killed by one angel.

So, 1 angel is capable of destroying at least 185,000 enemies in one night. That means that Jesus could have easily called down (185,000 x 60,000) enough angels to defeat at least 11,100,000,000 enemies.

Yikes. And those are just his servants! As powerful as the angels are, none of them created each other and none of them rose from the dead.

Good thing we are on his side, because he is way more powerful than we can imagine.

Romans 8:37-39 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In both the hard times and the good, run to Jesus. He is our protector, and he will take care of us in any situation.

*Image Credit: Martin.Jessica

The book of Ruth is an amazing story of love and loyalty that demonstrates God’s incredible plan for the world. It stands tall at only 4 chapters, but it’s rich with foreshadowings of Christ.

Romantic hearts will certainly love this story, and it is a real encouragement for those who are going through hard times. Here we will see that God does make things work together for our good, and that His plan of redemption is better than we can imagine.

Key moments:

- Naomi’s entire family dies while sojourning in Moab, but Ruth (one of her daughters-in-law and a Moabite) refuses to leave her side. “Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:1-18).

- Naomi returns to Bethlehem and believes God has punished her for some unknown sin (Ruth 1:19-22).

- Ruth, in attempts to provide for herself and Naomi, gathers grain in Boaz’s field. He meets her in person and is so impressed by her, that he tells her not to seek grain from any other field. He even tells his workers to leave extra grain for her to make life easier. He demonstrates a true desire to protect and provide for Ruth (Ruth 2).

- Naomi realizes that Boaz is willing to marry Ruth. She also recognizes him as a kinsmen-redeemer. So she comes up with a daring plan that might have been slightly unethical. Ruth waits until Boaz eats and drinks and passes out on the Threshing floor for the night. He then wakes up un the middle of the night, is obviously startled, and says something like “who the heck are you?” She then identifies herself as Ruth and asks him to marry her because he is her redeemer. Boaz loves the idea, but because of some legal issues there is a relative who he must ask first (Ruth 3).

- Boaz is Ruth’s “kinsmen-redeemer.” Two things are being redeemed here according to the law. First, Naomi and her husband had some land they sold in order for them to survive. In Leviticus 25:25, God says that the nearest living relative has the right to purchase the land back so it may stay in the family. Second, there is a responsibility for the nearest relative to also marry any young widows without children (Ruth, in this example). This way, the woman will still have children and her husband’s line will continue (Deuteronomy 25:5-6).

- Boaz goes immediately and meets with the relative, who has the first responsibility and privilege as redeemer because he is the closer kinsmen. He does not desire to purchase the land and marry Ruth, however, and so he allows Boaz  to “redeem” her and the land. As a legal sign, he gives Boaz one of his shoes and leaves with one barefoot. Why this isn’t a legally binding form of contract anymore, I guess we’ll never know (Ruth 4:1-12)

- Boaz marries Ruth and they conceive a son. From now on Ruth has a new identity and position in history. Their son is named Obed, who in turn is the father of Jesse, and then Jesse was the father of David (Ruth 4:13-22)

Important Themes:

- Our pain does not necessarily mean God’s judgement. Naomi (because of the death of her family) and Ruth (because she had no children) believed that God was angry at them for past sins (Ruth 1:21). But in actuality, God had a bigger plan. Through these events he brought the line of King David into existence and eventually even Jesus was born of their line.

- The most powerful form of attraction is for another person’s relationship with God. In Ruth 2:12 we see he is attracted to Ruth’s relationship and faithfulness to God. He is a Godly man, and to attract a Godly spouse we should also live Godly lives.

- Don’t delay on your promises. Boaz said he would ask the relative for Ruth’s hand in marriage, and he did so that very day.

- The law must be satisfied and cannot be ignored. In order for Boaz to redeem Ruth, he was legally required to ask the relative first. He could not simply ignore the law because of love, but instead he fulfilled the law and did so in the presence of the local elders of the city.

How it Points to Jesus:

- Boaz’s role as redeemer is a clear picture of Christ’s role as our redeemer. Just as Boaz redeemed Ruth because of his love for her, so Christ redeems us. Boaz could not ignore the law, nor could Christ. It had to be fulfilled! Ruth came at a price, because Boaz had to purchase the field and provide for her. We too were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20), and we should never forget that! We are now the bride of Christ, and he has given us a new life, a new identity, and a new hope.

- Genealogy: Ruth and Boaz are direct ancestors of Jesus.

*Photo Credit: Seetheholyland

Judges follows a pretty simple formula:
1) People reject God.
2) God sends the Midianites/Philistines/whoever to wreak havoc on the Israelites.
3) The Israelites cry out for help.
4) God raises up a “judge” who is able to save the people from their enemies.
5) Although the judges are imperfect, throughout their rule the people tend to follow God and their is peace in the land.
6) The Judge dies, and the people quickly reject God again.

Samson Captured by the Philistines

Important Moments:

Judge 1: Othniel (Judges 3:7-11) was the first judge and defeated the “Cushan-rishathaim” people and Israel had 40 years of rest.

Judge 2: Ehud (Judges 3:12-30) saved Israel from Moab rule that had lasted 18 years. After killing the Moabite king with a “secret message,” also known as a sword through the stomach, Israel had 80 years of peace.

Judge 3: Shamgar (Judges 3:31) probably contributed to Ehud’s 80 years of peace. Very little is said about him, but he did manage to kill 600 Philistines with an oxgoad.

Judge 4: Deborah (Judges 4-5) was the only female Judge in the book. Interestingly, she is also the first “major” judge and the only major judge who stays true in her worship of God. A man named Barak could have been judge, but was too afraid to go into battle without Deborah. Because of his fear, a woman named Jael received the glory for winning the battle because she killed the evil king.

Judge 5: Gideon (Judges 6-8) started out great, but somehow the pride got to his head in the end. One of my favorite Bible stories tells about how God used 300 men and Gideon to defeat 120,000 men (not a typo). Clearly, this isn’t possible without God, and Gideon knew this, but somehow began to believe he deserved the credit. By the end of his life, he had set up an ephod that went against God’s commands, failed to lead the people to the Lord, and fathered a son through a concubine who would unlawfully set himself up as King over Israel…

King Abimelech? (Judges 9) This was interesting. Abimelech wanted power, and he took it through back door deals and murder. He then set himself up as king for 3 years. Because of his evil, God did not let him stay in power long and had him killed in the most powerless way possible in Abimelech’s eyes. A “certain woman” hit him in the head with an upper millstone. Because he couldn’t bear the shame of being killed by a woman, he asked his armor-bearer to kill him. His young man, apparently, had no problem doing this and killed him without arguing.

Judge 5 and 6: Tola and Jair (Judges 10:1-5) Don’t really know much about these guys…but they judged Israel for a while and Jair liked giving his kids donkeys.

Judge 7: Jephthah (Judges 11-12) is confusing. He was the son of a prostitute, but knew the story of Israel and worshipped the Lord. He also hung out with bad people and made the stupidest vow in the Bible. In Judges 11:30-31 he promises to sacrifice whatever comes out from the doors of his house to the Lord. Maybe he was expecting an animal, but of course it was his only daughter who came out. Scholars debate whether or not he actually killed her to sacrifice her, or if she was just dedicated to the Lord, never to have children. Either way, it was a stupid move, and if he truly knew the Law he would have known that God hates child sacrifice and permits vows that result in sin to be voided (Deut. 23:21-23).

Judge 8: Samson (Judges 13-16) is probably the most famous judge. He defeated the Philistines (one day he killed 1,000 men with a fresh donkey jawbone?!!?) and judged Israel for 20 years, but had a real problem with lusting after Philistine women. All 3 of them lied, tricked him, and tried to have him killed (actually, the second one was a prostitute who may have only distracted him while others tried to kill him). The third one, Delilah, succeeded. Samson, like Gideon, let his own pride get in the way of his relationship with God and ultimately died for it. But, he did have one last feet of strength when the Philistines brought him in for entertainment. He knocked over the two pillars holding up the temple with his bare hands and killed thousands of Philistines, many of whom were their evil leaders.

After the Judges (Judges 17-21) Israel’s rejection of God gets even worse. One of the towns in Benjamin even becomes an exact parallel to Sodom and Gomorrah. Judges 19 seriously made me sick. This leads to Civil War, and the near decimation of Benjamin. In these chapters, we are frequently reminded that there is no king over Israel.

Main Themes:

- Your gifts and abilities come from the Lord. I don’t care how naturally gifted and proud of yourself you are, God can take it all away in an instant. So honor, praise, and trust Him. Don’t make the mistakes of Gideon or Samson.

- When God’s presence leaves us we rarely realize it. This occurs to Samson in Judges 16:20. Why did he not know? Because he stopped paying attention to His relationship with God! He was distracted by his own pride and love for a Philistine woman who cared more about making a few easy dollars than his life. If we start giving other things more attention than God, we rarely recognize the damage it does to our relationship with Him until we have made a huge mistake.

- Marry a woman who loves the Lord. Samson went after 3 different women, and every single one of them betrayed him and almost caused his death (the third succeeded). You want to marry someone who will love and encourage you like Deborah, not an attractive, but godless, person who will cheat and lie to you.

- God amplifies your gifts. The Spirit of the Lord frequently comes upon people and enables them to do extraordinary things. We have the same Holy Spirit today, and through Him we can do anything.

- Disciple the next generation: The judges generations never seemed to raise up children who followed the Lord. They all rejected Him as soon as their parents were gone. We are experiencing the same problem today!

- Be careful with your words. Jephthah’s vow was stupid and unnecessary. God was with him already! We don’t need to make vows to the Lord, especially when we cannot keep them, when He already loves us and approves of us. Because He first loved us, we can love Him.

- We need a King who will guide us. This foreshadows both Israel’s kings and, more importantly, our ultimate and perfect king in Jesus.

How it Points to Christ:

Despite the brutality and nausea effect this book can have, Christ is clearly communicated in this book. Each Judge actually foreshadows Christ. They save Israel from their enemies and lead them to peace, just like Jesus. Though many of them are good judges, they are all imperfect for two reasons. First, they sinned! Some worse than others, but Jesus never sinned and is therefore a better judge. Second, they died. Once they were gone, the people fell away from God without a leader. Although Jesus died, the story does not end there. He rose again to life, and is still to this day our King and Judge who leads us into peace and right relationship with God.

Therefore, we are incredibly blessed to have a righteous judge who cares for us and desires to call us out of darkness and into the eternal light of salvation.

There are also two instances of the Angel of the Lord, who most agree is Jesus in “Old Testament form” appearing to people. First is his appearance to Gideon in Judges 6:11-24. His second appearance is to Samson’s parents is in Judges 13:3-21.

The Big Picture:

Joshua is really broken into two halves. The first describes the Israelites entry into the Promised Land (after the Exodus and 40 years in the desert) and the battles they fought in order to receive their inheritance.

There are some violent stories in which Israelites completely destroy Canaanites, and these can be hard to handle for some. But we must remember a few things: First, the Canaanites were completely wicked, even to the point of burning their children as sacrifices to false gods. Second, the few Canaanites who repented and approached Israel were allowed to live and join (i.e. Rahab or the Gibeonites). Third, the Israelites were supposed to do this only to those who were in the Promised Land, not the people in other lands. God intended for them to live in rest, and if they allowed wicked people to stay this would not be possible for them.

The second half describes the allotment of lands the people received in the fulfillment of God’s promise. The book concludes with Joshua charging the people to remain true to their promise to serve God so that it may go well for them.

Important Moments:

- God commissions Joshua as he replaces Moses (those are huge shoes to fill!) in Joshua 1:1-9. This is one of my favorite Bible passages.

- The Restoration of the Covenant and joining with the Commander of the LORD’s army in Joshua 5.

- The fall of Jericho in Joshua 6.

- Somehow, the Sun stands still for almost an entire day! God does cool stuff in Joshua 10:12-15

- The Peoples receive their inheritance in Joshua 13-21.

- Joshua calls the people to “choose this day whom you will serve” in Joshua 24:14-28.

Main Themes:

- The Promised Land meant rest for the people of Israel. Rest did not simply mean an afternoon nap, however, it really meant peace and satisfaction, as if everything was right with the world. As long as they were following God, they enjoyed this rest.

- True rest can only be found when we live in relationship with God.

- Our source of strength and courage comes from spending consistent time with the Lord.

- God always fulfills His promises. He has done it before, and we can trust Him to fulfill them forever.

- Joshua did just as Moses did, and charged future leaders to do the same as well. We are all responsible for empowering the next generation of leaders.

How it points to Christ:

- Joshua and Jesus have the same name in the ancient languages. This is no coincidence, as Joshua is a type of Christ.

- Like the Land, Jesus also promised rest for us today in Matthew 11:28 and shall bring ultimate rest when he returns (Revelation 21:1-5).

- Many people believe (including me) that the Commander of the Lord’s Army seen in Joshua 5:13-15 is actually Jesus himself.

- Jesus will lead us to victory. Through him we are “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37).

What is your favorite part of Joshua? Or, do you have any questions about this book?

*Photo Credit: Cycling Man

You may not have even noticed, but if you have, you deserve an explanation. 2 major things have thrown me off.

1) Getting hacked kind of destroyed my spirits. I know it shouldn’t keep me down, but when you are in a rythm and something blows it out of the water it can be hard to drag the ship back into the sea.

2) I’m working on another extremely awesome project with a friend. It will launch in early March, so start getting excited. You’ll be one of the first to know about it, and I think it could really have a great impact.

That being said, I do still plan on posting here. I’m just trying to figure out what and how often with these other things going on.

Thanks for your readership, and have an incredible President’s day weekend!

From these, I have 3 questions that are important for creating common language. If we don’t have common language, we can’t communicate well. This is obvious with English and Bangladesh or Cantonese, but we can actually have uncommon language within English itself.

That being said…

1) What all is involved in discipleship?

2) What do you think is the purpose of preaching?

3) What does the word “missional” mean to you?

If you’ve got answers (which you do) I would love to hear them in the comments!

Many of these people are Christians.

I suppose we think we can be jerks since no one sees us face to face, nor can they punch us in the face. But if you have been to youtube, read comments on some blogs, or seen what people say on facebook, you’ve seen these jerks in action. You might even be one of those jerks (and not even realize it!)

Somehow, we’ve begun to believe that the best way to cause positive change is by being extremely negative.  This is bogus. But fear not, here are a few ways to make sure you don’t become the online jerk no one likes.

6 Ways to not be a jerk online

1) Respectfully disagree: No one knows how to do this anymore. If someone disagrees, we decide they’re totally stupid idiots without brains. Even if you are right and the other person is wrong, this doesn’t automatically make them stupid. If that were the case, we would all be considered idiots because we have all been wrong more times than we can count. So chill out, and stop acting like you’re smarter than everyone.

2) Recognize your own faults: As people, we love to point the finger at everyone else. Conveniently, we spend so much time pointing the finger that we forget to notice our faults. But all of us have problems. Lots of them. If you remember your own flaws, you are going to have better luck not being a jerk to people because of their flaws.

3) Recognize your own biases: For some reason, we all think we have an unbiased, fair and balanced opinion. The truth is, no one does. Your experiences, history, beliefs, and more drive who you are. When you feel criticized, the other person may have been meaning to send a compliment! When you get angry with someone because of something they say or do, try to see things from their perspective without flying off the handle.

4) Walk in their shoes: When someone is being a jerk to you, it is tempting to return the favor. Remember, those people may be treating you like a jerk because they have been hurt by family, friends, or circumstances in the past. Treating them like a jerk is only going to make it worse, so instead why not show some compassion?

5) Love the Unloveable: There are plenty of people online who seem unloveable. They disagree with your politics, theology, and values. But you know what? You were once unloveable too. Despite this, Jesus chose to love you and redeem you. Since someone loved you when you were unloveable, you can love an unlovable person as well.

6) Confront People in Person: If you have a serious issue with someone, confront them in person. Do not put it online for all to see! If possible, don’t even do it over e-mail. It is remarkably difficult to identify motives when communicating online, hurtful to do it infront of others, and unintended misunderstandings lead to bigger problems.

The Secret to Revival

Far too many Christians are bashing other Christians and non-Believers on the internet. If you’re doing this, you’re hurting the church. Jesus didn’t say people would know him because we proved them wrong, and he didn’t say people would know him because we demonstrated our intelligence.

Rather, he said this, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,  I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me (John 17:22-23).”

So please, don’t be an online jerk.

Any thoughts?

*Image Credit: Chris Jagers