Facebook is one of those innovations of the last few years that connects people in all walks of life. If you don't know what it is then you probably do not own a computer. It is hard to describe but it basically allows you to make contact with people you know. You can make connections with friends old and new. Most kids in middle or high school are logging in on a regular basis to update what is happening in their world. My venture into this new social medium started as a way to reestablish ties with people from high school or college. I think my page lists about 140 friends. I didn't know that I even knew that many people. It's been one way for me to let others know how my journey with cancer is going. Some people seem to live on Facebook but my interest is far more low key.

Here is the reason that I mention that. Some of the people who shared my college years with me are missionaries in Africa. They live in areas where the Muslim faith tends to make converts much faster than before. We wrote yesterday about the church intending to burn the Islam holy book this coming Saturday. These people live in a part of our world where this discussion is much more real life than it is here. One of them put up several updates urging those in her list of relationships to take a stand against this action. The reason is that many who are natives of that land can get a negative view of our Christian faith by this behavior. Africa is not the only place where this is happening. Many who do not ascribe to the biblical faith are wondering what we are all about. This does not count those of us who are believers who do not agree with this response.

Do not get me wrong. My core theology is that of God revealing the way to life through His one and only son, Jesus of Nazareth. My studies of the past do not include much in the area of Islam. It is true that we as followers of Jesus can and should stand for the faith. But how we do what we do is also important. Maybe I am wrong but it sure seems easier to point fingers at others who are wrong without ever learning how to live out the truth. We do this all of the time in church. People point fingers or choose up sides to fight over things that may not be critically important. Do we ever stop to think about the results of our behavior? Do we ever put aside our human carnality to become better than our prejudice?

We always have to deal with believers or ministers who may not really be authentic. God in His wisdom left us the right to be wrong as we go through life. A set of Bible commentaries that can be found in most Baptist churches comes from the pen of one who defended slavery as valid. Prohibition era preachers did quite well holding temperance meetings across the land. The problem is once that era ended then they had to look for new evils to attack. Health and wealth preachers flood our media outlets. Their theology may be as thin as the dime they covet but people still flock to the meetings. Prophecy preachers find they are always having to update their books because things change in world politics. They will not admit to being wrong but only will say that more truth needed revealing. Our list could go on for eternity.

You should go back to the book of Acts to review the early ministry and theology of those barren disciples. There were no mega churches for them to attend. They got by without most of the trappings of doing church we lose sleep over. Their message was pretty simple when you boil it all down. They believed everyone could tell the news that God acted in Jesus to save those who are lost. The heart of that theology was and still is God's purpose is fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. Not only did they sing about the cross but they talked about it. Words like resurrection were not reserved for Easter but became part of daily vocabulary. All these people did was change the world. We will not change the world by burning books. Living out the difference Jesus makes in a life will begin to alter the course of your history as well as that of others. It really is that simple. But no one said it would ever be easy.

Bro. Trey