Right Now I am sitting in a library typing up this blog and I have no laptop for now. I also have about 5 other windows opened up at the same time and take a guess what one of those windows are?? It's a BIG Social Media site where you can friend people, put pictures of yourself, stalk your friends and family to see how's life and yes I use this site many times to update my blogs for The World Race!! The site is FACEBOOK!!
Facebook can be used for many good things connecting with people, reaching messages across the world to people who cannot be reached in the area where your currently living, put up pictures, tell people about events and so on!!
Facebook can also be a curse!! Since I have been accepted to The World Race I am not going to lie here sometimes I HATE FACEBOOK!!
God did not promise us an easy road for following His calling in fact, following His calling for our lives is down right hard and painful!! I have to admit God is pulling some of my bad habits out of me through this process and at times it Sucks!! Ever had plyiers go into your mouth to remove a temporary crown out of your mouth at the dentist office!! I have and I get to do this again in a few days and it's painful!! Plucking bad habits out is not fun!! It hurts!!
I have to admit I have some bad habits God is plucking out of me right now!!
I always longed for many years of my life since I have been attracted to God's gift known to man as women. Gotta love them and deal with them and so on. They are created in God's image and are daughters of Christ. The problem is I always wanted to have a girlfriend and sometime down the road a wife to be happy married to forever by the grace of God. I thought because I was a youth leader in a church and was living for Him. I was like I am honoring God, serving the youth because I loved helping people and drawn to the next generation of lives for reaching the world for Jesus and living a pretty good life. God because of this could you bless me with a minister partner aka a woman who loves to serve for you and who is pretty smokin' hot!
God was like wait a minute you think you deserve a woman because your serving at a church and you think your doing great in your personal relationship with Me Blake think again!! My personal relationship wasn't the greatest with God and I was longing for a woman to take the place of all of my needs instead of coming to Christ for His love.
In God's Word me putting the needs of having a woman in my life instead of longing for personal relationship with Jesus is me using a woman as god in my life instead of having God be number #1 in my life and that's wrong! Exodus 20:3 says, "You shall have no other gods before me." If your doing what I did for so many years with longing for a woman to be in my life as the #1 comforter, lover and supporter for your calling God has given in your life. God says your wrong!! I am a jealous God, and I expect to be #1 in your life NO EXCEPTIONS!! Breaking this command from God puts you as bad as someone who goes out and kills 50 people tonight Sin is Sin no matter who big or small this may be God takes this seriously!
The other area God is wanting to pluck out of my life is how I analyze things to a T!
I have a confession to make I am a BIG user of Facebook!! This is a great tool for networking with people, keeping up with your friends and so on!
I have found myself at times analyzing TWO AREAS of Facebook at times too often.
There's a section after you write a facebook post called Like where you can put a thumbs up on a status! There's a second part of a status where a person can put their opinion about a status aka comment.
I like to encourage others by putting Scriptures of what God is doing in my life, books I am currently reading, World Race blogs posts, random facts about me and sometimes corny sayings about my life!
Sometimes the ugly analyzier side of me takes over and I confess I want to be liked just like most people do in this world. I struggle with the sense of belonging to community, having many friends and YES people pleasing!!
I put up a status on my page a couple of weeks ago along the lines of like this on my page "50 days until I meet my World Race family on October 13th!! So excited! Something like this I said. Then when a couple of hours past by I took out my handy, dandy Iphone 4s and looked at my facebook page! This is kind of addicting when you have new World Race Friends and family and everything else on the Facebook Page! I have to admit when I looked at my status and only having ONE Like on my page and NO Comments on my status this kind of got to me! I felt like my status wasn't liked because I am not a cool person or I live a simple life most of the time or I am a Jesus dork which is not cool to most of the world. I started looking at other friends pages of mine and they were putting up similar statuses and they were getting 15 LIKES and 5 COMMENTS and so on! First I was like this isn't right Lord! They are getting more appreciation than I am for things on Facebook, then I said I was just average because I don't put up awesome pictures of me every 2 days, then I was like I don't have enough humor at times and so on.
Then something else hit me on the way back from our Carolina World Race Party a couple of weeks ago. I was talking to one of my new teammates I was riding with on the way home from Gibsonville, NC. Cayla Lockhart which is an awesome sister and friend in Christ and a woman after God's heart. I was in her SUV talking to her about our Facebook page and so on. I felt like others were getting favoritized in the group because they were getting tons of LIKES and COMMENTS and I was not. Here's the part where God allowed someone to get real with me!!
Cayla responds to me by saying this, " Blake I understand what your saying and all but I am not here to make friends on The World Race. Blake I am me and I don't care what others think about me." This sounded so firm on solid ground when she said this to me this stuck out! I even said to her with my hand pointing straight ahead, " you sound so straight on and bullheaded about this point." She was right!! Then I said, "Cayla I don't care what you think of me or what others think of me I have gotten better in this area in 2012 about not being concerned about what others think of me, I still have some ways to go."
Cayla is here for a mission to do what Jesus told Her to DO in Christ!! I am here to do what God told me to do to serve others for Christ and to use what God has given to me to do His work!!
If your walking in Christ and doing His calling for your life God is Giving You A LIKE in Heaven for following His calling and commenting in Heaven by saying well done good and faithful servant! So who cares what others think of you!! Christ's approval is enough!! Easier said than done!! Keep me in your prayers for this struggle I have at times! I will overcome this by the power of the Holy Spirit!!
If this is a ministry God is tugging at your heart to help support for The World Race click on the Please support Tab on the left hand side of the page and toss a few bucks towards eternal change for Jesus!! All of this goes towards my $15,500 missions fund to spread the gospel in 11 Countries in 11 Months starting in 110 days I launch for Kenya!! January 2013-November 30, 2013! Pray for me, support me, leave a comment or questions for me!! Thanks for your support God Bless!!
