Young kids love to dress up and pretend to be somebody else.

Whether it’s Elsa or Buzz Lightyear, they love to play another character.

Adults also enjoy pretending to be someone else, often at a costume party or a masquerade ball.

Sometimes we pretend to be someone else on social media.

Even though Facebook requires the use of real names, people don’t always act in a way that matches their real-life persona.

Sometimes this can be a form of social ‘makeup’, where we try to appear our very best when we’re sharing our photos or making comments.

At other times we keep silent about our beliefs and opinions, especially when discussion rages about controversial matters like same-sex marriage.

We can also appear different to the real world when our comments, likes, and shares clash with the person we claim to be at church or in our daily communities.

There’s a constant temptation to have a different ‘face’ when we’re on Facebook.

In his first letter, the Apostle Peter warns Christians to “rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” (1 Peter 2:1.)

This means that when we’re online we need to avoid hypocrisy by making sure we don’t have a different ‘face’ to our real-life persona.

The person we are when we’re engaging with Facebook needs to be the same person we are when we’re chatting in the real world with friends, family and colleagues.

And the motivation is simple and powerful: we “have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” (1 Peter 1:23)

God’s word has given us a radical new life, and we are called to live this life online as well as offline, to God’s glory.

Jodie McNeill

This is an excerpt of Jodie’s upcoming seminar at this year’s MTS Mission Minded Conference called, “Can I be a Christian and on social media at the same time?”

Our Federal Government has asked us to say what we think about changing the legal definition of marriage to include same-sex unions.

As I have engaged with the hundreds of Facebook comments on our post from last week, it is clear that most of us wish this discussion would go away.

Some people want the Government to just make the changes without holding a plebiscite so that this painful discussion can stop.

Many Christians would rather we didn’t have to be distracted from sharing the news of the real hope that comes from knowing the real Jesus.

Yet, either way, it’s an important discussion to have, and we need to keep talking in a respectful way about this major change to this core unit of our society.

But in the end, there is something that matters more than marriage… and that is eternity.

Life is short, and there will be a time when everyone of us will stand before God to give an account for our life.

On that day, many people will say to God that they deserve his acceptance because they’ve done good things in life, and have tried hard to be nice.

But the problem is that no human is able to do enough good things to pass this test. Nobody.

And we all deserve eternal punishment from God, which the Bible calls ‘Hell.’

Yet, the best news of all is that if we ask God, then he will transfer our personal judgment from us to Jesus.

And because Jesus was punished on the cross in our place, it means any one of us can now have a certainty for eternity if we trust in Jesus as our loving ruler.

We need to talk about marriage, but eternity is far, far more important.

Do you have certainty for eternity?

Jodie.

We Aussies love our sport, and we love to see one person or team compete against another to try and work out who is the greatest.

And yet beyond any comparison, the Lord, our God, is truly the greatest of us all.

I was reminded this as I read Psalm 104 this week, and experienced a catalogue of God’s greatness.

He created the universe, and shows his beauty in the stars and all the objects that fill the sky.

He controls his creation, providing water and greenery for plants and animals.

He cares for his world, sustaining every part of this living planet.

It is beautifully summarised in these verses:

All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. (Psalm 104:27-28)

And this is why the writer of this Psalm begins with these words:

Praise the LORD, my soul. LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. (Psalm 104:1)

God is, indeed, very great, and because of this, he is worthy of our praises to him:

May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works— he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke. I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD. (Psalm 104:31-34)

When we feel that our world is spinning out of control, it is important to stop and mediate on the greatness of God, and to rejoice in him for all he has done.

Praise the Lord… he is very great!

Jodie.

What are the three most important characteristics of being a Christian?

There are three that are highlighted in the New Testament as they occur together time and time again. What would you put in your top three?

The Apostle Paul says, “and now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love“. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Faith looks back to the past looking to what Jesus has done; love has eyes on the present, our response everyday for what Jesus has done; hope looks forward.

While love may be the greatest, I wonder if it is hope that we are most in need of being reminded of?

Hope is often used today to mean something along the lines of wishful thinking, the kind of characteristic you would find among optimistic people.

But hope is a characteristic for all Christians. Our hope is not in some vague picture of the future, but in the solid truth of the resurrection.

Jesus’ resurrection is the first fruit of that day when he will return and raise us up to the new creation, our glorious inheritance.

So Paul prays: “that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance.”  (Ephesians 1:18.)

Why is it that our hope grows dim?

Perhaps our love for this world is too big? We don’t long for the new creation because we are so captivated by this one?

Perhaps our longing for justice is not big enough? We can become skeptical that nothing will ever change, forgetting that Jesus’ resurrection assures justice for all.

Perhaps our imaginations are too weak? We can’t imagine what it will be like because these promises are extraordinary and completely beyond our experience, and so doubt creeps in.

Our world wants us to doubt, but hope is the antidote.

Don’t let it grow dim, for in Jesus the resurrection has already begun, and so your hope is secure.

Simon Chaplin.

Leaving the comfort of Australia, I arrived in the unfamiliar, foreign land of Fiji… a different place, climate, and people, but the same God.

Along with the 75 other students in the Youthworks Year 13 Gap Year program, we were given opportunities to learn how the Fijians live, eat, work and function as a society. We then learnt to apply this to our teaching, ministry, and relationships. 

From organised ministry at youth groups, churches and schools, to unplanned opportunities with workers, and shopkeepers, we shared the gospel with many people.

I quickly learnt that the mission was God’s, not ours, which meant that things often did not go as planned. Sometimes we were disappointed or confused, like when our homestay visit with a family was suddenly cancelled.

Other times we were overjoyed with surprise opportunities, like when we turned up to a local primary school in Suva, prepared for a single 15-minute assembly, only to leave having done 17, simultaneous classes.

My highlight was the ten days spent in the small village of Nakavu, where I was welcomed into the home of a beautiful family from the Methodist Church. We were totally immersed into the village life, living with the people and learning from them.

So much of the mission was unstructured, playing with the children at the stunning Navua River, forming friendships which provided many amazing chats. This has made me realise the importance of investing in children outside set hours of ministry events.

Most of all, I was challenged to be totally reliant on prayer, not only when things go wrong, or as a backup, but as the most important thing for effective ministry. 

I am so thankful for each and every one of you, for your generosity in prayer and financial support. Lives were changed in Fiji, and my life was certainly one of them.

Jemimah McNeill – Year 13 student