Trail Mix

When do we need to be slow to speak? Do we need to be careful of how we're perceived? In this episode, James and Brooke talk about social media, unity in the Body of Christ, and how the Holy Spirit can help us to approach each other with grace and love.

Transcript

On this episode of wilderness club,
because I think that's what it means to be slow to speak, is letting the Lord go ahead of us, rather than us running ahead of him and saying what we're thinking and asking the Lord in, if we are thinking something that's different than what he wants us to say or different than what he wants our reactions to be. That's when we go to Him in prayer, and ask him to change us, ask it to become genuine in our reactions, and to transform us to be more like him. You're listening to wilderness club, a podcast exploring hidden treasures of the Word of God. We are Jameson Brock, and we discuss how our own experiences interweave with God's plan for all his children in seasons of both wilderness and rest. So this episode might be a little all over the place, because I have a few different things that I wanted to talk about. The first one being, I got this new believers Bible from Greg Laurie, and who is a evangelist over in California. And I kind of didn't really have much expectation about it or anything, like I was just like, Okay, I got this Bible. But it's really quite interesting. And it certainly has spurred on some thoughts, some questions, some searching things. But I've been reading First Corinthians, and this little headline says, Does this activity build me up spiritually? And it's from First Corinthians 1023. And I think, well, just sort of in modern terms, it says all things are permissible, but not all things promote growth in Christian character. And I think that's something that we during this, these past two years, year and a half, really have considered more, and have changed a lot, I think, in our lives, where we are examining the things that we are ingesting, as far as our eyes, our ears, our minds, and things that we are allowing our minds to rest on. And anyway, basically, what Greg Laurie is saying, you know, that we need to be examining our lives to see if certain activities are spiritually beneficial, beneficial to our growth in Christ. So, some questions that he proposes are, will this activity make the things of this world more appealing than the things of God? Will it keep me from prayer? Will it diminish my hunger for God's Word? Will it spiritually tear me down by pulling me away from other believers? And I think that one is a big one right now especially. And I'll say it, I have avoided social media for that very reason. I think that we might see friends or acquaintances or even family members posting things on Facebook and looking at it and being like, what are you doing, you know, and it puts a chasm between us is a schism. It puts a gap
chasm,
chasm.
A schism is like a break a chasm is like a chasm.
That's me rolling my eyes. It puts sort of a barrier between us in that. I didn't know you had that view on something. And so now I'm going to look at you in a different way. And if social media didn't exist, that may never come up in conversation. And I think that Satan has certainly allowed social media to work way in his advance. On the edge, to separate the church to separate believers to make strife between believers and things. And so I think I don't know about whoever's listening, if they have that same experience. But what I've decided is, I'm just going to avoid social media because I don't want my view of a brother or sister in Christ, to affect my relationship with them, or I don't want to just see something that they post, and not even be able to have a conversation with them about it. And then just have this, like, dark cloud hanging over my head. Because of that, or whatever. I don't know if you have anything to speak into about
yet the the pandemic has been really interesting for what it's done for what Satan has done through social media. I'd say two years ago, if you asked me what I thought of social media, I would say, from a business standpoint, I see its value. And it's a marketing tool. from a personal standpoint, it is assessable. And that, that would be just speaking about like, years ago, before the pandemic hit. There was already division between people. It was it allowed people to feel like they could say whatever they wanted without consequence, and gave everybody a soapbox to stand on and spout off things that they would never argue about, or say out loud in front of people, they suddenly were posting all about it on social media. And it encouraged people to have this boldness, about very clashing ideas. And that was before the pandemic. And it was one thing because I would go Oh, I just now I've learned that there are certain people that I just don't pay attention to what they talk about on social media, I skip over them. But during the pandemic, Satan has used social media to, I think, cause more of a division between even the people that we didn't have those issues with, right? It's it's coming to the church, it's coming to our church families and our church friends and, and even pastors and things that we follow, or that we see on social media and stuff we've even questioned like, really, that's their take on that thing. Wow, I didn't think that that would be how they saw that. And now it's kind of tainting my view of that. So it's definitely caused what was already a pretty negative thing in social media. Because I mean, you're not that's not even taking into account the idea of coveting that happens in social media, right,
which
is a completely different thing. That's like, an awful side of social media to begin with. And during the pandemic, even that has been heightened, because there's even there's different situations that I never thought I would cover it before. But
now, right, right, of course, right?
I think, yeah, for sure. Social media is one thing that we have personally decided to avoid. And for this reason, not just because, oh, that it's negative. And I don't like that negativity, or I just don't care for the kinds of things that get posted there. But rather a specific and intentional choice of this isn't bringing me closer to God, right? This is not bringing me closer to other believers. In fact, it's drawing me further away from other believers, and causing me to question my friendships with them and question, things that I didn't question before. And so if it's not
until lose sight of what we are supposed to be doing as a church, which is loving each other, strengthening, strengthening each other, encouraging each other in the Lord, and through serving together and scripture and all of those things. So I think, you know, and it stinks, and I have this sort of constant battle going on, in myself with the fact that, you know, there's certain people that I wouldn't otherwise maybe talk to, that I get a chance to talk to on social media or that I get a chance to see what's going on in their lives. Or, you know, I have my online Bible study. That's how I communicate with the women on there and how I invite people to the Bible study, so it does have benefits, but honestly, it's an activity that you know, I used to scroll through Instagram and exactly what you were saying, like coveting, like saying, Oh man, I wish I was there. I wish I had that I wish I was doing this, you know. And it wasn't bringing any sort of edification encouragement, joy, strengthening in the Lord at all. And so and I think that kind of goes along with why we don't have an Instagram for this podcast is that, you know, we are not trying to necessarily promote it, or it would if we were promoting it all the time, then it would take away from the work that the Lord has us doing, which is speaking on his word. And so that's why we need listeners to share with their friends and things like that, our website and everything. But I think that going along with talking about how it doesn't bring any good, I wanted to bring up something that I was thinking about last week, which was some people who had come into my life for a very short time. And they brought words of wisdom into my life. And I know you're looking confused, because you're like, how does this connect with each other. But the one person when I was about 18, or 19, that spoke into my life, he was a youth, young adult pastor. And I was going to his group at the time, and he had spoken to us about how he didn't drink. And he said, you know, if I see someone who is in my college group, or in my youth group, at a restaurant, and I have a wine in my hand, or a beer in my hand, they don't know if it's the first beer that I've drank, or the fifth beer that I've drank. And I want to avoid that altogether, because I don't want to cause any one, especially young person to stumble. And so I think that goes along with editing our activities, to glorify God, to say, I'm not going to do this thing, because it doesn't bring glory to the Lord. Or edification or encouragement to someone else. It could potentially pull them down. Because, you know, Paul says, again, in I believe it's in First Corinthians that he, there are certain freedoms that we have in Christ, and there are certain things that we can do, that won't necessarily be a sin or be wrong,
right? Like what he's talking about eating things that were sacrificed idols,
right, so he's talking about eating things that are being sacrificed to idols. And let me try to find that really quick. So that's in First Corinthians eight, he talks about how, you know, people were saying, Oh, I just can't get my head around these, this food, being sacrificed to idols, and then I'm eating it, I just feel like it's really, really wrong, and I shouldn't do it. And what Paul says is in verse nine, but you must be careful, so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. And I know that for me, I've decided over the past month, I totally have a weaker conscience. Like, I have to take a lot of things out of my life, because I stumble very easily. And so and I want to pursue a closer relationship with the Lord. And it is my choice obviously, to do that, and someone else might not have to be as quote unquote strict right or I don't even know what other word you could use. But for me, I lack self control. I lack certain things that I know will this causes me temptation This causes me temptation. This causes me temptation. So I need to remove you know, certain movies, certain music, certain activities, like, you know, social media or whatever. And that may sound legalistic to someone, but I'm not telling you that you have to do it, I just, I want to be close to the Lord. And I know that, that when I do those things, I feel further away from him.
It's like the way you are with music and movies that have swearing in them. Some people can watch or listen to those things, and walk away from it, and it doesn't really have a big effect on them. For you personally, you've told me over the years that when you hear a certain swear word, any swear word said in a song, even if you know that it's coming up in the song, you don't even hear it, it pops into your head, and then you've got that word stuck in your head, and you, you know, you feel like you're saying it. And so for you, you need to just not even listen to it. Because you know that, if you do listen to it, you won't have the self control, to stop yourself from having that word in your head.
So and I and it's not wrong, you know, like we were talking about some other issues on sin and things earlier this week. And you were saying, well, it's not necessarily a sin, if, if that pops up in your mind, it's that you resist that temptation. And so for me, it's not that it pops in my mind, but it's like, man, I don't want that in my mind. You know, like, I don't even want that in my mind. Because that starts to pull me away from the Lord. And I think that, you know, that's something like we've talked about, you know, going with the current and things, it's so easy for us to, especially with kind of going backwards to social media, Instagram, that kind of stuff. It's so easy to go with the current and go with the culture and every what everyone's doing, you know, posting this time and the other thing that's happening in my life, but we don't know how that could be affecting, you know, someone else if, if we are causing someone else to stumble by saying, you know, oh, look at this new car that I got, isn't it so cool, I'm so blessed. But someone could then be, you know, coveting that car or whatever. And that's just to say that, I think as believers, especially in this culture, we say, like, Oh, yeah, we're supposed to love we're supposed to, you know, God is all about love and everything. But once we ask Christ to come into our lives, and role and reign in us, we then in turn, become a servant of his of his kingdom. And in serving Him, we have responsibilities, and we have a certain behavior that we need to promote in his name. And so I think that's something that is kind of being lost a little bit that, you know, it's not just all about love. It's all about being a advocate for Christ.
It is, I think it is all about love. But being an advocate for Christ is showing that love, we kind of, we kind of think of, not to go on a rabbit trail here about love, but we think, Oh, I'm supposed to love my neighbor. And that means I'm supposed to be nice to them. Or I'm just supposed to say, Oh, I love that person, but truly loving. I mean, the Bible teaches us that no greater love has no man than this than to lay down his life for his brother. And so how does that look? How do I how do I lay down my life? Sometimes that means, oh, I just, you know, pray for somebody or do something nice for somebody. Those are the youth groupie answers that we get. I used to always ask the youth questions. And their example of being a Christian was always helping a little old lady across the street with her groceries, unfailingly that was always the answer. And that is love that is showing love to them. But love is also sacrificial. And love is saying, going back to what you were talking about at the top, love is saying I'm not going to drink this beer. Right? I know that I can drink this beer without I know that having self control or self control. I can drink this one beer and be okay with that. And have it not, you know, affect the rest of my day and have it not take over what I'm doing. But I know that there are others people around me who look to me to see what Christ is like, right? They don't know the whole situation, they don't know what my self control looks like. And so I show them love, I show them Christ's love by denying myself something that otherwise I might be okay with. And I think, like you're saying that goes, I can go all the way that can be the big obvious things like alcohol, or, or whatever. But it could go all the way down to the small things like social media,
right? or controlling your temper and traffic or something like that. And also going back to you know, once you've accepted Christ, just to sort of reiterate that we're then held accountable for our life and how we live our life, because we will be standing before the Lord giving an account for how we represented him in our life. So the other thing that I kind of wanted to bring up a little bit was I don't know if you remember what we talked about back last month when we were watching the Olympics.
Oh, yeah, we talked about how these athletes are like so good, that they should be like they should televise this. And they show other people yeah. And these people should totally get medals for what they're doing, like maybe three different kinds of metal being used to make medals. And, man. So yeah, so what should we know?
what I was talking about was obviously in the news, if no one listening has watched the Olympics, in the news, one of the most famous gymnasts, women gymnastics contestant, no athlete athlete decided to pull out of the Olympics, and that's Simone Biles. And so, you know, we, our family was so excited to see Simone, do her thing. And we had heard that she had these new bolt vault tricks to do tricks. No tricks,
I think they're just waltz. She performed a vault, it is her vault
anyway. And so she had pulled out of the Olympics for mental health reasons and on reasons unknown. And I had said to you, maybe a few days later, I feel a little bit like Simone Biles and not to like acquaint myself with a award winning. Kim chicness.
Yeah, athletic ability,
like I am the Olympian or anything, but kind of being okay with saying, I'll set this one out, and being the cheerleader for my teammates in that. So bringing you around to like, actually, what I'm saying, in that during this pandemic, we have taken a step back from ministry, we haven't been in a church. Well, it's been like a month, but before that, it was longer. And we've really struggled back and forth with the fact that that is the case. And we've struggled with reconciling the safety of our children and being with the body and everything, and that I said to you, you know, I feel like it's okay to take a step back and be the one who prays be the one who gives be the one who does ministry in different ways. Absolutely. And
so and something I mentioned, because you when you did mention this back when Simone pulled out, you said do you feel like Simone because then you feel like you can say it's okay for me to step back and to become this other role in ministry. And I pointed out that's what Simone did. Right on on the night that she stepped back from the event, she stayed on the floor with the rest of the athletes. And she cheered them on. And she was right there. And she hugged them when they came off from their routine. And she, you know, spoke to them and gave them words of encouragement. And, you know, that's what we're doing. We're not stepping back and going, alright, I'm going to go back to my hotel, you guys can find me when this is all done. We're saying, I'm not on the floor right now. But I am right next to it. And I am praying for you, I am supporting you, and I am doing an important work. It's sort of like pastor Brett, you know, he, he, his beginning of ministry was being a janitor at the church that he was attending. And he's a pastor now. And first season, that was the role he was in was a janitor at the church. And that is not a negative thing that is not a, you know, a beneath somebody, it is a way to serve. And for that season, that's where God had him. And so right now, I believe that this is where God has us, right? In this season. God has a saying it's okay. If you are not face to face. with other believers, it's okay with right now, you're not having people come into your home to teach the word. There's time for that, right now. Serve, but serve me in a capacity that you can.
And that goes along with again, I'm studying spiritual gifts right now. And so I'm in First Corinthians a lot. I'm in Ephesians. And I think it's first Peter, and in that talks about the body, and how the body has all different functions. But all of those functions are needed to create a well oiled body. well oiled a system that will work. So you know, if one limb isn't working, then obviously another part of our body, you know, if we don't have sight, then our hearing is heightened. But that's because it has to work, our body has to work harder in other parts of our senses, to compensate for the thing that is lacking. And so that just kind of goes to show you that there are different parts of the body. And as the different parts of the body, I think sometimes we also shift in what part of the body we are, as well, obviously, in spiritual gifts, we have certain spiritual gifts that the Lord has given us. But I was talking to, again, my cousin, and we were discussing a little bit, I was sharing with her how, as soon as I stopped doing my online Bible study, in May, I just kind of felt like, like, almost like the Spirit of God had left me, you know, and and she was saying, There's seasons that the Lord gives you fresh filling of the Holy Spirit to accomplish his work. And then there's going to be seasons of, you know, potential dryness and things. And so or there's going to be times where he says, yep, you did that work, okay, now it's time to be done with that work, and move on to, to something else that I have for you.
God created everything. And in Genesis, after he created everything, he created the Sabbath, God created rest, and resting is not wrong. And so sometimes God says, Here is a work for you to accomplish. We accomplish that work, and then he says, okay, you accomplished it. Now rest, or now do this other thing.
Right? And also, I think that, you know, for some of us, who know that maybe we have the spiritual gift of teaching or discipling or even serving in children's ministry or whatever it may be cleaning toilets, cleaning toilets, that the Lord says you know, okay, I have I want you to see Start a Bible study. So you start a Bible study and you go through, you know, one book two books. And then you finished and you maybe take a break. And you think, well, surely, the Lord wants me to keep going, it went really well. And you try to start up another study, and no one comes, and you're kind of like, Oh, well, okay, Lord, did I consult you? And should I have started another study? And then that's kind of what happened to me at the beginning of the summer is that, you know, I finished this over a year, I think it was of being with this, these women in an online Bible study, and it was so wonderful. And we grew, and we shared and just was amazing. But we took a break for the summer. And I tried to go into another Bible study, and me and be a mediator, I was asked to be a mediator. And it just was like, not working. And I thought, or did I really consult you on? whether or not I was supposed to be doing this? And I felt like the Lord was like, No, he didn't. And you're not supposed to be doing this. And you're supposed to be taking a break. And so there I believe, just like, the word says, you know that the Holy Spirit is like a wind. You never know when it's its comings and goings. And so you can have times where you're just filled with the Spirit, and things just flow out of you constantly. And then there's times that the pendulum swings and, and that it's time to, like you said, either rest or redirect your Yeah, redirect that energy that the Lord has given you and everything like that. And I think that's important because it does keep us reliant on the Lord, to direct us, because he has different things at different times. For us all the time, so. So going back to talking about social media and division in the church, and the strife that's kind of happening with believers right now. I was reading Ephesians, four, when I was going through some study of spiritual gifts. And I was like, Man, this is what you know, I need to hear right now. I feel like all of us need to hear right now. I feel like it needs to be shouted on the rooftops of all around the world, for every believer, but it's any fusions for two, it says, well, actually even one, he says, This is Paul talking, I beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. And then verse to always be humble and gentle, be patient with one another, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love, make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit, binding yourselves together with peace, for there as one body, one spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. And I think that, obviously, throughout history, that's been an issue because of how many denominations we have Christian denominations we have is ridiculous. But there is one Lord, verse five, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is overall in all, and living through all and just kind of thinking about keeping our minds and our hearts on what is most important, and what our goal as believers should be, which is bringing the good news of the gospel to all of the world and using our spiritual gifts to do those things.
Right. And we need to have, I think, like you were reading in verse two, or was verse one, that we need to have grace for each other. I think one thing that is majorly lacking between believers is grace for each other's faults for each other's inefficiency. Caesar deficiencies. I forget who said this, but it's something that stuck with me a long time ago, which was all of these believers, we are all children of God, when I look at somebody who is a believer, and who has a different opinion than me about, you know, something in society about masks or about, you know, the way to use turn signals about whatever, I need to look at them not as another person, not as you know, the flesh that's in front of me, but look at them the way God looks at them, God looks at them and loves them perfectly, and sees them as one of his children, and I do need to see them as one of his children. If I can have that kind of grace for another person, then I can look at their beliefs that they disagree with me on, and not cause that disagreement to cause a rift between us and not allow this disjointedness to happen between us. But I can look at them and say, You know what, you're a finger, on the hand of God, you are an ear, you are a spleen, you are a part of the body of God. And I am too and we may have different functions, we may have different, like I said, deficiencies or inefficiencies. But we're both children of God. And
and that kind of goes that reminded me of I was listening to our pastor Jim Gallagher. And he was saying, this is a sermon from a long time ago on First Corinthians. And he was saying, it's fine. You know, as believers, if you want to have a conversation about you know, theology or whatever, and it gets a little bit he said, like, not heated, but it gets a little warm, things get a little warm, you want to go to a, you know, a coffee shop and have those conversations, have those theological conversations, have those discussions where you kind of disagree with each other, that's fine, and everything, but you also need to be aware of the people who are around you. And you need to be aware that there are unbelievers who are listening, and that there are unbelievers who are waiting to see what your reaction is going to be. And I think that again, just goes back to us, having integrity and having the accountability and things that our lives are, are supposed to be, as believers are a reflection of Christ. And so how we act and react to our fellow body, our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, we're going to be held accountable for that. Because we don't know how that is affecting an unbeliever who sees, and we shouldn't be different. And we should be acting differently than the world does. So if someone offends us, we should not be going back at them on something. If someone disagrees with us, we shouldn't lash out and start arguing with them. We should not be repaying evil for evil.
We should be slow to speak. Oh, yes.
slow to speak slow to anger. That is something I need to tell myself all the time. But yes, it's it. We have to be so. So so aware of how we act and react in the world. And I think that, that can feel like a heavy weight on us. And like, Oh, I'm being dishonest, because that's not who I am. That's not that's not my personality. That's not the way I am. And this reminds me of a long time ago. I remember someone saying to me, about someone else. I can tell she's holding back I wish she would just say what she's thinking. I wish she would just say what she means because I know that that's not what she actually means or that's not what she's actually thinking. And I remember at the time, I don't think I really had any sort of rebuttal to that. But I noticed in that person later. Oh, yeah, she is she kind of pauses before she speaks. And that stuck with me all the way for 10 years or something. Because I think that's what it means to be slow to speak is the Letting the Lord go ahead of us, rather than us running ahead of him and saying what we're thinking and asking the Lord in, if we are thinking something that's different than what he wants us to say, or different than what he wants our reactions to be. That's when we go to Him in prayer, and ask him to change us. Ask him, it to become genuine in our reactions, and to transform us to be more like him. Yeah, I