Why I Do What I Do...

“Pen In God’s Hand” is a ministry blog that God led me to begin. Why do I do what I do?  Am I a “Jesus freak or Holy Roller”? If that is what you want to call me…well, (sigh) okay.

Does that make me “holier than thou”? I hope that I have never come across that way, and I ask your forgiveness if I have ever seemed so. In fact, there have been times that I wondered if some sort of prideful inclination was taking me over, because my desire is so strong…I want people to hear! Hear who and what? Me or about me? No…

Who or what then? God. It is all about Him. I want people to experience Christ, the Power, the Resurrection…because I led a life that was dead in sin and now I live in a life resurrected in Him!

This desire to share Christ is one that God has placed deep within me and must be expressed out of love and gratitude for what He has done for me.

This week, I listened to a woman of similar passion and expression who gave her reason for frequent use of social networking to share the love of Christ. The statistics that she quoted were astonishing, and I learned that something that God has placed in my heart to do can be amazingly effective in this world of technology. Author and speaker Margaret Feinburg, sited figures that declared the increasingly effectiveness of the technological advances of this age. She noted that radio took 38 years to reach around 50 million people, and television took around 13 years to do the same. With the advances of the internet and the information age, the same number of people could be reached with facebook in 4 years, and twitter could reach the same number of people in the span of just 2 years!

Putting your faith into action by using social networking provides an ability to communicate meaningful truths to the ends of the earth in a practical manner. While networks sometimes tend to distort or ignore relevant truth, each of us are to individually impact our world in whatever area of influence that we have.

“One of the reasons why we as believers need to be involved in social networking, whether through facebook, twitter, or any other social outlet, is because there is a conversation taking place. If we as believers are not engaging in that conversation and are not shaping that conversation, then other people will be. Quite honestly, I don’t always like what they have to say or what they have to promote…so why not use that leverage to build God’s kingdom and to glorify God with that space?” asks Feinburg.

We must take the opportunity to be the salt of the earth while the opportunity is here. Accessing it is up to us.

Feinburg was asked the inspiration for her latest book, “Hungry For God”. She shared that hunger levels “increase when we start sharing what God is doing in our lives, both in a personal way and in a community. We can raise the appetite level for God (by sharing our faith and testimonies). When we do that, we raise the holy expectation that God is going to move, and that God is going to speak.”

We, as Christians, serve a God that is not only the Alpha and Omega…the Beginning and the End…but a God that is in the now and desires a personal relationship with us. To share our lives of fellowship and communication with Him raises an awareness of His desire for all people and His pursuit of their hearts in love.

Because many people do not realize that they can have and cultivate this type of relationship with God, it is up to the believers to share His love and what is happening in their lives as a result of relationship with Christ.

So quietly, we can “live out loud,” the Christian life, sharing and increasing the appetite of people who have an emptiness and hunger for a life of purpose and to live life on purpose. Feinburg notes, “We were all designed and created for hearing, understanding and yearning for the voice of our Creator.” The ability to hear and answer the call on your life fulfills the desires and use of the gifts and talents that God has  placed in each of our lives.

Not reserved for people who God has called into ministry or “special purpose”, God’s conversation with us is as real and practical as that with one another. Through His Word, which are His love letters to us, communication begins. Increasingly, as we seek Him through the Word, we can feel His pursuit of our hearts.

We don’t hear well if we are strangers to the Word. Faith is necessary to hear God, discern spiritual sounds and to understand and feel God. Romans 10:17-18 says, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. But I say, ‘Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all of the earth and their words unto the ends of the world.’”

Hopefully, Christians are sharing Scripture and testimonies that give “spiritual nudges” that people can feel through technological social connectivity. Whether convicting or “warm and fuzzy,” the feelings that are evoked by our social networking are an opportunity to grow God’s kingdom.  Romans 10:14 says, “How then shall they call on Him in Whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of Whom they have not heard?”

Receiving Christ will change your life. Relationship with Him will shape your life. Responding to God will transform your life. May your hunger for Him become contagious and transforming to the lives of others by sharing your faith though social networking.

Be Blessed, In Jesus' Name
Angie