Article 7 about what Jesus would Blog or Twitter: Not the usual gibberish, that's for sure.

Article 7 about what Jesus would Blog or Twitter: Not the usual gibberish, that's for sure.

Land here to catch up on the previous articles

And one more thing. I'd like to double the subscription numbers for this newsletter and you could help by recommending a friend subscribe. How about it? What abut forwarding this one now with a recommendation to go to The Subscription page of my website?

I don't think Jesus would blog or Twitter about the lousy deal he got on timber for some chairs he was making. Ask yourself,
Would he whine on Twitter about how his cloak itched?
or how his feet hurt?
or invite us to Compete on Facebook about movie stars or favourite songs?
or prattle on about a TV show?
or share snaps of his weekend walk on Lake Tiberias?

My guess is he'd blog and twitter about things that directly hooked up to the Kingdom of God.Commenting on something like this would be more his cup of tea.

It's a story from the BBC Online about how Chinese businesses are making more money because they are run by Christians who pray for the success of their business. On one hand Jesus would no doubt be pleased to have these guys in the Kingdom of God yet on the other he'd be sounding the cautionary note that making more money is not the sole aim of being a Godly person.

Regardless, he'd be more into commenting on news articles like this than the Collingwood/St.Kilda draw, Desperate Housewives, Leon Washington or Paris Hilton.

Anyway,

To infinity and beyond!
Live long and prosper

Disclaimer: My views are my own.

Thought 6 on what Jesus would Blog or Twitter about: The disenfranchised.

Read the lead-up to this here.

You can catch most of this in the oft misquoted Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel: "Blessed are the etceteras..."

I know...

In his famous Sermon on the Mount Jesus had a fair bit to say about how he understood the human condition. My guess is he'd be saying the same things today:

To more or less paraphrase, he said - 

I know you are hard done by, depressed, feel ordinary, live in a spiritual vacuum.

I know you are bullied and I know you are full of self doubts.

I know the world gives you a raw deal at times - maybe all the time.

I know people in authority can act like pompous self-interested despots and some of them seen hell-bent on making you miserable.

I know you get insulted, rubbished and criticised over nothing.

I know that just as the hurrier you go the behinder you get; sometimes the nicer you are the nastier the response.

I know in spite of everything, you love to show mercy and live in peace.

In fact I am here now looking for peacemakers. If you're one, good on you. Don't give up on being the best you that you can be. It will work out in the end.

To infinity and beyond, then.

Cheers

Colin Pearce

Thought 6 on what Jesus would Blog or Twitter about

The disenfranchised.

Get this in your email inbox -

You can catch most of this in the oft misquoted Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel:
"Blessed are the etceteras...”

I know...

In his famous Sermon on the Mount Jesus had a fair bit to say about how he understood the human condition. My guess is he’d be saying the same things today:

To more or less paraphrase, he said –

I know you are hard done by, depressed, feel ordinary, live in a spiritual vacuum.

I know you are bullied and I know you are full of self doubts.

I know the world gives you a raw deal at times - maybe all the time.

I know people in authority can act like pompous self-interested despots and some of them seen hell-bent on making you miserable.

I know you get insulted, rubbished and criticised over nothing.

I know that just as the hurrier you go the behinder you get; sometimes the nicer you are the nastier the response.

I know in spite of everything, you love to show mercy and live in peace.

In fact I am here now looking for peacemakers. If you’re one, good on you. Don’t give up on being the best you that you can be. It will work out in the end.

To infinity and beyond, then.

Cheers
Colin Pearce
Speaker, Author, Coach

Disclaimer: My views are my own.

What would his message be?

You can catch most of this in the oft misquoted Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel: 

"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”  

Don’t be a bogus leader

There’s a church meeting in the Parish Hall to discuss the salaries of the church leaders.

The Bible School teacher stands up and says, “I have had another child since my last stipend review, my car is old, my eldest child is entering high school with more books and tuition fees and I need a new suit. Could I please have a $20 a month raise?”

The administrator submits, “I need new books for my library, my accountancy association fees have doubled, and I need to buy a new coat for winter. Could I please have a $10 a month raise?”

The children’s worker says much the same thing about the cost of living, the price of petrol and telephone calls and asks for a raise of $10 too. The same for the gardener.

Then the room darkens, a spotlight falls in a circle on the closed stage curtains and a head pops out. It’s the Senior Pastor. “Puh-raise Ju-yeezus folks!” he beams. “I want you to know I love my job. I love my new sports car in the parking lot, I love my new suit, I eat out 5 nights a week and I have breakfast with the visiting bands and performers that come through and I fly business class around the nation as I spread the good news. And I gotta tell ya (as he breaks into song) 'There’s no business like show business like no business I know... '”

**So...**

Only some pastors, priests and bishops are wolves in sheep’s clothing but it’s a condition not far from any of our doors. 

Just for example, if you’re a pastor there’s no need to tell people you’re the “senior” pastor unless you’re on the old age pension. Cancel your reserved parking space. Trust me. You’re not that important. You’re the servant of many. And while you’re on the subject of bogus titles, have you noticed that the latest trend is to adopt the title of “Apostle”.  Apparently that entitles you to con other “old aged” pastors to pay you to adopt them as followers. Ah dear! 

Titles like Music Pastor and Youth Director are so enticing. Funny thing is, Toilet Cleaning Administrator, Senior Chair Straightener, Chief Sick People Visitor and Master Poverty Reductionist don’t attract the same level of glory.

Beware Bogus Leadership: There’s a ferocious wolf in all of us just waiting for our moment in the limelight

To infinity and beyond.

Cheers

Colin Pearce

Speaker, Author, Coach

Disclaimer: My views are my own.

What was on the minds of the people to whom Jesus spoke?

What was on the minds of the people to whom Jesus spoke? (i.e. in this context we are pretending about to whom he blogged and twittered)

The native Jews were wondering when they'd get a decent change in the government i.e. when the Messiah would come and when the Romans would leave. We just had that in Australia with Kevvie the Messiah leaving and Julia the new Messiah coming in but we are wondering if she is really the Messiah she promises to be or just a Roman in disguise.

The native Jews (like all citizens) were extremely wary of foreigners immigrating and taking space they weren't entitled to.

Superstition was rife. People wanted to know what a sick person's parents had done to cause him or her to be sick. What had others done that made a wall fall on them. People were aware of signs and omens and looked eagerly for a solution in the alignment of the stars and planets.

Sexual promiscuity was a laughing matter -爁or men. So was getting plastered. So was home violence, home invasion, and homelessness.

Independent well-to-do women were a rarity.

Religion was stale, a ritualistic out-of-touch politically-correct waste of the common people's time.

Sports were a common relief from the drudgery of poverty.

The tax man was everywhere and could take what he liked.

A war could pop up at any time for any reason whatever - or no reason at all and you could find yourself in it whether you liked it or not.

The rich were unnecessarily opulent

The poor were unnecessarily destitute.

Isn't that just a a bit more that a smidge like today's internet community?

So what did Jesus say that caught their attention?

Catch up on the archives at http://twominuteswithgod.blogspot.com/

Until next time, To infininty and beyond!

What was Jesus' audience thinking about?

What was on the minds of the people to whom Jesus spoke (i.e. in this context we are supposing about to whom he blogged and twittered)

The native Jews were wondering when they’d get a decent change in the government i.e. when the Messiah would come and when the Romans would leave. We just had that in Australia with Kevvie the Messiah leaving and Julia the new Messiah coming in but we are wondering if she is really the Messiah she promises to be or just a Roman in disguise.

The native Jews (like all citizens) were extremely wary of foreigners immigrating and taking space they weren’t entitled to.

Superstition was rife. People wanted to know what a sick person’s parents had done to cause him or her to be sick. What had others done that made a wall fall on them. People were aware of signs and omens and looked eagerly for a solution in the alignment of the stars and planets.

Sexual promiscuity was a laughing matter – for men. So was getting plastered. So was home violence, home invasion, and homelessness.

Independent well-to-do women were a rarity. Women thought about their drudgery and abuse.

Religion was stale, a ritualistic out-of-touch politically-correct waste of the common people’s time. Thinking about religion was for people who had time to think.

For non-Jews, sports were a common relief from the drudgery of poverty.

The tax man was everywhere and could take what he liked. They spent a lot of time trying to hide from him.

A war could pop up at any time for any reason whatever – or no reason at all and you could find yourself in it whether you liked it or not. They lived in fear.

The rich were unnecessarily opulent.

The poor were unnecessarily destitute. They wealthy feared theft and the poor feared being thrown into debtor's prison.

Isn’t that just a a bit more that a smidge like today’s internet community?

So what did he say to them? Next week.

Question 3: To which social strata would Jesus Blog or Twitter?

As well as the diversity of ethnicity, take into account the social structure of Jesus' audience.
They weren't stiff weirdos in robes with odd looks on their faces as depicted in Flannelgraph or Felt board illustrations from Sunday School. (If they came from the corner of the teacher's shoe box where their head had been folded in half they looked particularly weird.)

There were Roman soldiers and officers, Roman knights, Herod's soldiers and officers, taxmen, fishermen, labourers, farmers, tradies of all kinds – blacksmiths, wheelwrights, cartwrights, boat builders, sail makers, tent makers, carpenters, stone masons, shopkeepers, merchants, retired, housekeepers, slaves, tutors, kids, slave traders, wealthy landlords, temple officials, religious nuts, religious leaders, scribes and calligraphers, scholars, boof heads and rabble rousers – not to mention sick, deformed, tormented and lame people by the dozens.

And isn't that the population of the internet?

So what were they thinking and what would he say to them?

If Jesus blogged or twittered who would be his readers or followers?

Galilee in Palestine in 30 AD was like the main drag at the Sydney Royal Easter Show or The Strand in London. There was every kind of ethnic group you could find.

There were native born Jews, foreign Jews coming for a visit or to trade, traders from all corners of the known world – importers and exporters – from Egypt, Rome, Turkey, Crete, Malta, Italy, Persia, Ethiopia, Spain, Babylonia, Syria, Assyria. There were Roman soldiers and officers, Roman citizens, slaves, the poor, the sick, wealthy women, rich landlords, Herod's soldiers and courtiers, political insurgents, rebels, loyalists.



Does that remind you of any collective audience today?

It's a lot like the internet community, isn't it? He'd have impacting things to say to the Internet community today too.

What message would be in Jesus' blog?

What would Jesus Blog look like?
Who would be his friends on Facebook?
How would his Twitters read?
What would he be promoting on his website?
No-one knows of course, but he did leave clues as to what he might have e-communicated about.

He told his followers to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. So what was the Gospel?
If you follow the six or seven sermons that (St.) Luke recorded in the Book of Acts you'll see the followers followed a distinct pattern. It went more or less like this:

1. This is God's world
2. People have mucked it up
3. God has proved it is his world by raising the man Jesus from the dead.
4. The offer is that if you believe this and line your life up with what he stands for, God will regard you as always having been on his side and mucked up nothing at all.
5. If you don't believe it and keep on going your own way regardless, it's a no brainer – it's God's world, so who do you think will have the last word?

Question 1 of Many: What would Jesus Blog and Twitter About? – WWJBTA

Question 1 of Many: What would Jesus Blog and Twitter About? – WWJBTA
Would he do either?
Don’t know. I’m as good or bad a guess as anyone wearing a WWJD wrist band. 
However he did leave clues which you might follow and take up where he left off.
So here's a starter.
1. He’d recognise that the Internet and the Blogosphere are his scene.
He said on his departure from Palestine, “All authority is given to me on heaven and on earth” and so it is reasonable to assert that he would include authority over the Internet and the Blogosphere in his purview as well. That means the Internet is not Steve Jobs' or Bill Gates' or even Tim Berners-Lee's or Leonard Kleinroc's.  He‘d no more shy away from it because it is full of porn or time-wasting or perverts than he shied away from the entire earth which in his time – if not ours – was full of the same.
Message: You should be in here stirring up a little controversial goodness just as he would.
To infinity and beyond, then!