Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Craig Groeschel (2015-10-27) from his book, #Struggles: Following Jesus in a Selfie-Centered World (p. 82). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I know we for the most part want to connect with people.   We really want some friends but do we really want to share our weaknesses to get them?   I don’t think so but Craig says this is the way we really connect. He says, “When we’re always filtered, when every selfie shows only our best side, we may impress some people some of the time. They may think, ‘Based on this tweet, I really like this guy.’ But that’s not real. You’re not really connecting with them. They’re not connecting with you. We want so badly to connect with others, and we think the best way to do so is by showing off our strengths. But it doesn’t work that way. Here’s why: We actually connect with people through our weaknesses. We may impress them with our strengths, but we connect through our weakness

A thought by Craig Groeschel (2015-10-27) from his book, #Struggles: Following Jesus in a Selfie-Centered World (p. 70). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I know you know what a selfie is but for those who don’t Craig says, “You can take a picture of yourself, and if you need to touch it up a little, you can apply a filter. Most smart phones now have filter tools that let you fix those little problem areas. You can change the color saturation, brighten the image, soften it, or make it black and white. You can even get rid of red-eye and erase that second chin! You can even change the color of your eyes and raise your cheekbones.” He also said, “As of October, 2013, on various forms of social media, people had posted forty-one million pictures that included the hashtag #Selfie somewhere in the caption. You read that right: forty-one million.   And that number continues to explode. The selfie hashtag has since grown more than

A thought by Craig Groeschel (2015-10-27) from his book, #Struggles: Following Jesus in a Selfie-Centered World (p. 55). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) We are in the midst right now of celebrating this fact.   As Craig says, “Think about it this way: God didn’t shout his love from heaven. He showed his love on earth. He stripped himself of all heavenly glory and became one of us. God became flesh in the person of Jesus. Even one of Jesus’ names, Immanuel, literally means ‘God with us.’ He came and lived with us.” He then shares, “Paul told the Romans: ‘Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them’ (Rom. 12: 9 NLT). Don’t just stay at that shallow level we’ve all become so used to. Paul continued: ‘Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other’ (Rom. 12: 10 NLT). He went on to say, ‘When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them’ (Rom. 12: 13 NLT). Love people. Really love th

A thought by Craig Groeschel (2015-10-27) from his book, #Struggles: Following Jesus in a Selfie-Centered World (p. 50). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Craig says, “It used to be that when someone said another person was a friend, you understood exactly what they meant. A friend was someone who shared common interests or bonds, someone you enjoyed being around, someone you did life with. But it’s not that simple anymore, is it? Now a friend can be someone you’ve never met IRL (in real life). Friends can be people who follow what you post on social media. If they follow you, but you don’t follow them back, that’s one kind of friend. If you follow them, but they don’t follow you, that’s another kind of friend. And if you both follow each other, that’s yet another kind of friend.” Then Craig says, “Currently, the average American Facebook user has 338 Facebook friends.   But surveys indicate that the average American has on