Exodus 23:19
says,
Bring the best of the first fruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God.
Generally we
think of giving the first fruits of our money when we read this
verse, but I'd like to point out that although that should be
included, it isn't specifically singled out. In fact, it says “first
fruits of your soil” which would mean from your actual crops.
A closer look at
the phrase “First Fruits” in the Hebrew root, is the word
“bikkurim” and the obligation to dedicate the first fruits to God
is part of an overall biblical belief that the first of everything,
including the firstborn of man and beast, belongs to God.
So
as with many things in the Bible, there is more to it than what meets
the eye. The bible tells us in Psalm 24:1 that “The earth is
the LORD’s,
and all its fullness, the
world and those who dwell therein.” This being the case, it is a
reasonable thing that we give Him not only the first, but also the
best of everything we have.
So how does this
translate into our modern world? I believe it means the first of our
finances, our time, our possessions, our everything! We should put
God first in everything we do. We need to be cautious in the
decisions we make in life, and weigh everything out asking ourselves
the question, will this bring glory to God if I do this? In doing
this we are exercising good stewardship and giving God the first
fruits of our soil.
What about your
cyber-soil? The internet is also like soil too. In fact, it is a huge
empty field that we can plant both good seed or bad seed into. Will
it not produce whatever we plant? If I plant something evil into my
search bar, then will it not produce an evil harvest? If I plant
something good, will it not produce the search results for that good
thing I planted?
What if we
dedicated our first and our best of our internet time to the Lord?
Would this not help us to better discipline ourselves in all of our
daily activity online? I know some well-meaning preachers that are
convinced that the internet is a tool belonging to Satan, and they
are WRONG. We shouldn't give anything to Satan, for according to
Psalm 24:1 that I posted above, the internet too belongs to the Lord.
It therefore should it not be used for His glory.
I know that
people however, influenced by the enemy, have misused the internet by
planting evil seed (desires) into it's cyber-soil. The crops they
have yielded have produced addictions, broken marriages, and all
sorts of destruction.
Others have
planted good seed and produced a life giving harvest. Many have been
led to Christ as the Gospel has been shared online. Churches have
reached out farther than ever to those in need. Ministries of all
kinds have flourished. Charities have been empowered more to help
those in need. Families have been reunited, and God has been
glorified.
The most popular
internet trend by far has been Facebook. This new Field of Cyber-Soil
has more acreage than any other field. As of September 14, 2012
Facebook surpassed 1 Billion users, and is still skyrocketing in its
growth. On Facebook we also see both evil and good. We see God's
word, many stories, and other things of a good virtue, that uplift
our souls.
Then on the other side, we see people arguing with others,
posting illicit pictures of their own body or that of another,
telling filthy jokes, or just self-promoting their own image. Many
times God is not only not being given the glory He is due, but His
name is often being blasphemed or at the very least dishonored by the
conduct displayed.
We can block
people, delete people, and utilize many tools to insulate ourselves
from this behavior. I would strongly recommend parents to get
actively involved with their children's Facebook activity and to
filter out negative influences. However, there should also be some
encouragement to do good things with Facebook too.
Each morning
I've logged on, and like many of you have seen the good, the bad, and
the ugly. What I've also done though is to use Facebook as a
“Real-Time Prayer List” of sorts. I'll explain... As we look at
each status we see a life. Sometimes they are actually asking for
prayer, and sometimes they are not. This doesn't need to stop us from
praying for them though.
As we see someone complaining about another
Monday – We can pray God will give them strength, and that they
will have a good day.
As we see someone speaking of physical pain, or
an ailment, we can pray for their healing.
As we see a person
changing their relationship status from married, to “It's
Complicated”, we can pray for restoration and reconciliation for
that couple.
The prayer possibilities are endless!
Of course as we
do this we will see all kinds of sewage being posted, but yes, we can
even pray for them! We can pray that God will save these people, and
if possible use us for that purpose since we are evidently on their
friend's list. If that opportunity arises, then we can seek God for
the words to type to them. To the Christian, Facebook can become a
tool that adds specificity to our daily prayers, and can even be a
useful tool in evangelism... aka fulfilling the Great Commission.
Facebook (and
the internet as a whole), like real life, is full of people – both saved
and lost. As Jesus spoke in the parable of the Wheat and the Tare...
Matthew 13:24-30
24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
Like
this parable says, “Let both grow together” and on Facebook we
get a vivid picture of this, just like we do with the world at large.
The real questions for the Christian whether it be the cyber-soil we
walk through on the internet, or with the soil we daily place our
feet on called planet earth – Are we giving Him our first fruits of
it? Is He being glorified in all that we do? And most of all... Are
we a Wheat or are we a Tare?
A
friend once told me how to know the difference between the two. The
wheat has the fruit and therefore because of the weight, it bows
down, but the tare, being a weed without fruit, stands straight up.
In a metaphoric sense, the wheat looks humble, but the tare looks
full of pride. How much of this do we see daily on Facebook?
