Social Networking Media

To Know and To Be Known
Have a read of this article written by the popular American blogger Tim Challies.  I think it a very good analysis of the nature of purely online relationships.  It is easy (and tempting) to go out and seek to impress the many, but it is the opinion and advice of the few who truly know us which really matters.  Otherwise we begin to believe our own virtual image, and idolise ourselves.  'If a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself' (Galatians 6:3).  That's a motto I have had written on a yellow sticky next to my desk for many years now.  What perfect biblical wisdom!  The humble walk safest and surest.  Lorna and I are very conscious of these matters as we run blogs relating to the Bookshop, and have now launched out into the deeps of a facebook page:-
www.facebook.com/pages/Ossett-United-Kingdom/Christian-Bookshop-Ossett/208558682504427
Perhaps we make things look and sound too rosy here.  The gritty reality is that it is hard work, for which we are untrained, often mundane, routine and yet unstructured every day, creatively wearing, and busy so much that there is no time to read!  Talk about frustrating!  If it were not that we are persuaded of God's care, we would say that it is a very precarious business to be in.  That's not to say we would rather be elsewhere - there are many compensations - but perhaps it helps close the gap between appearance and fact.
Jeremy