In the later parts of 2016 the Lord pressed me to broaden my variety of  Biblical  and spiritual input into my life. What became apparent throughout 2016 is that society’s views have been streamlined into different separate echo bubbles. Where through social media, press etc people only hear and see the views of like minded people, so when a major decision goes against their thoughts / wishes (Brexit and Trump come to mind) they cannot understand who would have voted for that outcome, spoke against what they perceived to be the accepted thought of thinking because everyone thinks and feels like they do. And because of social media and 24hr news channels the backlash is amplified which deepens the divisions within society.

I tend to lean to the right in politics and in my faith beliefs which was reflected in my Twitter feed, podcast subscriptions, blog subscriptions. Which God wanted me to change, so I’ve started to follow more left leaning, socialist thinking mature Christians.

Now when I come across comments which my first reaction would have been to dismiss them, I know ask myself what has made me react in this way? Is it purely my conservative beliefs, how I’ve interpreted the scriptures, am I being influenced by my own echo bubble or does it go against scripture.

Isaiah Ch8 v20: Direct such people to the teaching and to the testimony! If their teachings are not in accord with this word, it is surely because there is no dawn and no morning for them.

Romans Ch12 v2: Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs] by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and ts new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in his sight for you].

When we disagree with people in relation to their Christian faith and what they are proclaiming we need to base our objections on scripture and not solely on what we’ve been taught in Sunday school, or what our friends believe. When I say base it on scripture I mean thoroughly research the text in question using multiple Bibles, study notes etc so we have a broad spectrum of understanding on the matter, so when questioned on our beliefs on the topic in question we will be able to answer confidently and accurately.

I would like to add caution when we “Google” an issue i.e. is gambling a sin? numerous sites will pop up and not all of the sites or contributors will be based on true scripture but cherry picked verses to back-up their beliefs and chosen life styles.

There will be times that we will not agree with other people, groups etc which will not be detrimental to spreading his word and we’ll just have to agree to disagree with the person or group, in today’s society this is not easy due to social media, media outlets.

Thought for the week

Who, what groups of people are in your echo bubble; do you need to expand it to include people, groups etc who you wouldn’t normally listen to / interact with?