Faithbook
by Oliver Carlos
One popular Bible verse is Joshua 1:8 (NLT). It reads:
“Study this Book…continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.”
Try inserting one word into it and its meaning will be totally different. It will be very cool in the taste of our present generation:
“Study this FACEbook continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.”
Can you detect what word I inserted?
Yes, the word “face” makes a lot of difference.
This new verse we just created is very true these days. Many people, sometimes me included, are glued on social media. It’s our default setting. When we wake up in the morning, the first thing we do is grab our phone. After holding it, we look at our messenger or notifications. Next thing we know is that we have already spent a handful of minutes scrolling through social media. Am I correct?
Actually, there were stretches of days when I fall prey to this. I would keep my phone beside my pillow when I sleep. I glance at my fb account constantly throughout the day. I soon developed this feeling that when I don’t peep into social media, I’m missing something huge, I’m being left behind by the world, outdated of the talk-of-the-town. That is such a very unpleasant feeling to have in my heart. Good thing I came across Joshua 1:8, and it led me back to my senses.
Social media per se isn’t necessarily bad or evil. It can become bad for us if we allow it to gobble us up, eat up our time, make it our no.1 priority and dearest thing in our heart. We should not allow it to be our law book, or ultimate source of wisdom for everyday living. It should not be our guidebook for success. There may be nice posts in facebook, but not everything is truthful. It will be disastrous if we pick up the fake news, believe in it, and apply it in our lives.
Instead, we should treat the Bible like how most people treat facebook. Joshua 1:8 says we should never let it depart from us, just like how we don’t let our cellphones to be too far from our hands 24/7. We should read it constantly, maybe cover a page or two daily. We should meditate on, or digest what we read. Most importantly, we should apply the truths and principles we discover in the Bible. Lastly, as promised in Joshua 1:8, if we do this, we will be prosperous and successful.
Beginning today, let us make it a habit to always meditate on our faithbook.
