Quote from Forum Archives on March 19, 2009, 3:16 pm

Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>

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The Burning Bush Devotional

Welcome to the 301 new subscribers since January 1, 2009!!

03.19.09

Defriended

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man
someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us,
in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then,
having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through
Him. - Romans 5:7-9.

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of
God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue
to believe in the name of the Son of God. - 1 John 5:13.

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who
sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has
passed from death into life. - John 5:24.

If you have been a member on any of the social networks like Facebook, or
Myspace for very long you have probably been deleted from someone's friend's
list. Your friend looked at your profile, your photo, your information, and
they clicked on the delete button removing you from their friend's list. You
were just not good enough for them. Kind of makes you feel bad for a little
while. Of course, it's not like they are your next door neighbor (I hope
not!), or your friend you have known since grade school. But still it hurts
a little knowing you did not measure up in someone's eyes.

In the world it matters what you look like, what you do, and how you present
yourself. I have had prospective friends to ask me to change my profile
photo. Ouch! That hurts. It's like asking me to change my face, and that is
kind of hard to do. Some of us are just not as photogenic as others. I have
had others to put conditions on our relationship as in; if I do not message
them or email them frequently enough then they will delete me. Since they do
not know me personally many feel free to really say what they feel. In other
words, sometimes they let you have it with both barrels. To be honest I have
deleted some people from my friend's list too. Usually I have deleted them
because of something obscene that they have said or posted on my profile. I
have also not accepted some people as friends for the same reasons.

Thankfully, Jesus has different standards than we do. What if Jesus had the
same standards as us? If He did, He might say something like this: "God
demonstrated His love for those who were not too ugly, for those who behaved
appropriately, for those who never say any bad words, and for those who
never abuse alcohol or illegal substances." He might also add: "My friends
who are heavy ladened you have come to me and my yoke is light, but I do
require that you be in constant contact with me (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and
never ever break any of my commandments. I will give you a trial run for
about three weeks, but if you can't cut it, I will delete you as a friend
and there is no way that I will ever add you back."

Compare our defriending standards with the defriending standards of God:
"Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also
risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for
us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it
is written: 'For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as
sheep for the slaughter.' Yet in all these things we are more than
conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death
nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor
things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be
able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord
(Romans 8:34-39)."

Aren't you glad that Jesus does not have the same requirements for His
friend's list as we do? I know that I am!

Copyright © 2009. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
on a non-profit basis with source credited. The Burning Bush website has
been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998 the email version of the
Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.

Prayer Requests: Please pray for Malachi, Cody, and Mica who are young boys
with cancer. Many prayer needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the
Prayer Request page. You can also post your prayer requests there and they
will be forwarded to the Burning Bush Prayer Group (Of course, I am always
in need of prayer - please pray for me. Pray for my voice since I continue
to have problems with it.).

If you are not my friend on facebook or myspace you can be, just add me. The
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You can listen to services at my son, Clark Wrather's church (First Baptist
Church of Broken Bow, Oklahoma) live on Sunday mornings at 10:55am CST
www.kkbifm.com/

There is a complete devotional archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here
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