You’ve Been Chopped
There is a place for weeding out fake friends:
If you are into American cooking shows you will be familiar with my title. But no, I am not here going to talk about food or cooking contests. I am however going to share some advice that might be of some use to you. And that comes as a result of someone sharing some things with me that I found to be useful.
One godly woman that I know and respect got in touch with me recently. She shared with me a word she felt she was strongly and repeatedly getting from the Lord for me. So after some prayer and deliberation she told it to me. She had a strong sense that I should be weeding out some of my “friends” on the social media.
A passage of Scripture that kept coming to her as she prayed about all this was Judges 7. It of course speaks about how God had told Gideon to weed out from his army a large number of men that the Lord did not want involved. So he went from the original 32,000 men down to 10,000, and then finally down to 300. That was quite a weeding out process!
This gal said she felt that in a similar sort of fashion I don’t need the masses but a smaller, committed core of folks who will stand with me in the battles we face. While we of course must submit all such things to the Lord and pray them through, I did thank her for thinking of me and sharing what she did.
And I think she was right. It is true that I have far too many social media contacts – many of whom are not at all real friends and/or fully onside. Many of them ask to be my friend, and after I try to check them out first, and then let them on, I never hear from them again – until they come to my page to complain about something, criticise me, or pick a fight.
So many seem to get their cheap thrills out of arguing and attacking me. All they really seem to want to do is derail me from doing what God wants me to do. Of course I am happy to deal with those who may well differ with me on various things, but only if they are still open, humble and teachable – and who are really one in Christ with me.
But not everyone is. Indeed, I have learned over the years that there are all sorts of folks who claim to be Christians who clearly are not. They are fake Christians who try to do real damage to God’s people and the work they are seeking to do for the Lord.
We need spiritual discernment here. We also need to realise that we really are in a spiritual war, and we need our spiritual weaponry at all times. Satan IS alive and well on planet earth, and he will use fake Christians as much as non-Christians to discourage you, to deflate you, and to derail you from your mission.
There is a meme making the rounds on the social media that I have shared a few times. It shows a group of lions and has the words: “Surround yourself with those on the same mission as you.” Sure, if you are using the social media merely to exchange recipes for split pea soup and the like, it does not matter too much who your friends are.
But if you are using the social media to do the work of the Lord, to share truth, and to stand up for what is right, then yes indeed, it DOES matter greatly who are your friends. If you have mostly critics and trolls and those opposed to what you are doing, it will be a real tough journey indeed.
You need to consider getting rid of some of these folks. And if you do start weeding out some folks, you can be sure that Satan will try to get at you, saying you are being unfriendly or unloving or ungracious. He will even whisper in your ear that you should keep them all in the hopes of ‘reaching’ them.
But we are under no Christian obligation to hang onto those who clearly are not interested in being reached, but simply seem to exist to argue, to be difficult, and to waste your time. And after a while one begins to discern just who is teachable and reachable and who is not.
It is one thing to listen to and take on board criticism from those who care about you and love you. It is another thing to allow fleshly armchair critics to wear you down and bum you out. Again, discernment is needed. It is not just Jake and Elwood Blues who understand that “we’re on a mission for God.” The work we do on the social media – and elsewhere – should always be about serving God and making him known.
And if that is our mission, we can fully expect to be attacked and opposed and abused and mistreated. So the idea of weeding out those who clearly are trolls and carnal Christians is quite important. Again, we must pray and ask God who might be open to the truth, who are more or less teachable, and who have a humble spirit.
Usually those sorts of folks are worth hanging on to in the hopes of leading them to God and biblical truth. But also make sure that you have a lot of strong, caring and supportive friends. These battles are too hard to fight alone. We need backup in these battles, and we need reinforcements when the going gets tough.
As always, we must be prayerful and careful here. I am not saying we should dump everyone who slightly disagrees with us on some matters – especially secondary matters. We WILL need to develop a thick skin to some extent so that we are not personally offended every time the critics come along.
My rule of thumb here is the old “three strikes and you’re out” rule. If I politely warn someone to ease up, or leave a certain topic alone, and they keep coming back and ignore my requests, and just keep arguing and being trollish, after the third time I just let them go. It is clear they are not interested in showing me any Christian grace and respect.
Lest anyone think this is being all rather unchristian, just remember some of the words Jesus gave to his disciples. He too warned them about the need to be selective here. As we read in Matthew 7:6, “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.” And consider Matthew 10:11-15:
And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
The relevance of such passages here should be evident. So I do appreciate the word that this gal shared with me. It resonates with me because I have been thinking similar things of late anyway. I have thus put it into practice already. Just now for example I unfriended a rabid Dan Andrews Zombie who was defending this guy to the death. I felt pretty good about letting her go! She really is not my friend and we have zippo in common.
The moral of the story is this: if you use things like the social media as a means to share truth, stand for God, and promote some sanity and light in an insane and dark world, you will be attacked. That goes with the territory. But you have no need to hang on to every ‘friend’ you have, especially if it seems they are only there to wear you out, constantly challenge you, discourage you, and bring you down.
Of course one need not use the actual percentage that Gideon did in his weeding – around 99%. If I did that, I would be down to around 40 friends! But I realise that only a small portion of all these friends really are committed to me and my mission. Plus Facebook only allows a tiny fraction of your friends to see your stuff anyway.
But the idea of sifting, of weeding out, is a good one. So I thank my friend for sharing her thoughts with me, and it is hoped that sharing these thoughts with you might be of some help as well.
Happy weeding!
[1508 words]
Thankyou Bill ! Great advice ! God bless !
Thanks Bill
You are way more patient than I am.
One strike and they are out.
Phil:-)
Hi Bill. An excellent piece and great words of wisdom. After all, it is your platform and therefore your prerogative to set the rules. It is the readers privilege to post comments, at your invitation and keep to the rules even if we are in disagreement which should be done gracefully and respectfully. I have read a few things in The Passion Translation which are helpful. From Galatians 6 – we can correct a perceived fault or mistake but in a spirit of gentleness and not rudeness! Galatians 5 refers to works of the flesh which include senseless arguments and angry quarrels as opposed to the fruit of the SPIRIT – LOVE – which includes gentleness. Paul writes in Galatians 1:10 (The Passion Translation); ‘I’m obviously not trying to flatter you or water down my message to be popular with men, but my supreme passion is to please GOD. For if all I attempt to do is please people, I would not be the true servant of the MESSIAH.’ I am sure the great majority of your followers would say ‘well done good and faithful servant’ and thank you for your writings and – yes! continue sowing but also continue to be wise in ‘doing the weeding’ as well. You are very gracious in your ‘three strikes’ rule but sometimes the ‘weeds’ can be discouraging and time consuming, taking your energy and keeping you from doing better things. Bless you Bill
Dear Bill, great post on getting the chop. I perfectly understand the reasoning, how encouraging when God speaks through someone we know and trust.
Apologies Bill I only revisited your post of the 10th just now and hope Ingrid Hall might see this.
Bill has been posting on righteous anger recently: 21/6/20 & 4/8/20, encouraging righteous anger where appropriate.
We all should feel this type of anger in Australia now : the Melbourne lockdown
Palaszczuk’s Queensland hospitals for Qld’s – Separating a mother from baby, mother losing a twin
Palaszczuk’s refusal to allow a young daughter to visit dying father – coming from covid free ACT.
Victorian police extreme actions on citizens – pregnant mother, elderly on park benches, man’s home invasion etc
Theere is also frantic activity all over the world right now which is anti Christian and deliberately attacking our Triune God.
The Spiritual battle is really moving, all of us have a part to play, prayer, action in letters, prayer, action in emails, prayer, action in signing petitions, prayer, action in protesting any way we can with at injustice with prayer, at evil with prayer. Pray pray and pray, lest we fall into temptation. Australian Christian Lobby have areas needing support, Melinda Tankard has a site where help in needed, The Nation Civic Council have pointers for action, Family Life Australia require support, and many many more.
The evil one knows we are distracted and his minions are busy. The long march through the institutions now completed they are ready to pounce, like Quintus Fabius Maximus Cunctator, otherwise all their waiting will be in vain.
Watch, let no one decieve you.
Mark Bryant
PS Bill : Fabius Cunctator stuck hard, which is exactly what ‘they’ are doing right now.
Mark Bryant
A lot of churches need to do the same thing though in some the percentages would be closer to Gideon’s percentage. If not higher! When the blank hits the fan it will be interesting to see what Christianity’s REAL numbers are.
Good Advice and Great application of Discernment. The Word I received last week in relation to the new Congregation I am in now was – Select a few and work with them. So the idea/concept of a select few is very valid and vital. Praying for you and Guarding your back always Bill.
Hi Bill, another timely article in these treacherous times.
I too feel the enemy and his minions, who never sleep, are stepping up their attack on the church as so many Christians are so misguided by errent Pastors who don’t preach the whole words of truth.
If I may make two further comments.
Firstly Proverbs 1:7 declares “Fools despise knowledge and instruction” and I do pray for you that your are not too drained every time you take on a troll.
Secondly as you are a faith based ministry that your large based readership do appreciate your unique ministry and prayerfully consider making a financial donation.
May God continually strengthen you Bill for the battle that lies ahead.
Terry Hill
I find it very interesting and perhaps instructive looking at what Jesus said about those who were in opposition.
In Matt 12:30 and Luke 11:23, Jesus says that whoever is “NOT WITH ME” is against Me.
So the undecided in warfare, (context) are regarded as against Jesus.
In Mark 9:40 and Luke 9:50, Jesus says that whoever is “NOT AGAINST US” is for us.
So we must treat the undecided as for us.
Jesus allows no complacency, let alone opposition, when it comes to spiritual warfare, but the church of which Jesus is the head, works graciously and redemptively with all kinds of people until they show themselves to be in opposition.
Many thanks guys for your comments and support. Bless you.
Good advice thank you. 3 strikes and your out, been thinking the same thing. Think it is about trust in the days ahead, and our energy. We don’t want to exhaust ourselves, the harvest is plentiful.
Great article and very timely. The end is very near and we need to spend our time stand on God’s Word and not spent answering endless trolls who just want to derail us and the other things Bill writes about. I chopped alot of people the end of July when I lost a new church position due to a Facebook post supporting our President and our country. One of the members of the search committee had been a friend (not just a Facebook one) for over 10 years. Never gave me a heads up of the storm that was brewing unknown to me until I was told “this just isin’t going to work out” by the committee chairperson. I was called all sorts of names and only a few days later when the shock began to wear off did I see the real agenda. Now this same “church” advertises on the job description that they are an “inclusive and loving church.” The words from Jesus in Matthew 10 definitely helped me to be angry on the call (completely justified) instead of having the tears flow. This has meant I am not playing an organ after straight years. But you know, that’s okay. If it means I stay away from churches that grow more lost by the day, then Jesus was guiding me to safety.
I also culled out following many stores that I liked to follow after they gave millions to terrorists groups like BLM. The great thing that came of it was my social media (including Instagram) was just nicer now that I was with like minded people (almost all.)
Bill is right. We must support each others as the days draw even more short and Satan goes around devour person after person and church after church until the remnant remain.
I had been playing for 37 straight years.