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Heart to Heart

    by Pat Chwialkowski

Do You Really Know Your Friends?
Date Posted: January 27, 2010

Okay, I have to admit I am just one of the millions who happen to have a facebook account. I thought it would be fun to send out an encouraging word or an inspirational verse to my friends once in awhile, never really understanding the monster facebook really has become to me. Now I am hooked to check in everyday to see what is going on with all of my fb friends. It is fellowship and gossip all entwined into one.

I actually joined facebook a little over a year ago with just 3 friends. I am happy to say that I now have 101 fb friends. Up until last week, I honestly could say that I personally knew each and everyone of my fb friends—that is until last week.

It was on Thursday that I went to my e-mails, and I had a “friend request” from someone that I did not know. Nevertheless, I thought surely our paths crossed somewhere along the lines or else why would this guy be requesting to be my friend? With that thought in mind, I sent back an affirmative response.

The next day, I visited my new friend’s profile, and from all indications I have never met the dude in my life. He is new to facebook, so his profile pic was missing, but his birth date indicated that he was young enough to be my son. The encouraging part though, was, he was a pastor. So I wrote the following message on his wall: Pastor, I am honored that you asked me to be your friend, but how do we know each other?

As of today I have not received a response back from him. I have a feeling that we really do not know each other at all, but possibly he saw my name from these devotionals. It will not be the first time that I made a friend through this means. It is just one way God is blessing me through these writings.

However, if any of you go to my facebook profile and browse through my friends, I know that you are going to take it for granted that I know Pastor Billy—when nothing could be further from the truth. Oh, I do know that he is a real guy and lives someplace in this world (his hometown is not even listed yet), but other than that, I am clueless.

You know there are many people out in the world who are in the same situation that I am in right now. They have someone who wants to be their friend, and He has reached out to them over and over again only to get the DELETE button.

That person is not a pastor, but the Lord. In fact He is the Lord of all lords, and King of all kings. But since so many do not take the time to investigate who He really is, they ignore His bidding for His friendship, and simply ignore Him.

If I choose to do this with Pastor Billy (which I will not, because he has my curiosity up), nothing major will happen to me in this life or the next life, except for the fact that my life will have one less friend in it. But if people choose to do this to Jesus, there are major consequences involved.

I know you will never get a facebook friend request from Jesus anytime soon, for He does not use that kind of media. The sources He uses are the Bible and prayer. Jesus has been using these tools for many years now to touch people and change their lives and invite them to spend an eternity with Him. Have you received this invite yet? If not, maybe it is because you are not hearing Him because of some distractions in your life. This is something only you can answer.

You know, I have a feeling that if I ever get to know Pastor Billy he is going to be a pretty cool guy. I see the things that he is involved in and they are all about loving Jesus. Nonetheless, as cool as a friend that Pastor Billy might end up being, I know he can’t come close to my one friend I call Jesus. I have a feeling Pastor Billy already knows this…but do you?

Greater love has no one than this,

That He lay down his life for his friend.

John 15:13

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Biography Information:

Founder and Director of Key Ministries located in Lexington South Carolina.  You can reach us at keyministries@yahoo.com.  .