FACETIME (updated)

“FACETIME”

Everybody get your phone out and take a selfie.  Who needs a selfie stick?

The selfie has become an international trend.

Selfie stats: 93 million selfies are taken every day.

50% of men and 52% of women have taken a selfie. Women may take selfies more than men, but men over 30 share more selfies than women over 30.

Selfies represent 30% of all photos taken by people ages 18-24 and 30% of all photos on Instagram and 40% of all photos on Facebook.

Do you touch up your selfies? 14% of selfies are digitally enhanced—34% of men say they retouch every selfie, while only 13% of women retouch every selfie.

A report in the International Business Times claims that the death toll for selfie-related incidents this year is higher than shark attacks, with 12 selfie-related deaths around the world compared to the recent report of the Global Shark Attack File of eight deaths by shark attacks in 2015.

These selfie-related accidents include distracted people falling off cliffs, being hit by trains, crashing their cars and accidentally shooting themselves while posing with guns.

The growing trend of selfie-related accidents has sparked several interventions from different countries to stop the risk-taking attitude of people. In July, the Russian government initiated a campaign to raise awareness to the public about the dangers of selfies after hundreds of injuries were reported. Prior to the campaign, two men in Russia’s Ural Mountains accidentally killed themselves while taking a selfie, posing while pulling the pin from a hand grenade.

“Unfortunately we have noted recently that the number of accidents caused by lovers of self-photography is constantly increasing,” a government aide said at the launch of the selfie safety campaign. “Since the beginning of the year we are talking about some hundred cases of injuries for sure.”

Selfies with wild animals have also spurred authorities to respond to the growing trend. Officials of the Yellowstone National Park in the US have released warnings when five incidents of selfie-takers were reported being attacked while standing near a bison. A park in Denver has also temporarily closed due to the growing number of visitors coming too close to bears to take selfies.

In Australia, officials fenced off a 16-story-high rock landmark nicknamed the Wedding Cake Rock, after people kept taking photos on it despite warnings that it could collapse at any time. A “no selfie zone” will also be implemented by officials in India during the Hindu Kumbh Mela festival over concerns taking selfies may cause a stampede.

Data from Google Trends shows that selfies more popular than ever. In fact, 2014 was named “The Year of the Selfie,” after searches for the “selfie” term increased eight times during that period. In 2015 Merriam-Webster added the word ‘Selfie’ to the dictionary and the most retweeted tweet ever posted was a selfie from the Oscars.

Along with the selfies are the ’meformers’ who want the world to know everything about their lives, whether we want to know or not. TMI!

A recent article on LinkedIn traces the impact of social media on the increasing narcissism of our present age. It's all about me...

One app that I enjoy using is FaceTime. Some of you use Skype. I enjoy seeing my kids and grandkids while I talk to them. Now I don't know about you, but I also sneak some peeks at my own image!  Sometimes, though, you change the camera view to see what’s on the other side of the phone. We take our eyes off ourselves and put it on others.

Last Friday morning in our men’s Bible study, we were talking about that very thing and I thought about FaceTime and changing the view. I believe that God was giving me an illustration of a Biblical truth.

Philippians 2:1-4 KJV If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

This is the gaze, the look, of a living believer, a living church. Over the past couple of years, I have read many books and articles about healthy church life. They all agree on one thing: a living church is one that looks outward to those who have needs. Once a church begins to look inward it begins to die. This is true of individuals also. If we always gaze at ourselves, we begin to die!

I have become aware in my life that when I am consumed with "me" I am walking in the flesh. When I am walking in the Spirit, I am consumed with others.

God wants us to take the focus off ourselves and put it on people around us.

1. Look at the multitudes

Matthew 9:35-38 NKJV Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

What do we see?

a. The weary

b. The scattered (lost)

c. The vulnerable - they had no shepherd, no food, no water, no protection,

Matthew 11:28 NKJV Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

2. Look at the harvest ready in the field

John 4:35 NKJV Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!

I grew up on a cotton farm and this verse really speaks to me. I remember harvest time. The cotton was ready and getting the crop to the gin was top priority. Everything else took a back seat. Why? Because it wouldn't be there forever!  Weather could set in and the crop would ruin.

Proverbs 10:5 NKJV He who gathers in summer is a wise son; he who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.

One year we had a bumper crop of grain. Just as the combines pulled into the field, a huge thunderstorm rolled in. It rained bucket; hail fell like snow; wind blew like a tornado. When the storm was  over, the grain that had filled the heads on millions of stalks ran down the furrows and the ditches like a blood filled river. My dad knelt in the field among the stubble that remained of his grain and cotton and wept. There would not be a harvest that year. An entire year of labor gone. No chance to recover the loss. 

Brothers and sisters, there are people all around us who are ripe for harvest. If we don't bring them in, the storms of life will ruin the crop. Let’s not let that happen!

Illustration: Howard Conatser, longtime pastor in Dallas, had a dream right before he died...

We all have needs. We all have things in our life that demand our attention. God gives us a key to getting out needs met.

Job had a tough row to hoe...

Job 42:10 KJV And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Church, if we will meet the needs of others, God will meet our needs.

"What goes on outside the church is much more important than what goes on inside the church."

"Launch Out"

"Helping others find hope..."