Twitter is an awesome tool. It’s quick. It’s dynamic. It’s fun. It’s informative. It suits our busy lifestyles and short attention spans. It gives us a platform to share our thoughts and enter into other people’s worlds at the same time.
And everyone’s different. In effect the sum of a tweeter’s tweets represents his or her brand and personality to the marketplace. Cool.
But Twitter can also become very cluttered very quickly and when it does, it’s the cream that rises to the top. Sadly, many a tweeter’s tweets get lost in the crowd, in which case – what’s the point?
So here are 3 tips to give your Tweets more traction …
I think that sometimes we’re prone to trivialising the Word of God. By that I mean, we don’t take it seriously enough.
We skim over it and yet somehow we fail to take it heart. We don’t really grasp that it’s meant for us, for our lives. We completely miss the fact that God’s Word is filled with the power – His power – to radically transform our lives.
So … here’s a story to remind us of the awesome power of God’s Word.
In the week leading up to Easter, I received an email from a woman in Europe (let’s call her ‘Margaret’) who was literally at the point of taking her own life, when a Christianityworks radio progam started to go to air on her local radio station.
This is what she wrote to me (her name and some minor details have been changed to preserve her anonymity):
Let’s face it. We construct much of our reality through what we see, hear and read in the media.
And these days the media is filled to overflowing with reality this and reality that. Reality TV shows have become de rigueur on the Box at night in many a household. Together with news bulletins that play more like infomercials than news. Followed by current affairs shows that are so blatantly infomercials, that it’s hard to tell where the program ends and the ads begin.
So when it comes to the media, you have to ask yourself, what is reality?
Or as Pontius Pilate put it all those years ago, what is truth?
It’s this profound and sometimes sinister unreality of the media that we so readily consume, that struck me the other day when I was in a TV recording studio …
It can only be described as bizarre.
Most other nations celebrate their great military victories. Yet Australia and New Zealand, each year on the 25th of April, commemorate one of their greatest military debacles and defeats.
Ninety seven years ago, our lads landed on the wrong peninsula in an assault on Turkey. By mistake. Instead of a flat, undefended landing spot that they’d planned on, they landed at the foot of heavily fortified cliffs. And what ensued … was a massacre, as the fires of hell rained down on them.
Why is it that our two nations choose this day as the one to remember?
It’s early Saturday morning as I peck away here at my keyboard. I’m about to head off to the NSW State Conference of the Gideon’s to share my testimony with the delegates. It’s something that I just am so delighted to do … because back in February 1995, it was a Gideon Bible that God used to save my life.
Quite literally.
I was standing on the 8th floor balcony of a Brisbane hotel, wondering whether to jump, and …
Let’s face it, sometimes relationships get a bit tired. And like an old kitchen that’s perhaps seen it’s day, it’s time to refresh, renovate, reinvigorate that tired relationship.
Perhaps it’s a marriage. Maybe it’s a difficult colleague at work. Maybe it’s one of our kids … or our parents. Perhaps there’s tension – even open conflict. That’s all really sad, because relationships are important aren’t they?
And yet often we find ourselves in a relationship rut – that same old, same old, same old … What can we do to reinvigorate that run down relationship?
Well – here are three simple steps. They’ll work with anybody who matters to you. Try them, and I guarantee that they’ll put some spark back into that important relationship.
Are you ready?
Have you ever had a brilliant idea that just flopped? Oh good – it’s not just me then!
So … welcome to the club.
Okay – why do our “brilliant ideas” fail sometimes?
Well here are the top 3 reasons and what you can do about them …
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Each year at Easter I am regularly disappointed by the comments of prominent church leaders in the media here in Australia. Easter is one of only two times in the year when they know that they’ll receive headline prominence in the newspaper, on radio and in every evening TV news bulletin.
So tell me this … why do the majority squander this amazing opportunity by being irrelevant, off message and even (apparently) bored, disinterested and completely devoid of passion in proclaiming the greatest Message of all?
Sound a bit harsh? You tell me!
But this year the Good Friday messages of more than one of the crimson clad clergy plumbed new depths in ineffective and destructive communication. Here’s why …
So besotted are we by the blood-red message of the Cross, that it’s all too easy to remain there at Calvary, glorying in what Christ did for us, without ever moving on to the second part of the Easter story.
And little wonder!!
But the message of Easter is a message of two equal parts. A message that takes place in two places. Up on a hill, and down in a garden. Up on a cross and down in a tomb. It’s a message about a new beginning … and an amazing future.
So let me ask you a question, also in two parts: What is the secret of the empty tomb? And what does it mean for your life, here and now?
Do you know what really scares me about Easter?
It’s that we’ve sanitised it. Cleaned it up. Turned it into a nice little religious celebration … and in doing so, I wonder whether we’re not completely missing the point.
I struggled as to whether I should use this confronting image on this blog post to depict what happened on ‘Good Friday’. I struggled with it because I thought I might offend someone. I struggled with it because I thought it might be hard for you to look at.
But then … Easter is offensive. Easter is difficult to look at. That’s what it is.
What I love about these Honest Answers Polls, is that I never know what the results are going to be. And our last poll about your experience of Easter was no exception. I was amazed that 53% of respondents said they looked forward to Easter more than any other time of the year. That’s very high. And yet 41% indicated that they struggled to connect with Easter.
So … what does that tell us?
