I am asking all my family and friends to back away from posting so much personal information on Facebook, or any other social media site, and to be on guard with the applications they involve themselves with and the pictures they share and the words they write…
One of the things we do not realize is how much of our information lasts and lasts forever on the Internet. Pictures you post, applications you play, and even things that you write. Nothing goes away. Ever. It lasts until someone other than you decides to delete the information. That means that every thing you ever are involved in with Facebook is recorded and stored. You may delete your account – but you can never delete your history. You may delete an email, but it still lasts on some server somewhere. You may wish to delete your browsing history but it can be recovered. Through every Internet portal there is a history of your internet browsing history, and you have no ability to delete this history.
Look at this screen image of something I copied from my Account Settings within Facebook.
Notice a couple of things.
- “Get a copy of the data you’ve put on Facebook” – They are storing everything, and there’s a way to recover everything. Everything you’ve ever posted and shared is available. Every picture. Every application you’ve played.
- “This is a copy of all the personal information you’ve shared on Facebook” – This means if your account is hacked you have the potential of giving away you private information to someone else.
This means that every thought you’ve shared, or even every person you’ve communicated with, is stored and retrievable.
Few of you remember back when AOL and Compuserve were our introduction to the World Wide Web. Our emails and browsing history were all we worried about. JUNO was a way to have email without access to the Internet. Everybody basically paid for these basic services. If you wanted to save anything you basically printed it out. I’ve long since cleansed my file cabinets of many documents and have saved them in PDF’s and Word documents.
Today, all you have to do is request what you’ve communicated on Facebook and it will be emailed to you. This means all your “sins” and “trespasses” are not forgotten. Everything you’ve done is remembered. This is so against scripture that tells us God has benefits, healing for all our diseases and forgets all of trespasses.
Here’s my thought.
God forgives us of our trespasses. Man remembers.
Psalm 103 A Psalm of David.
Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;
To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.
Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.
Rev. David Bernard tweeted a few days ago.
David K. Bernard (@davidkbernard)12/7/10 9:19
Holiness involves dress and visual media but also the tongue, the pen, the computer keyboard, and the way we treat other people.
This is the struggle we face with the internet. It remembers everything. All of our trespasses, all of the hurts we have received and given, all of our history – it’s available with the simple click of a button.
- When you receive something hurtful, or you give something hurtful, you are storing it up for as long as it can be saved by someone else.
- When you go somewhere you shouldn’t go, you are storing the history of it the same way.
- When you involve yourself in some questionable site, you are giving away a piece of your life into the hands of someone who does not care about you.
The internet might be thought to make our lives easier, but it really makes our life a challenge.
No matter what you do please remain a Christian.