Pass It On?

       In years past, I recall a couple of times when my parents received an anonymous letter promising certain things if they would send it on to a specified number of people.  It was the dreaded "chain letter."  To fail to send it on, would result in "bad luck" or some other such thing.  Mom would make sure that she sent the letters out to keep the bad luck away from our home.  We do the same thing today especially on "Facebook."  If you are on this type of social media, you will sometimes notice an article that insists that you forward it on if you are a true believer, or a true friend, a disciple of Christ, and the list goes on and on.  No matter how great the article is and most of them I doubt their authenticity, I do not pass anything on.  My faith, my patriotism, my love for Christian values, will never depend upon "passing on an article" just to see how many "likes" we can get.  I had a professor that used the expression, "The proof is in the pudding."  The phrase means, "he idiom is usually stated the proof is in the pudding and means that the end result is the mark of the success or failure of one's efforts or planning. The phrase may also be used in the past and future tenses: the proof will be/was in the pudding."   John 14:21 says, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."  
      Whether you are a Christian will be measured by the above verse of Scripture.  It reminds me of the passage of Scripture in Ephesians 2:8-10 where we are reminded that salvation is a gift of God, but works will follow afterwards, because of our salvation and not "for" our salvation.  My salvation will not be dependent upon "sharing" a poem or picture or story on a social media, but the "proof in the pudding" is going to be how I live my life in the world today.  If I fail to love the brethren, pray for others, be concerned about the lives of others, offer praise to God, don't read my Bible, then there is probably cause to say that I probably don't love the Lord Jesus Christ.  My Christianity at that point, would just be "convenient".  the proof would not be in the pudding, so to speak.  I once heard a preacher say, "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"  Praise God that we have A Word from Him in the Bible and that we are not dependent upon sharing something on social media.