The Twitter Patter Five (Week #2)

So, according to that bastion of truth known as Wikipedia...

Patter is a prepared and practiced speech that is designed to produce a desired response from its audience. Examples of occupations with a patter might include the auctioneer, salesperson, dance caller, or comedian. The term may have been a colloquial shortening of "Pater Noster", and may have referred to the practice of mouthing or mumbling prayers quickly and mechanically. From this, it became a slang word for the secret and equally incomprehensible mutterings of a cant language used by beggars, thieves, gypsies, etc., and then the fluent plausible talk that a cheap-jack employs to pass off his goods. Many illusionists, e.g., card magicians, use patter both to enhance the show and to distract the attention of the spectators.

If we're talking about Christians on Social Media, and Twitter in particular, then we must add "sinners" to that list of titles above.

And so, with that, the "Twitter Patter Five" is born! Cheesy? Maybe, but I do love cheese (especially Dubliner!), and I also love to have a little fun when it comes to learning and then sharing what I've learned with others, and if there's one thing we've seen from our friends at Table Talk Radio, it's that such an approach can be highly effective (even if you're only "mediocre" too).

Despite the somewhat negative connotations to the term "patter" (not to mention the negative perception associated with the often unholy marriage between Christians and Social Media), there's actually a lot of thought-provoking Biblical truth that can be found that is shared in a 140-character tweet.

My goal in this weekly series is to highlight the "good" from the "bad" and to promote the ones we should prayerfully consider from the ones we should "mark and avoid" (Romans 16:17) since they pervert our cherished and shared faith.

Here's how this will work.

I'll select just 5 Christian tweets from the week (hopefully, 1 from each day of the week leading up to and perhaps even including Saturday and Sunday) and give you the "Twitter Patter Five" Finalists for that week.

Then I'll select the one that I like the best as that week's "Twitter Patter: 'This Is Most Certainly True' Top Dog" (yeah, I know it's a MOUTHFUL, but please gimme a break, because I'm trying to incorporate some distinctly Lutheran language here! haha).

The best part of this weekly feature? It's also a contest that every single one of you with a Twitter account can play at any time! Just include #TwitterPatter in your tweets (if you can; helpful, but not necessary though).

At the end of the year, we'll take a look at all the Weekly Winners and select only 1 to be the best of 2015...but we'll do it "Bracket Busters" style (think the NCAA March Madness Tournament!) by setting one Weekly Winner against another! Should make for some fun and entertaining theological discussions once we get to that time of year!

Oh yeah, the 2015 Champion will receive, courtesy of A Lutheran Layman, the ultimate Twitter tool: What Luther Says... It's a $60 value and "this book contains more than 5,100 quotations on 200 subjects from the writings of Martin Luther. All quotations are alphabetically and topically arranged for quick and easy reference. The introduction explores Luther's life and writings, gives a historical perspective for this volume, and provides a description of how Ewald Plass went about producing this book."

Here are this week's Twitter Patter Five Finalists (in no particular order)...

TWITTER PATTER FIVE - WEEK #2

The longer you are a Christian, the bigger sinner you realize you are and how great a savior you have in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.
— Arvak Marshall (@ArvakMarshall) January 22, 2015

God earnestly desires to save all men, but only for Christ’s sake and by faith, which He Himself works in man through the means of grace.
— Mike Dornan (@dornanm) January 24, 2015

"When you go to Calvary, do not hide in your hip pocket or handbag some special sin that you think you can deal with yourself." -Nagel
— John (@TipMyKing) January 22, 2015

When it's your sin I'm prone to pietism. When it's my sin I'm prone to antinomianism. That's my "old Adam" at work.
— Jeffrey Ries (@spottheology) January 21, 2015

You will find all sorts of pious men who go on and on about works & holiness as a pretext to turn and assassinate their brother's character.
— Lutheran Boogieman (@RadLutheran) January 25, 2015

Wow! Choosing ONLY five tweets each week is going to be very tough for me!

Ok, drum roll please...

This week's Winner?

'THIS IS MOST CERTAINLY TRUE' TOP DOG - WEEK #2

The longer you are a Christian, the bigger sinner you realize you are and how great a savior you have in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.
— Arvak Marshall (@ArvakMarshall) January 22, 2015

"This is most certainly true."

Congratulations! Friends, please reach out to congratulate and follow @ArvakMarshall . 

In case you're wondering, I chose that tweet since I can relate in the sense that it was a paradigm-shifting time when I first realized that being a Christian DID NOT mean that I would somehow reach a state of "sinless perfection" in this life (or sin less and less until I didn't sin at all, which would probably happen right before I died -- yeah right!).

Seriously though, this is what I wrongly believed for far too long, and it's also why @ArvakMarshall's profile image of Yoda with the words "You Must UNLEARN What You Have Learned" resonates with me too (in fact, I'm still trying to "unlearn" a lot of the Baptist, Calvinist, Evangelical, Non-Denominational, Anti-Denominational nonsense I picked up and assimilated over the years).

Daily repentance or "Drowning That Old Adam Daily!" is what my life is like today. Remarkably (to me anyway), is how just when you start becoming prideful by thinking "Ha! Guess that particular sin is no longer a problem for me!" is PRECISELY the moment that the Lord decides to reveal another sin that was lurking in your heart that you didn't even know was there.

As much as I hate those moments, I've come to appreciate them too, because it has helped me to appreciate even more the unmerited gift of salvation all because of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, or just as this tweet said.

On a quick side note, it looks as though he @ArvakMarshall lives in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, which is REALLY COOL, because I'm a lifelong Baltimore Orioles fan, and my Aunt just moved to that County a couple years ago! Who knows, if he wins it all at the end of the year, I might be able to deliver his prize in person!

Remember, as fun as this little weekly contest is, it's NEVER about us and ALWAYS about Jesus Christ in the sense that we should want to point people to Him and not ourselves by proclaiming Christ crucified for the sins of all mankind.

Unfortunately, one of the real dangers of having a Social Media presence of any kind (whether on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and/or with a blog like this one) is that you quickly become susceptible to the sin of pride setting in.

If you're not careful, you can become disillusioned into thinking it's all about you, your words, and your followers when it needs to remain all about Jesus, His Words, and His followers (of course, this can occur even without the use of Social Media).

Sure, we're all sinners, which means we're all bound to fall into this trap from time-to-time. The key, as you know, is repentance and recognizing when it's becoming a serious problem so you can detach and take a step back if you need to.

So, yes, use online tools like Twitter to confess "the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 1:3) and let the Holy Spirit do His work when and where He pleases (John 3:7-8; 1 Corinthians 12:11; Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration II, 56). Just remember it's Him who does the work of converting others through preaching of the Word and administering of the Sacraments, not you through your witty tweets (John 6:44).

Well, that's it for this week's edition of Twitter Patter. Please feel free to let me know if you come across any tweets that you don't want me to miss so that they can be considered for next week's edition (@LutheranLayman).

In a Lutheran layman's terms, keep it short, keep it sweet, but above all, keep it Biblical in all your "Christian" tweets!


[TWITTER ICON IMAGE SOURCE HERE]


NOTE: I'm not a called and ordained minister of God's Word and Sacraments. I'm a layman or a Christian, Candy-Making, Husband, Father, Friend who lives in the "City of Good Neighbors" here on the East Coast. To be more specific, and relevant to the point I want to make with this note, I'm also a newly converted Confessional Lutheran who recently escaped American Evangelicalism a little over a year ago. That being said, please contact me ASAP if you believe that any of my "old beliefs" seem to have crept their way into any of the material you see published here, and especially if any of the content is inconsistent with our Confessions and Lutheran doctrine (in other words, if it's not consistent with God's Word, which our Confessions merely summarize and point us back to) so that I can correct those errors immediately and not lead any of His little ones astray (James 3:1). Finally, please be aware that you might also discover that some of the earlier pieces I wrote on this blog back in 2013 definitely fall into that category since I was a "Lutheran-In-Name-Only" at the time and was completely oblivious to the fact that a Christian "Book of Concord" even existed (Small/Large Catechism? What's that!?!). In addition, there are some entries that are a little "out there" so-to-speak since the subject matter was also heavy influenced by those old beliefs of mine. I know that now and I'm still learning. Anyway, I decided to leave those published posts up on this website and in cyberspace only because we now have this disclaimer, and only to demonstrate the continuing work of Christ and the Holy Spirit in my life (Hebrews 12:2; Philippians 1:6). Most importantly, please know that any time I engage in commenting on and/or interpreting a specific portion of the holy Scriptures, it will always closely follow the verse-by-verse notes from my Lutheran Study Bible and/or include references to the Book of Concord unless otherwise noted. Typically, I defer to what other Lutheran Pastors have already preached and taught about such passages since they are the called and ordained shepherds of our souls here on earth. Finally, I'm going to apologize ahead of time for the length of most entries. I'm well aware that blogs should be short, sweet, and to the point, but I've never been one to follow the rules when it comes to writing. Besides, this website is more like a dude's diary in the sense that everything I write about and share publicly isn't always what's "popular" or "#trending" at the time, but is instead all the things that I'm studying myself at the moment. For better or for worse, these posts tend to be much longer than most blog entries you'll find elsewhere only because I try to pack as much info as possible into a single piece so that I can refer to it again and again over time if I need to (and so that it can be a valuable resource for others -- if possible, a "One-Stop-Shop" of sorts). Thank you for stopping by and thank you in advance for your time, help, and understanding. Grace and peace to you and yours!

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