255. FACEBOOK SAYS I WENT AGAINST COMMUNITY STANDARDS

(The Faith Forum Series – Batch 7)

It is amazing at how much filth is published daily, hourly and even by the minute on Facebook and other social media forums, without Facebook and those forums having a problem with it or taking action against it. People post obscenities, immorality, nakedness, revelry and the like and all of this is endorsed. Facebook and other social media forums see no problem whatsoever with any of it and therefore allow people to continue posting such garbage.

Ironically though, posting Bible verses about my Lord, seems to attract their ire, more so now than before.

I have had my Facebook Ministry pages suspended in the past on more than one occasion. However, throughout the years of my using Facebook, I have generally been allowed to publish what I want on my personal page. This seems to have changed recently though.

Having had some professional photos done of my self about two months ago, I published them on my Facebook Page about a month ago, along with some beautiful Bible verses that are close to my heart, all of which bring glory to God and help to tell some of my story.

Given that I love to plan ahead, have strong faith (on most days) and am a dreamer that knows that God is able to do all things, despite my many years of waiting to be found as a single woman by a godly and compatible man, I decided to store some of the verses I would like to feature with my one-day engagement photos (if God should ever grace me with a fiancé), in a private, ‘only me’ status on Facebook. Truth be told, I have posted ‘only me’ statuses for years on Facebook, where I wanted to express myself on an issue but didn’t want anyone to see it or where I wanted a place to store information.

It has never been a problem. After all, I was posting these ‘only me’ statuses on my Page and the posts are generally constructive (or so I thought).

Tonight, I got a shocker though. I decided while listening online to a Sermon on Caribbean Radio Lighthouse, to add some verses from Psalm 34 to the list of verses I had created in June 2022, for my one-day possible engagement. I therefore proceeded to do a search on Facebook using the word ‘engagement’ (as I often did), to find the list of verses I had privately upload in June. In case I ever decided to use them (and I was purposed to do so if ever God granted me the opportunity), I had stored them with some notes, to remind myself of how I would like to use the verses.

The thing was that I have a heart full of thanksgiving, even in my single season and I am therefore always thinking of opportunities to point the direction to my Lord, to give him glory, to make my boast in him and what he has done in my little life.

I therefore added the verses to the list and saved it but then decided to add even more verses, which I found, gave God even more glory. I could see clearly in my mind, how the verses could be utilized next to my one-day engagement pictures (if I ever got promoted to that level) and I could hardly contain my excitement. Lord, hurry up and grant me a miracle, I eagerly thought.

As I was about to edit the ‘only me’ post to add the last two beautiful pieces of scripture to the list however, I was suddenly greeted (or I should say accosted) with a message from Facebook. I could hardly believe it. I took out my phone and snapped a picture of it and have attached it below. This is what it read:

I was confused. What? What part of my ‘only me’ post was false advertising, fraud or a security breach? What exactly was fraudulent about me posting Bible verses I would like featured with engagement pictures in the future, if God ever blessed me in this regard? In any event, wasn’t this my personal Page? Since when couldn’t I add Bible verses? My Page is full of Bible verses. I have been adding them for years. Since then did this become a problem? Was it because I was linking it to a possible one-day engagement? But that could not be it. I had posted most of the verses since June and it had not been a problem. A few days ago I had added some more and then tonight. So what was the issue?

The above message was backed up with the following notification from Facebook:

The irony of this message was that my setting was always on the ‘only me’ setting! I never published it for anyone but me to see, so why the message? Why the need to threaten me with restriction and disablement of my Page? And even if I did decide to publish it, what was so bad about the information, that warranted my Page being taken down from Facebook? What exactly did I do that was so offensive that they felt the need to send me such a message? And since they informed me that I alone would be able to see the post, why was it that I could no longer find it anywhere? Why did they so unceremoniously remove it all entirely, so that I could not find it in the search box or even if I scrolled back to the date that I had initially posted it?

I became terrified at the prospect that Facebook might permanently disable my Page and all of my content there, which would also wipe out all of my seven or eight connected Ministry and business Pages. If they did this, I would lose everything and without access to any proper recourse!

Then and there, I decided that I was done posting stuff on Facebook (at least on my personal Page) and at least for now. I had to move cautiously, as this was a whole new level of attack! Imagine, verses about bringing glory to God and promoting his name, Facebook had an issue with, telling me that my post went against its ‘Community Standards’ on spam.

In addition to completely removing my post, Facebook sought to explain further about how it made decisions, telling me some nonsense that it had used technology to review my content and determined that it violates their standards.

Here is a picture of the ridiculous additional message they sent me:

I had had it. I wanted nothing more to do with Facebook but unfortunately, I had other business and Ministry pages linked to it (Sigh).

The incident reminded me that the world that I live in is in mutiny against God and it is not a passive mutiny but one that is active and aggressive. Rebellious mankind will do everything in their power to suppress the praise that rightfully belongs to God and to silence his servants that are intent on promoting the name of Jesus Christ.

Facebook was slowly, in my opinion, becoming more and more hostile and intolerant of the things that pertained to God, his righteousness and Christianity in general. It baffled me that there are other genuine Christian Facebook pages up that don’t seem to have the problem that I have been having with threats of suspension and permanent disbanding. I am happy that they have remained up though and that they are hopefully not being harassed by Facebook, as I have been, as the Word of God gets to continue being published.

Believe it or not, below are the verses, along with some of the notes I wrote, that caused Facebook to rudely delete my message and send me a notification saying that I had violated their ‘Community Standards’. My private status had read:

If God should ever grace me with such a grace gift, which I don’t deserve, I want the pics to be impactful and to send a strong, bold, loud and undeniable message and what better way than to surround them with the Word, the most potent of all? I want it to say these verses that are heartfelt and significant to me, based on my experience with singleness and all that people have said:

FIRST PICTURE VERSES:

“…they that wait upon the Lord shall RENEW their strength; they shall MOUNT UP with wings as eagles; they shall RUN, and not be weary; and they shall WALK, and not faint.” (Is. 40:31 KJV)

“He hath made every thing beautiful in HIS time…” (Eccles. 3:11 KJV)

“Is any thing too hard for the LORD?” (Gen. 18:14 KJV)

SECOND PICTURE statement and verses:

DELAYED but not necessarily DENIED.

“There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.” (Psalm 4:6)

“Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto THY NAME give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens: he hath done WHATSOEVER HE HATH PLEASED”. (Psalm 115:1-3)

THIRD PICTURE verses:

“Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it…” (Psalm 127:1)

“I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.” (Psalm 34: 1-3)

“O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. ” (Isaiah 25:1)

FOURTH PICTURE statement and verses:

…And just like that, the Lord could step in and change things. He is still on the throne, still sovereign, still in control.

“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.” (Prov. 13:12 KJV)

FIFTH OR THIRD TO LAST PICTURE verses:

“But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” (Is. 49:14-16 KJV)

“For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.” Is. 54:7 KJV)

“Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called HEPHZIBAH, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.” (Is. 62:4 KJV)

“Sought out, A city NOT forsaken.” (Is. 62:12 KJV)

“𝐈 will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: 𝐈 will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. 𝐈 will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; 𝐈 will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.” (Is. 41:18-20 KJV)

LAST PICTURE

“I will bless the Lord at ALL TIMES: his praise shall CONTINUALLY be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.

I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were NOT ashamed…

O taste and SEE that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him…

Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord…The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit…The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and NONE of them that trust in him shall be desolate.” (Ps. 34 KJV)

Having added Psalm 34 successfully and saved it, I was about to add these beautiful verses I subsequently thought of, when Facebook stopped me from further editing and rudely deleted my ‘only me’ status:

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! …For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” (Rom. 11:33,36 KJV)

Thankfully, despite all the enemy does (and it can be tiring at times), God remains on the throne and still in control. His power trumps all and he has the last say.

Believe it or not, I was so upset about the whole thing, that I decided to come straight to this Website to write about what I had just experienced, only to find a notification on the Website, informing me that something important was outdated on the Site and I needed to update it or else the Site might no longer work.

There is a saying that when it rains, it pours and this is really true. I am not technologically savvy, so this latest issue is a headache and it may even require me to spend a significant amount of funds to have it fully rectified. To make matters worse, the guy who created my Page has recently gone to live overseas, so this is more headache for me. I may have to use a new IT person’s services.

The enemy was on a roll tonight, it seemed BUT GOD!

On the issue of a possible one-day engagement and marriage, admittedly, I have sometimes wondered if I heard God correctly when I believe he told me through his Word in 2013, that I would one day be married. However, this latest unexpected attack on Facebook, serves to ignite my flame of hope of one day getting married (which I admit has never completely gone out but is weak). For, if God did not intend to work this miracle in my life (and it would take a pretty huge miracle to bring it to pass), why was the enemy fighting against me like this? What was it about the idea of my one day getting engaged and giving all the glory to God (where it rightly deserved to be), that caused him to tremble so?

As I have written in previous Articles, I have been attacked in different ways and even in childhood, by the enemy, who used people and situations to try to make me believe that I would never get married. Imagine, he sent people to tell me as a child, when marriage was not even on my mind, that I would end up just like an aunt of mine (now deceased), who, of all my Father’s fourteen siblings, was the only one that never got married.

He sent other people as well and mocked at me through situations, like the two times where I mistakenly thought that two men were possibly the ones that God wanted me to marry. I left it up to the Lord to decide but was hopeful and it painfully turned out that they were not the one. I am happy about the outcome now and thankful (as I saw issues with compatibility and red flags from mere observation, although I had never started anything with them). In those moments, I still endured intense pain though, when I realized that my hopes were dashed, moreso with one guy who I had spent about two years working closely with on a Ministry programme and who had hinted interest although never coming out and saying it. Based on how everything played out in both situations, I could sense that while I was hurting, the enemy was laughing. Thanks be to God though, he has healed me wonderfully and I am completely at peace and grateful for how things turned out.

On the whole though, I have cried much throughout the years over these issues, my seemingly never ending singleness and people’s teasing, harassing and provoking statements about my not being married, which only served to drive the nail deeper BUT GOD!

Now, having been through all sorts of situations and trouble and adversities and pain and storms, my STILL HOPING for a one-day engagement and marriage and simply desiring to give God PUBLIC praise if he should ever do so, the enemy of my soul, the one who wants people to remain in darkness and never see light, has sent Facebook management to try to restrict my efforts. BUT GOD! As I stated before in an earlier Article, I will not retreat!

Today in particular, has been a day of intense attack. Just today, I received a letter from the Jehovah Witness cult, inviting me to their convention. This they still dared to do, when I already told them months ago when they kept calling our home to speak to my mother, not to call our house ever again, as we were not interested in their lies. This they did after following up that call with investigations to get my name and sending me a letter in my name and with it mentioned in the body of the letter, trying to spread their false message.

In response to that bold-faced letter, given that the Bible tells me to resist the devil and he will flee, I promptly sent a return letter along with an Article I had written previously on the Gospel, letting them know that I hoped that they would see the light and embrace truth. This caused them to be silent for several months but like the devil their master, they are persistent and so decided to send me yet another correspondence, this time, inviting me to their diabolical convention.

Shortly after opening the mail, I tore the documents into pieces and put them where they deserved: in the bin.

All these attempts by the enemy of my soul to upset, provoke and frustrate me, while I find them upsetting, only serve to fortify me in my resolve. By the grace of almighty God, if HE (God) provides a husband for me and allows us to take those wonderful photos I have already envisioned, once HE (God) allows my Facebook Page to remain up, I INTEND TO POST THOSE BIBLE VERSES!

Thankfully, a few days ago, I thought of backing up the verses by copying them and storing them in an e-mail. This is much more secure than storing stuff on Facebook.

If Facebook bans me when I post what I intend to post, then so be it! Some risks are worth taking and the Word of God is so beautiful, that I refuse to allow the enemy and his minions, to silence me.

In retrospect, I really did go against ‘Community Standards’ because community standards today are to revel in sin, rebellion and anything that displeases almighty God. Community standards today are to call wrong right and right wrong, to love darkness and to hate light, to hate truth and to love lies. Ultimately, community standards today are for human beings to turn their back on the God that created them, loves them and wants to have relationship with them and instead, to embrace all that is wicked, filthy and that pertains to ungodliness.

Thankfully, this world’s so-called ‘Community Standards’ and Facebook’s do not matter. Only God’s standards which are high, right, pure, wise and righteous altogether, matter. Only his standards are from everlasting to everlasting. Those that align themselves with HIS standards therefore are on the right track, for God’s way is the only true way and his path, the only one that leads to abundant life.

(Written on 15th and 16th August, 2022)

ADDENDUM

In the wee hours of this morning, I was trying to create a new album on my ‘BROKEN Daughters of God – Hephzibah Diaries’ Facebook page but Facebook kept telling me that my attempt to create the album failed. I tried three times but to no avail. I was confused for a moment and then wondered if the problem was the name of the Album. I was trying to call it: SIN & BROKENNESS THE PROBLEM, JESUS & SALVATION THE SOLUTION.

Surely, it couldn’t be, I thought to myself. Surely, Facebook was not preventing me from creating the album because of the message it contained and because I was mentioning the name of Jesus and that he was the solution in it, was it?

I decided to remove the name of Jesus from the title of the album to test this theory and so I changed it to: ‘FINDING A SOLUTION FOR BROKENNESS’. Lo and behold, when I clicked the button, it went through! The Album was created!

This was yet another reminder to me that we are living in an increasingly hostile world, a world that is hostile to the truth and therefore hostile to Jesus Christ and anyone who seeks to advance his name.

Then, this morning, as the Lord would have it, I turned randomly to a portion of scripture in Acts 4 and was reminded that the tactics of the enemy from that time to now, have not changed. The same spirit that was at work back then, trying to suppress and silence God’s servants from advancing the gospel and promoting the name of Jesus Christ which is powerful is the same spirit at work today. It continuously seeks to silence the people of God that are not encumbered with secular distractions but are focused on what is really important in life and are therefore trying to advance the vital message of salvation to a lost world, that need to be saved.

In Acts 4, Peter and John, having miraculously healed an impotent man in Acts 3 through faith in the name of Jesus, had attracted a crowd of people, who were amazed at what had been done. Peter pounced on the opportunity there and then, to give people the gospel of Jesus Christ, which, by the grace of God, many believed.

This of course, attracted opposition. The devil hates it when people are given the gospel and when they get saved and so he stirs up his minions to intervene to try to stop it.

In Acts 4:1-4, it reads:

“And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them,Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.And they LAID HANDS ON THEM, and PUT THEM IN HOLD UNTO THE NEXT DAY: for it was now eventide. Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.”

Similarly, it has been my experience (and I am sure the experience of many other Christians trying to use social media to advance the gospel), that those managing the social media are grieved when we try to promote the name of Jesus and so, have an in-built system designed to suppress such efforts as much as possible. They therefore resort to trying to put us in hold through suspension of the use of the page and threats to suspend or even permanently restrict or disband our Facebook account.

I have had Facebook ministry pages suspended on more than one occasion and as stated before, received threats that I could be permanently restricted or disbanded, my only ‘crime’ being to publish truth or express my faith in Jesus.

In verses 15-18, it reads further of the people who were against the promulgation of the gospel of Jesus Christ:

“But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, Saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly THREATEN them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.”

Facebook and I am sure, other forms of social media, do the same today. Under the guise of having ‘standards’, they threaten to suspend and threaten to restrict our accounts, hoping to derail efforts to bring much needed truth to the people who, without Jesus Christ and his salvation, will be lost for all eternity. They embrace garbage, like the many tik tock and reels videos that people continuously upload that are absolutely nonsensical, foolish and even vulgar at times but they are increasingly intolerant of the gospel and attempts made to edify the body of Christ, rejecting publications that have nothing but the pure, unadulterated Word of God. In short, they try to suppress that which is true, that which is the antidote to man’s sin problem and problems in general, that which is JESUS CHRIST.

Yet, when facing such opposition, we must not give up. We must not give in to the intimidation. We must be wise but we must never be silenced. Press on therefore in the power of the might of the Lord Jesus Christ, operating through you.

This is exactly what Peter and John did. They did not cower in fear when threatened or stop doing what they were doing. In fact, they faced the opposition head on. When told to no longer tell anyone about Jesus, Peter and John responded: “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

This attracted further threats but Peter and John were resolved to please God rather than men. They were mindful of the commission they had received from Jesus himself, to go into all the world and preach the gospel to EVERY creature. Jesus told them “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”

They understood that this important and urgent mandate from the Lord, could not be bridled by any man. For, it was a mandate given by the highest authority of all, Jesus Christ himself. No earthly authority could overturn it. Irrespective of the consequences therefore, they were intent that the gospel would go forward and they availed themselves of every opportunity that presented itself, to do so.

We must be armed with the same mentality today. Facebook may try its very best to suppress and silence us but we will press on, “For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” We have a message, a story, a testimony and the world and other Christians need to hear it. The world and other Christians need to hear what Jesus means to us, who he is and what he has done for us and is still doing for us.

Ironically, it was as a result of Facebook removing the Notes feature, that this Website was borne. No matter what difficulties or challenges come, the Word of God flourishes and God will make a way for his Word to continue to go forward.

If we have a message, then we have a responsibility to proclaim it and no devil in hell has the power to withstand it. He will certainly try. The amount of opposition I faced since I started this Ministry, by Facebook, adverse situations and people in general, has been great. I have been provoked, harassed, discouraged by people and much more, the intention being (sometimes them not even realizing that satan has used them to try to frustrate and discourage me), to make me stop BUT I HAVE RESOLVED TO PRESS ON.

The enemy has even put it into the hearts of some people to come after me and attack me because of the difficulties I have had career wise and my bouts of unemployment. This has been a point of great pain to me, given that I have always been ambitious and hard working. The enemy knows this and so, has used people to try to provoke and poke at me, on the issue. They have come maliciously, to attack me with words or to try to make me feel bad because I was not in those moments, gainfully employed with secular work. Little did they know, that during those periods and since 2015 to be exact, (although I have had work intermittently here and there), I have been gainfully and consistently employed by the Lord, to do a GREAT WORK, a MIGHTY WORK, the best work of all, that being, to use the gifts and some of the talents that he has given me, to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ and to edify the Church globally.

I say gainfully employed because nothing matches the rewards of the Lord. In this period of my secular unemployment, I may not be getting a monthly salary like some are collecting each month but God is faithful and he knows how and when to reward his children. I don’t look for rewards though. I consider it an honour to be used by the Lord to advance his truth to others. Despite my efforts, the doors of secular employment have remained shut for quite some time for me and on different occasions, for reasons unknown to me. I have not welcomed this and it has been the source of much tears, prayers and fasting on my part over the years. People have not helped. They have only served to rub it in more, causing me much hurt and pain. Yet, during these periods, the doors to employment by God, have flung wide open. I have therefore been using this time, to do the best work of all.

Despite the opposition I have faced therefore, even from people who should be on my side in this battle but have opted instead to be used by the enemy for his evil purpose, I press on. They can’t stop me and in time, they will realize that whatever God is building, they cannot break. As long as God grants me breath and wills this work to continue by my hands, by his grace, it will continue.

(Addendum written on 10th November, 2022)

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