Skip to main content

Monday Morning Scattershooting


Monday Morning Scattershooting while wondering why people think I'm being condescending. It’s just that I'm too busy thinking about far more important things they wouldn't understand.




    I have to admit I am getting a little tired of Facebook.  To be honest I never much cared for it.[1]  Now however the noise is getting a little overwhelming.  Too many opinions, too much information, too much bickering, too much meddling, too many busybodies.  For some reason, people can’t handle making comments.  I now avoid the comment section on any website. Not that there are not good point in some discussions, but to get to them you have to wade thru so much junk.  I still can’t believe how people don’t think about what they are saying in public forums.  Maybe it is the false mask we think we have online.  We will say things to a screen that we would never say to person.  As Oscar Wilde put it, “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”  The irony is that what we say online is even more permanent.  Our words will drift until the sounds pass away but what we post is etched in stone.  Yet we control no more. What did James tell us?
So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!  And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.  For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race.  But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.” James 3:5-8 
Next time we race to comment, don’t.  Before we add our two cents, think. What you say matters (Matthew 12:36). Don’t create ruin with your words.

    I heard a preacher say something this last weekend that made me think.  As he was talking about the need for churches to spread the Gospel he remarked how we all desire to be known as “friendly congregation” but that friendliness may make us unwilling to tell people uncomfortable truth.  We won’t tell somebody they are lost and won’t go to heaven because we might cause offense.  It got me thinking about the pendulum of politeness and directness.  I've seen both side of that swing.  Some who will hide the very nature of the church in order to “keep in good standing” and then those that thru their brutish ways will never win a convert.  I think the answer is in speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).  Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:15,   “but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;”. We need to give the answers for our faith but in a respectful and courteous manner. To hide truth is never the answer. To live up to a negative stereotype isn't the way either.

    Finally, on a Monday morning, a mother went in to wake up her son.  "Wake up son. It's time to go to school!" "But mom, I don't want to go" he replied.  "Give me two reasons why" she told her son.  "Well, the kids hate me, and the teachers hate me too!" he grumbled.  "That's no reason, come now get ready" she scoffed.  In desperation he quipped, "Give me two reasons why I should go?"  She thought and responded, "Well for one you are 52 years old. And for another, you're the principal!



[1] Most people live lives of quiet desperation, but with Facebook it is no longer quiet
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Until Midnight

    In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back.       I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul.   Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Gift You Give Yourself

    I always hated buying gifts for my Mom. If I got her something like a new set of pans, it was like saying “Here’s something you can use to go make me something to eat”. A gift for her was seemingly a gift for me.   There are however gifts you give that benefit you more than the receiver. For example, forgiveness. When you give it, you are giving it to yourself as much as you are giving it to them. Jesus said that when we forgive others it means God is forgiving us our wrongs (Matthew 6:14-15).  I once read: “ Heaven is where everyone's forgiven. Hell is where nobody's forgiven.  So, when we forgive we pull heaven down into our lives.  When we withhold forgiveness, we pull hell up into our lives ” Give yourself something nice today, Forgive.
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Does A Lion Tamer Use a Chair?

  Ok, I know you have seen the image. A lion tamer enters in the cage of the beast and forces it to obey his commands using a whip, a gun and a chair. Now you can see how the whip and gun could come in handy but you might be wondering why a chair would intimidate an animal as powerful as a lion? Clyde Beatty taming a lion with a chair   It's not that the lion is afraid of the chair -- it's that the lion is confused by the chair. Cats are single-minded, and the points of the chair's four legs bobbing around confuse the lion enough that it loses its train of thought. Casually put, the chair distracts the lion from wanting to claw the lion tamer's face off. The powerful creature could destroy the chair in moment’s notice but instead it is distracted into submission.  It’s not too much different than how Satan controls us today. By the power of God we could overcome anything that he would use to subdue us. We can overcome the evil one (1 st John 2:13-14). ...
Post a Comment
Read more