Month: May 2016

Hey BCU family!

As usual, please enjoy the audio podcast (click on the icon below), the written transcript, or both! In either case, God bless you as you read, hear and apply the Word of God.

Let’s review our anchor Scripture! Let the words of  my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer (Psalm 19:14). Last lesson, we talked through some examples of idle words as Jesus warned us about in Matthew 12:33-37. Additionally, the book of James chapter 3 reminds us about how our tongues, as small as they are, are an  unruly evil and full of deadly poison. On top of that, we bless God and curse men with the same mouth and that really ought not to be. So, let’s wrap up #SpeechTherapy with some of the other idle words that can get is into trouble.

G.  Talking too quickly–He that answers a matter before he hears it it is folly and a shame to him (Proverbs 18:13).

Did you even stop to consider the victim and their side of the story? How many of us judge, jury and execute someone based on one-half of the story? Or on opinion? Or on how YOU understand it? In some cases, what you thought you saw? What you thought you heard? What if people made their decisions about YOU on what one half of the story? How many people have been wrongly accused and punished on partial info?  Case in point..
A good while back, my little podcast helpers, Jaz and Peanut were at my house and I came upstairs to find a drawing on my wall. Now, I do NOT think that’s as cute as others may—we have paper aplenty over here. Now, immediately Jaz says Peanut did it and he says no. Initially, it did look like Peanut’s handiwork and wall drawing is his style, so I started to scold him, BUT…the Lord stopped me, led me to question further and look closely at the picture and the detail…it turned about that Jaz, who is older and should have KNOWN better was the culprit! I almost took dessert from the wrong kid! James 1:19 says to be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath. This way, we can get the proper information and make sound decisions based on what God reveals.

H.  It’s not your story to tell. Yep, this is an area that all of us have struggled in from time to time, myself included. Let’s go to the Word of God.

A talebearer tells secrets, but he that is of a faithful spirit conceals the matter (Proverbs 11:13).

Where no wood is the fire goes out, so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceases. (Prov. 26:20)

Slanderer/whisperer/backbiter/–they all fall under the umbrella of talebearing. Some historical research revealed that a talebearer in Old Testament days, was equivalent to trader or merchant—a merchant carries/sells goods;  a talebearer brings AND carries information. Can someone say confidentiality? Moreover, Jewish law says all things are considered secret unless the person tells you otherwise. Gossip hurts three people—the teller, the hearer and the subject. So three things:

1. As people confide in us, let’s keep the information to ourselves, rather than over dinner with family or friends. Refer back to Proverbs 11:13.
2. We also need to stop receiving gossip and slanderous talk from others. Pray for a word of wisdom to share with the gossiper so that gets shut down AND FAST! You may lose a friend or two, but God knows how to work it out.
3. Keep in mind that Romans 1:29-32 mentions among other things that whisperers, backbiters and malicious people AND those who take please in participating–no matter how trivial are will not enter the kingdom of God. No amount of information is worth losing your soul over.

Another thing the Lord brought to me was not just speaking verbally, but POSTING in this e-world we live in. We speak via posts.

I. Watch what you click and share.
There are so many stories about people and what’s going on with them, and it can draw us in. I was scrolling through the newsfeed and saw a story posted by a fellow “Christian”. The headline read about a Christian couple (who I like quite a bit), where it looked like they were splitting up. My heart dropped a bit because who liked that report? I’m like oh, I need to pray for them..this must be a request from them…etc. So yep, I checked it out and come to find out, it wasn’t true—in fact, the couple were talking about how strong their marriage was after all the years, trials, etc.

The issue: 1) is how the poster entitled his post 2) and the source he used seemed more like “The Enquirer” type tactics—they bait you to get you to read the story. 3) Why even go there? Why post something that intentionally deceives the audience? Maybe the poster didn’t think anything of it, but what does the Word say? The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. (Proverbs 18:8).

My takeaway: I’m quite leery of the person and their posts now. I’m learning to leave that stuff alone. I thought I heard the Spirit say to leave it alone, but I clicked anyway. Lesson learned. As someone who wants to get someone’s attention, I understand catchy titles, hashtags,etc, but I don’t want to ever intentionally deceive my audience into seeing something that isn’t there. This is where they yay and nay come in.

2) The other thing is watching what we REPOST.
2a) Why share posts where the original poster has profanity in the post? Or okay…not profanity, but the letters that mean the words. Or the symbols in place of the words (@* –), y’all know what I mean. Why is that okay? It isn’t. We talked that #SpeechTherapy part 4, where Matthew 12:33-37 talks about swearing and idle words. Replacing a swear word/phrase with its initial/s is still swearing.

2b) Video posts where people repost—with this disclaimer: “please excuse the language/profanity/partial nudity/music with cursing in the background, but the message is really good”. Really?!

Ok, so lets say there is box with a pizza on the table. At some point, a rat dances across the right corner of the pizza. Are you going to eat the part where the rat didn’t dance? Five second rule! Hey, he didn’t touch that piece, though—it’s still good, right? No, you likely will NOT eat it!

Same thing. Why promote the “good” part of what someone is saying rather than rejecting the profane message? A little leaven leaveth the whole lump. (Galatians 5:9).

2c) Consider the source—do we check the source of where the post came from prior to reposting? There was some post about someone who was dancing in the Holy Ghost from a different denomination—and it was a beautiful thing! I didn’t doubt it was a legit praise, now and I REALLY wanted to repost it. There was something about the original poster—something on his wall, some nekked pic or some smoky lounge something that made me uncomfortable, so I followed the leading of Lord and just refrained from posting it.

#BottomLine: Do we really want to knowingly repost anything that has origins in something that doesn’t honor God? I don’t want to drive any traffic to a Fb’er whose beliefs are obviously counter-productive to God. No, I don’t expect every post to be a full of Scripture—I have some non-Biblically based, yet wholesome posts on my wall. I don’t expect everyone to be saved or believe like I do. But I like a clean wall.

BCU family, was this a tough lesson or what? Me, too! Yet we praise God for another chance to get things right before we go to see Him. With God’s help and our willingness to be obedient, we WILL be victorious in this area!

This actually concludes #SpeechTherapy season 1–stay tuned for season 2 coming up! Thank you MUCHO for stopping by!  God bless you, make His face to shine upon you, and until we are together again, #StayOnTheWall!

Love,

BCU