Dear Friends, Today I want to share a “thought” about one of the most commonly accepted sins. You probably know what it is before I even mention it. You may even have engaged in it. Some engage in it frequently, not even considering it a sin. It’s called gossip. It can come in many forms – a whisper in the ear, a prayer request offered in front of a group, a secret you make someone promise not to share with anyone else (hoping or knowing full well they will!), or to get support or sympathy or revenge in relation to something they said or did to us. We have all likely been guilty of committing this sin at one time or another or in one way or another. In fact, it can be particularly common in churches. As one person once told me while chuckling about some churches he'd attended, “The gossip lines in some churches spread information as fast as cell towers for AT&T and T-Mobile, and have just as wide a coverage.” Yet, as Christians it should not be so. And lest we be unawa
Dear Friends, Today’s post has to do with the pursuit of what is true. Not merely accepting what sounds good to me, or what fits with the personal narrative I’ve chosen to hold in life, or what I want to be true. It has to do with seeking what is really true – because truth does matter. For instance, how many have heard the commonly accepted statement that the phrase “do not fear” or “do not be afraid” occurs 365 times in the Bible, “once for every day in the year.” In regard to that statement one person wrote: “This sounded very encouraging. Having done some Bible searching in the past I was doubtful the actual phrase ‘do not fear’ would be found written in exactly that format 365 times but thought maybe verses which communicated that sentiment in various forms – such as fear not, don’t be afraid, etc. – would make up this excellent number.” I want to share the rest of this person’s story below, because they did go on (as we should) to do the research to see if it was t