Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:16, James 3:6
Key Verse: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor (Exodus 20:26).
Meditation: The tongue does large-scale damage. Even from a distance the tongue is capable of doing extensive damage. One careless, unproved rumor dropped at one end of a town will eventually work its way across town gathering additional material with report. By the time it reaches the subject, the rumor is hardly. recognizable leaving only deepened suspicions, hurt and defamation innocent people in its wake. An old proverb says, “There is so impossible to kill as a rumor, once unleashed it can never be snuffed out.” Perhaps that is why James refers to the tongue as a fire fed hell from within our unsanctified human nature.
I have a close pastoral friend who served in a church given to spreading of unverifiable rumors about pastors and people in church. This besetting sin often clings to people who are very orthodox in their beliefs. My friend determined that he would always confront this self-destructing tendency. He and his wife had barely finished unpacking when one of the brethren came by saying, “Pastor, I know if you heard or not, but...” Before the church member could finish his feigned litany of grief over the “offense,” my pastor friend stopped him in his tracks with, “Who told you?” The pastor then asked the man to immediately get into his car and they would together go to the source and test the truthfulness of the rumor. Picking up people along the way, the car was packed by the time they got to the first person that had started the story. They found the end tale was distorted that it completely misrepresented the original story.
Thought for the Day: The eagerness we display in listening to and repeating unverifiable rumors is a measure of the depth of human depravity still hidden in us.
Key Verse: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor (Exodus 20:26).
Meditation: The tongue does large-scale damage. Even from a distance the tongue is capable of doing extensive damage. One careless, unproved rumor dropped at one end of a town will eventually work its way across town gathering additional material with report. By the time it reaches the subject, the rumor is hardly. recognizable leaving only deepened suspicions, hurt and defamation innocent people in its wake. An old proverb says, “There is so impossible to kill as a rumor, once unleashed it can never be snuffed out.” Perhaps that is why James refers to the tongue as a fire fed hell from within our unsanctified human nature.
I have a close pastoral friend who served in a church given to spreading of unverifiable rumors about pastors and people in church. This besetting sin often clings to people who are very orthodox in their beliefs. My friend determined that he would always confront this self-destructing tendency. He and his wife had barely finished unpacking when one of the brethren came by saying, “Pastor, I know if you heard or not, but...” Before the church member could finish his feigned litany of grief over the “offense,” my pastor friend stopped him in his tracks with, “Who told you?” The pastor then asked the man to immediately get into his car and they would together go to the source and test the truthfulness of the rumor. Picking up people along the way, the car was packed by the time they got to the first person that had started the story. They found the end tale was distorted that it completely misrepresented the original story.
Thought for the Day: The eagerness we display in listening to and repeating unverifiable rumors is a measure of the depth of human depravity still hidden in us.
| Gossip is big business. |
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