A good friend who
delights in finding funnies emailed this:
A
guy bought a new fridge and to get rid of his old one put it in his front
yard with a sign saying: 'Free to good home. Want it? Take it.'
For
three days the fridge sat there without anyone looking twice. He eventually
decided that people were too mistrustful of this deal. So he
changed the sign to read: 'Fridge for sale, $50.' The next day someone
stole it!
Words
have power
You
could say it was all in the way the words were framed. Words do
indeed have power.
Language
is a great gift - for communicating, expressing, describing,
explaining, directing, worshipping, preaching, teaching, admiring,
adoring, inspiring and more, not only in speech but also in printed
form. But sadly language can be abused and instead of people being built up
with encouraging words it can be wrongly used
to hurt, discourage and pull down.
There's
an old Bible teaching about words - they have the power of life
or death. Sadly some Christians use the power of words to hurt
others
or force their viewpoint and will on others.
James
obviously came across this and wisely gave Christians some strong
warnings in James 3: 'A word out of your mouth may seem of
no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything - or destroy it! It
only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or
wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech
we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send
the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with
it, smoke right from the pit of hell' (v5-6 emphasis ours).
He
added, 'The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we
bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he
made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the
same mouth! My friends, this can't go on' (v8-10).
Tunnel
vision
Sadly
we come across people living double standards - they're supposed
to be loving their brethren but their words come across in such
a way that they're putting them down, belittling, condemning and
falsely accusing them of not seeing 'the truth.'
And,
repeatedly, 'the truth' is but their own version, their way of thinking
and with hidden and personal agendas, not biblical or Christ-centred.
A twisted mindset at work in people with undealt- with problems. They have a
myopic spirit, a tunnel vision on what they
believe is right, how they perceive things should be. And they wrongly
delight to force their views on others. They display and enforce
a domineering spirit.
An
additional problem is that we live in the day of cyberspace. Not only
do these hurtful, demeaning people use God's gift of language verbally
but they type it up! The email age means that beyond speaking
face-to-face (or behind backs as the case may be), or
demeaning
phoning, hurtful emails hit the airways. With Cc and Bcc copies-
who knows the reach of a loose computerised tongue!
Church members
get criticised, pastors get verbally slammed, and seeds
of doubt regarding leadership and church systems or seeds
of doubt regarding leadership and church systems or programs
are planted in minds at cyberspace speed!
Church wolves in sheep's clothing
Church wolves in sheep's clothing
There
are times when such church people seem to have a prophetic
edge, they appear to know what they're saying - especially
if they themselves hold a form of leadership. Their words can
be very easily taken in by the unwary who then begin to feel demoralised,
put down with wrongly accepted feelings of 'Maybe he (or
she) is right. Maybe I've got it wrong. After all, they know more of
the Bible than I do and they're leaders.'
Jesus
was also into warnings such as Matthew 7:15:'Watch out for false
prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they
are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognise them.' He went
on to instruct that we should stay away from such people.
We
like how the Message Bible puts it: 'Be wary of false preachers who
smile a lot, dripping with practised sincerity. Chances are they are
out to rip you off some way or other. Don't be impressed with charisma; look
for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say.
A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. These
diseased trees with their
bad apples are going to be chopped down and burned.'
Condemnation
- an evil thing
This
is something such church wolves lay on the most innocent and precious of
people. Condemnation can plough deep into the heart if we allow it to take
root. Such people speak or email sneeringly and make
us feel that we're in the wrong, that we're at fault. It's a subtle work
of the enemy and in truth the wolf in sheep's clothing often has problems
of his or her own and need some straightforward challenging
and godly counsel!
'Condemnation'
- the word means 'the act of condemning or pronouncing
to be wrong; censure; blame; disapprobation.' Recently
we came across a church that had lost a lot of good people
because every Sunday the preacher - 'the wolf' - had always
been condemning 'the sheep' in various ways. No wonder people
moved on!
We
all need exhortation, not condemnation! Satan condemns, people
condemn and we can end up condemning ourselves as we start
believing that we're not good enough.
Paul
writes in Romans 8:1, 'There is now no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus.' A Bible college principal once explained
"no condemnation" so clearly decades ago - 'If we were to
go straight from the Greek into English, it would sound like bad English - "No, not,
nothing condemnation!"'
Now
we know that this predominantly relates to our being covered by
Christ's blood. But because we also know that we're totally free in
him (John 8:36), we personally take this on board for every area of
our Christian walk as we follow Jesus. Therefore we refuse to allow
anyone to dominate us, control us and make us feel inferior. If we
cannot see the character of Jesus in them or their actions, we refuse to listen
to them, never mind even think that they could be right.
In other words, we look for the fruit as Jesus suggested.
Our
advice for anyone who is feeling condemned because of subtle words?
Carefully assess the speaker's (or emailer's) character and ask
the Holy Spirit what he's saying. No doubt you'll see things in a different
light. Don't take rubbish on board.
