PEA RIDGE — There are some very generous strangers out there in this world. I opened up my email and I found this generous offer.
“I AM SEEKING FOR YOUR URGENT ATTENTION TO HELP ME TRANSFER THE SUM OF (US$10,500,000.00) TEN MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATE OF AMERICAN DOLLARS INTO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT.”
And that is only one of the many generous offers I received in the past week!
In most cases it is from a lady whose husband has passed away leaving her millions of dollars. The problem is that she is on her deathbed and can’t stand the thought of her unsaved heathen family members or her evil tyrannical government getting all that money. (These folks always seem to be from a foreign country.) So her only hope is to put it in my bank account where she can only hope that I will use if for humanitarian purposes.
How can I be so blessed?
I get several forwarded emails from friends about many different things that don’t turn out to be true.
One lately is a picture forwarded of Barak and Michelle Obama. In this picture both are putting their left hands over their chest as the United States flag passes by. Not their right hand but their left.
The accompanying email says: “These people are so clueless. They are not Americans.”
The truth is this picture was photoshoped, meaning it was manipulated. The one that doctored the photo is guilty of bearing false witness. And the thousands of people that forward these kinds of emails are passing along false witness. Even if we believe something to be true, if we spread it then we are being used to propagate a lie.
And we slowly but surely will begin to lose our credibility with our friends.
(Unless they too are caught up in the frenzy.)
Above anyone else, followers of Christ should be committed to truth. As we are being led by the Holy Spirit, we should discern what is truth and what is false. Just because we may wish something to be true doesn’tmean that it is.
Therefore don’t be so quick to jump on the bandwagon when a juicy tidbit is delivered to your inbox. Check it out first. What does snopes.com say?
Even more importantly, what does the Holy Spirit say? He is your guide to truth. Even if it is true, one must ask “Is it edifying to forward it to others?” Would you like someone to forward all that is true about you? ALL that is true?Just because a person is a public figure or elected official you do not agree with does not give one the right to slander or humiliate that person.
Let me throw this out to you. Americans have the right to free speech. We can pretty much say what we want and email what we want, until we start following Christ. As Christians desiring to walk by the Spirit and not the flesh, we give up our right to free speech. As citizens of God’s Kingdom, we give up the right to slander and complain (there is a huge difference between complaining and loving constructive criticism). Am I right on or am I going too far?
When we are committed to truth, we earn respect.
Oh yes, we may lose a few things. We may lose a business deal or may even lose some friends. But what we gain is so much more. There is nothing like walking in the favor of our Heavenly Father.
So let’s be committed to truth and integrity. Let’s bring honor to the name of our Savior Jesus Christ and think twice before clicking send.
If you love Jesus forward this article to 10 people.
(For those not familiar with forwarded emails this last statement is an inside joke. In other words, if you don’t forward this you can still love Jesus. You can still be blessed. You won’t go broke and good things can still happen to you!)◊◊◊
Editor’s note: Tim Wallace is pastor of Cross Brand Church. To contact him, e-mail [email protected].
For more of Tim’s articles, go to www.tallinthesaddle.
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Church, Pages 2 on 02/22/2012