Have you ever noticed how nosey some religious people can be? And they tend to use the excuse of having a need to pray for someone’s tragedy.
“But it was done out of love…” was one excuse I heard lately.
There exists a fine line between gossip vs. the sharing of information for the excuse of adding someone to a prayer list. In fact in most instances I see no difference.
Webster defines gossip as “a person who habitually reveals personal or sensational facts about others.” Whether or not the revealation was done in a negative light or for the purpose of praying for someone is not mentioned.
Humans have a problem with gossip. If someone hears a juicy rumor or horrible situation about another, there is a tendency to share it with a 3rd party, if only to see that person’s reaction about it. If we truly want to emulate Christ, then we wouldn’t even mention a person’s negative situation, if only to that particular person. It’s something we all need to work on, including myself.

I was going through the list of Bible classes at my own congregation updating the church’s website as I normally do. I realized something. I miss good Bible classes. I miss those thoughtful discussions where you don’t even realize the time passing by in your class. Sometimes we are focused too much on covering an entire subject with a certain number of bullet points in a 45 minute window, rather than growing a discussion.
During my teenaged years a handful of us would get together at a church member’s house on Thursday nights for a Bible study. Some of those discussions were the best Bible discussions I’ve had in a while. I still remember some of the topics.
And I must confess something. In larger Bible classes I’m apprehensive about speaking out, expressing my mind, for fear of looking foolish. I’m much more comfortable in a smaller class where I know everyone. But aren’t we all much better off with our friends in a class?
I’m starting to realize why churches with small groups seem to do so well. The tie that binds is never as strong as those participating in a long term small group. I wish I had that. I’m under the impression that there is a small group which meets on my street under the auspices of an area church of Christ. And sometimes I wish I were part of it.

A little over 20 years ago I was baptized. Immediately afterwards I set aside time in my daily activities to read a chapter of the Bible every evening. I think I got through part of the Gospels before it degraded into reading a chapter…any chapter each night. Consequentally enough I got to know those really short chapters in the epistles really well, without necessarily ever studying the meaning behind it.
It degraded in other ways. Almost in a OCD sort of way I used this Bible reading as a way to prove to myself that I was good enough to get into heaven. The concept of grace hadn’t fully manifested itself in my own mind. I can remember many an awkward time where I had to excuse myself from my friends on overnight high school marching band trips to pull out my Bible and read it like a good soldier. Sometimes I was too tired to really understand what was being studied. Eventually in my mid-twenties I gave up this schedule.
Now at church we are being encouraged to read the Bible through in a year. We’ll all be reading the same schedule with the same set of scripture – Old Testament – New Testament – and Psalms and Proverbs. I’m convinced that it is a good idea to read both the Old and New Testaments at the same time so that one won’t get bogged down in Leviticus or some geneology chapter and quit altogether. I’m being told that each week we will hear some lesson at church about the reading which we were to have read that previous week.
So it’s been good. Yesterday I read about the birth of our Earth in Genesis 1 and the birth of our Savior in Matthew 1. I’m not sure how far I’ll get in it. But I am trying. And I got another easier to read translation – the Message, rather than read the standard NKJV. I feel as though at this point in my life I’m able to distinguish between a core translation (NKJV) and a paraphrase. And yet in my own mind, I feel that for personal study the paraphrase (the Message) works best for me.
And I’m hoping that this won’t turn into some type of salvation game that we all play. I.E. if you don’t read your Bible you’re not a good Christian. Instead I’m hoping that I’ll learn new things about it. Remind me of Bible stories and I hadn’t touched on it a while and bring new things to light which I had never studied.

“He was saved last week at church,” a mother remarked to an acquaintance. It was the kind of thing you’d expect to hear at the place I was in last Friday – a Baptist bookstore. So matter-of-fact-ly, and yet so foreign to how I was raised.
Baptists and other evangelicals tend to put much emphasis on accepting Jesus into your heart. From the televangelists I’ve seen, the invitation to pray Jesus into your heart is given at the end of every sermon. Catholics must put some type of emphasis evenly divided on infant bapism and confirmation….confession fits in there somehow.
The there’s the church of Christ who emphasize baptism, sometimes a little too much…maybe….if only because the rest of the world tends to de-emphasize baptism. As a result, grace, until recent years, was not emphasized within the churches of Christ. It was rare to hear an eintire sermon about grace.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. …”
Ephesians 2:8

Then the question was posed in my adult Bible class yesterday. “Is grace ever cheap?”
“Cheap” can mean how something is manufactured. “Cheap” stuff comes from China and can break easily. Certainly grace wasn’t manufactured cheaply, as blood never comes easily.
“Cheap” can also mean the value of an item. People shop at Wal-mart because things are cheap. In a way, the word “Cheap,” can mean inexpensive in a negative way. As a result some people refuse to shop at Wal-mart and will pay more at a different store.
Consequently grace’s value can’t be measured, after all how much is a soul worth? Our minister offered another arbritrary question a few months ago. “If you were offered a million dollars, the only consequence being that one person would have to be lost and suffer enternal punishment.” To which I asked “How much is a soul worth?”

We spoke at length about forgiveness and reconciliation today during our Bible study this morning.
It only takes one person to forgive and move on. It doesn’t require a second party, yet the transaction is complete once that 2nd person accepts the forgiveness, which helps toward reconclilation.
One thing that I had never studied much was reconcliation…somewhat of a starting over in a relationship sense. Reconciliation occurs when both parties work toward mutual goodwill. Someone in class described it as “refriending.” Reconciliation requires two people, whereas forgiveness can happen with just one person.
And yet I have to ask myself if God will hold me accountable if I choose to forgive but not continue with a relationship with the person who wronged me. “Relationship” in this sense is more or less a close friendship which is much more of relationship compared to the sterile casual business relationship. Does forgiveness require a reconciled relationship? I hope not, but somehow I feel guilty for not allowing those who have hurt me in my life anymore.
What I’ve found that it is much easier to forgive those in the world rather than fellow Christians. You almost expect bad things to happen to you when dealing with non-Christians. But fellow Christians purposely hurting you is supposed to be unheardof. It has happened to me in the past and is bound to happen to me again. Because of this, lately I’m apprehensive about building trust with people. I don’t let people become too close to me for fear of being let down.
We have a tendency to put requirements on forgiveness? On down the road we tend to ask ourselves if that person has truly changed. Typically we have a tendency to end or limit relationships when we see that the person who wronged us has gone back to their old ways.

The church which I attend supports a relief effort in Pearlington, Mississippi, just about a stone’s throw from the Louisana border and about 35 miles from downtown New Orleans. The area got hit hard by Katrina and it still shows. I visited there this week with a very small group from my church to conduct the worship services at Pearlington Church of Christ.
Every other week their regular minister is on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. This leaves them without a preacher those Sundays. We filled the gap this Sunday.
I was asked to lead singing for the congregation. I tried to pick out songs which were common favorites among those we were with. Their church building was constructed this summer. There remains some parking lot paving which needs to be done.
Like many before us, we slept on air matresses with some of us on pews. There was a youth group from Lafayette, TN there to help clean up the area around the church.
The area of Pearlington could be described as swampland to those uninitiated. Large trees with moss hanging from them. Somehow the area could be a great setting for a horror movie.
And yet sometimes I couldn’t tell where the devistation of Katrina began and where the packrat mentality ended. I mean every town has that redneck neighbor that keeps their car up on blocks in the front yard. But somehow it seemed that every house looked junky, except for maybe those really nice houses which were already fixed up. Apparently they had insurance.
Still what goes through my mind is what would compel someone to built their house in a obvious flood plain/recovered swampland. I saw lake front homes built along the coast of their lake where the shoreline came up practically to their backdoor, while on the otherside is marshland. No doubt these houses would be first to go once a major hurricane got near.
I did get to put my feet into the Gulf of Mexico – Gulfport, MS, was a detour for us on the way back. The negative was that I didn’t bring my swim suit. Oh well…next time.

A preacher friend of mine was having a conversation we me. We both agreed that somehow church leaders were over emphasizing the sins of [unscriptural] divorce and somehow under emphasizing premarital sex.
When I was a teenager, my church bible classes emphasized the sin of premartial sex over and over again. And yet today, co-ed 20something living together has almost become the norm rather than the exception.
God hates divorce. (Malachi 2:16). And yet he hates other sins too. Proverbs 6:16-19. Lying….Sowing discord….Among other things. We hear about the sin of divorce because it is so public, and involves legal document(s).
Somehow most of us at one time in our life has lied, or at least withheld information. Is this a reason for refusing church membership? Perhaps not, since lying is a one time act. Divorce has long lasting effects, especially when a divorcee remarries.
As sad as it sounds, I think many of us have refused to share the gospel with a neighbor since they have been divorced. We just don’t want to get into that aspect. “Oh, you were divorced 10 years ago before you became a Christian and knew the biblical teaching on divorce and remarriage?” After all God is no respector of persons. And yet somehow I think [hope] God’s grace would cover that.
We sit around ready to stone the adulterous woman. Jesus tells the woman to go and sin no more. And maybe that means those in unscriptural marrages should disolve that marriage. I’m not the one to make that judgment call.