I am sure that I am not the only one that receives mail on a daily basis. Funny mail, work mail, help mail, friends, family, everyone jostling for a moment of my / your time...! Well, today I want to take some time to talk about email, as we use and abuse the electronic, fast mail systems of the internet-realm.
Most of us has received / read something similar to this.
“If you can start the day without caffeine or pep pills,
If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food everyday and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time,
If you can overlook when people take things out on you when, through no fault of yours, something goes wrong,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can face the world without lies and deceit,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without liquor,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
If you can do all these things...
THEN YOU ARE PROBABLY THE FAMILY DOG…!”
Another example of this is something along the lines of this…
“Next, you send this message to everyone you know. In a while, more people will have prayed for you and you would have obtained a lot of people praying for others.
Next, stop and think and appreciate God's power in your life, for doing what you know is pleasing to him. If you are not ashamed to do this, follow the instructions.
Jesus said, "If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you before My Father"
If you are not ashamed, send this message...only if you believe. "Yes, I love my God. He is my fountain of Life and My Savior. He Keeps me going day and night. Without Him, I am no one. But with Him, I can do everything. Christ is my strength."
This is a simple test. If you love God and you are not ashamed of all the great things that he has done for you, send this to everyone you know, and the person that sent it to you.”
How many times a day or a week do you receive email with these kind of sayings? They are kind of sad, they are beautiful (some with nice music), the are funny – (but I certainly do not want to be the family dog! I can do all these things and I am definitely not the family dog!) You also receive these that say that if you do not pass it on within a certain period of time to so many of your friends, that something bad will happen to you, or if you do, that something good will happen to you. You also receive these that have all the good sayings and wishes of God on them, and the last line that says, “if you have a heart” , “if you love Jesus”, and all the others that basically make you feel guilty if you do not forward it to all your friends and family. You then get those that say that if you pass it on to 1 friend, this will happen, if you pass it on to 2, to 3, to 4, to 5 or more etc. that things will really start looking good….!!
The question to ask is, do you believe that something good / bad will happen to you if you do / don’t send the mail? If you cannot answer a definite “I do not believe in it” then you have to revisit your basic foundation for faith. Sending mail because you believe that something good will happen to you, or in fear of something bad happening to you, is not believing in God, but trusting in the queen of luck. You are putting your belief in the wrong place my friend – and Satan’s lie of deceit has caught you napping. The message might look innocent, and it appeals to your “Christian” side, and you decide to forward it – when you do that, you have just played squarely into Satan’s hand, because he wants you to believe in anything except God. He wants you to put your faith outside God’s will, outside what the Bible tells you and me on what God wants us to do - believe! If you have to send a message on to show that you love Jesus, then there is something wrong anyway – you should not be a closet Christian, your life should reflect your love for your Saviour. You should be a walking, talking, singing example to others of the love for God and His love for you!
My advice to you is – if you want to send mail because of the hope of something good happening to you or because you are afraid that something bad will happen to you, don’t do it, step out in faith and just delete the pesky mail, get rid of the seducing and the lies…! If there is something nice, delete the part that says anything of luck, of good or bad and be aware of all the traps, the lies that you get bombarded with in our new high tech century! We may think that it is innocent, send with “good intensions” and that there is nothing wrong with sending or forwarding a message. More and more we get bombarded with requests to sign this or that or support this cause and we as Christians need to be very selective and very careful on the “high-tech, good looking” information that we receive and which we send out. Remember that in these end-times, the lie of Satan will become more and more difficult to distinguish and there will be a lot more pressure from friends, family, and colleagues etc. to be part and become part of the lie. The lie will be nicely wrapped-up and like the one song says “candy-coated sin” it will look more and more attractive, anything for us to be fooled by the lie and to be tricked into the wide road. We should know what we stand for, if not, it is easy to fall for anything, and remember that falling hurts and that is where Satan wants us – hurting – and badly as well.
Make your decision and stand for who you are in Christ! It is worth it – all the time and every time.
© Chris Putter
(1135 Words)
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