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Discussion Forum : Articles and Sermons : How to Handle Gossip, Slander and Discord

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Quote:

Roniya wrote:
Thank you, Jeannette, for sharing those Scriptures. Very good stuff there. I’m just going to pull a little bit out, bring in some quotes, and then focus on the excellent article that Josh (preachparsly) posted by Samuel Brengle – that article really is a must read. Thank you for sharing it, brother...

...That is an amazing example found in the life of Marquis de Renty. He did not waver on what he stood for, but calmly stated his position and refused to be embroiled in hot debate over it. Wow. Thanks for sharing the lessons you have also learned, sister Jeannette.

On reflection I doubt if I've learned them well enough! :-(

Its rather like a basic computer course I've been taking, (not for an exam or anything but free training done through our local library.

I rushed through it because of knowing much of the stuff fairly well already. But the new things - often small parts of a lesson - that I hadn't grasped, seemed to disappear from memory on taking the "test" at the beginning and end of each section!

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Littlegift:
The Lord knows our hearts, and can deal with every twisted motive - including those we aren't even aware of ourselves.

I find that such a comfort!

And if we would let Him do this with each of us as individuals, truly these evils will be purged out of the Church!

Amen! This reminds me of some quotes from [url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic_id=19585&forum=44&start=20&viewmode=flat&order=1]Matthew Henry[/url] that relate to judging one another,

When I was a preacher my own sermons would often come back and bite me! Thanks for the reminder ;-)!

I suppose that if any preacher is speaking the true Word of God, this is bound to happen. The Word is greater than the one who speaks it!

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On to the article, [b]Don't Argue by Samuel Logan Brengle[/b]

...I find that often, after having plainly, fully and calmly stated my views to one who is opposing the truth as I see it, I am strongly tempted to strive for the last word; but I also find that God blesses me most when I there commit the matter into His hands, and by so doing I most often win my adversary. I believe this is the way of faith and the way of meekness. While it may seemingly leave us defeated, we generally in the end win our foe. And if we have true meekness, we shall rejoice more over having won him to an "acknowledging of the truth" (2 Tim. ii. 25) than in having won an argument.

OUCH!!! That's still a strong temptation at times...

I must get around to reading the whole article

Thank you

Jeannette

 2008/3/4 13:25









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You can read all the articles you want but unless you are filled with the spirit and hear from God you will never be able to apply that knowledge.

Many christians in other parts of the world do not even own bibles. Knowledge is good but praying and hearing from God first is better.

The emphasis should be on prayer not on a step by step list of instructions.





 2008/3/4 14:01









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Quote:
Heismypeace wrote:
You can read all the articles you want but unless you are filled with the spirit and hear from God you will never be able to apply that knowledge.



Amen! That is exactly right, sister Rebecca. It is vital that we are filled and walking in the Holy Spirit. And if we are filled with the Holy Spirit we will walk in obedience to God’s Word, particularly in the areas that have been discussing: gossip, slander, discord, arguing, etc.

[i]16 This I say then, [b]Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.[/b]
17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, [b]wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,[/b]
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 [b]But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.[/b]
24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
26 [b]Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.[/b]
Galatians 5:16-26[/i]


Quote:
Heismypeace wrote:
Many christians in other parts of the world do not even own bibles. Knowledge is good but praying and hearing from God first is better.



Yet those Christians are so faithful with what little they have been given. I’m thinking of the Christians in China and how faithfully they follow Christ even to imprisonment and death. It lays the responsibility even more so on our shoulders that we obey the commands contained in the Bible since we have unlimited access to it. You mentioned ‘praying and hearing from God’, YES! And what means does God use in speaking to us?

[b]Ro 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.[/b]

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is [b]the Holy Ghost,[/b] whom the Father will send in my name,[b] he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, [i]whatsoever I have said unto you.[/b][/i]

Praise God for His Word!

Quote:
Heismypeace wrote:
The emphasis should be on prayer not on a step by step list of instructions.



Dear sister, the emphasis is on obedience to God and His Word, the Bible, in relation to these matters, and that also contains the command to pray! And what we do should come out of prayer, I agree. Even this posting on SI, to be edifying and led of the Spirit, [i]must[/i] come [i]out of[/i] prayer!

Your post also made me think of 1 Corinthians 13, one of those passages that always challenges me, and I always profit from reading.

[i]
1 ¶ Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 [b]And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.[/b]
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4 ¶ [b] Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.[/b]
8 ¶ Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.[/i]

God be with you, sister Rebecca. :-D

 2008/3/4 14:38









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Proverbs 6

[i]16 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, 19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.[/i]

II. [b]A catalogue of those things which are in a special manner odious to God, [/b]all which are generally to be found in those men of Belial whom he had described in the foregoing verses; and the last of them (which, being the seventh, seems especially to be intended, because he says they are six, yea, seven) is part of his character, that he sows discord. God hates sin; he hates every sin; he can never be reconciled to it; he hates nothing but sin. [u]But there are some sins which he does in a special manner hate; and all those here mentioned are such as are injurious to our neighbour. [/u] It is an evidence of the good-will God bears to mankind that those sins are in a special manner provoking to him which are prejudicial to the comfort of human life and society. Therefore the men of Belial must expect their ruin to come suddenly, and without remedy, because their practices are such as the Lord hates and are an abomination to him, v. 16. [b]Those things which God hates it is no thanks to us to hate in others, but we must hate them in ourselves. [/b]

1. Haughtiness, conceitedness of ourselves, and contempt of others—a proud look. There are seven things that God hates, and pride is the first, because it is at the bottom of much sin and gives rise to it. God sees the pride in the heart and hates it there; but, when it prevails to that degree that the show of men's countenance witnesses against them that they overvalue themselves and undervalue all about them, this is in a special manner hateful to him, for then pride is proud of itself and sets shame at defiance.

2. Falsehood, and fraud, and dissimulation. Next to a proud look nothing is more an abomination to God than a lying tongue; nothing more sacred than truth, nor more necessary to conversation than speaking truth. God and all good men hate and abhor lying.

3. Cruelty and blood-thirstiness. The devil was, from the beginning, a liar and a murderer (John viii. 44), and therefore, as a lying tongue, so hands that shed innocent blood are hateful to God, because they have in them the devil's image and do him service.

4. Subtlety in the contrivance of sin, wisdom to do evil, a heart that designs and a head that devises wicked imaginations, that is acquainted with the depths of Satan and knows how to carry on a covetous, envious, revengeful plot, most effectually. The more there is of craft and management in sin the more it is an abomination to God.

5. Vigour and diligence in the prosecution of sin—feet that are swift in running to mischief, as if they were afraid of losing time or were impatient of delay in a thing they are so greedy of. The policy and vigilance, the eagerness and industry, of sinners, in their sinful pursuits, may shame us who go about that which is good so awkwardly and so coldly.

6. False-witness bearing, which is one of the greatest mischiefs that the wicked imagination can devise, and against which there is least fence. [u]There cannot be a greater affront to God (to whom in an oath appeal is made) nor a greater injury to our neighbour (all whose interests in this world, even the dearest, lie open to an attack of this kind) than knowingly to give in a false testimony. [/u]There are seven things which God hates, and lying involves two of them; he hates it, and doubly hates it.

7. Making mischief between relations and neighbours, and using all wicked means possible, not only to alienate their affections one from another, but to irritate their passions one against another. [u]The God of love and peace hates him that sows discord among brethren, [b]for he delights in concord.[/b] Those that by tale-bearing and slandering, by carrying ill-natured stories, aggravating every thing that is said and done, and suggesting jealousies and evil surmises, blow the coals of contention, are but preparing for themselves a fire of the same nature. [/u]


[i]Psalm 50:20 Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. [/i]

[2.] Slandering (v. 20): "Thou sittest, and speakest against thy brother, [u]dost basely abuse and misrepresent him, magisterially judge and censure him, and pass sentence upon him, as if you wert his master to whom he must stand or fall, [/u] whereas he is thy brother, as good as thou art, and upon the level with thee, for he is thy own mother's son. He is thy near relation, whom thou oughtest to love, to vindicate, and stand up for, if others abused him; yet thou dost thyself abuse him, whose faults thou oughtest to cover and make the best of; if really he had done amiss, yet thou dost most falsely and unjustly charge him with that which he is innocent of; thou sittest and doest this, as a judge upon the bench, with authority; thou sittest in the seat of the scornful, to deride and backbite those whom thou oughtest to respect and be kind to." Those that do ill themselves commonly delight in speaking ill of others.

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[b]Were we to think more of our own mistakes and offenses, we should be less apt to judge other people.[/b] While we are severe against what we count offensive in others, we do not consider how much there is in us which is justly offensive to them. Self-justifiers are commonly self-deceivers. We are all guilty before God; and those who vaunt it over the frailties and infirmities of others little think how many things they offend in themselves. Nay, perhaps their magisterial deportment, and censorious tongues, may prove worse than any faults they condemn in others. Let us learn to be severe in judging ourselves, but charitable in our judgments of other people.

[i]Taken from commentary on James 3, see more [url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=19585&forum=44]here[/url][/i]

-Matthew Henry

 2008/3/5 22:35





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