Skip to main content

Full of Grace....or something else?


Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossians 4:6)          
            I'm writing this with the plan to post it on a day when my conversation may not be full of anything like grace. It's partly a response to our political season, and partly a response to the vocally prevalent forces in our society. I started noticing the force I'm talking about when I was in high school. It wasn't new then, but since that time, I think it's become more entrenched in our society. One of my coworkers and I had been having a verbal slam fest, "all in fun." Later, I found myself wondering why it was that I couldn't think of any way to be funny that built someone up. 
          I noticed it on TV, too. Sit coms all seemed to involve putting someone down, putting someone "in their place," showing someone up, showing how stupid, backward, bad someone was. In other words, "funny" meant ridicule and abuse. In a political season, or among activists, "Funny" and "amusing" tends to mean agenda-driven propaganda.
          If our conversation is always full of grace, there is no room in it for anything else, ever. There is especially no room in which to amuse ourselves at the expense of another, even our enemies.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
In the sky:
New Moon
Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower (big one)
Birthday of
Sigmund Freud
Robert Edwin Perry

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...