The Danger of Misinformation

In a group email a few weeks ago, someone asked about a mutual acquaintance, and I responded to the group with the latest "authoritative" information that I had.

Here is a direct quote from my response - You mentioned _____ and _____. I just heard today from (another mutual acquaintance) that a couple of weeks ago, there was a flooded basement, and so the home they were looking forward to moving into is not available for a while. There is mold, which of course must be taken care of. So, in their first weeks of retirement, everything is in storage, I think they are living with friends (or family)

Today I got an email from the couple we were talking about. He says:

"Hello Thurland. How are you doing? I've been so busy that our computers are still sitting around unpacked. I'm emailing from the local library (which works fine). Regarding the above quote, nothing could be further from the truth! I wonder how these stories are put together! I'm happy to tell you that we are doing very, very fine. We are counting our blessings from the Lord day by day, sometimes hour by hour! It is truly wonderful here, and we've never been happier.

He goes on to tell me some more details, but the point is that my original story was comppletely false. Fortunately, on this one, it doesn't matter a lot. But it is a good lesson. How often do we pass on "facts" that really aren't "facts"? And how much damage might be done by those "non-facts"? Probably a lot more damage than having mold in the basement.

An old Sunday School song comes to mind. O be careful little mouth what you say (2x) For the Father up above is looking down in love. So be careful little mouth what you say."

THINKING & PRAYING EVANGELISTICALLY

The theme of our Tuesday night midweek (open to all, but realistically consisting of 5 people on a low night, 15 on a high night, and regularly 8-10) is "Thinking and Praying Evangelistically."

In fact - Our church is a member of an evangelical denomination. This simply means that we embrace the doctrine of personal salvation espoused by Jesus when he told Nicodemus, "You must be born again." We believe in a real heaven, and a real hell, and we believe that Jesus is the way of salvation.

In actuality - While our church is evangelical in name, it falls short of being evangelistic in practice. This means, that while we say we are evangelicals, in practice we have not placed a high priority on sharing this with members of our community.

In faith - It is our Tuesday night prayer that that will change. the Tuesday night midweek is praying and believing that we will train ourselves to not only "think and pray evangelistically", we will begin to "act evangelistically." Will you pray with us?

What do you think? Is evangelism important. Is it important for Winchester Wesleyan to regain this impetus? Are you going to be a part? Do you have real people with real names for whom you pray? Do you pray that God will open a door so you can share the Gospel with them?

Are you an evangelistic thinker? An evangelistic prayer? Are you willing to make the personal changes necessary in order to become one?

Click the comment button below and let us know what you think

Thurland