http://www.churchoftollhouse.org/index.cfm?i=11785&mid=25&blogid=4843 What is Christian character? How do we develop it? Christian character is a description, a picture of sorts, of who we are as a Christian. It is built upon the Fruit of the Spirit and it summarizes the essence of our walk with Christ. Christian character is formed by our committment to Christ -- when we die to our SELF and surrender our whole being unto the Lord, submitting to Him and allowing the Holy Spirit to grow and develop our character -- following the Lord's ways, not the world's. It is further developed through the study of God's Word, where we can learn about the kind of character God desires in His people. AdvancedMinistry   They say you can tell a lot by the company someone keeps. Well, many people would be horrified to realize the company a gossip keeps. In the book of Romans, Chapter 1, Paul discusses the degradation of the Roman society of that day. He faults the unbelieving community for having rejected the knowledge of God that God, Himself, had made available to them. The result was that "they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkend." (Verse 21) He then expands this judgment with the specifics of the depths to which they had sunk. Their behavior was so depraved that "those who practice such things are worthy of death." (Verse 32) And what are these horrible things? In verses 29-31 he lists them: wickedness, greed, evil, envy, murder, strife, deceit malice, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. But, excuse me. I left out a couple. "They are GOSSIPS, SLANDERERS." So there you are. A gossip keeps company with all the ugly, vile things that God hates and that are deserving of death. Whew! It's a good thing we Christians have been delivered from all that., isn't it? Well, the fact is that the church (not ours of course) is the greatest gossip factory in our society. You know: "I'm only telling you this so you can pray for them." Yes, we can use a lot of fancy, spiritual lingo to cover it up, and we can justify it by many clever devices, but the truth is that the very nature of our close, personal relationships in the Body of Christ, and our high standard of behavior (at least for others) inclines us toward the need to communicate personal information. Jesus made it clear how we were to deal with personal issues. The first step is to back away from judging others at all. However, when there is a need to understand clearly or even to correct when we believe it may be necessary, our first recourse is to go to that individual with the attitude of winning our brother. That means we go with the attitude that we want to maintain the relationship and don't want anything to come between us. One of the ways Christians love to gossip is via email. Did you ever get an email warning you that athiests had filed a petition with the FCC to eliminate Christian radio? Well, that bit of gossip, which had no truth in it, has circulated for more than 30 years and generated tens of millions of letters of protest to the FCC. Whoever started it was depending on the gullibility of Christians and their urge to "share" important news. So far I've found about 99% of all stories of lost and injured kids, money give aways, dire dangers and miraculous occurences were false. We need to resist the temptation to hit the forward/gossip button. Of course the one who listens is just as guilty as the one who shares. We need to develop the grace to ask,"Why are you sharing that with me?" Or, "I don't think I should be hearing that." It will stop the gossip cold. (And maybe lose you a friend.) Someone once taught that when there is an issue to be dealt with, we can only share it with someone who is either a part of the problem or a part of the solution. So much of gossip takes place in response to some offence we feel from someone else. We then share it with others as a means of finding sympathy for our case. That creates an offence in their heart which becomes a bitter root which defiles them and others. (Hebrews 12:15) The fact is that in Christ we have no right to take offence or have our feelings hurt in the first place. Paul chastises the Corinthian believers for having disputes. "Actually," he says (1 Corinthians 6:7) "It is already a defeat for you. . . Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?"  That's the Jesus way. http://www.churchoftollhouse.org/index.cfm?i=11785&mid=25&blogid=4843&comments=15223 15223 Fri, 24 Sep 2010 15:37:00 +0000 Coming soon! http://www.churchoftollhouse.org/index.cfm?i=11785&mid=25&blogid=4843&comments=15222 15222 Fri, 24 Sep 2010 15:36:04 +0000