And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holyspirit be with us all, now and forever more; Amen!
Smiles shone on their faces as they turned one to another wishing each other the grace. They shook hands, hugged, stared each other in the face and you could tell that what looked like a bunch of random people praying together was actually a community. A community bound together by love and understanding.
The congregation started to pour out in drones, slowly breaking into huddles. Laughter broke out like dynamite, very instantaneous and rather loud. It looked almost rehearsed with people drifting in and out of smaller groups, saying hello to each other.
'We really need to pray for her cuz I heard that she's been sleeping at his house. The other day Laura saw them leave together at 7:30am.'
'What?' the rest gasped!
'Yeah, 7am. And the only way that is possible is if she spent the night at his house. Now, I can't speculate about what may have happened or not happened as a result but we all know it can't have been innocent.'
An 'outsider' joined the group to say hello to the young ladies who slowly started to disperse.
To say that this was a lone occurrence would be a lie for this was the usual Sunday routine. Church had quickly become the 'gossip club' meeting place. The place where people were stripped naked in the name of prayer. Sister one or brother two always had an issue that needed to be discussed among the brethren as a prayer item because prayer moves mountains!
The gossip, sorry prayer team was never careful to watch who they said what to because the more people praying for this person's need, the better. Their mountain would probably be moved much faster than if only one person was praying. The more the merrier, no? And even then, the prayer of a righteous man availeth much. With all these righteous people praying, imagine how quickly they would see results in the lives of those being prayed for!
There are three categories of people in the Church:
1. Those who gossip, sorry pray about other people's issues.
2. Those who give ear to this gossip, sorry prayer requests.
3. Those who just don't care.
Before you even start to rejoice about not caring, none of the three is godly. Instead, like David in Ps 139 our prayer should be:
Smiles shone on their faces as they turned one to another wishing each other the grace. They shook hands, hugged, stared each other in the face and you could tell that what looked like a bunch of random people praying together was actually a community. A community bound together by love and understanding.The congregation started to pour out in drones, slowly breaking into huddles. Laughter broke out like dynamite, very instantaneous and rather loud. It looked almost rehearsed with people drifting in and out of smaller groups, saying hello to each other.
'We really need to pray for her cuz I heard that she's been sleeping at his house. The other day Laura saw them leave together at 7:30am.'
'What?' the rest gasped!
'Yeah, 7am. And the only way that is possible is if she spent the night at his house. Now, I can't speculate about what may have happened or not happened as a result but we all know it can't have been innocent.'
An 'outsider' joined the group to say hello to the young ladies who slowly started to disperse.
To say that this was a lone occurrence would be a lie for this was the usual Sunday routine. Church had quickly become the 'gossip club' meeting place. The place where people were stripped naked in the name of prayer. Sister one or brother two always had an issue that needed to be discussed among the brethren as a prayer item because prayer moves mountains!
The gossip, sorry prayer team was never careful to watch who they said what to because the more people praying for this person's need, the better. Their mountain would probably be moved much faster than if only one person was praying. The more the merrier, no? And even then, the prayer of a righteous man availeth much. With all these righteous people praying, imagine how quickly they would see results in the lives of those being prayed for!
There are three categories of people in the Church:
1. Those who gossip, sorry pray about other people's issues.
2. Those who give ear to this gossip, sorry prayer requests.
3. Those who just don't care.
Before you even start to rejoice about not caring, none of the three is godly. Instead, like David in Ps 139 our prayer should be:
Search me, God, and know my heart
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
And heed the words of Christ in Mark 12
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e] 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[f] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[g] There is no commandment greater than these.”
And finally 1 John 4:11-12
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
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