Chain letters
After I sent this letter to those on my mailing list, Mike Fisher suggested I post this stuff to the blog, so here it is.
I decided to write this letter on a whim of inspiration I received from a recent e-mail. I'm sure you are all familiar with the e-mail type...this particular one had a good and meaningful poem about friendship. Unfortunately, it also had three horror stories attached about what happened to people who did not forward the e-mail to ten friends. Of course the up side according to the letter was that if you met the requirements of the letter. I hope you keep reading this, because I would like to shed some light of truth (in my opinion) on the problems with these letters, and why no person claiming to be a Christian should even think about sending them. I know at this point I sound like some ultra conservative getting ready to perch atop the proverbial soap box and start spewing legalism... This is far from the case. I just believe that in America we tend to be very unaware of the spiritual nature and motivation of some things, and I feel a need to sound off on this one. If nothing else, I shouldn't get anymore of those letters :-)
The first and most basic problem with these letters is that they try to manipulate people out of fear. Any time we tell someone that some bad thing will befall them if they don't follow the instructions, we are attempting to manipulate them through fear. The problem with that is " There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." I John 4:18 (Yes, I know we are called to fear God, but this is an entirely different fear born of Satan who is the father of lies.)
I know some of you would say "nobody believes these things anyway, what is the harm? People do believe them, and most of us, if honest, would admit a flip of the heart when we delete the sucker, wondering if there is some truth to it. Then reason prevails, our spirituality triumphs, and we move on, but what about those who don't have a solid doctrinal background?
The next reason these e-mails are (what's the word... oh heck, I said I was being honest didn't I, so let's use the real word "SATANIC") for those of you who just rolled your eyes because now you know I went to far, let me remind you of the words of Jesus "He who is not with me is against me" Luke 11:23. Simply put, those things which do not work for Jesus are working for the other side. Ok, the second reason these chain letter e-mails are so dangerous, is that they are rooted in superstition. We have a lot of superstition in our culture, so many times we don't even realize it when we are caught in it. Any belief or action that places your fate in something other than the hand of God is superstition. It does not have to be as obvious as believing that breaking a mirror will bring seven years of bad luck, it can be very subtle, like a good luck charm, or wishing on a star. These letters obviously place the fate of the reader in the hands of some force that will bring good or bad luck depending on the persons actions. I think we would all agree that the force is not God since it would be difficult to argue the case that the Almighty is going to punish you for not forwarding an e-mail to ten of your closest friends. Simply put, superstition is another form of witchcraft, and the Bible says clearly " The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and WITCHCRAFT; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, fractions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God." Galations 5:19 - 21
We live in a very spiritual world. "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" Ephesians 6:12. As christians we need to be more spiritually minded in todays world. You cannot be aware of the revivals and atrocities around the world and not realize that the spiritual forces are getting more and more pronounced. That may be another letter for a different time, but we should not be ignorant of how the spiritual operates, and if we put our trust in anything besides God, including letters, or tempt others to do the same, we are not only sinning, but we are opening the door for spiritual attack in our lives.
In closing, I am sending this to everyone in my address book because that is easier than clicking on ninety percent of the names. I recognize that most of you have never sent chain mails, and are as opposed to them as me, I hope you enjoyed the letter. Others are offended because you send these e-mails and don't find anything wrong with them. I hope you will ernestly pray about the matter, and ask the Holy spirit to show you the truth. Lastly, there are those of you who have not yet bought into this life of Christianity, and this probably seems radical and maybe borderline lunacy to you. That is OK, but if you are curious about God and his place in your life, I would love to talk to you further about any questions you have.
I trust this letter finds you all well, I do not expect you to forward this letter to anyone, God's blessings do not depend on that. If you feel like forwarding it, be my guest. One last thought, next time you get an urge to send along a reminder to everyone to contact an old friend or some such thing, why don't you simply send a letter reminding them to do just that... with no strings attached!
Bernard
posted by FarmerW @ 7:40 AM
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