Rumors and grapevines

Rumor...grapevines...

I remember being in high school and this teacher I had wanted to demonstrate how a rumor could end up being so far from the truth, it was ridiculous. He whispered into the ear of a student who then whispered into another student’s ear and so on. By the time it got to the last person and was revealed, it barely resembled the same language!

Rumors can ruin companies. Watch a “leaked” article get posted and a company’s stocks can take a significant dive. Friendships can be destroyed, reputations ruined, or offices turned upside down. In fact, if you were to turn the news on, in some cases you may think we are doomed because of the current virus, and you flip on another channel, and things are doing far better. Most of what we see is rumor based. It’s hard to cut through the chatter to get to the truth!

I had another teacher who said “Believe 1/2 of what you see, and nothing of what you hear.” In other words if you do not see if with your own eyes, or confirm it, you shouldn’t make any decisions until you get to the truth.

In Scripture, we could see this happen in several of the new churches. Paul addressed this by sending letters to those churches, warning them of the misguided teachings. In some cases, it was simply a lack of understanding, or knowledge, but in some cases, it was intentional twisting of the Word. In this new movement, the “Way” as some called it, it was imperative that the message was shared correctly and consistently. We have a tendency ourselves to read scripture, take it completely out of context and end up sharing the message the wrong way. Dan Akins has been teaching on Sunday nights (I encourage you to attend) a class about ensuring that we understand the Word correctly. When you pluck a single verse out of scripture, it can turn into something drastically different than the author intended.

As with rumors that can ruin friendships, misuse of the Truth can also have catastrophic implications. As Christians today, we really have very little excuse. There are so many resources these days to rely on, fact check, get context, and read into why Paul said this, or why Luke wrote that. We need to be well versed in not only the Scripture itself, but also understand the “who, what, where, when and why.” These are important so that when we hear the whisper, it does not come out the other side as something drastically different.

Join us Sundays to learn more!

Peace be with you this week! Tell somebody about Jesus and change their lives!!