THE WEIRS TIMES, Thursday, July 1, 2010
METHODIST CHURCH, WEIRS-1889
by Rev. Victoria Wood Parrish Contributing Writer
I am sure that you,
like me, regularly receive “pass it on” mail from e- mail friends warning you of viruses, looking for lost children, and seeking your support over one is- sue or another. Some of them say “Pass this on to ten friends in the next ten minutes and you will re- ceive a blessing,” or some- thing to that effect. Oth- ers say” If you love Jesus, pass this on and if I don’t receive it back, I will know you don’t like me.” To me, they are not un-
like the letters that used to come through the mail – send a recipe to ten people and as the pyramid grows you will receive 10, 742 back. Well, I may ex- aggerate, but you remem- ber that type of pyramid scheme, I am sure. E-mail can be a wonder-
ful way to keep in touch with friends. It also is a way to spread rumors and guilt. Recently I received one
from an intelligent person that said that coins were being issued without the words “In God We Trust.” The writer encouraged everyone to refuse to use the coins and that would force the government to put those words back on the coins. At the bottom of the e-mail it said “I have checked this with
Snopes.com (a site that verifies or denies rumors and urban legends) and it is true.” I thought it was odd that something this major could happen with our coins and it hadn’t hit the papers, so I checked with
Snopes.com and it said it was NOT true, and showed a picture of the coin in question. The date, mint and “In God We Trust” was printed on the rim instead of the
Watson’s
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COMMUNITY CHURCH MEDITATIONS E-MAIL FAITH
face. Then I received one of the coins, and saw it for myself. However, I would bet
that there are thousands of people who have ac- cepted that e-mail as truth because they do not check things out for themselves. Don’t be fooled – check
things out before you pass them on. And I don’t believe that
God will bless me - or you - because we pass on a cute e-mail…or not. And it doesn’t mean that I don’t love Jesus or the sender if I don’t pass on the e-mails. There is just too much “stuff” floating around in cyberspace, and much of it is inac- curate. Before we mail things
out in mass mailings, let’s refer to Psalm 19:14: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in
thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” If we thought about that
verse before we spoke to another person, we would be more careful about what we said and when we said it. Words are powerful; let’s
use them carefully. Words have multiple meanings; let’s be clear about what we mean and how we say it.
It’s no coincidence that
we use the imagery of ‘word’ often in the Bi- ble. God spoke and the world and everything in it was created. Jesus is called the Word in John 1 – “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” John the Baptist and Paul preached so others would be brought to God. At Pentecost, the people in the streets heard the disciples praising God in multiple languages so each listener could un-
derstand. The internet is a great
way to spread the word of Christ. However, let’s not trivialize the message by using the method poorly. Be aware of the power of the word.
Rev. Victoria Wood Par-
rish is the pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Gilford, NH, located on Route 11-A. It is a congregation of open
hearts, open minds, and open doors. We invite you to worship with us on Sun- days 10:30 AM. Children’s activities and nursery are available during morning worship. We also invite you to the United Method- ist Church in the Weirs, 35 Tower St., which wor- ships at 10:00 AM. There are also many other local congregations who would welcome you to worship.
Proverbs Moment “Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin is a disgrace to any people.” Proverbs 14:34
www.ProverbsMen.org
"Building Godly Men, Men of Character, Men of Integrity One Day at a Time" Proverbs Men 501(c)3 Non-Profit
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