Being One in the Body on the Board

Hi,

I'm a Newbie on this Board - I stopped posting at one of the larger Boards because there just was no way to have a peaceful conversation with another Christian without some huge fight breaking out. Sad to say I am seeing some of that here too.

I wanted to start a thread here to flesh out some of the problems that seem to plague these boards in a manner that is Christlike. It is suprising how many problems can be prevented if we simply understand some of the dynamics of these boards.

Anyone game?

Exactly what I was looking for.

When I type my posts you aren't able to feel my hand on your shoulder, or see the wink or funny face, or hear the modulation of my voice that depicts my true sentiments. How often have you typed out a simple statement only to be shocked that someone found it to be hostile?

Two of the basic rules that I govern my participation up here with are:

1. I do not participate in a thread unless I am prepared to carefully read the previous posts. All of them. I can't tell you how many times I've scanned through threads and noticed that hostility could have been prevented by a more careful reading. Have you ever had someone pin you to the wall on a detail that you clarified 10 posts back? Have you ever been attacked for a remark that you didn't even make - it was made by another poster? I spend as much time correcting misinterpretations and incorrect quoting as I do offering new input. I've had times where so many words were being put in my mouth that my gag reflex was starting to react.

2. If someone responds to one of my posts in a hostile manner that really gets my hackles prickling I turn my computer off and give myself a day to cool off before replying. Prayer and copious time with God's Word is beneficial during this down time. When I come back, I'm in a much better frame of mind to deal with the post in a Christlike manner. Knee-jerk responses are often controlled by ungodly human emotion. I try to take the time to ensure that my replies are controlled more by Christ within than by carnal emotion.

I'm really trying very hard to live by the rule that if what comes out of my mouth does not glorify God, then I need to keep my mouth shut. I don't always succeed, I'm as human as anyone else, but I'm really focusing on trying my best to tame my tongue.

1 Cor 13:1 "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."

James 1:26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless.

James 3:1-12
Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. Now if we put the bits into the horses' mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

I think James should be required reading for any Christian posting on Boards

endure,

I know how you feel. When it comes to the Word I cannot and will not compromise. The Word gives us guidance on this issue.

Does this ring any bells with you?

1 Timothy 1:3-7
As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.

I didn't know they had Internet Forums back in the days of the early Church!

I'm getting more and more to the point where the main reason I come up here is to practice my Christian walk. These forums are the ultimate test, are they not? I think that if we approached these discussions that way, with Scriptural guidance to lead us, we could perhaps grow a bit.

Improve our witness:

Titus 2:7-8
in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.

Learn when to leave a thread:

Titus 3:9-11
But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.

Enourage us to be better students of the Word:

2 Timothy 2:14-17 Keep reminding them of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene.

Remembering our pure motive for reproving unsound doctrine:

2 Timothy 2:23-26
Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

There are alot of folks who come here simply to argue. They'd claim the sky was green if you said it was blue. Walk away - it's not worth endangering your walk and you're not going to change their minds anyway.

I am also committed to staying on Christian-Only Boards. I won't even duck in there to read posts - I may be tempted. I stumbled into one thread by accident thinking it was a Christian thread, but I won't return. Tell me why a non-Christian would want to come to Christianforums.com? They come to bash Christians and push us until we stumble in our Christlike walk. I see it over and over and over. Half the threads over on that side of the board are intended only to goad us. When I see threads with names like "Why are Christians so rude?" or "Why do Christians think they're better than everyone else?" or "Why are Christians so mean to homosexuals", I see one thing: bait. And I don't know who confuses me more, the Christians who take the bait and end up behaving exactly as they are being accused of or the Christians that join in to agree, assuring everyone that "only the "fundies" are like that and WE think they're wrong too but WE'RE not like that."

A true seeker will come to the Christian-only threads and ask sincere questions. Face to face witnessing is a better idea anyway. A non-Christian forum is not a good place to try to work with a sincere seeker. If I see one, I'll PM them to come over to a quieter thread on this side of the board or simply witness to them through PMs exclusively. And be warned: there are non-believers posting on Christian-only threads and imposters posing as Christians to get by the posting restrictions. Just because a person's profile says they are a Christian doesn't make it so. Some of them bounce from one Christian Forum to another, stirring up trouble simply for the joy of it. I've seen them on this Forum, I've seen them at BeliefNet, IBelieve and the ChristianBBS. You will know them by their fruit.

Midge,

I agree that debate can be edifying, as long as it doesn't descend into fruitless arguement. Some folks may have the fortitude and temperament to keep their witness pure during such debates, but to others it is a dangerous place to be. In informal debate structures such as can be witnessed here the propensity for both sides to descend into mean-spirited, dishonest, factious arguments is huge. A good number of the threads I've scanned certainly do not bring glory to God, which is our first concern. It isn't necessary to participate in knock-down-drag-out fights with non-believers in order to find the answers to "proofs against Christianity". If this is your calling, and your walk is not placed in jeopardy by it, my prayers are with you in hope that you can plant a seed. But for those Christians who lose their walk in those threads abstinence may be more prudent.

I'll tell you, I've gotten to the point where I type out my posts in a Word document and read it 50 million times before I post it in an attempt to prevent error. I read it LOOKING for possible misunderstandings. If I attempt any humor or irony I try every trick in the book to make sure it is perceived as such - sometimes I'll put (humor) after the comment to play it safe. I have completely stricken sarcasm out of my repertoire - that usually contains a nasty element that isn't appropriate for a Christian anyhow.

It's HARD to get your point across clearly up here! The loss of the immediate feedback loop that we're used to in face-to-face conversation alone makes it tough. I feel like I have to weigh my posts down with a lot of extraneous disclaimers like, "my personal belief is...." or "I personally feel....", or "some, BUT not all people believe...." If I don't, I get lumped into some category or get accused of trying to speak for others!

Even with all those safeguards, I truly believe that some people are just itching for a fight and either intentionally misunderstand or don't bother to READ my response. No matter what I say, they're going to take offense because they WANT to antagonize me - that's the only reason they're in the thread - to stir up trouble. I'm sure you've seen them. It's frustrating to go through a long, involved explanation only to get a response that totally ignores everything you've said. Arrrgh!

And, of course, we all just ADORE, the hit and run posters who duck in, make some nasty (and usually cliche) remark that you've seen mindlessly repeated like some kind of doctrinal mantra without any backup explanation, then leave. I have started putting those folks on my ignore list. My ignore list is getting pretty long (LOL!)

Actually, the sorriest part of it is that the hit and runners I've encountered are usually terribly compromised Christians who are Biblically illiterate and who simply mindlessly repeat pop culture accusations and propagate Christian-negative historic revisionism. They blame Christians for everything from flat earth science to slavery to the oppression of women to poverty (you do know we're all Capitalist pigs don't you? LOL!) and everything else in between. All of it is total bunk of course but they won't do the homework necessary to sort through all of the errant rumors and get to the truth. They are so desperate not to be mistaken as supporting the dreaded "fundies" that they'll say anything to fit in with the "popular" crowd. They are "progressive", don't you know? They eat their own. A sad, sad thing!

I love the saying, "Preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words." From what I see, the instruction left us by Christ and the apostles are pretty consistent AND simple. In my mind it's sort of broken down into three specific applications.

1. LOVE. We demonstrate the love of Christ in our treatment of one another within The Body. In the days of the early Church, those outside of the Church would look at the community of believers and say "see how they love one another!" We spend so much time talking about loving EVERYONE indiscriminately that we neglect the very special love that we must first have for one another. If you were to find all occurences of the phrase "love one another" in the New Testament, the vast majority of the usages are applied specifically WITHIN the Body. That love between believers should demonstrate the Gospel. We need to LIVE in the understanding that we have already died to the flesh and recognize that all true believers that have Christ within have done the same. We must recognize unashamedly that this DOES make a distinction between believers and unbelievers, instead of rushing about desperate to accept every living soul on the same level. We're SO afraid that if we are seen as an "exclusive club" we will be thought of by the world as snobbish, self-righteous, prejudiced thugs. We are SUPPOSED to be DIFFERENT - and the world WILL hate us for it! Instead of dividing the Body in order to pacify the world, we need to focus on being of one mind within the body. We are what we are as a result of the Gospel. And if we are embarassed of the way we are, then we are embarrassed by the Gospel. The definitive, most perfect way that we can express our love for those outside of the Body is to bring them IN. If we do not first develop the love of Christ that is within us, that links us together, then what exactly is it that we are giving to others outside of the Body? Talk is cheap. True love is a saving love. Chattering about how much we love EVERYONE is little more than artificial posturing that seeks to raise us up in the eyes of the world and does not benefit the recipients one iota.

2. Obedience. Living our lives obedient to His commandments. If we spent more time walking according to the Spirit instead of according to the flesh we'd be a a much better witnesses. If we lived with the understanding that we are IN this world but not OF it, we'd spend a lot less time wrangling about worldly issues. It's usually those worldly issues that drag us down and dampen our lights. We must invest more time in developing a blameless walk, "so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us". Not only do we please our Lord in this, we demonstrate the efficacy of the Gospel by this.

3. We preach the Gospel as it was taught. No varnish. No dilution. No fashionable updates. No exceptions made to accomodate modern society. No deletions, no additions, no gimmicks. Preach the plain word as it was written. "Repent and receive". So many folks seemed embarrassed to preach repentence in a society that seeks to justify everyone's favorite sin. Well folks, there aren't any "seeker friendly" sermons in the New Testament. They preached it down the line. We should be preaching it with integrity and letting the Lord prepare the hearts to receive it that way. It is timeless - as relevant and winsome today as it was 2000 years ago. OF COURSE we must do so humbly:

Titus 1:1- Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

LOL, I'm glad you enjoyed that. I heard a poem once recited by Vernon McGee (I don't know who the original author was) that goes something like:

You are writing a Gospel a chapter a day
By deeds that you do and words that you say
Men read what you write whether false or true
What is the gospel according to you?

Many are not reading the Bible today,
but they are reading you and me.