Impersonations

I've always enjoyed listening to impersonators. Those are folks that can imitate another persons voice. And over the years I have myself learned how to imitate the voices of other people. Now, I'm not very good at it, but it's very entertaining! (Or at least I thought so.)

Well, this week Holy Spirit has been challenging me about this little habit that I have of imitating the accents and voices of people of different ethnic groups. I found myself a couple of times this past week, making fun of people of a different ethnicity, and realized that this was not appropriate. God by The Holy Spirit was making me aware that this was sin.

I asked for God's forgiveness and began to seek to repent. My question was "Why do I do this?" My first thought was about being prejudiced. And my habit of impersonating other ethnic groups is a form of prejudice. As I continued to pray and ask for direction, I realized that this habit is always in social situations where I'm trying to be funny and entertaining.

I realized that my desire in these situations is to fit in and to be like by those around me. There's nothing wrong with this, because we all have a deep desire for connecting with others. But, sinning in order to get that acceptance is obviously not appropriate. I wonder how many times, I compromise my integrity and quench Holy Spirit in my life, in the effort to be accepted by others?

Ephesians 4:29 says, "Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers." Whether I thought it was funny or not, corrupt words have been proceeding out my mouth, all for the sake of being funny. I have asked God by His Spirit to help me put this sin of the flesh to death in my life.

I'm looking forward to conversations in the future without this habit. Have a great day and may your words always be encouraging to others.

Got Gossip?

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to go to church and worship and be a student in bible study rather than the teacher. I always enjoy these kinds of opportunities. In the bible study we were studying the book of James together and talking about how we use our words. One intriguing question that came up during the study was, "When you have an opportunity to hear some gossip, how do you respond?"

There was a lot of good discussion in the group about this question and while we were talking this thought occured to me. How can we make Jesus Lord in this kind of situation? When a friend says they have some good gossip about someone, how can we let Christ be Lord in that situation?

Here's the deal. Gossip is tantalyzing to us. It's like a tasty tid bit that many times we love to hear, then pass on to others. But the Bible teaches us that gossiping is not a good thing, because it hurts others. So, when confronted with the opportunity to hear or participate in gossip, I can choose to honor God, or I can choose to honor my fleshly desire to hear and spread that gossip. And the question is, will I make Jesus Lord in that situation? We have a choice in those moments.

I shared this thought with the group that I was studying with, and said that I was not sure how this looks. I mean, how do you make Christ Lord in this situation? In a very practical way, how can I honor Christ when it comes to dealing with gossip?

So that's my question for this week. How can make Jesus Lord when given the opportunity to hear or spread gossip? I'd love to hear the different ways that you have used to deal with this matter.

Have a great week, and as always, I'd love to hear from you.

In Christ,

Pastor Mike

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