"DEALING WITH SLANDER - BETRAYAL AND CHARACTER ASSASSINATION "

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By Mary Lindow

David had his Absalom,
Paul had his Demas, who abandoned him, and Alexander the coppersmith,
who "had done him much harm."
Jesus had Iscariot.


We know all about Judas,
so the story holds no drama for us.
We forget that Jesus chose Judas after praying all night.
They spent every day together for three years, talking, eating together, and laughing. Jesus sent him out in ministry. Judas shared in the miracle of feeding 5,000 people; his hands took the small, round barley loaves from Jesus and tore off hunks of bread for hungry people.

What makes each case of betrayal so painful is that someone who knows your heart—who knows your longings and character—turns from that and chooses to believe you are really dangerous.

The mind freezes as it tries to grasp how a friend, someone who knew you deeply, intimately,
could turn on you and attack you.

The singer songwriter Michael Card vividly captures the agony in one song:


"Only a friend can betray a friend,
A stranger has nothing to gain
And only a friend comes close enough
to ever cause so much pain."


Betrayal, I've noticed, calls good evil.
It twists a person's true spiritual endowments into something negative, a saintly deficiency or psychological problem. Betrayal causes leaders to not want to trust, to not want to be involved in anything called church, to not be vulnerable, to not open their spirits in worship to God.


Don't give up!
You may be tempted to flee, to turn your back on your call. You are walking where great people have walked before. They are remembered as great because they did not allow the betrayal to stop them. Instead they learned how to turn their pain into greater usefulness for the Lord.

What does it mean to slander?
To make a false and malicious statement that damages somebody’s reputation.
To set somebody or something up in opposition to somebody or something else.

But another definition of slander is to take about someone with the intent to hurt them. To whisper and hiss subtle, condescending, suggestive thoughts that someone is ”missing the real deal.”

II Timothy tells us that in the last days there will be slanderers and false accusers spreading innuendoes and criticism and reporting things unjustly about others.


Scorpions carry poison in their tails;
Snakes carry it in their cheeks,
And slanderers carry it in their tongues.

Character assassination is an intentional attempt to influence the portrayal or reputation of a particular person, whether living or a historical personage, in such a way as to cause others to develop an extremely negative, unethical or unappealing perception of him or her. By its nature, it involves deliberate exaggeration or manipulation of facts to present an untrue picture of the targeted person. For living individuals, this can cause the target to be rejected by his or her community, family, or members of his or her living or work environment. Such acts are typically very difficult to reverse or rectify, therefore the process is correctly likened to a literal assassination of a human life. The damage sustained can be life-long and more, or for historical personages, last for many centuries after their death.

In practice, character assassination usually consists of the spreading of rumors and deliberate misinformation on topics relating to one's morals, integrity, and reputation.

If the devil has any servants that he values the most, are they slanderers or gossips?
I believe they are!


Charles Spurgeon said,

"A lie will go around the world
while truth is still putting
on its boots."

Think about that!

In Psalm 15 David speaks such a powerful lesson about THE PERSON who can truly ascend to a place of Walking with God in a holy high place.

Psalm 15: 1-5

A psalm of David.

 LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?
He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue,
who does his neighbor no wrong, and casts no slur on his fellowman,

Who despises a vile man, but honors those who fear the LORD,
who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury
and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things will never be shaken.


If you will notice…this type of person cannot be shaken.
That does not mean that he or she will not be sorely tested, or at times falsely accused or slandered. It meant that these things would not shake them from the knowledge that they walk with God in His Holy Presence SAFELY and confidently even though pressures and pain attack them!


The Lord is a protector…
…and a refuge from slander and accusations!

How great is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you,
which you bestow in the sight of men
on those who take refuge in you.

In the shelter of your presence you hide them
from the intrigues of men;
in your dwelling you keep them safe
from accusing tongues.
Psalm 31:19-20


I encourage you to spend much much time in worship
and in hiding the word of God in your heart. These two weapons act like shields to the soul when attacks and false accusations are unleashed towards you. There will always be those who gain power and prestige for a season through the use of slander or subtle suggestions that imply that you have some how “gone off the rails” and have become a lesser saint!


The Lord strongly addressed this in the following verses:

“Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret,
him will I put to silence;

Whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart,
him will I not endure.” 
Psalm 101:5


"Do not go about spreading slander among your people.
Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life.
I am the LORD."
Leviticus 19:16


Servant of God! 

DO NOT let fear grip you and paralyze the Lord’s voice calling to you to serve Him freely!

No man or woman has the authority to tell you to not speak in the Name of Jesus if you are moving from a pure heart and a pure motive!

Of Course…you may thoroughly be discussed behind your back and dissected as to why you speak out or flow in the way the Lord might well call you to do!

But remember to be certain it is the Lord that asked you to speak out ...
...And then you are able to simply;

“Keep a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”

1 Peter 3:16


Remember this, obedient child of God:

When we are slandered, we answer kindly.

"Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth ,the refuse of the world."
1 Corinthians 4:13

Love lived out and expressed honestly in the hearts that have felt the sting of slander and yet choose to forgive, do a greater work in the name of Jesus and for His Kingdom, than a thousand voices that may shout against injustice or religious forms and practices.

Remember…Jesus Himself endured insults rejection and ridicule.

And yet…
…He finished the course.

So will you!

Duplication and sharing of this writing is welcomed provided that
complete source and website information for Mary Lindow is included.
Thank You
Copyright © 2013 " THE MESSENGER " ~ Mary Lindow
www.marylindow.com

" Who Really Cares About Friends Who Are Suffering? ”

              

By Mary Lindow

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SUFFERING AND SORROW ARE A PART OF LIFE.

Knowing this, however, doesn't make it any easier to cope when you find yourself in the midst of the deepest, darkest trials of faith, and mentally anguish and strain.

Don't you wish Christianity could make you exempt from suffering? That would be great, but as most of us have learned, following our faith doesn't give us a free ride. We catch as much trouble as unbelievers—often more.

The difference, of course, is that we can turn to Jesus when things gowrong. Unbelievers might argue that we're only turning to our imagination, but we know better.

At some time in your life, however, suffering will hit you so hard that you won’t be able to do any of those things, and that dark time will probably visit you more than once.

“Even in darkness, light dawns for the upright,

for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man.”

Psalm 112:4

WE ALL WANT THINGS WE DON'T GET.

Maybe it's a person you're sure would make a perfect spouse, and the relationship crumbles apart. Maybe it's a better job or promotion, and you don't make the cut.

Or it might be a goal you poured your time and energy into, and it doesn't come to pass or others sabotage it all.

All of us have prayed for the recovery of loved ones who were ill, but they died anyway.

It takes real spiritual maturity to stay faithful when things go wrong, but severing our relationship with God punishes us, not him.

It's self-destructive behavior that can put us on the path to a miserablelife. The parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke15:11-32) teaches us that God always wants us to come back to him.

Whether your problem is discouragement, illness or aging, sometimes allyou have left is Jesus. When you're angry and bitter, you can still cling to Jesus in the midst of your tears.

You can grab onto him and refuse to let go until he brings you through it. You'll find, to your surprise that he holds on to you even tighter than you hold on to him.

JESUS UNDERSTANDS SORROW.

He knows about being hurt. He remembers the terrible moment on the cross when his Father was forced to abandon him, because he was filthyfrom taking on our sins. Jesus won't let you go.’

And as you age and start down the path from this life to the next, Jesus will take your hand to guide you. He appreciates all that you have done for him through the years, but what he has always wanted most is your love.

So there you are in the middle of one of life's train-wrecks-dazed, wounded, wondering what shoe-or bomb-will be dropping next, and up walks Job's comforters.

We all remember Job from the Bible. A rich, powerful man, a great father and good in every way was Job. Then, in a series of overlapping upheavals, he lost everything and everybody except his wife-who turned out to be a whole lot less than sympathetic in her changed status.

Battered Job ends up sitting alone on a pile of dirt, scratching his boil-covered body with some broken pottery.

WE CAN IDENTIFY WITH POOR JOB.

Life drags us through some tough times of loss that make us feel every bit like Job. Caught in a vortex of pain, and wondering if we'll ever make it to safety. And, boy, do we recognize Job's so-called friends who showed up to by all accounts offer support and comfort. As they sat with Job in his misery, they took turns playing a self-centered, self-righteous, can-you-top-this game of knowing for certain that every bit of Job ‘s disaster had to be his own fault or a lack of trust in God.

They weren't sure how or why because Job seemed so decent, but deep down, they insisted, he just couldn't be all he pretended to be.

THIS IS FAMILIAR TERRITORY.

You get fired, and friends smirk knowingly when you try to explain the political nature of the event. Your child gets into difficulty-well; you know the kind of comfort you'll get from friends about that. (It probably started sometime during potty training.)

Yet others try to “help” you with what I call “prayer lecturing.” While praying “for and with you” they let you (and God) know just how lucky you should be to even have running water, had a meal that day and more! Not really comforting in any way, and very very short on compassion.

Yet, from the story, it's clear that Job was completely innocent. Dreadful things do happen to completely innocent people, good people.

Because of their opinion of Job's guilt, history has bestowed his friends-(and their current replicas) - the label, "Job's comforters." So-called friends who add to a suffering person's anguish by piling on false charges of blame and guilt and harsh reprimand for daring to show sadness or agony.

You may never have met anybody like Job, but you've met his comforters on more than one occasion. They seem to be everywhere.

WE CAN CHARGE SOME OF IT OFF TO JEALOUSY.

Job had everything a person could dream of wanting-and then some- so jealousy was never more than a stone's throw away. The green-eyed monster is a little more subtle with people living everyday typical lives, but jealousy doesn't need much ground to take root and grow with vigor.

WE DON’T WANT TO ADMIT BAD THINGS MAY HAPPEN TO US!

If bad things happen to people who don't deserve them, they could happen to anybody, including me. If I don't want bad things to happen to me, (who does?), I have to persuade myself and everybody around me that the victim's actions caused the problem. If blame can be assigned, then I'll be safe as long as I'm good.

In other words, if I can claim that the cause of your problem is something you do that I don't do, then what happened to you can't happen to me. There is, of course, no logic to this, but it brings some shaky comfort to frightened hearts.

We see this thinking at work when people stare numbly at adversity and ask, "What did I do to deserve this?" Sometimes the answer is, "nothing."

HAVE YOU EVER ASKED YOURSELF WHY ME?

And it doesn’t have to be bad; you could be excited from something wonderful.

Most often then not I ask myself this after something I am looking forward to goes wrong.

Even at times when something goes wrong I lay awake at night and my thoughts wonder to what previously occurred. I am sure everyone does it at times, wishing for another try or chance.

You may lay awake thinking about your suffering, part of life’s suffering is misery’s shadow persisting/hanging on; not only do you suffer but you have to think about suffering.

I can’t prove this with statistics or find it any book I know of, yet I would say that more people either come to the faith or fall away because of this reason above all; the disturbance of suffering.

YOU SEE GOD USES TIMES OF SUFFERING…

… TO TEACH AND GROW US.

If you allow yourself to recount your sufferings, did you not learn more about faith while suffering then any other time? It has been said that; “Blessings are God’s whispers, he speaks in our conscience,but shouts to us in our suffering.”

“O my Comforter in sorrow,

My heart is faint within me.”

Jeremiah 8:18

Suffering becomes the only way to realize our hollow spiritual self. Pain is unmasked, and every person knows when something is not right when they are hurting. Pain insists upon being attended to.

So when you travel down this line of thought you come to the idea, why do I or someone else suffer when others don’t?

I KNOW SUFFERING IS EXHAUSTING AND PAIN HURTS.

That is why it is called pain and suffering. If there were an escape a person of great wisdom and insight would have done it already. Yet Discipleship demands such trials to compel us towards renewal.

Read Hebrews 2:10

“God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation.”

The real question is what to do when life has just punched us a goodone, and Job's comforters show up at our door. Nobody says we have to let them in.

And certainly nobody says we have to entertain them. And, most positively, nobody says we have to believe them.

“For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, So also through Christ our comfort overflows.” - 2 Corinthians 1:5

We can sort out the who's-to-blame-for-what after we get some solid ground under our feet and a little energy back into our lives.

But we still won't want Job's comforters anywhere around us…

… We will want people who care.

“Compassion “

To me not to be kind

Is evil of the mind.

No need to pray or preach,

Let us our children teach

With every fond caress

Pity and gentleness:

So in the end may we

God's Kingdom cause to be.

~ 
By R.W. Service

Duplication and sharing of this message is welcomed as long as

the complete message and website information for 

Mary Lindow is included.


Thank You
!

Copyright " 2013" THE MESSENGER ” ~ Mary Lindow


www.marylindow.com

www.globalprayerrooms.com

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