Cannibalism

Good morning, I pray all is well with you today. My insomnia was acting up last night, so you may have to overlook some typo's or I may lose my train of thought momentarily, I think I managed to get about two hours and fifteen minutes sleep last night.
Let's start today in Gal. 5:13-15, the key verse is 15, "But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another". Years ago, I took Garrett out on a "Dad and Me" day, after running some errands we stopped to get some hamburgers. After getting our order and sitting down, we had gotten about halfway through our meal, when I began to hear some arguing from the booth behind me. At first I could hear them, but could not understand what they were saying, then I heard the old man snarl, "what did you say". A woman shot back, "I said, I'd never come crawling to you. I couldn't get that low." He returned her compliment by calling her a "fat slob, that no other man would put up with", and continued with a lot of cursing, telling her he didn't know why he put up with her. After she said something else he said that he "didn't know why he brought her to such a nice restaurant, it was above her". "I do", she hollered, "you've got a guilty conscience!"
During all of this I noticed Garrett staring over my shoulder, worried I was about to ask him what he was thinking, and if he wanted to leave. But before I could, he said "Dad, I don't think they know Jesus. If they did they would love each other, instead of talking to each other like that". Out of the mouth of a baby, came the truth in the word of God. Christ came into the world to save us from the lust and foolishness of the flesh. Had this couple known the peace and love of Christ, they would not have resorted to the cannibalism they did, instead they would have chewed up their food, instead of each other. We have been forgiven and have received a spirit of love.
Now turn over to James 3:2-13 "...If any man offend not in word,...and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold we put bits in the horses" mouths...and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great...yet are they turned about with a very small helm...Even so the tongue is a little member...Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire...that it defileth the whole body...and it is set on fire of hell...But the tongue can no man tame; it is unruly evil, full of deadly poison...Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree my brethren bear olive berries?...So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom".
The great fire of London in 1666 began in a small shop, but as it spread out of control, it left most of that sprawling city in ashes. The fire of 1871 in Chicago is said to have started in a shed when a kerosene lamp was accidentally overturned. Yet it devastated approximately 2,000 acres, left 90,000 people homeless, and destroyed 196 million dollars' worth of property. A tiny spark can easily cause a raging fire. So too, one small sin of the tongue can start a frightening chain of events that often ends in catastrophe. The preacher and founder of the Radio Bible Class, Dr. M. R. De Haan once said, "The most deadly member in the human body is the tongue. We can kick with our feet and strike with our fist, but neither can do as much damage as a loose tongue. The bruise of a kick will heal, the black eye caused by a blow from a fist will clear up, but the wounds inflicted by unkind words, idle gossip, outright lying, and vicious slandering can never be completely healed."
How many times have you seen someone say something ugly about someone else, and the hurt feelings, and fighting's have lasted for years after? How many times have you seen careless words destroy whole families, and split churches? Are you like me, and try to avoid being around those people that only have negative things to say about other people? Do you listen to rumors, or worse help spread them, under the guise of "finding the truth"? I believe I told you how a while back, before I realized what was happening, I was told a rumor about something that supposedly happened at the church. Instead of going to the people supposedly involved, because of the serious possibility of hurt feelings, I went to the pastor, because he was supposed to know about this. I sat down in his office behind closed doors, and I said, "I was told that about two months ago there was something very bad happened here at the church, something bad enough that if the whole church was to find out, it would split the church. I was also told you know about it. Now I don't want to know any details, nor am I going to give any, I am just here to ask you if you know about anything this serious happening?" He said that right off the top of his head, he did not know what I was talking about, then asked who was supposedly involved, because knowing this might help him know what I was talking about. I responded, "If I tell you that, just that little bit, I feel I would be helping to spread the rumor, so I can't do that." Then I said, "this is serious enough that it could split the church, if anything that serious happened, you would know what I am talking about, I don't care if it did or not as far as that goes, but if it happened, and if it comes out there could be legal repercussions, and I just want to be prepared, so that I can help fight whatever legal battles comes up."
You see, I felt that from a legal standpoint I needed to know the truth, however even though I was talking to the pastor and knew for a fact he would not repeat anything, I still felt it was wrong to tell anything I heard. Because, if he knew which church member was spreading rumors of this magnitude, it could cause hurt feelings between them. If he knew who was supposedly involved (even if this was not true), it could cause hurt feelings there also. But, more importantly we are told in the Bible that we are not too spread rumors, so I could not tell anything, not even "to find the truth".
Whether or not this happened was actually none of my business, I did not need to know. However, once it came to the point that it could cause a church split, and cause legal problems for the church, I needed to know if at some point, whether or not I might be involved in a legal battle was my concern and that I needed to know. When He was unable to think of anything happening that was that serious that told me all I needed to know. Because of how I handled the situation, the only hurt feelings are between me, and the person that told me. However, this is not the first time this person has done something to lose my respect, so really it did not make things any worse, just added to the list of reasons for me to avoid them. The way I handled the situation, I was able to put out the fire, instead of adding fuel to it. I was able to prevent the cannibalism that this person was trying to cause.
The only way I was able to handle the situation correctly, is that as soon as I heard this rumor, I got on my knees (figuratively speaking), and I asked God for wisdom, I asked for guidance, and I asked for Him to be with me, I asked for Him to go with me so that I could go in a spirit of love, and for Him to prepare the pastors heart, and to be with him so that he could accept my questions in the spirit of love I intended them to be asked in.