KOPP DISCLOSURE
(John 3:19-21)
@#$%
Gossipers May Not Go to Hell - That's for Him to Judge - Pero They Bring a Lot of It Into the World and Betray Their Real Master Which Means They Have an Even Bigger Problem Than Breaking the 9th
Gossip breaks the 9th.
God doesn't like it because it insults Him and injures His.
See the attached for some hints about the sources of gossip, exaggeration,...and who is behind it all.
A story from Scotland comes to mind.
A young pastor visited a young woman in her home every Friday afternoon.
A notoriously vicious woman in the church began to spread a rumor aka lie that the young pastor was having an affair with the young woman; because, after all, he was visiting her every Friday afternoon in her home.
That notoriously vicious woman went all around the church and even into the community and spread the rumor that the young pastor was having an affair with the young woman.
Worship attendance dropped.
The pastor's reputation was tarnished and more and more and more people believed the notoriously vicious woman whose energy to spread the bad news was relentless.
Even people that should have known better entertained and enabled her and, therefore, fueled her crusade.
People said they'd never go back as long as "that young man who was sleeping with that young woman every Friday" was the pastor.
Well, after several months of this, the young woman that the young pastor had been visiting every Friday afternoon died.
She had terminal cancer.
The young pastor had been going to the young woman's house every Friday afternoon to pray with her, share the sacrament, and prepare her for eternity by grace through faith in Jesus.
When the notoriously vicious gossip heard about it after ruining the pastor's reputation and hurting the church that she said she loved, she rushed to the church and said to the pastor, "I am so sorry. I didn't know. Is there anything that I can do to make up for what I have done?"
The pastor replied, "Yes. Take your feather pillow, go to the top of the hill next to the church cemetery, cut it open, let the feathers fly in the wind, and then go pick up all of the feathers and put them back into the pillow."
"I can't do that," she protested, "because those feathers have flown all over the place."
The pastor smiled sadly and said, "And so it is with the lies that you have been spreading."
"But I thought I was serving God because I thought you were...," she tried to explain.
The pastor interrupted, "I have known you for a long time. You have often confused serving God with serving yourself. You were not serving God. You were serving the author of lies."
Then the pastor prayed with her.
Blessings and Love!