"DID I HEAR THAT RIGHT"

As published in the Newport (TN) Plain Talk
Release Date: January 3, 2013
Column Number: 1301

Back in the dark ages, I think it was in Mrs. Freeman’s eighth grade class at Newport Grammar (although it could very well have been in any class); we played a game called “gossip”.

It went like this: one person started a “rumor” by whispering it to the person next to him/her in the circle; then it was repeated on and on around the circle until it got back to the original “rumor-monger”. Well, you know the drill. It was always amazing how different the original was from the copy (after passing through thirty or more levels). “We had peas for lunch today” could very well “come back home” as “Steve and Pete laid out of school yesterday”.

As I said, you know the drill!

Harmless kids’ game? Maybe; but it teaches a very important lesson. The problem is, we do not seem to ever learn that lesson.

I, like many of you, have watched the news reports over and over of the very difficult recent weeks that made up the Thanksgiving/Christmas Season. Hurricane Sandy was followed by this shooting and that shooting and then Sandy Hook School; then the shooting of the fire fighters was they tried to do their essential lifesaving work.

Blizzards here and tornadoes there highlighted the highlights; and “Der Bingle’s” “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” became fighting words to them that had one and to them that had one not.

Charges were hurled at the governor and by the governor; and probably in the long run, Mr. Bush will somehow get the blame as all this unfolds.

News reports were premature; and each time they were rehashed, they got either better or worse, depending upon your perspective. Tragic? You betcha!

Last I heard, one surviving student of Sandy Hook was suing the school system for his trauma of having to listen to the loud speakers and guns blazing. I guess to be more concise, it was his parents that are suing the school system.

Then there’s the infamous “fiscal cliff” and the action of inaction that our congressional cream of the crops took; and everybody took to the streets to cheer the fact that they had actually done something – think of that – they had actually debated an issue and come up with a decision – a wrong decision, IMHO; but at least they had the chops to show up and raise their hands.

There will be hearings and discussions and talks and debates and confabs and analysis and arguments and conversations and consultations and deliberations and assemblies – and did I mention hearings?

Who did what? Who said what? Who heard what? Why? To whom, with whom, and on and on it will go.

I try to communicate as clearly as I can the most important message ever told! The Gospel of The Lord Jesus Christ is the singularly most vital and essential communication anyone will ever hear; and it needs to be clearly understood. Souls are in the balance! Eternity is in the scales! Talk about a “life or death” message!

There you go! Mob mentality cannot be controlled. Clear thinking people can never be heard over the din of the chants of the mob. You hear it all the time in news reports of the Middle East.

Make no mistake about it! Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life –and there is no other! Hear the message clearly! Read it again and again; and do not allow it to get garbled in a translation. Go straight to the source – the Bible – any Bible will do (they all have John 3:16 in them).

Don’t have a Bible? Steal one from a motel or hospital room. My friends in the Gideon organization will not mind. They will replace it at their own cost – so you can get the message straight! Jesus saves! He is the only One who could and He is the only One who came; and all of it so everyone could be saved and go to heaven when you die!

Clear enough?

(Mooty is pastor of the West End Baptist Church of Newport; and writes this column every Thursday and Weekend for “The Newport Plain Talk”. He can be reached at tommooty@webaptistchurch.org. Write or call the paper with your comments today.)