If Jesus Came To Your House

By: Lois Kendall Blanchard

1976

If Jesus came to your home, to spend a day or two – – if He came unexpectedly, I wonder what you’d do.

Oh, I know you’d give your nicest room, to such an honored Guest – – and all the food you’d serve Him would be the very best.

And you would keep assuring Him, you’re glad to have Him there – – that serving Him in your home, is joy beyond compare.

But when you see Him coming, would you meet Him at the door – – With arms outstretched in welcome, to your Heavenly Visitor?

Or would you have to change your clothes, before you let Him in – – or hide some magazines, and put the Bible where they’d been?

Would you turn off the radio, and hope He hadn’t heard – – and wish you hadn’t uttered, that last loud, hasty word?

Would you hide your worldly music, and put some hymn books out – – could you let Jesus walk right in, or would you rush about?

And I wonder if the Saviour, spent a day or two with you – – would you go right on doing, the things you always do?

Would you go right on saying, the things you always say – – would live for you continue, as it does from day today?

Would your family conversation, keep its usual pace – – and would you find it hard each meal, to say a table grace?

Would you sing the songs you always sing and read the books you read – – and let Him know the things on which, your mind and spirit feed?

Would you take Jesus with you, everywhere you planned to go – – or would you maybe change your plans, for just a day or so?

Would you be glad to have Him, meet your very closest friends – – or would you hope they stay away until His visit ends?

Would you be glad to have Him stay, forever on and on – – or would you sigh with great relief, when He, at last, was gone?

It might be interesting, to know the things that you’d do – – If Jesus came in person, to spend some time with you.

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Dodgey Emails

There's no doubt about it, email has revolutionized our daily communications and lives.

Where snail mail through postal services can take days or even weeks to get to its destination, email is virtually instant, going from our outbox to as far away as the other side of the world in mere seconds.

Let’s face it; email used in the right way is probably the most fantastic method of communication ever devised. Who can live without it these days? Certainly not me!

But while email is an extremely useful tool, it also has the potential for serious abuse. Email is now widely used to send, spread and proliferate, all manner of unhealthy, obscene, hateful and destructive content. Below are some examples of the type of emails and content that we as Christians should reject and avoid.

Emails that include;

Dirty jokes containing lewd and obscene content.

Humour or content that is racist, sexist, spiteful, hateful, insulting, contains gossip & spreads rumours, or is denigrating to its intended target. Emails that contain humour that damages and humiliates people without any care for the consequences or harm it causes.

Remember God tells us in his word to love our neighbors as ourselves, but we are clearly not demonstrating God’s love to our fellow man if we indulge in telling, sending, or forwarding jokes that; denigrate, belittle, hurt or portray people in a negative and/or derogatory way.

Images, graphics, and other files that are; pornographic, lewd or offensive, that cause harm to the people who send and receive them.

Black humor; makes a joke of tragic circumstances or death. These days it seems to take only minutes after a tragedy occurs before callous jokes start circulating in emails. These jokes may seem harmless at first, but in reality, they can damage the reputations of the victims of a tragedy, and add to the enormous grief and pain being felt by their families, friends, and loved ones.

As Christians, when we hear of a tragic event or the tragic death of a person or well-known celebrity, our response should be to give practical and prayerful consideration for and to those directly and indirectly affected. Our first thoughts should be for their spiritual wellbeing, and, the realization that the person or people concerned could be going into a lost eternity without God.

Instead of laughing at this kind of dark and callous humor, these tragedies should motivate us to ask ourselves… How can I reach, serve and influence more people for Christ? What can I do to share the love of God and make a positive difference in the lives of the people I meet, work with, live with, and associate with?

As Christians, we should reject and immediately delete these kinds of emails when we receive them.

In addition to the email content mentioned above, there are other forms of email misuse we should be wary of.

SPAM emails; have become a global disease as ISP’s and email boxes are overloaded daily with offers for every conceivable product and/or service. These types of emails are frequently of an inappropriate or sexual nature. The generation of, and counter prevention of SPAM has become a huge global industry.

The important thing is to NEVER, EVER, open these emails. Delete them immediately with the contempt they deserve.

Phishing emails are sent from fraudsters trying to steal your usernames and passwords that you use for your online banking and other legitimate internet use. With this information, phishers hijack your bank accounts, online auction accounts, email accounts, and other internet-based trading places you may use. If you receive an email that asks you to click on a hypertext link that takes you to a web page that asks you for your username and/or password for your account at your bank, eBay, Paypal, or any other internet-based trading activity, DO NOT RESPOND and DELETE THIS EMAIL IMMEDIATELY.

This type of phishing email will ask you to click a link in the message body of the email, that takes you to spoofed web pages that look exactly like the web pages of your bank or other online accounts. Once you enter your username and password into the spoofed web page, the fraudster has full access to your eBay, or Paypal, or bank accounts, and any funds or credit cards attached to them.

No bank, or Paypal, or eBay, or other legitimate organizations or businesses you are signed up to will EVER send you an email with hypertext links to web pages, that asks you to LOG-IN and enter through that web page.

The only safe way to enter your personal details for any internet-based activity is by opening a new browser page in your web browser and typing the web address of the domain you want to enter into the URL search pane at the very top of the browser page.

Chain mail: Some emails we receive contain stories that can touch our hearts and emotions. Often these are wonderful stories and true-life accounts of people or events that you would like to pass on and share with others. However these emails frequently end with an appeal to send or forward this story to X number of people in X number of minutes, and a world of good luck and fortune will fall into your lap if you do. And then you are warned… if you don’t forward this email to X number of people in X number of minutes, bad luck of the worst kind will befall you.

For just one minute the email had touched our hearts, and then the deceit of the email is revealed as the ending reveals the chain nature of the communication. An email with promises of good luck if you forward it, and/or bad luck if you don’t, or uses some form of emotional blackmail to get you to forward it, is simply an act of deceit and should be deleted immediately.