Forums - the Ishmael of Sermon Index

Brothers and sisters,

I am deeply grieved by much of the content I read in the forums of SI. The ungodly spirit in many of these posts is a horrible witness to an unbelieving world as well as an offense against God himself. Beloved, we are Christians, meaning like Christ. The mean and deliberate cutting nature of the arguments found here are indicting against you and very distasteful to readers abroad. This website has been a blessing to me for years, but these forums seem to be the Ishmael of this site. Many of these themes and posts are dissimilar to the nature of the site itself, and the godly writings and sermons posted in their respective categories.

These ungodly and heated debates over irreconcilable perceptions are futile, and vain. They do not mirror Christ Jesus by any means. If the posts cannot glorify God, please do not post them. Please check your heart, and if any post or response cannot be in the humble and meek Spirit of Jesus, it need not be posted for it is another spirit. Please do not contaminate this site with devilish reasoning and arguing over irreconcilable ideas. May the Lord lead us in all that we say, and post. Thank you.

Brother Derek Melton

Thank you brothers, for these posts. If I have ever offended anyone, or started ungodly debate, or responded in an ungodly spirit, I ask everyone's forgiveness. I know I have felt attacked a number of times, to the point of strongly considering getting off of SI. My only reason for ever coming to this site is to be built up in the Lord, and to find fellowship with others who are seeking hard after Him. A number of times my spirit has been brought low and and disturbed by what I have read and had posted in response to my posts. I pray that this site would remain of the highest caliber as befits children of a HOLY GOD...

A very timely admonition! Thank you for this important reminder, Pastor Derek!

I have not been here too long but enough to realize the same thing. I have thought that this should be a private forum and not public. What is the purpose for the discussion forum to be so public? This seems like a strategic mistake.

While I agree with the gist or thrust of the exhortation in the OP, I thought it was a little too hard on the brethren in general here. It seemed to come across as an expectation to be sinless or perfect in our posts. I understand that we are called to strive for perfection as Christians but at the same time we must realize that this side of heaven we will not attain it, no matter how mature or spiritual we are. Thus the need for patience and grace toward the newer brethren, as we are all growing in His grace and knowledge and wisdom. I think if we are too hard on the newer or weaker brethren it will discourage them from ever posting anything the Lord may lay on their heart.

To me, this forum has been a blessing in that it allows us to sharpen one another and grow thereby. And even in times of getting in the flesh in our posts, we can learn to correct those things and continue to grow in the Lord. While I think we should keep the standard high here as far as respect goes(which I think the moderators do a great job of), we must not place too high an expectation on those who post, for they will sin from time to time in their attitudes and words. The same goes for any relationship between two or more believers. We will stumble in our words and we need to show each other grace, even as the Lord showers His grace on each of us daily. Please understand, I'm not excusing grave sins in the Body, for His Word is clear that we must put out the fornicator, adulter, idolater, etc. But times of stumbling into sin in attitudes or speech should not be something to completely censor believers for. Just my two cents. Blessings to all.

Thanks brother for your timely admonition. Would Jesus have a blog if he were alive today? Certainly not. I once was about to draft a similar statement as you had but abandoned it because I felt I had not prayed enough and my love for the brethren was not pure.

As long as we have an open forum we will have contention and ungodly disputes. Many blogs read as the middle chapters in the book of Job.

We are anonymous and we do not know each other's lifes. There cannot be true accountability in a blog, be it Christian or not.

We cannot establish here what a godly eldership would do in a local church.
I do not see any facility in a NT church where we should entertain everyones opinion. On the other hand SI forums have been a great source of encouragement to me.

My question is whether it is theoretically and practically possible to maintain an open blog that is always edifying, that only promotes godly wisdom and feeds hungry and thirsty souls.

Would it be better not to have an open blog at all? I wonder what would happen if we closed the forums for a month or 40 days.
I would like to encourage the moderators to take brother Derek's rebuke serious and pray what to do about it. God's honor is at stake.

A couple more thoughts came to mind. The fact that people who belong to cults are allowed to post their heresies here makes it impossible for the lost world to see a pure witness of Christianity here. And even among Christians who don't belong to a cult there are false converts or hypocrites. Can we reasonably expect the world to see a pure expression of Christianity in these forums? Like narrowpath pointed out, in a local church setting it is much different.

What the world will see here is a mixture of Spirit-filled Christianity, heresy, worldliness, immaturity, etc. What the world has been able to see is true Christians argue, rebuke one another, apologize, forgive one another, and move on and grow. I think that can be a good thing. They see fallen humans who are growing in God's grace.

I think sometimes we give the world the wrong impression that as Christians we are completely sinless or holy without any faults. To the contrary I think we should not be afraid to let them know that we fail at times and continue to need to repent and receive God's mercy. That is not a license to sin, but an acknowledgement of our weaknesses as fallen creatures who are imperfect this side of heaven.

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Brother and sisters on SI,

I think sometimes we forget that there is another human being whom we are posting to instead of a computer. If we were face to face we wouldn’t speak to hurt someone’s feelings but it is so easy to post because we are not in their presence and many we don’t know them on a personal basics. A lot of times people are just venting in their posts and not really being able to portray themselves adequately and people reading are a lot of times misreading other peoples posts.

I have seen some arguing their point when actually their point is just one side to the equation. Some others can’t recognize the good in peoples post because they just want to prove that their own point of view as being better.

I apologize to any I have offended by being to sharp and I pray that when I post in the future that I will continue by thinking on how I would say it if I was face to face with that individual. I have spoken to many people face to face even when I disagreed with them but I was sensitive to their feelings and how I wanted to get them to see why I saw it differently in the spirit of meekness.

I hope that we can all communicate better in the love of God in the future and the next time someone posts something I or we consider to be offensive that we would pray and vision seeing that person face to face and write in the spirit of meekness to the other brother/sister as being right in front of us

I thank God for what I have learned from this site and the many fine Christian people I have met through their posting. I have learned to love people I have never seen and also people I disagree with at times. I have learned more patience with people and I have learned to forgive others more readily. I have learned to communicate better and to see people in a different light even though I feel that I fall short every now and then. I hope to pray more in the future and I hope the best for all on SI and thank God for this site causing us all to communicate to one another over the precious Word of God.

Blessings to all the people on SI whom I believe are some of the finest Christians anywhere who really love God and truly desired to love Him more than ever.

What I like about the forum is the exchange of ideas and beliefs. As one has already said, "Iron sharpeneth iron." This can be a good thing and helps to shape our understanding of truth. Though sometimes bluntness comes through instead of tenderness, this is part of not being able to hear the tone of voice and see the gestures. Some are only trying to argue, while others are trying to gain a more full understanding of various views. In it all, may we be humble before God and one another.

After contributing to and then helping moderate these forums for over the course of 5 years, I am convinced these walls are among the most blessed on the entire web. But just like in eveything, there is good and bad, purity and mixture, meat and bones, oil and water. The more mature in Christ are able to immediately differentiate and choose their course wisely; the less mature will stumble and offend and be offended. This is why God has ordained Christian moderators and administration to oversee and help direct.

This forum can be a tremendous means of blessing and edification from the eldest to the youngest, but only if navigated and used with discretion. There is a spiritual wealth to be discovered here that you simply can not find anywhere else on the internet. The key is knowing where to dig -- and, just as importantly, where not to dig. If you navigate these forums prayerfully and contribute judiciously and sparingly, God will reward your self-control with the gleaning of good fruit whereby your soul will grow. But if you find yourself contributing multiple times each day, on multiplue threads and topics, and getting involved in heated debates regularly, you make this place barren for yourself and others coming in for the first time. The Bible is full of warnings to the fool concerning his multitude of words and undiscipled tongue and the issuing of his opinions when he should instead keep silent. The same wisdom must be applied here, within in the forum walls, and if you make an effort to practice these principles you will see this place go from an Ishmael to an Isaac overnight.

Paul's post should be tacked somewhere...on the welcome board perhaps.

Unfortunately, there is a direct correlation between high quantity and low quality in this place. People who post rapidly and abundantly very rarely exhibit spiritual wisdom and edification, even when quoting scripture. The power of a post to impart the life of Christ is normally not present in the posts of a forum busybody. The authority of God is certainly not present in wrangling and debating and opinionating. Such behaviour imparts a certain barreness, a dryness - again, regardless of how prolifically scripture is provided.

How rare it is to find posts laced with true humility, compassion, and a thirst to seek God's own heart on the issue of the matter. How rare it is to find a poster who eschews debate and confrontation, who fears grieving the Spirit in exchange to be right. Believers here who choose their words wisely need only post meagerly, because the little words they do publish are powerful and strike a direct bullseye each time. Like Melchisidek, they suddenly appear, state the heart of God with authority, and then quietly bow out.