Do Some of God’s Emails Go To Our “Junk” Folder?
Email would be a total mess without good “spam” filters. If you ever check your “Junk” folder, you might be surprised how much garbage your spam filter spared you from. But then there are those times when somebody says, “Didn’t you get my email?”, and you check your “Junk” folder, and there it is. Oops. Could cause big problems.
Most email filters just run with all the default settings, and you never pay any attention to them, but you can also add your own filters. You can add specific senders, or particular words or phrases.
People do the same thing with God’s “emails”. Sometimes their filters are pre-programmed by the way they were raised, from childhood on up. Sometimes they customize their filters according to church teaching, or personal preferences, or bad experiences.
Whatever the case, we’ve GOT to make sure our filters aren’t diverting any of God’s messages to our “Junk” folders. Right now… If the text of the entire Bible was emailed to you today, would any of it get filtered out as “Junk”?
The seriousness is really even greater than that, because those filters can kick out the entire message, if even only one of the filter conditions is triggered. Like a particular sender, or a particular word or phrase in the message.
Would God’s Word get through to you, no matter whom He used to send it?
How about if there were some phrases in it that just aren’t used in your church, or your region of the world?
The list could be almost endless, but here are a few possible trigger words:
“Perfection”
“Judgment”
“Eternal damnation”
“Grace”
“Sin not”
“Justified by faith”
“Justified by works”
“Trial”
“He that overcometh”
“Give to the poor”
“None righteous”
“Be ye perfect”
“Fasting and prayer”
“Healed all”
“Go ye into all the world”
These are ALL in the Bible. Hopefully, our spam filters would not kick out a message from God because it contained one of these words. We first need to be able to receive His messages with these words in them, in order for Him to teach us what they mean and how they fit into our lives.
How about… Sent From: A preacher who isn’t “properly ordained”, or speaks with a different style or accent, or doesn’t see everything the same as you.
Or what if the “email” comes in a foreign language, or from a different translation of the Bible, or not in your favorite style of music?
But still… our filters need to reject the “spam”. Sometimes, even a whole message, or every email from a certain sender, really DOES need to be rejected because of a single “poison” line.
In John 10, Jesus said it like this: “But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.”
The filters of His sheep are working perfectly here. Then the next verse describes a filter that is NOT working. Verse 6: “This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them.”
It’s my hope that THIS parable got through your spam filter, and that you understand it.
Recent Comments