When to use the delete key

Posted on January 11, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

Twitter, Facebook, blogs and other communication tools enhance the speed of disseminating thoughts and information.

The question I ask myself this morning is how do I determine what is worth communicating? Is there a test which determines when the delete key should be used?

I believe that Paul gives us such a test in 1 Corinthians 13. Paul tells me that without love I am a noisy gong or clanging cymbal. Therefore, I must determine if my message conveys the love that I receive from God. If it does not, or if it is incompatible with love, then the delete key is the only remedy.

The internet is full of noise and clanging, it is my hope that I will not increase the volume.

About Mark McIntyre

A follower of Jesus Christ who shares observations about how Scripture should impact the church and the world. Mark is the original author and editor of Attempts at Honesty.

The balance between worship, service and fellowship

The Balance For a church to be healthy, each believer must have opportunity to participate in worship, service and fellowship. Some definitions are in order. First, when I refer to worship, I am speaking of the activities of the congregation when we come together on Sunday morning. We worship through singing and the teaching of […]

On the value of good preaching

We should expect our preacher to communicate to himself and to us the diagnosis that God makes upon our condition and the corrective action that God prescribes. We don’t need or want the preacher to interfere with this process by filtering out the inconvenient or disturbing bits.

Counterfeits and the real thing

The fact that evil deeds have been done by those who claim allegiance to Christ is a criticism that is sometimes raised against Christianity. In thinking about a response to this critique, it dawned on me that anything of value is likely to be counterfeited. The presence of the counterfeit is a backhanded compliment and speaks to the value of the original.

Why are you amazed?

I can read about miracles in the Bible and not be amazed. The flannel graph presentations of my youth have made the stories so familiar that too often I do not connect with how radical the events actually were. This healing should amaze me but its familiarity masks how marvelous it really is.

Heavenly minded or no good at all

I have heard it said that a person could be so Heavenly minded that he is of no Earthly good. Perhaps it is only me, but I find that I am in greater danger of becoming so Earthly minded that I am no good at all.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall . . .

What would cause enough joy to make the pain and suffering of the cross worth while? Something that could provide that much joy must be something of extreme value. It must be something that is worth obtaining.