[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"article--\u002Farticles\u002Fvie-spirituelle\u002Fspeaking-positively-a-talk-by-derek-chittick":3},{"type":4,"alias":5,"id":6,"author":7,"title":8,"meta_title":8,"og_title":8,"description":9,"meta_description":9,"og_description":9,"changed":10,"changed_time":11,"full_changed_time":12,"created":10,"visual":13,"radios":15,"episode":27,"category":58,"body":64},"article","\u002Farticles\u002Fvie-spirituelle\u002Fspeaking-positively-a-talk-by-derek-chittick","19098","Derek CHITTICK","Speaking positively - A talk by Derek Chittick","One of the subjects we’ve been looking at in depth in our house group recently is blessing. The practice of blessing is common throughout the Old Testament, but is also encouraged and practised in the New. Jesus speaks of the blessedness of people who bear various characteristics such as meekness, poverty of spirit, peace-making and so on (Matthew 5; 3 – 12), and He and the apostle Paul both encourage us to bless those who oppose and persecute us – quite a contrast with the natural reaction of hitting back at those who hurt us, preferably harder than they hit us!","30 mai 2021","08:49","2021-05-30T08:49:14+02:00",{"url":14,"alt":14,"url_carre":14,"alt_carre":14},"",[16],{"id":17,"name":18,"code":19,"shortname":20,"liveURL":21,"alias":22,"region":23,"channelId":26},"34365","RCF Poitou Vienne","RCF86","Poitou Vienne","\u002F\u002Frcf.streamakaci.com\u002Frcf86.mp3","\u002Fpoitou-vienne",{"id":24,"name":25},"34176","Nouvelle-Aquitaine",null,{"id":28,"type":29,"title":8,"digas":30,"published":10,"datetime":31,"description":9,"url_linked_article":5,"presenters":32,"visual":34,"show":37,"duration":43,"radios":44,"audio_file":55,"rolls":56},"4751","episode","PO-4502","2021-05-30T08:45:00+02:00",[33],"Derek Chittick",{"alt":35,"url":36,"url_carre":14,"copyright":14},"RCFPoitou-EG","https:\u002F\u002Fmedia.rcf.fr\u002Fsites\u002Fdefault\u002Ffiles\u002Fstyles\u002F{style_name}\u002Fpublic\u002F2023-09\u002FPerspectives_0.png.webp",{"id":38,"title":39,"alias":40,"visual":41,"description":42},"6458","Perspectives - Espace spirituel anglophone","\u002Fvie-spirituelle\u002Fespace-spirituel-anglophone",{"url":36,"alt":35,"url_carre":14,"alt_carre":14},"\u003Cp>Des réflexions spirituelles proposées aux anglophones - sous le titre : Perspectives\u003C\u002Fp>\r\n","600000",[45,47],{"id":17,"name":18,"code":19,"shortname":20,"liveURL":21,"alias":22,"region":46,"channelId":26},{"id":24,"name":25},{"id":48,"name":49,"code":50,"shortname":51,"liveURL":52,"alias":53,"region":54,"channelId":26},"57796","RCF Poitou Deux-Sèvres","RCF79","Poitou Deux-Sèvres","https:\u002F\u002Frcf.streamakaci.com\u002Frcf79.mp3","\u002Fpoitou-deuxsevres",{"id":24,"name":25},"https:\u002F\u002Faudio.audiomeans.fr\u002Fguid\u002F{source_code}\u002F\u002F1077f7f70c6922af9b5fadd2a2079b352e7336e38c23e9c2c13bdc05dd2d3ca8.mp3",{"podcast_not_roll":57},false,{"id":59,"type":60,"name":61,"alias":62,"description":63},"2","category","Vie Spirituelle","\u002Fvie-spirituelle","\u003Cp>\r\n\u003Cstyle type=\"text\u002Fcss\">\u003C!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->\r\n\u003C\u002Fstyle>\r\nRedécouvrez les fondamentaux de la foi chrétienne, les grands courants de pensée qui ont traversé l'histoire de l'Église, le sens des fêtes chrétiennes, la vie des saints, ...\u003C\u002Fp>\r\n",[65],{"id":66,"target_paragraph_type":67,"target_wysiwyg":68},"33072","wysiwyg_paragraph","\u003Cp>Taking a close look at our society and culture, we can see that there is not much room for the\u003Cbr>\npractice of blessing others, except, perhaps, for a small select group which would include our close\u003Cbr>\nfamily and intimate friends, though even there we may not be very good at maintaining a positive\u003Cbr>\nattitude for very long. The root value of our culture is based on self-promotion, self-advancement\u003Cbr>\nand self-interest, and we encourage these attitudes and standards in our education system, our\u003Cbr>\nemployment regime and through our media. Image is everything, and we are encouraged to\u003Cbr>\npromote ourselves over against others in the pursuit of what we want out of life. The ability to\u003Cbr>\npromote oneself has become more important than our ability to do a particular job, or to relate well\u003Cbr>\nto others or to make a positive contribution to the welfare of society, manifested most glaringly in\u003Cbr>\nthe quest for and promotion of celebrity status.\u003Cp>Less obviously, the envy and rivalry that underlie so much in our society are expressed in our\u003Cbr>\nordinary, everyday speech and conversation. It occurred to me a few years ago that most of the\u003Cbr>\nhumour in the West of Scotland, where I come from, is based on trying to belittle others, and it\u003Cbr>\ninvolves sarcasm and stereotyping that are designed to undermine the confidence of our targets. I\u003Cbr>\nhave to confess that much of my own humour was, and still can be, based on that culture. And I\u003Cbr>\nsuspect that the West of Scotland is not the only area where this happens. Alongside this is our\u003Cbr>\npropensity for gossip, sadly one of the features of church culture that strike outsiders coming into\u003Cbr>\ncontact with us. We love a juicy story, especially one that represents another person or group (or\u003Cbr>\ndenomination?) in a bad light, and sometimes we’re not too concerned about the truth or accuracy\u003Cbr>\nof what we’re being told or passing on.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>On a personal note, we experienced this on one occasion many years ago when we lived in a country\u003Cbr>\narea in Scotland. The story was put round that I and two or three others (the people involved grew in\u003Cbr>\nnumber as the story developed!) had been beating the devil out of a local bipolar man, in a field in\u003Cbr>\nthe moonlight. Needless to say, there was absolutely no truth in the story, but it travelled round like\u003Cbr>\nwildfire, reaching a town 40 miles away, and all points within that distance! A friend asked a\u003Cbr>\nneighbour who told him the story if he believed it, the answer was, “No, but it’s a great story!”\u003Cbr>\nSadly, many others did believe it and modelled their opinion of me on it for a long time.\u003Cbr>\nContrasting with this, we find in the Scriptures the culture of blessing, or speaking positively or\u003Cbr>\nprophetically over and about others. Isaac blesses Jacob and Esau, Jacob blesses his children and\u003Cbr>\ngrandchildren and Moses blesses the tribes of Israel as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. See\u003Cbr>\nGenesis 27, 48 and 49 and Deuteronomy 33. Recently, during the first lockdown in the pandemic, a\u003Cbr>\nmodern sung version of Aaron’s blessing was produced by an American worship leader called Kari\u003Cbr>\nJobe, and it went viral on the internet, being translated into many languages and being used to sing\u003Cbr>\nblessing over most of the nations of the world. Through it, people found hope in the midst of the\u003Cbr>\ncrisis and many came to faith in Jesus as Saviour. It also brought about a more positive attitude\u003Cbr>\ntowards the church in some quarters.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>The old saying, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me,” is sadly far\u003Cbr>\nfrom the truth, and many of us are carrying old wounds from things that have been said to us or\u003Cbr>\nabout us in our past. Some of these words have had a major crippling effect on our lives and have\u003Cbr>\nrobbed us of confidence or even of the ability to function in certain areas of our being. Sadly, we\u003Cbr>\nhave almost certainly been responsible for inflicting similar wounds on others by our words, either\u003Cbr>\nintentionally or unintentionally.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>What a difference it could make to our marriages, our homes, our families, our churches and the\u003Cbr>\nwhole of our society, if even all of us who read this were to resolve to speak blessing over those\u003Cbr>\naround us, rather than engaging in criticism. As Paul says in Colossians 4;6, “Let your conversation be\u003Cbr>\nalways full of grace, seasoned with salt.” How much more attractive to others could our churches be\u003Cbr>\nif they were free from gossip, and became places where speech is encouraging and enabling!\u003Cbr>\n“Bless, do not curse.” It’s surely worth a try!\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n"]