Do you feel obligated?
 

Everyday I recieve emails from friends and family that have something to do with God. All of them say send this to "X" amount of people if you love the Lord, or if you don't send it on you are wrong and ashamed of him.

So my question is:
1. Do you feel a email should or should not determine how much you love God? Explain

2. Do you feel obligated to send it on to others?


I feel that I believe in God and He knows that. But then sometimes I feel bad about not sending things along, but at the same time it is a form of witnessing. It just works my nerves because I get so many emails about the same things and I don't want to send them all, then I end up feeling bad about it. Email shouldn't determine how much you love God, all that matters is you and Him both know it. Plus, last time I checked God didn't recieve a count check on how many emails you send to others that had Him in mind.

***If you don't understand my question or response send me a PM and I'll try to clarify myself***

I don't forward them at all but I don't forward email in general. I told my friends that years ago and I still get trickles of mail OR that one email that says they are too busy to send anything but a forward (which is actually a forwarded message itself). I forward it back to the original sender and that's it.

What's funny is that my grandmother sends me at least 6 forwards daily. I told her to stop it (it's aggravating), and she said she feels guilty if she doesn't forward those. :D

I delete them and don't feel bad about doing so. Generally people that send those aren't on the net on a daily basis.

So I chalk it up to their net newness. Every singing bunny and dancing baby is sooooooooo cute and they need to send it right to you. They wanna get that Victoria's Secret gift certificate or a check from Bill Gates.

The guilt trip is just a bad spin on a good message. Cuz ANY unneeded message is junk mail to ME and hampers my inbox and productivity.

I concur! :D

I don't foward them. A person's relationship with God is personal and they shouldn't feel "pressured" to forward Spam.

Amen to that sister.

Say that!!!
No guilt, no bad feelings, I will delete if God moves me;)

My mom does this too. *lol*

If the message is something that really ministered to me, I will forward it on, but I will delete the "pass this if you love Jesus" part.

I have posted some of them in the "Spiritual and Motivational" thread actually. :)

DITTO!
In fact I have a couple of acquaintances that are so bad about this that I have added them to my SPAM filter so I don't even see them. And then every now and then I check it to see if they send any real messages,

Re: Do you feel obligated?
 

nah...i dont think not forwarding an email should make you feel guilty..last time i checked i dont think that was in the New Covenant LOL.. the only thing a Christian should feel guilty/convicted about is not being obedient to God's word..(until after they genuinely repent of course ;)

Here's how I feel:

When you're living your life for God, your love for Him should show through your daily actions. That does not mean sending an email. Emails are temporary. Your love for God shouldn't be. I feel the Lord knows your heart. Whether you send the email or not doesn't automatically show others that your love God or that you're not ashamed of him. I don't feel anyone has anything to prove to anybody. All things are judged by God. He has the final say. He knows all and sees all.

You shouldn't feel obligated to send those emails at all. Just let your light shine in front of others. They'll get the message and God already knows what's up.

I don't feel obligated to pass them along. When I get one that says that if I feel lead to pass it along, I delete that part about loving God pass it along. I do the same thing with those that say if you pass it along to X amount of people, XYZ will happen to you.

God knows a person's heart. If you feel lead to encourage someone via an e-mail do so but don't hold the e-mail forward gun to his or her head.

What gets me is my relatives who forward the same emails over and over and over and over again (each will send to the same 10 people so that they will get credit for forwarding-like you can't see that I just got it from someone else) will find every excuse not to come to church on Sunday no matter how many times I've invited them.

Answer to forwards

Reply with this the next time someone sends you a ridiculous email.