I WAS ONLY JOKING! *** REALLY? ARE YOU SURE???

I WAS ONLY JOKING! *** REALLY? ARE YOU SURE???

Everybody enjoys a good laugh, because "a merry heart does good like a medicine: but a broken spirit dries up the bones." Proverbs 17:22 However when you are the butt of a put down joke it's never funny, because it breaks your spirit. Millions of people have suffered a life altering broken spirit, because they were the object of laughter for 30 seconds. "Just like a mad man who casts firebrands, arrows, and death at people [19] So is the man that deceives his neighbor, and says, I WAS ONLY JOKING? [20] Where no wood of resentment exists, the fire goes out and the feud is over: so where there is no joking talebearer, the strife ceases."  Proverbs 26:18-20 There is a world of difference between having fun and making fun. Kingdom people do not put down other people and especially making sport to get a laugh!

Many times an unforgiving believer is bitter and seeking to even a score, and not wanting to appear revengeful, they make cutting remarks in front of others, to get a laugh. Just joking, is what the group thinks, but the joker and the victim of the joke both know, it was part of evening a score! If the first joke did not hurt enough, the joker will strike again and again, until the victim leaves the room with a spirit totally broken, by embarrassment, many times damaged for the rest of his or her life. 

Many marriages have been destroyed by joking, with a vengeful motive. Thousands of wives have had their heart cut to shreds, while the husband fills the room with laughter over secrets she trusted him with! As some of you read this, tears are welling up, because those moments are so vividly painful. I know because I was there and I felt your pain. Psalm 34:18 I know full well what it's like to be the but of a joke and laughed at by throngs of people. Matthew 27:31 

More offenses are caused by joking at another persons expense, that any other act. "Woe unto the jokers of the world because of these offenses! No one can prevent offenses; but woe to that man who causes the offense!" Matthew 18:7 Embarrassment is a momentary form of shame that leaves you with a temporary red face, and permanent deep wounds, wounds that you never forget as long as you live. No one knows the sensitive areas of another's soul. Childhood verbal abuse many times leaves people emotionally bruised for a lifetime and a single joke, striking that bruise, just may push one to suicide. 

The next time you want to be the center of attention, before deciding to make people laugh, stop! Ask yourself; Are you sure your only joking? Will what you are about to say, hurt anyone? If there is the slightest chance it will be at someone else's expense, while your still deciding, think of this; "whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in Me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea." Mark 9:42  CANCEL IT! It's foolish spirit breaking talk! Ephesians 5:4 It's not worth it, because you won't hear their laughter underwater!