{"id":6916,"date":"2014-05-18T01:00:25","date_gmt":"2014-05-18T05:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allandouglas.dougbittinger.com\/blog\/?p=6916"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:39","slug":"contagious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/contagious\/","title":{"rendered":"CONTAGIOUS"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"left\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/AP.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5914\" src=\"http:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/AP-171x300.jpg\" alt=\"Calvin S. Metcalf on the Church\" width=\"171\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">The word contagious often spreads fear among us as we think of some disease or illness that is easily transmitted from one person to another.\u00a0 We worry every year during the flu season fearing that we will &#8220;catch&#8221; the ailment from some coughing victim.\u00a0 We take multiple vaccines to immunizes\u00a0ourselves against any number of contagious ailments.\u00a0 We tend to associate the word &#8220;contagious&#8221; with that which is bad about us.\u00a0 Mood swings, bad attitudes and personality flaws can create a negative disposition which can be terribly contagious.\u00a0 We spread our emotional germs with critical conversation as we turn our backs on hurting humanity.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On the other hand, however, good things can be &#8220;catching&#8221; also.\u00a0 Perhaps we ought to focus more upon the fact that there are positive things about us that can be contagious.\u00a0 Is this not the whole idea of Christian fellowship?\u00a0 We come together to expose ourselves to the spiritual energy of the group.\u00a0 We &#8220;catch&#8221; our faith from one another.\u00a0 Forgiveness and repentance are highly contagious in an atmosphere of grace.\u00a0 Love is easily transmitted to one another when it reaches epidemic stage.\u00a0 Character inspires character.\u00a0 Commitment begets commitment.\u00a0 Positive speech creates wholesome conversation.<\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Church is a contagious fellowship where we are continually infecting one another for righteousness\u00a0in the spirit of Jesus. Isn&#8217;t it encouraging to know that our best can be infectious?\u00a0 Would it not be sad to discover that the only thing about us that is contagious is our germs?<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;The word contagious often spreads fear among us as we think of some disease or illness that is easily transmitted from one person to another.&nbsp; We worry every year during the flu season fearing that we will &ldquo;catch&rdquo; the ailment from some coughing victim.&nbsp; We take multiple vaccines to immunizes&nbsp;ourselves against any number of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/contagious\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;CONTAGIOUS&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-6916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matters-of-faith","tag-faith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6916"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19159,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6916\/revisions\/19159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}