Tongue of Fire

As many of us have learned as we have grown up “That sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” is not true.  Words do matter.  Tone of the words matters.  In actuality words can hurt more than stones.  Bones can heal, but sometimes a person’s heart never heals.  James reminds us of how powerful and important our words are in James 3:5 & 6-

^“5 So too, though the tongue is a small part [of the body], it boasts great things. Consider how large a forest a small fire ignites.  ⁶ And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among the parts of our [bodies]; it pollutes the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is set on fire by hell.”

A little bitty spark leads to a flame.  A flame leads to a fire.  A fire leads to an out of control blaze destroying everything in its path.  Our words do the same.  A word or two can break a heart, damage a self-image, cause someone to lose a job, cause some one to get in fist fight, cause someone to hate another, cause someone to not receive the Lord as their Savior.  Our goal should always be the care and love of others leading to their salvation and growing relationship in the Lord.  We don’t want to be hindrance to someone else’s spiritual well-being.  We dont’ want to bring shame to God.  We want to glorify Him in all ways.  So remember how powerful your tongue is.  With these thoughts in mind it just makes common sense to think before you speak.

Prayer That Hits the Target

There are so many things that we pray for.  We pray for the interview to go well.  We pray just to get called for an interview, when we turn in a job application.  We pray for the neighbor’s dog to stop barking.  We pray for the money to pay the bills.  We pray for the cute boy across the room to look our way.  We pray for our teenagers to listen to us and be safe on the road.  We pray for our sick friend to be made well.  None of these prayers are bad in themselves.  There is a prayer however that is probably one of the most important prayers we could ever pray for ourselves or someone else.  It is is the type of prayer that is on target.   It is something we should earnestly and fervently seek in our lives and in our Christian brother’s and sister’s lives.  The prayer for God’s Will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding should be one of our top priorities in our prayer lives.  Paul knew this to be very important.  Read Colossians 1:9 –

“For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,”

No matter whether there is good or bad going on in our lives God’s Will in all wisdom will greatly benefit us.  To have spiritual understanding will help us to get through life.  The reasons why things are going the way they are going will make much more sense with knowledge of God’s Will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.  These things will help us to stay on target in our walk with the Lord.

It Wasn’t A Waste of Time After All!

How many times have you done something over and over again thinking, “I just did this same thing the other day.  Why is it like this again?”  Maybe you dusted your furniture and within a day it is completely dusty again.  Maybe you just finished mopping your floor and not 10 minutes later some dog or kid comes running through leaving tracks.  Maybe you finished that pile of paperwork that was on your desk at work and within a few days a whole new pile of paperwork to do is back on your desk.  It really makes you think, “Now wasn’t that a waste of time!”  Sometimes even when we are raising our children we teach them the same things over and over again.  “Don’t touch that hot stove!”  “Do your homework, so you will learn what you need to know to have a job when you grow up!”  “Clean your room!”  Especially as our kids become teenagers we really begin to wonder if they are even listening.  By the time they are ready to move out you wonder if it wasn’t all a big waste of time giving them instruction after instruction, piece of advice after piece of advice.  Even when the kids were at church they would sometimes seem to drift or not be listening to the Sunday School teacher or the Preacher.  At home you would read them the Bible Stories or teach them little moral lessons out of the Bible and yet they would still seem to test the waters or challenge what you believed. 

Thankfully, the majority of the time, when we raise our kids with good sound Biblical doctrine, Christian morals and Biblical concepts they will come back to the spiritual foundations we have laid.  Read Proverbs 22:6:

Teach a youth about the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

We did what we were supposed to.  We made the efforts.  We taught the scriptures.  We took them to church.  We encouraged them in their faith.  However, as they turn in to adults we can control them.  We have to accept that they will make their own decisions.  It is an encouragement to know from this Bible verse that once we have done our part it won’t be a waste of time after all.  Most youth will return to what we have taught them.  We just need to pray and be patient.  We need to be there for them when they need some spiritual wisdom.  Never stop being their loving and supportive parent.

100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

When we buy products we tend to look for a product with the best guarantee.  That way when something goes wrong, we have some where to turn and maybe a way to fix the problem without costing us any money.  Sometimes, we even buy an extra warranty policy on a product.  We love a guaranteed answer to our problem or need.  I am pretty sure we would all love that with our prayer life too.  Well, we actually do have a 100% guarantee that our prayers and needs will be answered and taken care of.  Read Matthew 7: 7-8.

⁷ “Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

These verses are in the present imperative verb tense.  Meaning that they are a command to keep doing the actions listed.  Persistence is expected.  Following those commands is a guaranteed response from God.  God is 100% guaranteed to answer our prayers.  What a relief to know that God will answer.  This means that we don’t have to worry.  God will take care of things.  The questions are, “Will I be patient and wait?”, “Will I accept the answer?” or “Will not wait for God’s answer and take things in my own hands?”  Many of us are not strong enough to wait or listen.  Many of us are weak in our faith and cannot accept the answer God gives.  Many of us doubt and take things in to our own hands.  If we would but remember that God loves us, is all knowledgeable and all powerful and would give us the best answer, we would be able to wait for or accept the answer.  It just makes common sense to wait for God’s guaranteed answer.  It’s the best way to get satisfaction.

It Couldn’t Hurt to Ask

I grew up with the old idiom “It couldn’t hurt to ask” or “It never hurts to ask”.  You see an object at the store that you would really like to get, but it looks too pricey so you walk away.  Perhaps that was a missed opportunity to apply the old idiom.  I know it has worked in my life a few times.  I asked for something for a reasonable price and it was given to me.  In this economy you might find that it will work more often than you think.  How many times as a kid were you not afraid to ask you parents or grandparents over and over again for that ice cream cone as the ice cream truck passed?  How many times did it work?  I know if I didn’t ask I didn’t chance at all at getting the ice cream.  That same wisdom was passed on to us by God.  Read Matthew 7: 7-8.

⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

 We need to ask God questions.  We need to ask God for what we need.  We need ask even if we aren’t sure it is something we should even ask for.  Like a child asking for an ice cream on a hot summer day.  An ice cream really might not be the best thing for the child.  Maybe it’s right before dinner.  Maybe a glass of water would really be healthy for the child and quench their thirst and cool them down.  God also tells us that we need to seek or search and we need to knock at the door.  All of these are active steps on our part.  We need to take time to communicate with God.  Just like I use to look for those Chocolate Chip cookies my mom hid from us kids, I need to look for what God has for me.  I need to seek or search out what He has.  I use to knock on my Mom and Dad’s bedroom door and ask them for things.  We need to knock on God’s door and ask.  If Jesus himself told us to ask, seek and knock, don’t you think it would be the wise thing to do?  After all it couldn’t hurt to ask, what is the worst He is going to do to us for asking?  Out of love He is going to give us the best answer, even if that means “No” or “Wait”.

It’s Like Apples and Oranges

You can get on the internet and type in to a search engine the word “compare” and it will bring up websites that will let you compare anything from computers to phones to grocery stores and on and on.  You can’t run out of websites that will help you compare items.  We always want the best product or the best buy and love shopping around.  When it comes to gods to choose from, there really is no comparison.  Some gods are dead. They were just humans that taught good ideas and then died.  Some gods were just carved images in stone and wood.  They could never even come up with a good idea.  Some gods are just things we find in nature.  They don’t even think on the same level as we do.  It is interesting to look back over the history of mankind and see all the “gods” that man has created to worship and hope in.  How futile these efforts are.  Our own basic intelligence should naturally lead us to realize that for a god to be our god, it must be more intelligent, more powerful, more loving, more wise, and live longer than us.  The God of the Bible is the only god that has ever met all those requirements and more.  He is the only one who is alive and loves us deeply.  He is the only one who has taught us wisdom and given us knowledge that is unsurpassable.  He even reminds us in Isaiah 40: 25-26 that nothing will ever compare to Him:

“25 “Who will you compare Me to, or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One.  26 Look up and see:  who created these? He brings out the starry host by number; He calls all of them by name. Because of His great power and strength, not one of them is missing.”

When looking for a god to serve, worship and love, all we have to do is but look up and see that the God of the Bible is the one.  Comparing other gods with Him is like apples and oranges being compared.  There really is nothing in common but that they are fruits.  There is nothing really in common between God and other gods we could chose to worship, except that they are all just lumped in to man’s choices for their gods.  Just like apples and oranges are all lumped in to the category of fruits.  Wisdom should tell us after looking at the stars and other parts of God’s creation that they could have only come from one source, the one true God and that nothing compares to Him.  He is above all and all comes from Him.

Instructions For Dealing With Mockers

Most of us would agree that as each day passes we are drawing closer to the end times and the Lord’s return.  Many of us feel we are in the actual last days, of course, the Apostles felt the same way.  The Apostle Peter gave lots of great advice in I Peter Chapter 3 about dealing with mockers and scoffers.  First he foretold that in the last days we would experience a rise in the number of mockers and scoffers against God and our faith.  I think most of us would agree that we are already seeing that.  When things like the May 21 fiasco happen, it pushes a rise in the number of mockers and scoffers.  In chapter 3 verses 3 -7, Peter gives us some good instructions for when we deal with these people:

“3 First, be aware of this: scoffers will come in the last days to scoff, following their own lusts, 4 saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.” 5 They willfully ignore this: long ago the heavens and the earth existed out of water and through water by the word of God. 6 Through these the world of that time perished when it was flooded by water. 7 But by the same word the present heavens and earth are held in store for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”

Peter reminds us that this mocking and scoffing is nothing new.  He brings to mind the story of Noah.  Noah lived in a world of evil people and God had determined to bring judgment.  He told Noah to build the Ark and warn the people.  Noah preached for 120 years and only reached his own family.  While he preached all those years and built the Ark, he dealt with the people mocking and scoffing at him.  What persistence and faith Noah had to go on through all of that.  Inside this passage Peter reminds us that we need to look to God’s Word when people mock us or our faith.  Inside God’s Word we will find stories of God’s faithfulness to us and stories that show God is not slack in keeping His promises.

So when people come against you and question your faith, remember God’s Word.  Go to God’s Word and show them through God’s Word that when God says something will happen, it will in His own timing and His own way.  These are wise instructions from Peter.  Don’t depend on your own wisdom, reasoning and logic to explain to people what God is doing.  Use God’s Word to respond to mockers.  Just as Peter used the story of Noah to remind the people that God keeps His Word.

A Mother’s Comfort

How many of us have experienced our mother’s comfort? We fell off our bike and she picked us up. We were rejected by a boy we liked and she comforted us. We didn’t make it in to the college of our choice and she comforted us. Our mothers hug us, kiss us, find us our favorite toy, take us to a movie, and give us words of encouragement. God understands comforting His children like a mother does. In Isaiah 66 He speaks to the nation of Israel about the evil people that surround them. He comforts them with words about how He will take care of their enemies. He reminds them that judgment day will come and that will take care of them and bless them. They will see and rejoice at what God does. God knows everyone understands their mother’s comfort. He speaks through Isaiah and tells the people the following in Isaiah 66:13-

“As a mother comforts her son, so I will comfort you, and you will be comforted in Jerusalem.

In this simple statement there is comfort, just to know God loves us like our mom’s love us. There is also comfort in the fact that this is an absolute. There is no doubt that God will comfort and take care of His children. He proclaims “you will” be comforted. What a blessing to know that the trials will end and God will comfort. What a comfort to know that God will take care of the enemy and we will rejoice when it is done. There will be an end to pain, suffering and sorrow. What an encouragement that we will be comforted by God like our mothers comforted us as children.

Think How Encouraged You Will Be

Sometimes it is just hard to wait on the Lord to solve a problem.  We can be going through some pretty tough times and be at our wit’s end.  We may not have any strength left to stand and fight.  Our faith may be dwindling.  David probably felt the same way at times.  He hadn’t done anything wrong.  He had been a faithful servant to King Saul, but Saul was jealous and was out to get him.  Several times David was within inches of King Saul.  Each time he was presented with the opportunity to eliminate his problem.  Each time he used wisdom and did not use those opportunities to his advantage.  He waited on the Lord.  His patience was rewarded on several occasions.  Read I Samuel 24: 16-22.

16 When David finished saying these things to him, Saul replied, “Is that your voice, David my son?” Then Saul wept aloud 17 and said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have done what is good to me though I have done what is evil to you. 18 You yourself have told me today what good you did for me: when the LORD handed me over to you, you didn’t kill me. 19 When a man finds his enemy, does he let him go unharmed? May the LORD repay you with good for what you’ve done for me today. 20 “Now I know for certain you will be king, and the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hand. 21 Therefore swear to me by the LORD that you will not cut off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father’s family.” 22 So David swore to Saul. Then Saul went back home, and David and his men went up to the stronghold.

In this passage we see King Saul recognize the error of his ways.  He sees he is wrong about David.  He recognizes that David will be King next.  He seeks David’s protection for his family.  Saul stopped pursuing David and his men.  What a relief it must have been for David to hear those words and be left in peace.  David was no doubt very encouraged by this turn of events.  He had remained faithful all this time and God rewarded him.  God gave encouragement through King Saul’s words to David.  God used that opportunity to remind David that someday he would be King. 

The same is true for us.  We just need to be patient. No matter how bad things may seem, we need to think about how encouraged we will be when the Lord provides us with answers, solves our problems and protects us.

Think About Who Is the Better Judge

It’s really easy for us to make judgments about situations and the people involved in them.  We may be smart and we may be wise.  Yet in reality we need to think about who might really be the better judge.  David had to remind Saul about that while they were dealing with their accidental meeting in the cave.  Read I Samuel 24: 11-15.

11 See, my father! Look at the corner of your robe in my hand, for I cut it off, but I didn’t kill you. Look and recognize that there is no evil or rebellion in me. I haven’t sinned against you even though you are hunting me down to take my life.  12 “May the LORD judge between you and me, and may the LORD take vengeance on you for me, but my hand will never be against you. 13 As the old proverb says, ‘Wickedness comes from wicked people. ‘ My hand will never be against you. 14 Who has the king of Israel come after? What are you chasing after? A dead dog? A flea? 15 May the LORD be judge and decide between you and me. May He take notice and plead my case and deliver me from you.”

King Saul had been so busy being jealous of David and chasing him through the countryside that he lost focus of who David was in character.  He began judging David incorrectly.  He assumed he was after his throne.  He assumed David was out to kill him.  Saul was a good man in the beginning of his life, but he walked away from the Lord and didn’t let the Lord guide his thinking or actions any more.  He no longer stopped and thought.  He no longer was sensitive in his thinking to what the Lord’s Will was.  He no longer was a good judge of people or situations.  His thinking was all messed up without God in his life.  David used that moment to try and remind Saul that he was not a good judge of him and that only God would judge what David had done or not done rightly.  Only God can judge whether Saul or David was honest and good. 

So next time you start to judge someone or a situation, stop and think, be sensitive to the Lord and use common sense and remember that you are not the best judge.  You are just human.  You cannot see inside another person’s heart.  Only God can see the motive of the person.  Only God will know what is truly going on in that person’s life.  Don’t assume like King Saul and take matters in your own hands.