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In This IS Love

As more see the current trends in our culture, George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984 have been selling well.  What the Catholic apologist, Peter Kreeft, once said is quickly coming true: control language and you control thought; control thought and you control action; control action and you control the world.  Sadly, many who profess to follow Christ are more influenced by the world than they are God.

I.  Isaiah 5:18-23.  Whether it is 1st Century paganism or 21st Century humanism, Christians have been persecuted for not following culture’s god, the state.  Increasingly, those who stand for truth in a politically-correct world find themselves as labeled “intolerant” by the “tolerant” because their beliefs differ.  The means of control and cancellation the state uses is language (James 3:1-12).  Terms such as ‘love,’ ‘gender,’ ‘marriage,’ ‘life,’ and ‘equality’ are hijacked to punish the populace into conformity.  The ramifications for Christian athletes, colleges, businesses, and churches are great.

II.  Exodus 4:10-12.  God reminds Moses that He made man’s mouth, and therefore controls the definitions of our language.  All man can do is choose to follow his own will or God’s in regard to this (Hebrews 13:15).  God alone defines love (1 John 4:7-12), gender (Genesis 1:27), marriage (Genesis 2:24), pre-born life (Jeremiah 1:5; Psalm 139:13-16), and equality.  Like the culture, He defines it as sameness in regards to sin (Romans 3:23) and the need for salvation (Galatians 3:26-28), but we are each different according to His sovereignty (Hebrews 2:4) and our abilities (Matthew 25:15).

III.  Romans 1:16-32.  The culture wants the church to remain complacent and compromised, but we know that the righteous live by faith.  We must wake up to the sin that we have so readily accepted in our lives and know the wrath that is coming because of it.  We must recognize how the bad company we’ve kept has corrupted our morals (1 Corinthians 15:33) and ask who has influenced us more–God or the culture?  Nearing the time of his death, Joshua asked the Israelites to choose God or the cultures of the land they had refused to eliminate from their lives (Joshua 24:14-15).

This same choice is before us.  What will you choose?

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Proper Words

O God! Before your face we search
for proper words and lovely lines,
To bless our Lord and the only church
And all your mercy’s grand designs.

Our minds are small to well extol
Your plan before the world began,
To make from dust a living soul,
To love and bless intelligent man.

But in the Book are words possessed,
From glory to glory, to loudly praise:
In Christ we know your purpose best,
We love your grace in all its ways.

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An Easy Word to Say

Grace is such an easy word to say,
And with it, love and peace and joy and faith.
Such grand expressions! Cosmic truths that sway
The open mind! In them I’d daily bathe.

Lead me in the practice of the truth,
Your tender mercy ever my guiding light,
The blessed News of Christ my narrow path,
Where words have meaning, and faith becomes our sight.

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No Stronger Love

What power your word contains,
And ours in prayer!
No greater work than this,
That supplicants dare.

No stronger love to show
Than save a soul —
Our thanks, O God, to play
This vital role.

Let joy be multiplied,
Removed our shame —
In us be glorified
The blessed Name.

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Speak in Our Ears

O God of truth — speak in our ears —
let us hear with sharpest hearing,
hanging on your every word.

O God of words — speak and create
in us a new creation — Being —
transformation of heart and soul.

O God of life — speak softly of love —
bring healing touch and caring hand,
that we might never leave your presence.

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Seasoned with Salt

Benevolence springs from who we are in Christ.  Edification is the building up of and teaching truth to everyone around us so that we can get to our third main value as Christians: evangelism.  We can not, however, share the good news with others unless we are the type of people from whom the gospel can be received.  In the close of his letter to the Colossians, Paul gives us great insight into this:

Colossians 4:2-6
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.
4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.
5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.
6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

  1. We are to be devoted to prayer, being watchful and thankful.  Prayer is essential for open doors and for a clear proclaiming of the good news.

  2. We must be wise toward the lost, knowing our audience and making the most of every opportunity that God gives us.  We must also pray that God would open our eyes to recognize them as they come before us and for the wisdom, which God gives to us if we ask, to know what to do with the opportunities when He gives them to us.

  3. Finally, we must watch our words to answer everyone well.  They must be full of grace or, like tasty food that people would want to eat, seasoned with salt.   Salt also creates thirst–in this case spiritual thirst.

How are you prepared to share the gospel?

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Sticks & Stones

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.  Anyone who was ever told this old adage by a well-intentioned person after hearing some really hurtful words knows that they are just a tiny bandage on a gushing wound.  Words do indeed hurt, hurt right to our heart most times, and God has a lot to say about them and how we should use them.

I. Proverbs 15:1 says this about the nature of words, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”  After David and his men had helped to look after Nabal’s sheep while in the wilderness, Nabal’s insulting refusal to allow them to attend the festivities at shearing time caused David to order his men to strap on weapons to seek this fool’s life (1 Samuel 25:10-13).  Abigail, Nabal’s wife, however, prepared food and quieted David’s anger with her words (23-31).

II. Ephesians 4:29 reminds us, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”  This same passage gives us great examples of what God means by “unwholesome talk,” and we all struggle to control our tongues (James 3:3-9).  But, this verse is a great guide for the Christian: say it if and only if it will build the person up according to his needs, benefitting him in some way.

III. In Matthew 12:36, Jesus gives us this harsh reality, “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.”  Like most sins, speaking careless words that cut people down, gossip about them, are shouted at them, or are coarse or foolish, make us temporarily feel better but have a devastating eternal consequence.  If we choose to live by faith like so many recorded in the Bible, we too will receive what is promised (Hebrews 11:39-40).

Aside from praying for others who may hurt us with their words and seeking opportunities to teach them God’s way from His Word so that their hearts might change, there’s not much we can do to stop them.  We can, however, control ourselves and our responses to such people.  And if we do, we not only show that Christians live differently than the world does, but we have the promise of eternal life.

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Lord, Make

Lord, make my spoken words be few —
and wholesome! By them change and save
one life — or many — of pagan or Jew,
of worldly or pious, of noble or knave.

Lord, make me bite my tongue when the mind
would spew out garbage thoughtlessly —
and loosen it freely when I find
an act to praise — or on my knee.

Lord, make me a child whose words and actions
agree — who follows what he speaks —
who’s guided by love, not heated passions —
who’s strong in faith, but in wrath is weak.

Lord, make your Name my lips’ best praise —
your glory my charm and disposition —
your mercy and grace my constant phrase —
your love my joyous, eternal mission.

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Words Fail

Heavenly Father, words fail to express
The deepest gratitude, the sharpest need,
But still we know how much you bless,
How deeply you love, how wisely you lead.