by Elizabeth | Mar 14, 2011 | Learning Story
A friend brought joy to me with this "words" card.
A Prayer About Therapeutic Words
“Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” Proverbs 12:18
Dear Lord Jesus, I love words. I especially love the way you use words to bring me healing… wisdom… joy… encouragement… freedom… and hope. You will never shame me with words. You will never manipulate me with words. You will never hurt me with words. You alone have the words of life…
My prayer is so simple today, yet so necessary. Grant me greater stewardship of my words. Jesus, as you speak to me, please speak through me. It’s humbling to realize that you, who created the world with words, are pleased to bring healing to others through my mouth. It’s equally scary to realize I’m am capable of bringing a lot of decay and destruction by the same mouth.
Every day, in every conversation, I prove the reality of the proverb which teaches that words have the power of life and death (Prov. 18:21) I also remember you teaching me that my words are simply a reflection of what is filling my heart. Indeed, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45)
SO, rather than just ratcheting up some will power to have done with all drivel, reckless words, gossip, flattery, inanity, irritation, coarse jesting, excuse-making, confidence-breaking, too many words, and many more expressions of death-speak… Jesus, fill my heart with your beauty and bounty.
So fill my heart with the truth, goodness and riches of the gospel that… more often than not… the first and greater percentage of syllables out of my mouth will bring healing, not harm. May my mouth overflow with words season with grace because my heart has been more fully filled with your grace. So very Amen, I pray, in your name and for your glory.
by Elizabeth | Mar 11, 2011 | Learning Story
This is NOT a suggested way to tame the tongue!
“but no human being can tame the tongue.” James 3:8a. (For the full effect of this blog, please read all of James 3 — it will take you less time than you might spend surfing Facebook:)
A few years ago, my husband and I participated in the excellent Gospel Transformation course by World Harvest Mission. One of the first things we were asked to do was “the tongue exercise.” In this exercise, you tried to go a whole day without “cursing” – that is, without complaining, denigrating, defaming, gossiping or any other sin of the tongue. Within about fifteen minutes I had discovered what a long day it was going to be.
The point of the exercise was to show us how impossible it is to “be good” through human striving. Trying to tame our tongue revealed how desperately we need the power of the gospel of Jesus working in us.
There was just one problem with that for me. I somehow got a message that went like this, “Don’t worry about your tongue. You’re going to screw up all the time. Just ask forgiveness.” I’m pretty sure that was not the point, nor is it the point regarding any of our sin. I am the one who needs “Tongue-Taming for Dummies.”
Let’s return to the short section in James 3:8-12.
Regarding the use of the tongue to curse, James says, “My brethren, he appeals, this ought not to be so” (3:9). John Stott says the word used here appears nowhere else in the New Testament – it means, “intrinsically not right,’ or ‘no way right.’ John Stott goes on to say,
“James makes us face something we can and must do. As he examined the tongue, its place among our bodily faculties, the dangers it threatens, the fearful task of controlling such a restive beast, we may well have found it all too much, far beyond the capacity of our present state of sanctification. But we can make a start here [my emphasis]. Here is something precise, limited, manageable. This is not beyond us; this is something we can tackle. It concerns the way we speak to somebody else about a brother or sister, the way we speak to a brother or sister.” John Stott, Commentary on James
Let us not forget – taming the tongue will not respond to human effort alone. But, as Stott says, “…a different fire from that which ascends from Gehenna descended from heaven to kindle new powers and give new speech to the human tongue.” (Acts 2:2-4). It is this power, the power of resurrection life, that is at work within us.
Want to take the challenge? Try looking for the image of God in your fellow human being today. Note what difference it makes in how you think of them and what you say about them. And yes, we will still blow it. But when we do, let us run, not walk, to the embrace of our forgiving Savior and then be sent out to bless again.
If you’re interested in hearing a great Bible study that has informed a lot of my thinking on this topic, check out Scotty Smith’s study for the women at CCC.
by Elizabeth | Mar 10, 2011 | Learning Story
"A restless evil, full of deadly poison"
Ayyyyhhhh, James hurts. Yes, I mean the book of James. Put it together with John Stott and you have some inescapable challenges to take this whole issue of the tongue (pun intended) seriously.
Listen to this, but read all of Chapter 3 for full effect:
“…but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.” James 3:8-10
When I read that verse, I usually focus on the “restless evil, full of deadly poison.” But on this reading, the Holy Spirit (and John Stott) led me to focus on the illogic of praising God while cursing people made in the image of God!!! Ayyyhhhh…Guilty as charged. Here is what Stott says…
“We look around at our brothers and sisters, whether in the human family or in the family of God, and think nothing of defaming, denigrating, criticizing, making the sly innuendo, yet they bear the image of God [my emphasis]. We think of Jesus and count it a shame if his glory is despised or his name used dishonorably; we write to the papers to complain of blasphemy on the radio or television. But the same glorious image of God in other people we hardly think of and rarely hesitate to speak ill of.” John Stott, Commentary on James
James says, “THIS OUGHT NOT TO BE SO.” I know we’ve about reached the limit of what you have time to read and digest today, but this topic bears further discussion, so to be continued tomorrow.
Here’s my personal prayer on tongue-taming. Perhaps you will share this thought:
Holy God, Lord Jesus, Empowering Spirit, you know my tongue is wild and uncontrollable, guilty of casually defaming and denigrating your image. I’d really prefer to tape my tongue with duct tape to prevent the heinous harm it does. But you don’t seem to work that way. You created my words to bless, and you want to transform me more and more into the likeness of Jesus, so you don’t make an easy way out. Give me a heartbeat for you that guides my tongue to bless rather than curse. When I speak harmful words, make me quickly aware, and draw my heart to repentance and wag my tongue to confess that you alone are the Lord who redeems me. In you alone do I hope for the cure for my tongue-disease. Thank you for caring so deeply about me that you draw me to wrestle in this area of my life. In your powerful name, I pray. So Very Amen.
by Elizabeth | Mar 8, 2011 | Learning Story
Following up on yesterday’s blog, Catching Your Calling, listen to what Os Guiness says about Calling:
“Calling is the truth that God calls us to Himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion, [enthusiasm], and direction lived out as a response to his summons and service…the notion of calling is vital to each of us because it touches on the modern search for personal identity and an understanding of [two crucial questions: who am I? Why am I alive?] Calling is not a symptom for a comfortable life, but it acts as a compass when we are lost.” Os Guiness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life
by Elizabeth | Mar 7, 2011 | Learning Story
An opportunity to bring restoration to the broken beauty of Toomer's Corner's oaks
But if I say, “I will not mention him
or speak any more in his name,”
his word is in my heart like a fire,
a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot. Jeremiah 20:9
One of the great joys I have in coaching and teaching is helping people discover their calling. Two core questions of calling are, “Who are you? What is your purpose in life?”
Last night, at an installation of SGA officers for the year 2011-2012, I heard many young women and men summarize the past year’s work and express gratitude to various folks who had helped them in their job. Many of them spoke to the core realities of calling. One young man thanked his parents, saying, “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here.”
Another young man’s concluding words were more remarkable, in part because they are not the kind usually spoken in a public university gathering: “I am excited about the big story that lies ahead for Auburn University, and I am thankful to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who is writing this story.”
Afterwards, he asked me, “Was that too much?” I didn’t say ‘no’ just because I’m his mom. I said ‘no’ because it was clear that the words were not pre-meditated, that they had arisen to the tongue and spilled out. No force could have stopped them — they were the proverbial fire within his bones. And they were the truest summary of his calling. Everything he does in the coming year will be defined by the Story he claims. In his passion to bring beauty and justice to the campus, he will deeply bless many, but not without sinning and harming some. He will work in unity with his team; but at times, he will fight against division. He will be part of a team that brings deep and lasting impact to a major university. In all that arises in the coming year, his story will be wrapped in a larger story of a God who knows his heart, forgives his sin, and redeems him to be a restorer of broken things. It sounds like a calling to me.
What about you? Stop where you are and give a few minutes to consider your calling. Who are you and why are you here? (Hint: you can start with the very basic question — ‘why am I here’ literally — right where you are in this moment. Trace that back to see the larger realities the answer reveals.)
by Elizabeth | Mar 5, 2011 | Learning Story
A good day for A Good Day from Sojourn’s new album:
