SPEECH & CURSING

 

This subject has been on my heart for quite some time. I believe its an arena, that's tolerated, when it should be condemned. Do we pull ourselves up, when we start thinking or talking negativeley about others?..and even more so, do we pull each other up? Why is it tolerated?
Talk (unbridled) is destructive, it curses, tears down others and wounds. I did some research and found this good piece of writing from 'chasingalion.com'. so I decided to share it. I believe everyone of us would have participated in this attitude and behaviour and are no doubt also victims of its destructive effects.

Its about a change of heart and attitude towards others. To see people as God's sees them, and ask his forgiveness for our attitude and behaviour.

Here's the article: (chasingalion.com)

'Our speech is determined by our thoughts. If we want to make our speech more Christ-like, then we must make our thoughts more Christ-like. CURSING:
James 3: Verses 2-12

² We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.

³ When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. ⁴ Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. ⁵ Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. ⁶ The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

⁷ All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, ⁸ but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

⁹ With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. ¹¹ Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? ¹² My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
(Jam. 3:2-12 NIV)

The Bible is clear, cursing is a sin. Let's consider a few more passages where GOD speaks to the issue.

⁸ But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
(Col. 3:8 NIV)

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
(Rom. 12:14 NIV)

¹² We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; ¹³ when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.
(1 Cor. 4:12-13 NIV)

Most believers probably already know that cursing is condemned by GOD. Yet, it is so incredibly common among people who profess to be Christians. Why is this? That's a discussion for another post, but the short of it is that many are trying to serve two masters, not truly knowing Jesus.
Some of us, thankfully, have the self-control to keep ourselves from cursing. That's good. Cursing (and improper speech in general) is more of a temptation for some than for others. But let me ask you this: Do you ever struggle with insulting other people? I do. Perhaps you only do it behind the person's back, instead of to their face, but if you speak negatively about them, it's just the same.
I must be honest. James 3:9-10 steps on my toes pretty hard. Sure, the Bible teaches that we should avoid foul language. But look at the message again:

⁹ With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. ¹¹ Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? ¹² My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
(Jam. 3:2-12 NIV)

GOD's teaching to us here is not to curse people. In other words, it isn't just saying curse words, but it's the act of berating or belittling another person. For example, have you ever been driving down the road and someone pulls out in front of you and pokes along like they didn't even care? What do you do most of the time? "You moron! What's wrong with you? Idiot!" Ouch. I'm guilty. Or what about the coworker who shows up late or doesn't do their job, yet they got the promotion you deserved or the boss likes them and, rather than dealing with their lack of productivity, (s)he dumps more work on you instead? Or how about the bully in school who gets their way just because they're bigger than you and everyone else? Ever had any choice words for or about these people? I have.
Friends, remember Jesus' example:

²¹ To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

²² “He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
²³ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.
(1 Pet. 2:21-23 NIV)

Becoming a parent has taught me a lot about how GOD views us. I plan to speak further on this in the future. GOD is our Father—each of our Father. He is no respecter of persons, thus He loves the guy who pulled out in front of us on the highway, the incompetent coworker, and the school bully just as much as He loves you and me. To Him, we're all special, just like each of our kids are special to us as parents. When someone insults, mistreats, or puts down one of our kids, it hurts. We want there to be peace in our family. And GOD wants peace among His children too. So, since He's always present when we think or speak, He knows whenever we say something about one of our fellow siblings (speaking in terms of humanity), and it hurts Him when we curse one of them.
Let's be more intentional and thoughtful about our words, what we say, how we say them, to whom we say them, and about whom we say them.

¹² Whoever derides their neighbor has no sense,
but the one who has understanding holds their tongue.
(Prov. 11:12 NIV)

 

Blessings - Follower of the WAY

 

Intamacy with God

I recently found a piece of writing that the Holy Spirit gave me about 5 years ago. As I read it over again, it spoke such intamacy and peace to me. My husband encouraged me to share it, so here it is:

 

I called to the deepest longing within your soul.

 

I receive you with the highest joy.

 

You are My creation

 

My beauty is revealed in you,

 

Your hearts desire for Me and your life lived as Me is all I ask.

 

Take from Me,

Drink from Me

 

and I will allways be with you,

 

and in you.

 

 

Eden's Bridge - The Shadow of Your Hand Soaking Worship

The Doorway

This morning as I had just finished praying with my husband, over a matter of God's provision, this 'word' came to me.

I felt the Lord impressing on me, an image of him standing behind a closed door, longing to come through, longing to comfort, heal and help, but he was hindered. He knew about the impending 'need', long before we did. He was waiting expectantly, but when it happened, he couldn't get through...and why???

He couldn't come through, because the door of our hearts was not opened in prayer, to invite him in, to recieve from him. The scriptures tell us:

'I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you.' Luke 11: 19

In the East - "The oriental house was fitted with heavy doors which were bolted and locked with wooden keys too large to be carried about, so that even a member of the household could not secure entrance until in response to his knock or call the door should be opened by someone within. At night the delay would be increased by the difficulty of arousing the inmates sleeping within the inner chambers. To persons familiar with such experiences, the words of Jesus concerning a higher entrance, "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matthew 7:7 and Luke 12:36) would have a unique force not easy for us to appreciate." (Russell Benjamin Miller)

Are you asleep or awake to supernatural provision? Are you going through this life, walking in your 'flesh', relying on self to provide all things and solve all your problems? Well thats what you are doing as a christian, if you don't run to God in prayer..you are trying to do it all yourself. You tie the hands of God, you keep the door closed on him...you depreive yourself of a blessing.

Its so vital that we include and call upon God in all matters of our life, and especially seek him first when we get 'bad news'...of a financial woe etc. Too often christians do everything else but seek God when a crisis comes. They phone a friend, they let themselves carry the burden, become sullen and depression creeps in. Instead, throw off the shackle, don't give the enemy a foothold, don't let the 'care' penetrate through the peace and joy that surrounds you. Act and believe that your problem is actually only a little thing, not an mountain to be climbed. It's a speck of dust in the hands of the amighty, our majestic Lord and provider. He hungers for our love, he seeks and desires an expectant heart..he has plans to prosper us and not to harm us. (Jeremiah 29:11)

I know and believe it saddens the Father if we don't trust in him, if we don't run to him first with our cares and worries.
I always say to people, just keep on doing the work he has provided for you, keep being a good steward with your finances, no matter how little you have, there will be something you can share with others. Have an expectant and trusting heart that God is always with you and will provide for you. See your won attitude and outlook change and wait for the peace to flood in :)

Be blessed and be a blessings -
Linda - Follower of the Way

Holding On To You.

I hope you will play this beautifull song,  ' Holding onto you' by Grace Williams. It's truly annointed music of the finest quality, direct from heaven...soak in it, sit quietly, play it over several times, and meditate on the words in it...draw near to the heart of Father....hold onto him...hunger for his love..its freely there for you..available always...run into his arms.

Obedience

Deuteronomy 13:4

It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.

Over the last month or so, I've been slowly reading through the book of Genesis. As I read the close of this book in Chapter 50 and began Exodus, a common and obvious theme stood out  to me, that of 'Fear God and keep his Commandments'. This theme runs throughout the whole bible.

God has a divine agenda for each of our lives, he has plans to prosper us and not to harm us. Sadly and so often we thwart or interfere with the plans of God, by trying to intervene, and 'help' or alter the course slightly. We become impatient, as was the case with Abraham and Sarah, when God promised Sarah would bear a child in her old age. Sarah grew impatient, not believing that God could bring fourth an heir when she was well past child bearing years and took matters into her own hands. She decided that the heir would need to come through her maid servant instead. God of course kept his promise and meanhwile Sarah had to bear the brunt of her own actions and the problems it created. God  was simply doing it in his own time and Sarah learnt lessons along the way.
Impatience is a terrible thing...we are so bad at 'waiting upon the Lord', thinking perhaps he hasn't heard us. He always hears us !!!, we need to get this into our hearts. He always answers, in his time, in his way, and for our good. Many times not what we ask for, but in hind sight, we are greatfull and relieved.

Oftentimes we can fear man, more than we fear the Lord. But every time thoughout scripture, I read that those who wait on God, who walk in his ways, obey his commandments and reamin faithful to him, (as in the case of Joseph, son of Jacob) are blessed. Jospeh always sought the Lord, always remained faithful, didn't hold grudges, didn't seek revenge, but instead forgave all his brothers did to him, and even blessed them and provided them with Land and a good life, because of his own prosperity and favour in the eyes of God and Pharoah, king of Egypt. Jospeh had a tender heart for the ways of God, he was merciful and forgave. Mercy and forgiveness are two virtues sadly lacking in our world today and in the hearts of many christians.

To fear God and keep his commandments at all times, is not easy, but also not optional, even when lifes circumstances or our own choices  throw us off course. God's ways are not our ways and he knows what the outcome will be if we stray from his divine plan. He puts his laws in place to protect us.

As I finished off Genesis and began the first chapters of Exodus, the legacy of the Patriarchs stands out. The Israelites are said to be 'fruitful and multiplying greatly', they have become 'exceedingly numerous', to the point that the land of Egypt is full of them. God's hand is upon them, and the Egyptians came to dread them. They worked them hard and used them ruthlessly (Exodus 1:14). The new king of Egypt hatched a plan to decrease the population of the Israelites, by asking the midwives to kill every Israelite baby boy that wass born. The midvives however 'feared GOD', and did not do what the king of Egypt  asked them to do, instead they let the baby boys live.
Then the king of Egypt summoned them and asked them why they had done this. The midwives were wise and answered, that the Israelite woman were so vigourous in childbirth, that they had already delivered their own children, before they arrived, so therefore it was not possible to carry out the kings command.
Because of their obedience to Yahweh and fear of him, God was kind to the midwives and blessed them, by giving them famlies of their own, and consequently the Israelites became even more numerous.

What can we learn from all this?

Well how it speaks to me, is simply this, 'God is an all knowing, all powerful, all seeing God' and nothing escapes his attention. If people work to feather their own nest, disobey the laws of God and trample over anyone else in the process, eventually the day will  come when they will reap the consequences of their actions, either in this life or the next.
We are not to fear man and what he can do to us, we are to fear the Lord and keep his commandments. In the lives of all believers, we will be tested, people will let us down, we'll also let people down. However, if we continually walk in the promises of God, repent of any of our own sin,  and seek forgiveness, God will always honour that, forgive and restore us and his favour will once again return to our lives. Its really over to us to do our best and obey him, keep our eyes, hearts and minds fixed on him and continue on the narrow path, that leads to life.

2 John 1:6

And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

Psalm 16:11

 'You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.'

Deuteronomy 10:20

Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name.

Blessings to anyone who reads this,
Follower of the Way (of Christ).

The Deceitfullness of the Human Heart

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

Jeremiah 17: 5-11
5 This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,

who depends on flesh for his strength

and whose heart turns away from the Lord.

6He will be like a bush in the wastelands;

he will not see prosperity when it comes.

He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.

7“But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.

8He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

and never fails to bear fruit.”

9The heart is deceitful above all things

and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

10“I the Lord search the heart

and examine the mind,

to reward a man according to his conduct,

according to what his deeds deserve.”

11Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay

is the man who gains riches by unjust means.

When his life is half gone, they will desert him,

and in the end he will prove to be a fool.

Here's a commentary on Jeremiah 17:9, which I enjoyed:
Gills expository:
Jeremiah 17:9
who can know it? angels do not, Satan cannot; only the spirit of a man can know the things of a man within him; though the natural man does not know the plague of his own heart; the Pharisee and perfectionist do not, or they would not say they were without sin; such rant arises from the ignorance of their own hearts; only a spiritual man knows his own heart, the plague of it, the deceitfulness and wickedness in it; and he does not know it all; God only knows it fully.

Mathew Henry's Concise Commentary:
Jeremiah 17:5-11:

He who puts confidence in man, shall be like the heath in a desert, a naked tree, a sorry shrub, the product of barren ground, useless and worthless. Those who trust to their own righteousness and strength, and think they can do without Christ, make flesh their arm, and their souls cannot prosper in graces or comforts. Those who make God their Hope, shall flourish like a tree always green, whose leaf does not wither. They shall be fixed in peace and satisfaction of mind; they shall not be anxious in a year of drought. Those who make God their Hope, have enough in him to make up the want of all creature-comforts. They shall not cease from yielding fruit in holiness and good works.

The heart, the conscience of man, in his corrupt and fallen state, is deceitful above all things. It calls evil good, and good evil; and cries peace to those to whom it does not belong. Herein the heart is desperately wicked; it is deadly, it is desperate. The case is bad indeed, if the conscience, which should set right the errors of other faculties, is a leader in the delusion. We cannot know our own hearts, nor what they will do in an hour of temptation. Who can understand his errors? Much less can we know the hearts of others, or depend upon them.

He that believes God's testimony in this matter, and learns to watch his own heart, will find this is a correct, though a sad picture, and learns many lessons to direct his conduct. But much in our own hearts and in the hearts of others, will remain unknown. Yet whatever wickedness there is in the heart, God sees it. Men may be imposed upon, but God cannot be deceived. He that gets riches, and not by right, though he may make them his hope, never shall have joy of them. This shows what vexation it is to a worldly man at death, that he must leave his riches behind; but though the wealth will not follow to another world, guilt will, and everlasting torment. The rich man takes pains to get an estate, and sits brooding upon it, but never has any satisfaction in it; by sinful courses it comes to nothing. Let us be wise in time; what we get, let us get it honestly; and what we have, use it charitably, that we may be wise for eternity.