I Am Christian's Tongue - Part Two

 

I AM CHRISTIAN'S TONGUE - Part Two

JEREMIAH 15:16

Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became my Joy and my heart's Delight. For I bear Your Name, O LORD God of Hosts.

    I am Christian's tongue. I can taste the differences in The Word of God. Both the bitter and the sweet land on my tongue before they ever reach my belly where I can digest The Word, which will then flow through me to land in my heart. 

    Not everything in The Bible is easy to take in, nor can it be understood on a mere human level. It is, after all, The Living Word of God and none can begin to understand (taste) until one actually believes God's Word is True an Truth. Before I read it, I believed it. Before I knew It, I believed It. But as I began to read The Bible myself, then I began to taste God's Word and take It in. 

    Some of it was hard to swallow because the taste was so bitter. The judgments of God against nations other than the one He chose for Himself were hard enough, but to know that God will judge His own people tasted bitter at first. But as I swallowed the bitter words of God they became sweet like honey, for my faith in God was growing and as it grew, it changed and it changed me. 

    Some of God's Word is sweet to the taste and strength to the bones from the beginning. God loves us so much He died for us. And in His dying, His blood washes away our sins as if they never were. God conquered death and walked out of the grave a Victor, the first Overcomer. That's honey on my tongue. 

    I am Christian's tongue. My tastebuds taste The Word of God going in and coming back out again. The joy that floods my soul as I delight in The Word of God gets digested in my belly and rises up within me to pour back out of my mouth: in speaking/preaching/teaching The Word of God and in singing/praising The Worship of God. The heartaches and the warnings pour out of me and into the ears of anyone who will take It into themselves. 

    I am Christian's tongue. Discernment is in me. The Word of God is what is best for this body to thrive, for I am a member, a part, of the body of Christ and I have a job to do, too.  Romans 12:4, 5 and 1 Corinthians 12:12. 

    Whether I have the power to bring forth words clearly, with a speech impediment or remain mute, I have a responsibility to share/testify what Jesus has done for me. If God chooses Christian's tongue to remain silent, then He will express Himself in some other way through this body in which I honor Him. 

OVERWHELMED - Big Daddy Weave

COME TO THE TABLE - Sidewalk Prophets

TASTE & SEE - John Mark Pantana

HONEY IN THE ROCK - Brooke Ligertwood & Brandon Lake

    

I Am Christian's Tongue -Part One

 

I AM CHRISTIAN'S TONGUE

James 3:17

But the wisdom from above 

is indeed first pure, then peaceable, gentle,

reasonable, full of mercy and of good fruits, 

impartial, sincere. 

    I am Christian's tongue. In me is the power of life and death. The words I speak can heal and encourage or cause pain and discouragement. As long as The Word lives in me and moves through me, changing me as it flows through my spirit and soul; as long as I remain God's faithful servant, God's Word will be spoken with love when it rolls off this tongue. 

    1 Corinthians 13 tells me I must speak with love. And for it to be sincere the Love of God, His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, must absolutely be alive in me. Not just once, but all day and all night: every hour of every day. It is after all, a relationship with God's holy Son. We speak Love. 

    I am Christian's tongue. I speak The Word with knowledge of The Word, understanding of The Word, and in the wisdom of The Holy Spirit, who also lives and moves through me, strengthening my pursuit and endeavors in The Word.  

    To speak God's Word without any knowledge of God's Word is to bring a curse into your life, for you know not what you are saying: your knowledge is weak and your understanding is nil. Please, please read God's Word for yourself. Know The Word. Pray over your studies before you begin, while you are studying and after you finish each study. 

    I am Christian's tongue and I have a responsibility to be ready to preach The Word and Testify whenever I am asked what I believe and why. Jesus Loves Me this I know, For my Bible tells me so is a song we learn in Sunday School as children. I believe my Bible is the infallible Word of God in print. I believe that Jesus Christ is God's only begotten Son, that He died for me and rose from the grave into newness of life for me; that He has gone to prepare a place for me in His heavenly home when my flesh and my soul separate. 

    Why do I believe all this "almost too good to be true"? There are times in my life when I should have been dead and didn't die because someone was praying for. I haven't always lived the good life. This Christian used to be a wicked sinner. But somebody loved me enough to pray for me. Their tongue spoke my name and my life into God's hearing and He saved me from certain death several times. Their love for me is still bringing me closer to God. My tongue prays Ephesians 3 over my family, my friends, the strangers I meet and the people who hate Christians.

    I am Christian's tongue. I speak Truth. 2 Corinthians 2:17; 2 Corinthians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 7:14. What is Truth? Jesus Christ. John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, “I Am The Way, The TRUTH, and The Life. No one comes to The Father except through Me." 

    I speak Love. 1 Corinthians 13

(The Readers Bible)

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.

    YOUR ARE WORTHY OF MY PRAISE 

YOU ARE MY PORTION 

Today's WORD

 

TONGUE

Psalm 34:13

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech.

James 1:26

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless.

1 Peter 3:10

For, "Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech."

Psalm 39:1

I said, "I will watch my ways so that I will not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle as long as the wicked are present."

Psalm 141:3

Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips.

 Evil -- bad; to cause misery, to cause unhappiness; malignant, disagreeable, deadly, unclean

Deceitful -- treachery, deception, dishonesty, false, crafty

When it comes to food and drink, our tongue discerns what is good and what is bad. But it does not have the power to discern whether or not we speak bad words or good words. That decision lies within the power of our thinking and our believing.

The thoughts we think, when thought upon at length, affect the heart, the decision maker of our lives. It is the heart that determines which words roll across our tongues. Therefore, in order to maintain healthy speech, we must maintain a healthy heart. Can't do it on our own, though. We need Jesus. We need the Holy Spirit.

We need Jesus to wash away the sins that are growing in our heart. We need to acknowledge our sins before God and ask Him sincerely to forgive us. We need to repent, to turn away from these sins. We need God to forgive us, to apply the blood of Christ to our hearts as only He can. Then, and only then, do we ask for to be baptized with His Holy Spirit. Do you not know that the Holy Spirit is for every believer?

We need the Holy Spirit to guide us in God's Word to find the attitudes, behaviors, we must grab hold of and apply to our hearts that our hearts would be a reflection of God's Word. Then our tongues will speak of Him and His Truth, His grace, His love, His mercy, HIM. 

Any words not spoken with grace, mercy or lovingkindness will harm another person's heart and affect them adversely. The old saying, Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me, is not always true. Words hurt. And the wounds these unsavory words cause take longer to heal than many physical wounds do. 

So, Lord, please keep near to me. Guide me, Holy Spirit, through God's Living Word and speak it to my understanding. Help me to retain the knowledge I am learning that I might be a deep, deep well and not an empty cistern. In Jesus' Name, Amen.