...but words will never hurt me.
Ah, a less true lie was never told. Words hurt. Words that are spoken. Words that are spread to others. Even just typed words on a printed page. Words can hurt.
- Ephesians 4:29 gives us instructions that will help us avoid being offensive to others.
- Psalm 119:165 gives us the key to avoid being offended ourselves.
- Matthew 18:15-20 tells us what to do when we have been offended.
- And Proverbs 18:19 gives us one reason why we mustn't offend or be offended: "A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city."
Not just a city (which in itself would make for pretty overwhelming odds. Unless you're Rambo, of course, who could easily overpower an entire city all by his lonesome). Not just a city, but a strong city. And if our whole aim in life is to win people to Christ, we'd have a much easier time of it if we weren't busy offending people or being offended.
Just something to think about...me included...I'm sure we've read all those Bible verses at one time or another, but it's not the truth we know that matters. It's the truth we do.
So here's to doing...and to watching our words and the bones of those around us.
4 comments:
good follow up to the previous blogs. here and there.
words are so important!
too many times they are just blurted out because of the blurters needs,not because of trying to exort or edify the listener of the words that were spoken. scripture is always a good start to any conversation.
bravo!
True, true, true. I often forget about the broken wrist I experienced in the 8th grade, but I can still vividly recall when the boy in 4th grade called me a can opener because I had braces. How sweet it was when he was sent to the principal's office. It was even sweeter that the principal was my dad! :)
Your right though...we need to watch our words and the bones around us. Thanks for the reminder!
Today I was talking to a long-distance friend who has always spoken wisdom into my life. She is a faithful woman of God who has been the wife of two pastors (first husband deceased - then she married another pastor). We were talking about our lives, our families, etc. When I was relating a personal matter, she said to me - "Hurting people hurt people". She identified the root of the situation so quickly, I was amazed.
So it becomes a domino effect. The hurt one keeps hurting others, who in turn, release their hurt (offenses) by continuing to hurt another, who then find someone else to hurt, etc, etc. What evil can be turned loose by the power of the tongue!
Psalm 39:1 "I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle ..."
James 3:6 "It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell." The Message
(The full chapter of James 3 is best read to really understand the power of the tongue).
Why release hell into activity? why lash out with fire to burn someone? why use the temple of God to wound, maim or demoralize another? why be a tool of the enemy to kill, steal & destroy? Why gossip, backbite, carry tales that perpetuate the problem?
"We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you'd have a perfect person, in perfect control of life." James 3:2
The Message
What made the city strong (in Bible times)were the walls built around them to assure the city's protection.
People (including Christians) tend to construct walls when we are hurt thinking we are safeguarding our hearts and trying to prevent future wounds.Typically that makes us become selective, denying entry to all we fear will hurt us and we filter out anyone we think owes us something. We open our lives only to those we believe are on our side.
Usually the people we "let in" also have their own offenses and then without realizing it we've only added more stones to our supposed walls of protection and now our walls have built a prison that traps us in with all sorts of fears.
One of the best books I've ever read on the subject of "offense" is John Bevere's "The Bait of Satan... Your Responses Determine Your Future".
It is a book chocked full of great truths... here's one snippet I hope will minister to others as much as it does to me...
"It doesn't matter how up to date you are in new revelations from the many seminars and Bible schools you've attended or how many books you've read or even how many hours you pray and study. IF you are offended and in unforgiveness and refuse to repent of the this sin, you have not come to the knowledge of the truth. Your are deceived, and you confuse others with your hypocritical lifestyle. No matter what the revelation, your fruit tells a different story. You'll become a spring spewing out bitter waters that will bring deception, not truth."
One more...
"A minister or a Christian is what he lives, NOT what he preaches."
Whew! That's a lot to digest.
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