A Curiosity - Top Tens Things I would Never Proclaim from a Pulpit or a Sunday School class for that matter

1. Why you should vote Republican.


2. Why you should pay your tithes.


3. Why you should not drink alcohol.


4. Why you should speak in tongues.


5. Why you should sing only from the Psalter Hymnal.


6. Why you should trust in the salvific power of man's free will.


7. Why you should expect Health and Wealth as a Christian.


8. Why you should expect the pre-tribulation secret rapture of the church anyday now.


9. Why the Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Roman Catholics down the street are all wrong.


10. Any prolonged jokes and efforts to be a comedian in the pulpit.

Sins of the Tongue - Conflagration

Introduction

"Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one."
—Colossians 4:6

The article below is not my proprietary work by any means, and a pastor-friend Lawrence Underwood devised it. I think it is both sound, succinct and prudent. It is about the sins of the tongue. As Job 6:24 instructs us, "Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; Cause me to understand wherein I have erred." Psalm 34:13 tells us, "Keep your tongue from evil, And your lips from speaking deceit." The tongue is an unruly evil, and we should be quick to guard our tongue and what we say.

Conflagration
by Pastor Lawrence Underwood

It can start in such an insignificant manner. A campfire not properly extinguished. A tossed out butt from a cigarette. A single lightning strike. Even a broken piece of glass in the sunlight. Every year tens of thousands of acres of forest are lost to carelessness. While this is an ecological issue that can endanger the lives of local citizens and wildlife the damage it causes is temporal. There is an greater danger of conflagration that can happen. It is a spiritual fire. One that can destroy a family, church, and/or community.

James tells us, 'How great a fire is set ablaze by such a small fire! The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the eintre course of life, and set on fire by hell itself.' Think about that: the putrid sulphorous flame of hell within our own bodies.

Such calamity and destruction normally begins in a small manner. An unkind word, a taunting jest, a critical look each of these can be the spark that in time results in a full blown conflagration - devouring everything in its path. Just as a forest fire can, given enough size, climatical and topographical conditions develop its own wind drafts to move itself along; so can the fire of destruction in a family or congregation. At those times it is impossible to stop apart from the work of the Holy Spirit among us.

How many families have been destroyed by a careless word? How many congregations have split because of a selfish comment? Christians living in community must guard their tongues. Else, we perish.


Ryan's Closing Thoughts

Well, this is Ryan writing again. My friend Lawrence Underwood blogs at this web site, http://lawrenceu.blogspot.com/.

The tongue might not be echoing deceit at all, but some uncomfortable truths, and somethings are better left unsaid. Sometimes, it is better not to point out wrongs committed against us and simply turn the other cheek. Likewise, making revelation of someone's faults, or lashing out verbally or responding to an antagonist in jest can produce dire results. I'm talking from experience. According to 1 Corinthians 13:5 (NASB), love "...does not take into account a wrong suffered." This is not always something I am keen to embrace, and no one doth protest a wrong more than me sometimes. Wisdom holds its tongue. And we could all stand to be more meek and wiser, and guard what we say with our mouth.

2 Timothy 2:16 says, "But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness." This is more than just an exhortation against cursing. A good Christian can fall into a permissive mentality about what he says, simply by reasoning that as long as his language does NOT involve cursing, then it is permissible, no matter how foolish it might be. Oh, how we err by this mentality of permissiveness?

While I never thought about myself as much of a gossip, I have erred eggregiously before in spiting an antagonist verbally. Needless to say, the tongue can get you in a whole world of trouble. I think it is good to heed what this pastor has to say. Pastor Underwood's exhortation is most assuredly sound.
—Ryan Setliff

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

This is one of my favorite hymns.

Words: Isaac Watts, Hymns and Spir­it­u­al Songs, 1707.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

[Added by the compilers of Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern]

To Christ, Who won for sinners grace
By bitter grief and anguish sore,
Be praise from all the ransomed race
Forever and forevermore.

Devotional - The Blessed Assurance

I was born around noon!

The Blessed Assurance
The Westminster Confession declares, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever."

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
—Revelation 21:4-5

This is my hope. This is my assurance! This is what keeps me going! I've confronted sorrow. I've seen hurt. I've been wronged in my lifetime. And all the more I reflect upon the man most wronged of all. Jesus Christ! He was betrayed by those closest to Him. His people, they crucified Him! He was scourged and afflicted! He suffered for me! I put those stripes on His back! Sinners put those afflictions and wounds upon Him! He died and yet He rose again!!! And what sinful man intended for evil, God used for good (Isa. 53:4-6). Christ declares, in John 11:25, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live."

May God Lift Me Up in Paths of Righteousness
I don't deserve God's grace, and all the more I ask Him to plead my cause, and to fight against those who fight against me! Take hold of shield and buckler, O Lord! And say to my soul, I am your Salvation (Psalm 35:1-3).

My hope and prayer is that God would lift me up in paths of righteousness for His namesake. I pray that God would deliver me from the will of my adversary, from those who would tempt me, and those that would lead me astray.

I need to take heed to the Word all the more, and become imbued with an eternal perspective.

How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. Blessed are You, O LORD! Teach me Your statutes. With my lips I have declared All the judgments of Your mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As much as in all riches. I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.
—Psalm 119:9-16

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