MAKE YOUR WORDS BENEFICIAL
BREAD
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29 (NIV)
3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. Ephesians 5:3-4 (NIV)
19 When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise. 20 The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is of little value. 21 The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of judgment. Proverbs 10:19-21 (NIV)
23 A wise man’s heart guides his mouth, and his lips promote instruction. 24 Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:23-24 (NIV)
15 Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone. Proverbs 25:15 (NIV)
18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 11:18-19 (NIV)
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 (NIV)
1 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. 2 The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly. Proverbs 15:1-2 (NIV)
4 The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. Proverbs 15:4 (NIV)
26 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. James 1:26 (NIV)
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 person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. James 3:3-6 (NIV)
16 There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, 19 a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. Proverbs 6:16-19 (NIV)
36 “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12:36-37 (NIV)
BUTTER
“The worthless prattle of my tongue does not edify the hearer or myself. It is often so hard to hold the tongue yet ever so wise.” BHY
“God employs His people to encourage one another. We should delight that God usually works for human beings with other human beings. It forms a bond of friendship, and being mutually dependent on one another, we are fused more completely into one family. Work to help others, and especially strive to encourage them. Talk cheerily to the young and anxious inquirer, lovingly try to remove obstacles out of his way. When you find a spark of grace in the heart, kneel down and blow it into a flame. Leave the young believer to discover the roughness of the road by degrees, but tell him of the strength which dwells in God, of the sureness of the promise, and of the charms of communion with Christ. Aim to comfort the sorrowful, and to animate the hopeless. Speak a word in season to him who is weary, and encourage those who are fearful to go on their way with gladness. God encourages you by His promises; Christ encourages you as He points to the heaven He has won for you, and the Spirit encourages you as He works in you to will and to do of His own will and pleasure. Imitate divine wisdom, and encourage others according to the Word.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“You may talk of God as a metaphor or a mystification . . . but nobody protests. But if you speak of God as a fact, as a thing like a tiger, as a reason for changing one’s conduct, then the modern world will stop you somehow if it can.” G. K. Chesterton
“Often we combat our evil thoughts most effectively if we absolutely refuse to allow them to be verbalized. It is certain that the spirit of self-justification can only be overcome by the spirit of grace; and it is just as certain that the individual judgmental thought can be limited and suppressed by never allowing it to be spoken except as a confession of sin…. Thus it must be a decisive rule of all Christian community life that each individual is prohibited from talking about another Christian in secret. It is clear and will be shown in what follows that this prohibition does not include the word of admonition that is spoken personally to one another. However, talking about others in secret is not allowed even under the pretense of help and goodwill. For it is precisely in this guise that the spirit of hatred between believers always creeps in, seeking to cause trouble.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“When you read God’s Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, ‘It is talking to me, and about me.’” Soren Kierkegaard
“What if believing meant there’s no way you could stop telling the Good News because it’s more sensational than gossip that parades as news? What if shying away from the word sin so as not to offend, offends a Holy God — and what if being culturally correct leads a whole generation a wrong shy of heaven? What if breaking this addiction of talking about problems could break new ground of talking about our Provider? That we couldn’t stop sharing about how we’ve been saved, rescued, redeemed, revived?” Ann Voskamp
“Only speak words that make souls stronger.” Ann Voskamp
“Can we only speak when we are fully living what we are saying? If all our words had to cover all our actions, we would be doomed to permanent silence! Sometimes we are called to proclaim God’s love even when we are not yet fully able to live it. Does that mean we are hypocrites? Only when our own words no longer call us to conversion. Nobody completely lives up to his or her own ideals and visions. But by proclaiming our ideals and visions with great conviction and great humility, we may gradually grow into the truth we speak. As long as we know that our lives always will speak louder than our words, we can trust that our words will remain humble.” Henri Nouwen
“Our Brokenness Is God’s Way In. Consider this tale, a gift from the Hassidic tradition: A disciple asks the rebbe: ‘Why does the Torah tell us to ‘place these words upon your hearts’? Why does it not tell us to place these holy words in our hearts?’ The rebbe answers: ‘It is because as we are, our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay until, one day, the heart breaks and words fall in.’ If God’s going to get through to us, it’s often through our brokenness. Nothing is beyond God’s capacity, ability, or desire to redeem, restore, and reconcile.” Deidra Riggs
“When we think of the apostles, we think of holy men of God. And though they were gifted and dedicated, they also were ordinary. Jesus did not call these men because they were great; their greatness was the result of the call of Jesus. A great writer can take an ordinary piece of paper, and with the addition of his or her words, it suddenly becomes extremely valuable. It wasn’t the paper that was valuable; it was what the writer put down on that paper. A great artist can take a canvas and paint, and suddenly it becomes a costly work of art because of what the artist did. It wasn’t the canvas that was valuable; it is what the artist painted on the canvas. As believers, we recognize in ourselves that we are sinners separated from God. But let’s also recognize that when Christ came into our lives, He gave us value. He put His treasure in earthen vessels, or in jars of clay, which are our lives…With a new confidence and boldness, we have something to offer. It is not self-confidence; it is God-confidence. It is not self-esteem; it’s God-esteem.” Greg Laurie
“Jesus gave all His followers – not just a few – the immense privileged duty of the ministry of reconciliation. He sent us to proclaim the Good News – with both our actions and words – that through His blood we no longer need remain alienated from God and even each other – wallowing in the filth of our sins, lacking significance, always coming up wanting. His desire is for all to be turned back from our miserably sad point of departure – which we were all born into excepting Adam and Eve – to walk again in the garden, so to speak, in the cool of the day; to commune with Him; to be filled with the fullness and completeness that He alone gives and to experience the life that is truly life. God greatly desires to bring back the lost wanderer to the former state of harmony that our original parents were privy to and He confoundly uses people like me and you to accomplish this great work. That’s actually what the word reconcile means in Scripture – ‘to bring back to a former state of harmony.’ Christ’s blood reconciled us allowing those who would believe in Him the changing back to that time of no variance. That amazing Truth is to be shared and not hoarded and He calls all of His followers to be faithful to the task.” BHY
“You will never regret kind words, warmth, or acts of generosity—but you will regret the love you never gave.” Lisa Bevere
“The person who manifests God’s goodness thinks good thoughts, speaks good words, and performs good deeds. What the person thinks lines up with what he speaks, and what he speaks lines up with what he does. He is consistent in the integrity of his life.” Michael Youssef
“There must be a practical outworking of our faith here in this present world, or it will never endure in the world to come. We need fewer words and more charitable works; less palaver and more pity; less repetition of creed and more compassion.” Billy Graham
HEART SAVOR
• Our words should build up rather than tear down – leaving the aroma of Christ in every circumstance.
• We all fall down in this so great an endeavor. We all need Jesus, we are not alone. He gives us the power to walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel – not the flesh.
• Think, think, think before we talk. Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it is out.
Beth Yoe's Sharing Bread 