The Power of Words

A good friend who delights in finding funnies emailed this:

A guy bought a new fridge and to get rid of his old one put it in his front yard with a sign saying: 'Free to good home. Want it? Take it.'

For three days the fridge sat there without anyone looking twice. He eventually decided that people were too mistrustful of this deal. So he changed the sign to read: 'Fridge for sale, $50.' The next day someone stole it! 

Words have power

You could say it was all in the way the words were framed. Words do indeed have power.

Language is a great gift - for communicating, expressing, describing, explaining, directing, worshipping, preaching, teaching, admiring, adoring, inspiring and more, not only in speech but also in printed form. But sadly language can be abused and instead of people being built up with encouraging words it can be wrongly used to hurt, discourage and pull down.

There's an old Bible teaching about words - they have the power of life or death. Sadly some Christians use the power of words to hurt

others or force their viewpoint and will on others.

James obviously came across this and wisely gave Christians some strong warnings in James 3: 'A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything - or destroy it! 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' (v5-6 emphasis ours).

He added, 'The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! My friends, this can't go on' (v8-10).

Tunnel vision

Sadly we come across people living double standards - they're supposed to be loving their brethren but their words come across in such a way that they're putting them down, belittling, condemning and falsely accusing them of not seeing 'the truth.'

And, repeatedly, 'the truth' is but their own version, their way of thinking and with hidden and personal agendas, not biblical or Christ-centred. A twisted mindset at work in people with undealt- with problems. They have a myopic spirit, a tunnel vision on what they believe is right, how they perceive things should be. And they wrongly delight to force their views on others. They display and enforce a domineering spirit.

An additional problem is that we live in the day of cyberspace. Not only do these hurtful, demeaning people use God's gift of language verbally but they type it up! The email age means that beyond speaking face-to-face (or behind backs as the case may be), or

demeaning phoning, hurtful emails hit the airways. With Cc and Bcc copies- who knows the reach of a loose computerised tongue!

Church members get criticised, pastors get verbally slammed, and seeds of doubt regarding leadership and church systems or seeds of doubt regarding leadership and church systems or programs are planted in minds at cyberspace speed!

Church wolves in sheep's clothing

There are times when such church people seem to have a prophetic edge, they appear to know what they're saying - especially if they themselves hold a form of leadership. Their words can be very easily taken in by the unwary who then begin to feel demoralised, put down with wrongly accepted feelings of 'Maybe he (or she) is right. Maybe I've got it wrong. After all, they know more of the Bible than I do and they're leaders.'

Jesus was also into warnings such as Matthew 7:15:'Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognise them.' He went on to instruct that we should stay away from such people.

We like how the Message Bible puts it: 'Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practised sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don't be impressed with charisma; look for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. These diseased trees with their bad apples are going to be chopped down and burned.'

Condemnation - an evil thing

This is something such church wolves lay on the most innocent and precious of people. Condemnation can plough deep into the heart if we allow it to take root. Such people speak or email sneeringly and make us feel that we're in the wrong, that we're at fault. It's a subtle work of the enemy and in truth the wolf in sheep's clothing often has problems of his or her own and need some straightforward challenging and godly counsel!

'Condemnation' - the word means 'the act of condemning or pronouncing to be wrong; censure; blame; disapprobation.' Recently we came across a church that had lost a lot of good people because every Sunday the preacher - 'the wolf' - had always been condemning 'the sheep' in various ways. No wonder people moved on!

We all need exhortation, not condemnation! Satan condemns, people condemn and we can end up condemning ourselves as we start believing that we're not good enough.

Paul writes in Romans 8:1, 'There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.' A Bible college principal once explained "no condemnation" so clearly decades ago - 'If we were to go straight from the Greek into English, it would sound like bad English -  "No, not, nothing condemnation!"'

Now we know that this predominantly relates to our being covered by Christ's blood. But because we also know that we're totally free in him (John 8:36), we personally take this on board for every area of our Christian walk as we follow Jesus. Therefore we refuse to allow anyone to dominate us, control us and make us feel inferior. If we cannot see the character of Jesus in them or their actions, we refuse to listen to them, never mind even think that they could be right. In other words, we look for the fruit as Jesus suggested.

Our advice for anyone who is feeling condemned because of subtle words? Carefully assess the speaker's (or emailer's) character and ask the Holy Spirit what he's saying. No doubt you'll see things in a different light. Don't take rubbish on board.

As for ourselves, let our own words be life-bringing, not destructive. Let's be good gatekeepers.(c) 2013.09

Dilemma

To my horror I recently heard a well-known and highly respected Bible teacher/pastor on a Christian radio program give absolutely no promise of hope to his audience!

Christian radio stations, by the way, attract many unsaved as well as believers, so who knows how many people outside church circles but with desperate needs were listening! They would not have found great encouragement that particular day.

But before I share what I and many others heard, let me make two feisty comments. Firstly, I was wisely taught that all preachers must always wrap their message with hope, both for Christians and non-Christians. Also that a text out of context is a pretext!

Yet this particular radio personality broke these two golden rules!

Disappointment
By the way, I like him, even respect him, but I personally felt disappointed as he wrapped up his short ‘fill in’ message. Oh, he initially quoted scripture accurately. But when he referred to his second main scripture he didn’t really explain his point and ended up not giving hope for the future. Rather he left a cloud hanging over listeners who are still troubled by past sins.

I really felt for the unsaved as well as Christians who were probably going through some lows that we all feel at times because of the past. Here’s the gist of what I heard…

Driving to an appointment, I had tuned into a Christian radio station and on hearing whose segment was coming on next, I thought, ‘This‘ll be good.’ Especially when he began with that classical scripture from the apostle of love: ’If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9). Spot on, I silently cheered.

But his next comments flabbergasted me as he inferred that Christians relied on this scripture as an escape route, that for many it was an easy way out from not being responsible for their actions. That even though we can quote that particular scripture and be forgiven, we can’t escape the consequences of past sins.

He then quoted another strong scripture but made it sound like it was flying in the face of John’s great hope-bringing, assuring and comforting one. Galatians 6:7, ‘God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.’ But his lack of a reasonable explanation and needed comfort made it out of context with his theme! It came across as condemning, not comforting.

Responsibility important
Now I agree that we must be responsible for our decisions and actions. That in becoming Christians we do not receive a licence to act wantonly and irresponsibly! In a mixed-up world of loose morals, craftiness, corruption, neither fear nor knowledge of God and do-as-you-please thinking, we have to live as lights in the darkness (Mat 5:14-16).

We are meant to be examples of a better lifestyle, a focused and satisfactory way of living, beliefs, trust in a higher power and great hope for the future.

And we can be…but we have to live it out. We must walk the talk! We have to act responsibly through our actions and speech and how we handle situations and people. We must live up to God’s holy standards with the Holy Spirit’s help. Gal 5: 22-23 – the fruit of the Spirit which really speaks of the character of Christ – must be our guideline and our standard.

The great truth is that the Holy Spirit is our best friend and lives within every Christian. He’s the one who will develop and grow us to be like Christ day by day – because Jesus loves us deeply. Therefore we must not carry a wrong picture of God…one where he’s always looking over our shoulder to chastise us and scold us, particularly for past deeds.

The past is but a fading memory
Yes, some past actions may yet cause trouble but perhaps a better way of looking at these is to consider them scars that remain to remind us not to go down that road again. And to rectify them wherever and however we can – if it’s possible.

The Bible constantly encourages us to move ahead, not to get bogged down by the past. In 2 Corinthians 2:5-10, Paul is prompt to direct the church to get off a brother’s back regarding his past faults and events!

Moving on is a keynote for churches and Christians. Whatever the past mistakes we’ve made, we can plan for a better future! We must not let the errors of yesteryear hold us back miserably from achieving a splendid new tomorrow in Christ.

Hope for today and tomorrow
Which brings me to that radio preacher’s big mistake of not offering hope…

Paul tells us clearly that our great, loving and all-powerful God works all things for good (that means for the benefit of) for us (Romans 8:28). Then he goes on to state that nothing but nothing but nothing can hold back from receiving God’s love in Christ.

Surely ‘all things’ include past mistakes and surely Jesus’ love is the enabling force to help us – not change the past of course…now history – but build a better future and assist us put things right where we can.

Paul’s really positive about this and so should we! We can’t afford to allow the past to hold us back from enjoying the new life that Jesus has given us. Yes sure…maybe those past mistakes and sins have hurt people and caused damage but with the Holy Spirit’s help we can rectify whatever can be fixed up and then leave everything else to the Lord.

But we mustn’t carry any shame or guilt…this has been dealt with by Jesus’ Calvary sacrifice.

As mentioned earlier every preacher should always present hope to troubled people, not leave them hanging in the air! Otherwise they’re left in a dilemma – which is a nasty place between unwelcome alternatives, a predicament. God has given us a great alternative…trusting him.

Let’s embrace Paul’s welcome encouragement of Romans 15:13 – ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you will overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit’ when we find someone, Satan or situations trying to steal our security in Jesus.

09/11