Words & Meditations

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

Shakespeare, "Hamlet", Act 3 scene 3

 

Words

What is the 'to do' about words you may ask? Well words are powerful. Whether spoken, heard, written or meditated on, words affect our lives. Words can convey life or death, war or peace, truth or deception. The bible teaches us that out of the heart the mouth speaks. The heart is a storehouse. This should challenge us. What words are we speaking and investing in one another? What words are we contemplating, listening to and believing? What words are being written into our hearts and issuing from our hearts? We must carefully choose our words; for words written on the tablets of our lives, and the lives of others, are not easily erased.

Faith comes by God’s word to us. We are encouraged to speak words that edify and strengthen each other - 1 Corinthians 14:26. Colossians 2:8 admonishes us to avoid worldly philosophies, for these words are vain and deceptive, while Titus 3:9 denounces foolish quarrels that bear the nature of religious legalism. These words seek to ensnare and enslave. Our speech must be "seasoned" with grace, (Colossians 4:6), adopting “unpolluted” language that “is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others” (Ephesians 4:29). We are influenced by words both heard and read. We also may influence others through both the spoken and written word. It is therefore to our benefit and others, to apply wisdom in what words we choose to express and expose ourselves and others to. Every word needs to be proven – 2 Timothy 2:15 & 1 John 4:1. All words will be judged, “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” – Matthew 12:36.

In conclusion concerning 'words', we must be conscientious participants. Whether spoken, heard, written or meditated on, we must be diligent to ensure our words reflect His character, His mission and are accurately founded upon His truth revealed in the written word of God: that is, the Judeo Christian writings spoken through His prophets, apostles and ultimately His only begotten Son Jesus; both Lord and Christ. Nothing should be added or taken away from this revelation and everything we submit must be able to stand the test of these three: His character, His mission and His Word.

I mention all this to both encourage and caution us, as we endeavor to discuss and explore God’s Word. The concept and reality of Truth is only fully characteristic of Him. We live under the light of it or in the absence of it, and we will certainly be judged by it. However we are not the authors of it. This we should keep ever before us whenever we begin to journey into holy matters.

Rev. Donald Sutherland
 
Meditations

“Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of the character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.” – Quote by Lydia M. Child.

“Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither [wearily] toil nor spin nor weave; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory (his splendor and magnificence) was not arrayed like one of these. – God's sovereignty is the Christian's security: Luke 12:27.

“…you have come to Mount Zion, even to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless multitudes of angels in festal gathering, And to the church of the Firstborn who are registered [as citizens] in heaven, and to the God Who is Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous (the redeemed in heaven) who have been made perfect, And to Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks [of mercy], a better and nobler and more gracious message than the blood of Abel [which cried out for vengeance].” – Apostle Paul: Hebrews 12:22-24.

“Words are but servants to matter.  An iron key fitted to the lock, is more useful than a golden key that will not open the door to the treasures.  Prudence will cast away a thousand words for one that is apt to penetrate the conscience and reach the heart.”

- Quote by John Flavel.