SCRIP-BITS

Psalm 141:3.    Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.
 
Oh Friends, it’s another new day, another day of life with which we’ve been gifted! Arise and greet the brilliant sunshine of a new morn, the brilliant daystar that’s the embodiment of Jesus rising steadily and powerfully above the horizon! It’s time to get up and get your daily manna, your daily blessings provided from heaven! Let’s not do like the Israelites of old and be ungrateful. Let’s appreciate all that God’s gifted us with; the good, the bad and the indifferent, because that’s the appreciative attitude He wants all His children to possess, but more importantly, to also manifest, show it to the world at large. Unfortunately many believers don’t have it, and thus don’t manifest it. We complain about any and everything, most of them rather petty and unimportant. Now that’s definitely to our detriment, for we can’t have complaining, cursing tongues and yet walk in true step with Almighty God. That’s just not possible. And it’s why Bruh David, in his prayer for help in trouble, wrote the words of our Bit. ‘Set a watch (guard), O Lord, before my mouth; keep (watch over) the door of my lips.’ And my people, do we ever need the Lord to do that in our angry, resentful, complaining, talk too much society! Yesterday we heard James’ discourse on the evil state of the tongue; a veritable poison and all that. Those are words of awful truth Friends! And it’s a bad trend, that we, as believers, HAVE TO CURB, if we want to enjoy the fullness of God’s goodness. And here I’ll like to make a confession. Yesterday morning, mere hours after writing the Bit and admonishing us to bridle our tongues, I was on my way home, stopped at a traffic light, intending to turn left. But for reasons known only to the people who regulate them, this light has an early green going east, but none going west. To make matters worse, they have another light down the street on green at the same time as mine, so trying to turn left on a busy morning is painstaking. You either quickly squeeze through when there’s a short break in the traffic or wait until the light turns red and go through then because it’s usually bumper to bumper traffic. Anyway, there I was sitting at the light behind this older van, and several times I thought the driver could have safely made the turn between the oncoming traffic, but he refused to do so. He waited till every car had passed before turning. Luckily the light was still green. Sadly though, my impatience got the better of me and I used some rather inappropriate language at another human made in God’s image. Not so that he could hear, but out loud to myself. And as you’d expect, as soon as the words left my lips, the Lord draped me up on them. ‘Weren’t you the one just telling others to guard their tongues? And you want to be a teacher of My Word, when you can’t guard your own tongue?’ Oh Friends, I was caught red-handed and had to repent and ask His forgiveness right then and there. That’s exactly what James was warning the teachers about in our scripture passage yesterday. Now over the last few years of writing the Bit, I’ve noticed that as soon as, or shortly after I use certain words, or teach certain principles, the Lord always provides some exercise or situation to test me on them. Most of the time I pass them, but obviously I failed the test yesterday morning. But He knows that in my heart I am sincerely trying to improve, I’m just a slow learner. (smile) However my brethren, the problem is that before we can control our tongues, we need to control our thoughts, and therefore our minds, because that’s where it all begins. The words of our mouths flow from the thoughts in our minds. So the first thing we need to do is discipline our minds to provide proper, godly thoughts, and not negative, ungodly ones, which then lead to a spewing forth of negative, ungodly words. That’s why Cousin Sol cautions us so wisely in Proverbs: ‘He that keepeth (guards) his mouth keepeth (preserves) his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.’  (Prov.13:3)  Or as the scholars explain: ‘The reward of cautious speech is fuller life and the avoidance of unnecessary trouble.’ And isn’t that the gospel truth mih people! Cousin Sol also imparts this bit of wisdom re the tongue. ‘Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from troubles.’ (Prov.21:23)  However Friends, before we can successfully do those things, we have to make a conscious decision to discipline our thoughts, then take time to think about what we’re going to say before saying it. Like so much else in a believer’s life, it’s a question of hope and faith backed by practice, patience and perseverance. But unless we consciously choose to control our thoughts, minds and tongues and practice doing so with patience and steadfastness, our mouths will always get us and our souls in trouble. Unfortunately some of us are so passionate about what we believe in, we simply blurt out what comes to mind without consciously and seriously thinking it through. Sadly that’s my Achilles heel and I readily acknowledge it. But don’t worry Friends, if I can improve, with God’s help of course, and I’m still improving, any body can. As Sister Joyce (Joyce Meyer) likes to say, I haven’t reached where I’m going yet, but I’ve sure come a long way from where I was. And all God’s people said a loud ‘Amen!’ because it applies to all of us in some form and fashion. So Friends, please take strength and courage from my lapse, but please, please, let’s all try and model our thoughts and therefore our words after Jesus, as best as we can, with His help. We’ll never be perfect like Him, but we must strive for excellence in all matters. More tomorrow on this, if we’re still alive and kicking. I never intended to have a testimony on it today. (smile) Much LOVE!…a mind that thinks right and godly thoughts…will cause a mouth to speak right and godly words…