A few weeks back, I had the opportunity to speak to a women’s group wrapping up their season of ministry. I have spoken several times for this group and have always enjoyed it. When the organizer contacted me to speak, I asked her the topic and she didn’t hesitate to respond, ‘the one you did on our tongue and gossip.’

I’m a talker. About 2 years ago, the Lord started to really convict me about how I use my mouth. Through a Paul Tripp study, War of Words, the Lord showed me that my mouth and my words belong to Him. Romans 6:13, “And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” According to this verse, I only see two options: we are either instruments of unrighteousness or instruments of righteousness. I think we kid ourselves into thinking there is a huge neutral area in which we are neither an instrument of righteousness nor an instrument of unrighteousness. According to this verse, we are either one or the other. If we consider our mouth as the member we are offering, then we are either going to be accomplishing God’s agenda with our words or Satan’s. There is no middle ground. It’s one or the other. Who will you serve with your mouth today?

Psalm 17:3, “I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.”
Psalm 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.”

Diane

As women we have a common bond, we love to talk! The need is to communicate with our husband and children, and even our friends. The dictionary defines the word communicate as: to have connection with, to reveal and to impart information.

I listened as a soldier described his seven years as a prisoner of war. Each prisoner was placed in a dark cell, alone. He shared that his way of staying sane was his means of communicating with the prisoner in the next cell, and that man with the next, and so on. The greatest respect was for the man who could pray or quote Scripture there in the darkness. Not one man rejected God’s Word or the prayers. Those who made it, credit this soldier for helping keep their sanity by communicating together and with God. A special lady in my life lost her ability to speak after a stroke. Her husband had difficulty with his hearing. Their visits together were mostly in silence or napping. We discovered that the songs and Bible verses she had learned by repetition over the years were stored in her heart and mind. “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”
(Psalm 119:11).

When a group of men from the Colony of Mercy addiction center came to visit, they sang Victory in Jesus”. She joined them! What glory it brought to the Lord as workers and visitors in the nursing home marveled! Today she is with the Lord; her husband and some of the men likewise. They communicate with God face to face.

While we wait for that day ourselves, we can communicate now through prayer and reading God’s Word. As an added bonus, memorize His Word. God can bring it to mind even in the darkest hour.

Dottie

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Hebrews 4:12 tells us, “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (NKJV) In other words “God means what He says. What He says goes. His powerful Word is sharper than a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey.” (The Message)

The thought of being cut by something so sharp is frightening! To have my thought-life laid open to reveal all its secret places is something I dread and long for simultaneously. Yet, in order for me to come to the place of obedience, I know that I must choose exposure to and saturation by the living and powerful Word of God Then and only then will any desire I have to “speak the truth in love” be marked by the sincere desire for what is best for the other person, rather than a desire to “speak my mind”.

As the writer of Hebrews says, only God’s Word has the power to reveal the thoughts and attitudes of my heart or yours. That means I must be slow, very slow to speak and pray what the writer of Psalms 12:3-4, so rightly penned, “May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks proud things, who have said, ‘”With our tongues we will prevail.'” Our lips are our own, who is Lord over us?”

Simply put, I do not own me; my lips or my heart! God owns all of me! He is Lord over me and He would have my words be seasoned with grace and thus an instrument for His righteous purpose…not mine.

My question for you:

Are the words that you speak to others seasoned with grace and love?

Stephanie

Are you ever disappointed? Do people or events not live up to your expectations? As women we can especially get upset and emotional when expectations are not met. I know there have been times in my life that I have fully planned something out in my head and then when the time comes it turns out totally another way and boy am I steamed. Why? because we like to be in control and to have things turn out our way and re-adjustment is tough.

The thing is we need to learn to deal with earthly disappointments, but not heavenly. God’s plans and promises are beyond our comprehension and greater than anything we can dream up ourselves. What is even better is that His promises have come true and will continue to be fulfilled. God will more than live up to our expectations… We can rest in His promises just as David did throughout his life.

Psalms 119:49-54

“Remember what you said to me, your servant– I hang on to these words for dear life!
These words hold me up in bad times;
yes, your promises rejuvenate me.
The insolent ridicule me without mercy,
but I don’t budge from your revelation.
I watch for your ancient landmark words,
and know I’m on the right track.
But when I see the wicked ignore your directions,
I’m beside myself with anger.
I set your instructions to music
and sing them as I walk this pilgrim way.”

LDJ

On Friday I shared with you how the words “utterly destroyed” have been swirling around in my head now for days. I want to return to that Scripture in 1 Samuel to share another thought.

“Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”‘ (1 Samuel 15:3)

God commanded Saul to utterly destroy Amalek. Utterly destroy. Amalek was an enemy of God’s and of the Israelites. God commanded Saul to utterly destroy their enemy. I think we tend to approach our enemies (world, the flesh and the devil) in much the same way that Saul did. We partially obey. We partially do battle, but we fail to utterly destroy. We leave little windows of opportunity open for them to come back and attack us. The windows are the avenues that tend to ultimately lead to our downfall.

I can think of numerous illustrations but here are two. When men come into the Colony of Mercy to deal with an addiction, one of their commitments is to abstain from all tobacco use. They may have come in with a heroine addiction. When they leave the program, they may stay clear of heroine but pick up cigarettes. Often cigarettes will lead them back into heroine use. They did not utterly destroy the enemy. Their reasoning might be, ‘well at least it’s not heroine’ and they are lulled into a false sense of success. Since they do not utterly destroy the enemy, they will deal with it again. A second illustration is from my own life. In July 2001, I choose to give up desserts, totally. I had people suggest I try to cut down, to eat sugar free options, etc. I know if I make that provision for my flesh, eventually my flesh will gain control over me. I am not strong enough or disciplined enough to moderate. Some people are, and this decision is not for everyone. But I believe God called me to utterly destroy that enemy. I can make no provision for my flesh. I have to shut down every avenue to feeding my flesh (literally) in that way. I had to utterly destroy. I could not let the king live. Make no provision for the flesh. Cut off every avenue to fuel sinful desires. Leave no back door escape hatch. Utterly destroy your enemy the flesh, whatever that looks like in your life. Romans 13:14, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”

No provision = utterly destroy

Diane

1 Samuel 15:3, “Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”‘

“Utterly destroy”. Those words have been mulling around in my mind for a few days now since reading a lesson in Kay Arthur’s book, Lord, I Want to Know You. God commanded Saul to utterly destroy Amalek and all they had. If you know the story, Saul only partially obeyed, “He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them.´”(1 Samuel 15:8-9) How could Saul utterly destroy Amalek but keep the king alive? If he kept the king alive, he did not utterly destroy Amalek.

Saul’s partial obedience was not obedience. 1 Samuel 15:20-21, “But I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD
your God in Gilgal.” Disobeying for what seems like a good reason is still disobedience.

I think sometimes we rationalize doing things our way because it makes more sense to us; or we think we have a really good reason to do it our way. Stop!

It was that very kind of thinking that resulted in Saul loosing the kingdom. “But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.”” (1 Samuel 15:26)

I have heard the following definition from numerous sources for parents to instill in their children as to what it means to obey. I think the same definition applies to each of us as well: obedience is doing what you are asked ‘right away’, ‘the right way’, ‘all the way’, ‘the happy
way’.

Diane

As a child, I remember my mother submitting a poem (unknown author) to the radio program, “The Breakfast Club”. The poem remained with me as I memorized it as a teen. The title was “The Master Is Coming.” God brings it to my mind as I need to be reminded of its message: “too busy for others”.

It begins: “the Master is coming to honor the town today and no one can tell at whose house or home the Master will choose to stay”.

The woman in the poem is dreaming that the Lord would choose her home. She begins by saying, “Straightway I turned to toiling to make my home more neat”. She even decorated her house with flowers to make her home more sweet! But in her busy toiling, she is ‘interrupted’
by a woman who needed to share her sorrows and receive comfort. The toiling woman was too busy. Next was a little child needing her help, and then a crippled lady. Each time she replied, “I am truly sorry, but I can not help you today, I have greater things to attend to” – and the
visitors went away.

Later in her dream this woman is upset that the Lord never visited her home. She had toiled so hard to have things ready for His visit! As you can guess, His reply was this: “Three times I came to your home today, and three times you turned me away!”

This poem brings tears to my eyes as I remember, not just the words, but my mom! She had time for everyone. Our home was open to her friends, children, and also many strangers. The Lord was honored as Mom was the true example of her life verse, Matthew 5:16, “Let your
light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” She passed this example of God’s love to my sister and me. Our prayer is : “Please, God, let us be there for others as Mom was.”

How often does the Lord try to visit your home, but you miss the blessing, because you are “too busy?” Hebrews 13:1-2, “Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.”

Dottie

t one time we were very dependant on lighthouses along our shorelines to guide ships and travelers, unfortunately many fell into ruin or were torn down. For sailors the light gave direction both during calm seas and during danger. The light was continually burning providing safety, hope and security to those that traveled the shores. Many seaman survived the storms because of the light that shown for miles. Christ is light and does the same thing for us; he provides salvation, hope, security, direction and safety. Christ also calls us to be lights in the world. In Matthew, the reference is related to a city on a hill, which stands out like a lighthouse on the coastline. In Israel there is a city located in the middle of nowhere that literally grows up one side of a large mound – you can see it from miles away. Thinking about that city and our coastal lighthouses brings about the question ~ am I that kind of light? Do I provide safety for others? Do I know how to provide direction to the true Light? The lighthouse keeper is required
to clean the light several times a day as well as refill the lamp constantly. God supplied us with the Word to keep our lamps full and constant union with Christ keeps us clean and on course. Do you know the true light or are you walking in darkness?

“You are the light of the World…” Matthew 5:14-16

LDJ

Do you ever watch those home improvement shows? Sometimes I do and it always amazes me what can happen to a structure when materials are replaced with different or newer materials. I have done flood relief work in the Carolinas after Hurricane Floyd and many times we tore out
walls and foundations in order to save the homes. The homes would not survive after water had damaged the foundation and structure, so it was necessary to rip out and build a new foundation.

It is the same in our lives. If our foundation is based on the world and the beliefs of our culture our lives will be constantly in danger of collapsing. Susan Hunt in her book “True Woman” makes this point as she addresses women on where they are getting their authority.

“The unquestionable authority of God’s Word must be our standard (foundation). When we deviate from God’s truth, we lose touch with what is real. The slightest deviation from God’s truth produces a counterfeit reality that makes us vulnerable to the lure of culture.”

If you want to live strong and firm build up your foundation on God’s word. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the (woman) of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Tim. 3:16

LDJ

Psalm 119:36-38, “Incline my heart to Your testimonies, And not to covetousness. Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way. Establish Your word to Your servant, who is devoted to fearing You.”

I admit I was a bit jealous. Everyone seemed to have a life verse but me. What’s up with that? In October 2003, I was walking and memorizing Scripture out of my favorite Psalm -119 when I realized that what I was memorizing encapsulated my heart. So right then and there, I claimed it as my life verse. No one else can have it. It had all the important components for me.

“Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to covetousness.” In my flesh, my inclination is to my own wants and desires rather than God’s word. Dr. Ed Welch (on of my seminary professors in the 90’s) called it the “I wants”. That’s me, I get the ‘I wants’. My desire is to be delighted in my heart with God’s word to the point that I will be inclined to it.

“Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things.” So many things vie for our attention. Even those that appear good are not if they draw our eyes away from God. Perhaps it is that new house, new car, a new husband, a thinner body, thicker hair, you name it, if they draw your eyes away from God, they are worthless things. “Revive me in Your way.” Have you noticed that our way rarely works. Sooner or later we’ll realize His way is best. Psalm 25:4-5, “Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day.”

“Establish Your word to Your servant.” I want God’s word to be settled, well established, and deeply rooted in my heart. Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and
of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

“Who is devoted to fearing You.” This is an area in my life that still needs growth. I want to develop a reverential fear of God that makes a difference in my walk with Jesus Christ. Ecclesiastes 12:13, “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

My life verse tells me to love God more than anything, to follow hard after Him, to immerse myself in His word, and to fear Him. What more could I want?

Diane