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The LORD is gracious...

(www.calvarychapel.com/hcfw)

Ponder these thoughts for a moment...

Have you ever walked through a department store and passed the perfume area and smelled a wonderful and delightful smell...and that smell stayed with you all through the store and (at least in your mind) possibly out the door? It was wonderful, wasn’t it?

Have you ever been driving down the road in the middle of a hot August afternoon and smelled a rotten skunk smell even though the windows were up and the AC was on...and the smell stayed with you in the car even though you had past is quite a while back? It was disgusting, huh?

This same lasting effect is available to be supplied by us to those we speak with...we can either leave the person with the sweet smell of the graciousness of God, or the vile rotten smell of corrupt communications (speech).

Paul, the Apostle, points this out to us in Ephesians 4:29. The word “corrupt” literally means “rotten fruit” and is then applied to communications in the moral sense. We have the opportunity leave the hearer of our words with the moral rottenness of our lips (out of the mouth flow the abundance of the heart – Luke 6:45). Addressing Luke 6:45, we see our speech speaks to our character, our reputation, and our maturity in the faith. If our words are imparting corruption, we are but babes in Christ and need to be fed (again) the pure milk of the Word that somehow we might allow it to bring about the change that God so desires to do in all of us. But God desires none of this type of speech from us! In fact, looking down chapter 4 to the next two verses (Eph 4:30-31), we see that evil speaking causes the Holy Spirit to grieve. Consequently, every time a word is spoken in malice, bitterness or pride – every time we say anything bad about someone else (bad is defined as not edifying to the person we are speaking of or not edifying to the hearer – pulling them into the sewer with you) we grieve the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity – GOD.

From the positive perspective, our speech is our opportunity to minister to others – to serve them – to bring to them the grace of God and leave it with them. We are called to serve up only that which is edifying to the hearer and to speak it in love and with love that it may minister grace...

Edifying is, according to Thayer’s concordance, “the act of one who promotes another’s growth in Christian wisdom, piety, happiness, holiness”. Does our speech promote growth in others – encouragement to walk in holiness bringing others closer to Jesus and imparting His wisdom? We have the unique opportunity, as Christians, to serve our Lord – our risen Savior who loves us enough to die for us -- with our every spoken word. How remarkable and what a privilege!

Pray with me that we do not sin through the fruit of our lips but minister God’s graciousness to all who hear us...
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Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

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Email me! Pastor Jim (pj-brown@sbcglobal.net)

posted by Pastor Jim @ 9:00 AM