NUGGET #19
OUR WORDS ARE SEEDS PLANTED IN OTHER PEOPLE’S LIVES
What we say is important. The Bible states that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). We need to change our vocabulary; we need to speak words of life and light. Our talk should always line up with the Word of God.
Christians should be known as those who speak positively-those who speak the Word of God into situations, those who speak forth words of life. When we speak wrongly, it diminishes our ability to see and hear the will of God.
We should not be like the man who joined a monastery in which the monks were allowed to speak only two words every seven years. After the first seven years had passed, the new initiate met with the abbot, who asked him, “ Well, what are your two words? ”
“Food is bad,” replied the man, who then went back to his silence. Seven years later the clergy man asked, “What are your two words now?
“Bed‟shard ,” the man resp o n d ed
Seven years later-twenty-one years after his initial entry into the monastery- the man met with the abbot for the third and final time.
“And what are your two words this time? ” the abbot asked . “ I quit.”
“Well, I‟m not surprised,” the cleric answered disgustedly.“ All you’ve done since you got here is complain!”
Don’t be like the man; don’t be known as a person whose only words are negative.
If you are a member of the “murmuring grapeVine, ”you need to resign. In John 6:43 our Lord instructed his disciples, “Murmur not among yourselves.” In Philippians 2:14-15 the Apostle Paul
exhorted the believers of his day:
“Do all things without murmurings and is puttings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.Contrary to what you may have heard, talk is not cheap. Talk is expensive! Our words are powerful. What we say affects what we get from others and what others get from us.
NUGGET #20
We make decisions every day. We are confronted daily with
options. We must choose one or the other. We cannot have both.
These options may include many of the following:
– Being better versus being bitter
– Decisiveness versus indifference
– Enthusiasm versus being lukewarm
– “ How we can ”versus“ if we can ”statements
– Saying“ Get up ”versus saying“ give u p ”
– Security versus risk
– Overcoming evil versus coping with evil
– Standing out versus blending in
– How much we get done versus how much we attempt to do
– Opposite darkness versus coexisting with darkness.
– Development versus destruction.
– Obtaining versus complaining.
– Committing versus trying
– Peace versus strife
– Choice versus chance- Determination versus discouragement
– Growing versus dying
– Demanding more of ourselves versus excusing ourselves.
– Doing for others versus doing for ourselves.
– Progress versus drifting
– Priorities versus drifting
– Accountability versus irresponsibility
– Solutions versus problems
– More of God versus more of everything else
– Bein g in Who ‟s Who versus asking “Why me? ”