Watch Your Mouth

Reading from Mark 1:9 one recent morning, FMC member Rev. Steven A Becker, Pastor of Theresa Presbyterian Church; Theresa, New York; transposed a couple of words and it came out: “At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by Jordan in the John." That is a slip of the lip. Everyone can make concession for mistakes. But what about the words we let come out of our mouth that we are capable of restraining. Do you have any self-control, sympathy for others when they are wrong? We all face times when we have to say tough things. The question is, "Do you enjoy saying tough things, or does it pain you to have to rebuke someone?

The tongue can be a deadly instrument. Notice James’ description of the tongue: James 3:8 -- But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. This is a deadly poison, not something that makes you sick, but something with the potential to kill. It should be handled with care. The tongue should be handled like hazardous material.

The Deadliest Toxins

By Michael Kuo

San Francisco--A Salinas man who ate poisonous wild mushrooms is in good condition after a liver transplant to save his life, a spokeswoman at UCSF Medical Center said Thursday. The 24-year-old man mistook "death cap" mushrooms on a Salinas roadside for safe mushrooms he had previously eaten while visiting Mexico, hospital spokeswoman Janet Basu said. The poisonous mushrooms virtually destroyed his liver, necessitating the transplant from a cadaver on Christmas Day. At the man's request, his name is not being released.

What these mushrooms do to the liver is what the tongue does to the human spirit. Power is mentioned 260 times in the Bible, and in Proverbs 18:21 power is associated with the tongue. The Hebrew word power is from the primitive word “yad” which means the open hand indicating means and direction. We are setting direction with our tongues. Either we are setting direction for life or we our setting direction for death. Today, I want you to put four phrases into your conversation:

1. I forgive you. -- Matt. 6:14-15

2. It's okay; we all make mistakes. -- Rom. 3:23

3. That doesn’t really matter in the big picture. -- Luke 10:38-42

4. Don’t worry about it; God’s got it all under control. -- 1 Chron. 29:11

Word for TodayParlous - Perilous; dangerous: "starting from scratch in parlous economic times" (Madalynne Reuter).

Quote for Today - I think the first virtue is to restrain the tongue; he approaches nearest to gods who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right.

- Cato the Elder (234 BC - 149 BC)