Gracious Speech

The bible tells us in Proverbs 18.21 that life and death are in the power of the tongue. For this reason it's so important we take care with our speech. The right word spoken at the right time is such a blessing to the one who hears it (Proverbs 15.23) and making sure that what we say as Christians especially, brings life and hope, father than condemnation or judgement is so important.

Paul sums it up perfectly when he says in Colossians 4.6:

"Let your speech always be with your grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how to answer each one"

When we speak, God's loving and gracious nature has to come across. This is less something that we can force to happen, and more something that happens as a result of total immersion in God's word. The bible tells us that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Luke 6.45, Matthew 12.34). What this means is that what we say, is a by product of how we actually feel, of what is really in our hearts.

God's word acts as a mirror for us, so that the more time we spend with God, the more we receive the revelation of His love, grace and mercy, and the easier it is for us to impart that same grace to others.

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

- 2 Corinthians 3.18

The Fear of Stepping Out

On Sunday in church, a man called Jeremy stood up to tell us about two occasions when he had stepped out in faith and spoken to people. He told us of how when he had been obedient to God and talked to people or prayed with them God had moved in a big way. The statement that he said that really stuck with me was this:

"When we pray for people we give God the opportunity to move."

I think too often we act as if praying for people and talking to people is about us. At least, this has definitely been the case for myself. So many times I've thought, 'but what if they laugh?' or 'but what if nothing happens right now and it's really embarrassing?'

Stepping out in faith is not about any of us. Honestly, whether or not we are embarrassed is irrelevant. We need to stop being afraid of talking to others about Jesus, and start being happy to do so. Look for opportunities. Share with everyone as you feel prompted. The good news of Jesus was not given to us to be hidden in small boxes, and glimpsed every now and then. It was given to be shared.

At the end of his letter to the Ephesians, Paul asks them to pray for him that he might '...open his mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel' [Ephesians 6.19]. That is my prayer for each and every one of us, that we will not shy away from sharing the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection with others, but we will rush to do so, willing to share with others the blessings we have received.

God bless

The Prize

"And He [the Lord] has made from one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being..."

- Acts 17.26-28a

God's heart's greatest desire is that we might know and love Him above all else. This life is not pleasant; and God tells us that we will see trouble in this world, but that He has overcome it [John 16.33]. He says this because it is when we see that God is beyond whatever it is that we are going through that we get breakthrough. Breakthrough is not the solution to our problem. Real breakthrough is Jesus. Real breakthrough comes when we see beyond our situation, and see Jesus.

In his letter to the Corinthians Paul talks about running a race for a prize that is imperishable. Jesus is the prize. When Olympic athletes train they face obstacles and difficulties and push through. In our times of distress, loss, sadness, disappointment and unhappiness, God wants us to grope for Him, to fight to find Him, because He is worth fighting for. He is the bigger picture, the breakthrough, the prize worth fighting for.

"He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?'"

Acts 9.4

Saul hated Christians, prior to this happening he had written letters to the high priests in Damascus about any Christians around that he could lock up and take as Prisoners to Jerusalem. And yet it was him that God spoke about to Ananias as His 'chosen instrument' (Acts 9.15) to speak to the Jews and Gentiles about the gospel.

Saul would not have been my first choice, but God has an ability to see unlocked potential within us that even we can't see.

Would you, having seen a man making threats against your friends and family, befriend him? That's exactly what God did here.

And if you think about it, there isn't really any other logical explanation for why Saul would suddenly change his name to Paul and start preaching the same news that Stephen had been preaching just days previously.

What sane person would turn around from persecuting a group of people and then decide to join that persecuted group? It doesn't seem like something an ordinary person would do.

There had to be a reason for it. And there was. Saul had an encounter with God that changed his life. It wasn't an encounter that happened 'in his head' either. The men who were with him heard the voice of God too. They didn't see anything, but they heard it and they were speechless (Acts 9.7).

From this point onwards Saul was a different person. It was less of a concious thing, not so much trying to be different, but being different because what he had witnessed had affected him. It had dramatically changed his perspective.

"At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, 'Isn't he the man that raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?'"

Acts 9.20-21

The great thing was that Jesus wasn't concerned with the man that raised havoc in Jerusalem with Christians, Jesus was concerned with the man preaching in the synagogues about Himself.

Where we come from ceases to matter in the light of who God is. We can say that we've sinned. We can say that we've blasphemed. We can even say that we've killed, or endorsed it, as Saul had. But in the light of God's mercy, it doesn't matter who we were before.

Meet Jesus and have a Saul to Paul conversion. God could do great things with you if you'd just let Him.