OH, THAT WRETCHED TONGUE
“Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles.”
~Proverbs 21:23
THE EASIEST way for a person to sin is with the tongue. The restraining laws in our society prevent us from doing just anything we want, but it seems as if we can say anything we want. Man, because of his fallen, depraved heart, is prone to spew forth all manner of blasphemy and putrid language from his mouth, which produces a myriad of troubles for his soul. The Apostle Paul described man’s tongue in Romans 3:13-14 with these words: “Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” Even those redeemed by Christ struggle to govern their vicious tongue. How many wars have been started because of a prideful, arrogant, rebellious tongue? How many congregations have split because of a gossiping tongue? How many friends have been separated because of a slanderous tongue? How many times a day is God’s holy name or the name of the glorious Redeemer, Jesus the Christ, taken in vain, blasphemed, or used in an offhanded joke?
AND MAKE no mistake about it, the real problem with the tongue is the disposition of the heart. You see, the heart of every matter is the matter of the heart. Jesus said, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man” (Mark 7:21-23). And Solomon wrote the following words, “The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, and adds learning to his lips” (Proverbs 16:23). “The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the heart of the wicked is worth little” (Proverbs 10:20). “The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil” (Proverbs 15:28). Notice how closely knit together are the heart and the tongue. In other words, the condition of one’s heart is seen most clearly by the words one speaks. As Jesus said, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man” (Matthew 15:18).
THEREFORE, BEFORE you speak, remember the words of Christ, “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the Day of Judgment” (Matthew 12:36). As those redeemed by Christ, let us daily practice restraining our tongue, the “little member of our body that boasts great things” (James 3:5). We do this by constantly and conscientiously speaking true, kind, edifying, gracious, and loving words, which honor God, and by keeping our mouth shut when it’s not absolutely necessary to repeat a matter. Too many matters are repeated over and over that would better be left untold since they bring no edification to the hearer. “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt” (Colossians 4:6). And we read in Proverbs 15:4, “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.” Only by guarding our tongue will we keep our soul from unnecessary troubles. “Who is the man who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit” (Psalm 34:11-12).
Friday Devotional: January 17, 2025
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry
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YOUR HEART
"I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well."
~Psalm 139:14
YOUR HEART will beat some 100,000 times today. That’s over 36 million heartbeats a year and over 2.5 billion times in a 70-year lifespan. A healthy heart ticks along, producing beat after beat, whether we are awake or asleep. If we become more active, the heart increases its beating to meet the increasing needs of the rest of our body. Doctors tell us that it’s amazing how few of these beats are faulty. They say that it’s perfectly normal for even a healthy heart to produce an occasional irregular heartbeat. Sometimes an irregular heartbeat is noticeable, but most often it’s not. Doctors say that when your heart seems to skip a beat, it has really only beat prematurely. The premature beat leaves a pause before the next regular beat, making it feel as if your heart skipped a beat.
THE CLOCKWORK precision of the heart’s continuing beats is controlled by a built-in pacemaker. The pacemaker, called the sinus node, is a group of cells in the heart’s upper right chamber. However, research has shown that every cell in the heart is able to send the electrical signal needed to produce a heartbeat if the sinus node fails. Using highly complex computer models, medical researchers have only begun to understand within the past few years, the electrical action within the heart.
THE HUMAN heart is much more than a pump, as once believed. It is also a computer and regulator. Every beat of this wondrously designed biological machine glorifies the Creator Who made it!
PSALM 75:1: “We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks! For Your wondrous works declare that Your name is near.”
PRAYER: I thank You, Lord, that You have so wonderfully designed the heart. I join my mind with my voice in praising and thanking You with my whole heart. Remind me of Your often silent but important blessings when my thankfulness grows cold. Amen.
—Creation Moments
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THE LORD HATES PRIDE
“The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.”
—Proverbs 8:13
IT’S A HORRIBLE FACT, whether we admit it or not, that pride is the most common sin which permeates sinful human nature. We are all born Pharisees and rebels against God. We all naturally think far better of ourselves than we ought to think. We all naturally imagine that we deserve something better than we have. “A proud and haughty man; “Scoffer” is his name; He acts with arrogant pride” (Proverbs 21:24).
PRIDE IS AN AGE-OLD SIN. It began in the heart of Lucifer when he was determined to exalt himself above the Almighty (Isaiah 14:12-14). The sin of pride next reared its ugly head in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve thought, just like Lucifer, to be as God determining good and evil. They wanted to be their own authority, to do their own thing, to be their own boss. Pride is a subtle sin that rules and reigns in many hearts without being detected and can even wear the costume of humility. “Therefore pride serves as their necklace” (Psalm 73:6). Pride is a soul-ruining sin. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). The sin of pride causes a person to: resist repentance, start a feud, cast forgiveness behind the back, overlook the needs of others, and pride continually fuels hatred for Christ and His church. “By pride comes nothing but strife” (Proverbs 13:10).
HOWEVER, OF ALL GARMENTS, none is more graceful, none wears so well, and none is as rare as the virtue called humility. “A man's pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor” (Proverbs 29:23). Humility is essential in the life of every believer and it’s a defining mark of a true Christian. The key element to a life of humility is submission to the Word of God. A person who is unwilling to submit to God’s Word is a person filled with soul-damning pride, which is exactly opposite of humility. You see, an attitude of submission is the fruit of humility, and true humility is demonstrated by obedience to God. Therefore, Scripture calls every believer to “be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5). And James calls on every believer to “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up” (James 4:10).
DOES YOUR LIFE MANIFEST humility or pride? Our prayer should be that the Lord digs out every stench of pride that still dwells within our sinful heart. Praise God our salvation rests securely in the person and work of Jesus Christ, the only One who never had a prideful attitude, but always walked in perfect humility before God and men! Praise God for JESUS, our ONLY hope of humility, forgiveness, wisdom, redemption and reconciliation with God (1 Cor. 1:30-31). Jesus truly is our only hope of salvation! Trust Him! Praise Him! Submit to Him!
Tuesday Encouragement: January 14, 2025
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry
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A CHRISTIAN’S SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER
HEAVENLY FATHER, I bow before You this Lord’s Day through the Lord Jesus Christ and by Your Holy Spirit. Thank You for Your amazing grace and wondrous mercy. Thank You, Father, that while I was spiritually dead in trespasses and sins You made me alive and created faith in my soul that I might believe the glorious Gospel of Christ, love the Lord Jesus, and trust fully and completely in Him for my salvation, which the Lord Jesus obtained for me. Thank You for pouring Your love into my heart so that I might love You, the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Church, the Word, my brothers and sisters in Christ, my neighbors, and begin loving even my enemies.
LORD JESUS, I praise You for laying down Your life for me when I was a miserable, blind, wretched sinner. Not only did You lay down Your life for me, but You also lived the perfect law-abiding and law-fulfilling life in my place. You alone fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the Law of God and have clothed me, and all Your people, with Your perfect righteousness in order that we may come boldly into the throne of grace being justified by your work which you accomplished in your life, death, and resurrection. Thank You, glorious Lord Jesus, that you imputed Your righteousness to all Your redeemed in exchange for our sins being imputed to You. Thank You that on the cross You dealt with our sins once for all time and therefore we bear our sins no more! On the cross, You cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" You cried out these words because You were forsaken by the Father in my place. You were forsaken in the place of all Your sheep so that we would never be forsaken! Hallelujah! What A Savior! Lord Jesus, open my understanding more and more as You did the disciples on the Emmaus Road so that I might understand Your Scriptures since it’s Your Holy Spirit alone who gives us understanding of Your Word.
O HOLY SPIRIT, fill me and all Your people with Your glorious presence, dominate our lives, control our every thought, and cause us to be obedient to that which You command of us, and make us realize that when we are obedient to Your holy will we are but unprofitable servants who have only done that which You have commanded us. Thank you for blessing us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places for we know that we don’t deserve the least of your blessings. All your blessings come not by our obedience but by your sovereign grace. Our obedience is always less than perfect and is only accepted by You because of the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, who always lives to make intercession for the saints. Fill me, Holy Spirit, with Your presence and power and enable me to serve You with boldness, compassion, joy, and holy zeal. Use me up for the glory of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As the hymn writer, Frances Ridley Havergal, once wrote,
♫Take my life and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days;
let them flow in endless praise,
let them flow in endless praise.♫
Heavenly Father, hear my prayer for the sake of Your Son, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name and authority I pray. Amen!
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Something to ponder…
The picture below is the result of church members when there's no spiritual foundation!
Many people are spiritually deceived because their hope lies in the man-made traditions of the church only, and not in JESUS!
Be sure that your relationship is with Jesus, not a building!
Make sure wherever you assemble, that the foundation of your faith is JESUS, not people or a building!
"Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
—Acts 4:12
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TEMPORARY PLEASURE
“Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.”
—Psalm 51:8-9
THE PHILOSOPHY of the world says, “If you want it, then just do it. If you desire it, then just go for it. Why not satisfy your passions with pleasure? After all, satisfaction of your desires is the only way to experience happiness.” Yes, satisfaction of our passions does bring pleasure, but it’s only for a moment. It is said of Moses in Hebrews 11:25 that he “chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.” We also read in Scripture that David gave into his sinful passions, sought to satisfy his lust, and ended up a miserably sick man. I'm sure David enjoyed his sin at the time, yet afterward he faced the inevitable consequences of his sin.
SIN PROVIDES temporary pleasure, but it steals lasting joy. Notice David's prayer of repentance, “Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice.” David lost the joy he experienced while he walked with God. The joy of the Lord had left his heart, and David desperately wanted God to restore that joy in His life. But notice the text does not say that David lost his salvation. Losing one’s salvation is impossible for a child of God. Scripture is very clear concerning the permanency of salvation. John 10:27-28, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” However, it is possible for the redeemed to lose the joy of their salvation when they choose to step off the straight and narrow path and indulge the lust of their flesh.
TRUE JOY comes from walking with God, obeying His commands, and following His path for your life. No circumstance, possession, pleasure, pursuit, or person can give you joy like God can give. He is the Source, Provider, and Facilitator of joy. In other words, you can only experience true joy in your life by walking with God. “Happy is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:1-2). David realized that God alone holds the key to a joyful life, and he had lost that joy through seeking pleasure for his sinful passions.
DO YOU have joy in your life? Joy does not mean being happy all the time. Joy means living content knowing that God is in control. Have you lost your joy? Following sinful desires brings temporary happiness but it leaves a joyless soul. Seek joy in Christ. Look to Him for the satisfying, soul-filling joy that only a life lived for Him can bring. And when you sin by seeking to fulfill sinful desires, and your joy has dissipated, always remember that confession and repentance to the Lord will always yield the blessed fruit of restored joy in the Lord as seen in the life of David. “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).
Friday Devotional: January 10, 2025
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry
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