WATCH YOUR WORDS DILIGENTLY.....

Come, sit, and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee in the comfort of the Lord:  "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice."  Ephesians 4:31

WATCH YOUR WORDS DILIGENTLY.  Words have such great power to bless or to wound.  When you speak carelessly or negatively, you damage others as well as yourself.  This ability to verbalize is an awesome privilege, granted only to those I created in My image.  You need help in wielding this mighty power responsibly.

Though the world applauds quick-witted retorts, My instructions about communication are quite different:  Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.  Ask My Spirit to help you whenever you speak.  I have trained you to pray - "Help me, Holy Spirit" - before answering the phone, and you have seen the benefits of this discipline.  Simply apply the same discipline to communicating with people around you.  If they are silent, pray before speaking to them.  If they are talking, pray before responding.  These are split-second prayers, but they put you in touch with My Presence.  In this way, your speaking comes under the control of My Spirit.  As positive speech patterns replace your negative ones, the increase in your Joy will amaze you.

Believing in God

Come, sit, and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee in the comfort of the Lord:  "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice."  Ephesians 4:31

Losing someone you love can forever redefine who you are and how you think. 

Several years ago, I stood at the coffin of my baby sister after a medical complication took her from us.

I was devastated. Hopeless. Angry.

This is the reality of deep grief: Even when you love God and believe in His promises, it takes time. It takes wading through an ocean of tears. It takes prayer.

Then one day you take off the blanket of deep grief. You fold it and tuck it away. You no longer hate it or resist it. For underneath it, wondrous things have happened over time. 

Things that could only have come about when divine hope intersects with a broken world.
Finally, you can see years stretching before you once again. You look up, wipe a tear and find it’s still possible to live and love life.

- Lysa TerKeurst, Proverbs 31 Ministries

Beware Of The Dog!

Come, sit, and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee in the comfort of the Lord:  "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice."  Ephesians  4:31

"He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears."   Proverbs  26:17

     Never catch a dog by the ears, for it is the most sensitive part of his body.  Pull his tail if you must - but not his ears - never, unless you want to be bitten.  Solomon compares this foolish, dangerous act with persons who meddle in other people's affairs.  But sometimes you can't avoid it and you are unwillingly involved.

     Pity the poor preacher who is expected to patch up a quarrel between husband and wife.  He has "two strikes on him" before he begins.  If he takes the side of the wife - the husband is mad.  If he sides with the husband - the wife is angry, and if he refuses to take sides at all - both of them are ready to snap at him - for trying to take a dog by the ears.  If the couple are unsaved, then we can often help them a great deal, probably show them that their troubles would be solved if they would only accept the Lord.  But when Christians who know the Lord and His Word cannot patch up their squabbles, what chance has an outsider who comes in to tackle the longeared dog?

     Some time ago a lady called begging me to come over right away because her husband threatened to leave her.  "Please come over, please, and straighten this out!"  They had been feuding for days.  I asked her if she was a Christian and she said  "Yes."  "Is your husband a Christian?"  The reply was  "Yes, and he's listening on the extension phone."  "Well,"  I said,  "if you are both Christians, you can settle your trouble immediately.  I am not coming over until after you have read together Ephesians 4:32.  'And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.  That is God's solution - try it first, and if that doesn't work, call me and I'll come over.  But you must believe Ephesians 4:32 and do it.  If it fails, call me."  I am still waiting for the call.  Don't bother others with your problems when you have the answer right before you in the Bible.

"Bread For Each Day"