Words

I have been thinking recently how often what we talk about is a load of rubbish. It is convicting to realise how much easier it is to say something stupid/silly/irrelevant rather than something spiritual.

The “wind-up” is a popular form of humour these days- but it tells us in the Bible not to do it.Proverbs “Like a fool shooting fire-brands is one who deceives his neighbour and then says 'I was only joking'”

There are loads of proverbs about foolish talk:

proverbs 10v8 and v 14 proverbs 12v23 proverbs 14v13 and v 7 proverbs 15v2

proverbs 17v28 basically says you could get away with being a fool so long as you keep your mouth shut!

while proverbs 18v2 says how a fool loves to air his own opinion

and proverbs 18 v6&7 say how trouble is caused by foolish speech
and so it goes on right through proverbs

Jesus simply tell us that our yes should be yes and our no should be no. We should speak with integrity and be consistent people.

The Bible tells us that out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.If our hearts are full of love for Jesus then we should speak about Him often, and spiritual topics should fill our conversation.If all we can talk about is TV or films or celebrities then maybe we have been feeding our minds on the wrong stuff and our heart is going astray.I think it was a telling slip of the tongue when a brother asked to sing “I will set MySpace to seek the Lord”

I was gutted recently when I said something stupid to someone as a joke and they took me seriously. It showed me I was not thinking about their feelings, I had not considered they were under pressure and needed up-building rather than teasing. It did not matter that other people were behaving similarly. I have not repeated the story (except to confess to someone at the time) 'cos to do so would not build anyone up.

Someone else told me they had repeated something I had said in a meeting and shared it with their cell-group 'cos it inspired them. I would much rather my words spread because they built people up than because they had torn them down.