Get Your Tongue Under Control – Part One

Fresh Manna© by Pastor Tim Burt

Eph 4:29 “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may impart grace to those who listen.”

There was this one day. My four children were waiting for me to come home from a trip. They all greeted me at the door with hugs and just a spark more excitement than was usual. I thought it was about me until the children’s spokesperson, their mother, entered into the room. They had a group request. “Honey, one of the kids in Jeffrey’s class brought a kitten to show-and-tell today. It’s realllllllllly cute! They are wondering if we could have a kitten. I must have really been tired from my trip because I did something I don’t usually do. I quickly caved in and said yes.

I had never had a cat having always grown up with a dog. I knew nothing about cats. What a shock it was to learn how unusual cats are. Although I’m sure there are a few exceptions in the world, I quickly learned that a cat for the most part doesn’t train easily if at all – at least compared to a dog. It has a mind of its own and does what it wants when it wants. And some of the things it does are very peculiar. It reminds me of the tongue – you know, that little waggling creature in your mouth.

James 3:8-11 instructs us of a profound truth. “… no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth comes praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?”

You know how it is. You’ve thought about it a million times. You know you shouldn’t use your tongue to tear down or speak against others. We wrestle with it. If we have a conscience, then we will often find ourselves repentant over what this uncontrollable little creature has just released from our mouth. We will also find that despite the repentance, victory in getting it to obey comes way too slow. We find ourselves blessing some – saying kind things only to later say spew inappropriate things to others that our conscience regrets. We find out that the Word of God is true. “…No man can tame the tongue.”

James 3:3-6 tells us more about this untamable thing. It says, “When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” “…No man can tame the tongue.”

If this is true, then what do we do? The first step is to recognize this truth and come to grips with it. You can’t fix your tongue yourself. God is not lying when He says “…NO MAN can tame the tongue.” That includes you and I. At the same time we have to realize that God is not setting us up to fail. The answer in taming the tongue is recognizing that only with the help of the Holy Spirit can you tame the tongue. The Holy Spirit will help you tame your tongue through a number of ways. I’ll only go into one of them today.

Pray that God through His Holy Spirit give you a revelation of the truth of this verse. Prov 18:21, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” You will know when God has given you this revelation. The truth of this verse will put the fear of the Lord in you. By that I mean that you will understand that your tongue can be used by God to be one of the greatest instruments of blessing to you, or like poison that can kill or ruin your life – in some cases quickly and in other cases over a period of time. The Word from God says that WE WILL EAT from the fruit of our Words. You will get what you are saying. Your mind can’t take a hold of that but your spirit can. Let the Holy Spirit reveal that truth to you.

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you hear the destructive phrases you say without thinking. “He is never going to change! I’m stuck with this situation and there is nothing I can do about it.” “Nothing goes my way.” “I am never going to get into a good relationship. There just isn’t any good men out there.” Words like this reveal that this is your thinking and this is your heart’s faith. What is in your heart comes out your mouth through that uncontrollable creature and not only influences what is around you good or bad through your words, but also influences the health of your body! We need to guard our hearts by speaking right words. Prov 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Again, that is true whether you believe it or not. Your mouth is the barometer of your heart. And an indicator of what your body is going to experience.

Don’t destroy your life and don’t destroy others. Prov 12:18 says, “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand the power of Words. Then listen to what you say. You will become dependent upon the Lord for what it takes to change your words and controlling that little creature called the tongue. When you do, you’ll begin to succeed.

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt
http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright© 2007 Tim Burt, All rights reserved.

What is Fresh Manna? God’s Word – the Bible, should be exciting and alive to us. God wants to speak to us through His Holy Spirit and give us a fresh word from heaven every day. Fresh Manna is a daily devotional – that nourishment of daily bread from His heart to ours!

Create Godly Atmospheres

Fresh Manna© by Pastor Tim Burt

Matthew 18:20 (KJV) “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We did in our home. I had wanted to take our Thanksgiving to a higher level this year and I was so thankful to the Lord when we were able to do it. I’ll explain.

We all know that we go through many seasons of life – no children to babies, then toddlers, then kids running around, teenagers, young adults, empty nests, and grandchildren. (I’ll stop there for now.) Each of these seasons bring a different feel to how Holiday Celebrations happen. When our children were young, we wanted them to have a real spirit of Thanksgiving to God for every good thing in our lives. We would do what I’m sure many of you have done at some point. We’d have them make lists of thing they were thankful for and then at a particular time of the day, we’d sit around and let everyone share their thoughts from their list. It can become very insightful hearing what comes out their mouth. We’d thank God at our thanksgiving meal for all our blessings and then eat till we were as stuffed as the turkey.

As our children got older – in their teens and older, it got harder to peel them from the football games and get everyone to participate in the same way – at least willingly and gladly. They saw themselves as too old to write lists and weren’t always ready to express themselves with any meaningful level of sincerity. We would still do our best but it was becoming more work and starting to feel a little forced. Regardless, we never stopped making the effort. We just didn’t force anyone that didn’t want to verbally participate.

I wanted this year to be different. Our children are all adults with the youngest being 21. They are all in a good place in their lives and heart and Renee and I really wanted to take the time to express our thanks to God in a meaningful way. After dinner we all got around the kitchen table where we had communion all set up for everyone. I didn’t ask anyone to share what they were thankful for. I shared two verses from God’s Word and then just talked to them all about how blessed we were. I then asked each of them to pray letting God know what they were thankful for. What came from each of there mouths was moving to say the least. Everyone, Renee, the kids, Renee’s parents, we all prayed. No one prayed long. Maybe just a minute or two each but the spirit of Thanksgiving to God was there in the most wonderful way. I then reminded them what communion was symbolic of – our Covenant of eternal life and of God’s promised blessings because of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. We then all partook of communion together. What happens before God and in the hearts of a family at a time like that can be immeasurable. I know in my heart it will bear fruit in my children’s lives forever.

It brought the entire day into what it was meant to be and it was so wonderful. It made me glad that I have never given up trying to honor God out of frustration just because it didn’t always work out as I had pictured it or hoped it would come out. With kids, it can be a moving target.

If you are a perfectionist, nothing you try to achieve will every measure up to what you want. Perfection isn’t what pleases God. God is blessed by hearts of faith that want to honor Him for who He is. With different age groups and different levels of spiritual maturity involved in these kinds of activities, there are going to be many types of expression of love to God. With the cultural diversity of families now a days, that means there can even be cultural richness brought to those times.

What I want you to take away most from this today is this: godly atmospheres don’t just happen. You have to create them in your life. This isn’t just about Holidays. This is about any time and any place in your life. You might feel that you work at a place that is close to the devil’s pit in atmosphere. Maybe there is swearing and lewd pictures, and dirty jokes going on all the time. Your choices are pray about another job asking God to lead you or create your own atmospheres in your life.

Daniel was taken captive to Babylon. He was surrounded by paganism – pagan people, pagan attitudes, and pagan gods. Yet he would create his own atmosphere. He would kneel before his window and pray to God three times a day. He would get together with his like minded friends to discuss God’s way and pray together. They may have been outnumbered on every side by people that were not like them but they created their own atmospheres where they could keep God alive in their heart and invite Him into their midst. This is what sustained Daniel with spiritual strength in the lions den. It sustained Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego with spiritual strength in the face of being thrown in a fiery furnace.

Today’s Fresh Manna verse says, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” When we will work to create atmospheres from a sincere heart where Jesus will be exalted in conversation, in prayer, or in praise, He will be there. His presence will come and when it does, you will be lifted up, strengthened and even miracles never imagined will manifest. You can create and enter into these kinds of atmospheres even in the midst of turmoil and ungodliness happening all around you. Remember, God isn’t looking for the perfect setting or everything happening perfectly in this kind of setting. He comes where our hearts sincerely are to be with Him. It makes for more frequent moments that make your life rich!

In His Love,
Pastor Tim & Renee Burt
http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright© 2007 Tim Burt, All rights reserved.

What is Fresh Manna? God’s Word – the Bible, should be exciting and alive to us. God wants to speak to us through His Holy Spirit and give us a fresh word from heaven every day. Fresh Manna is a daily devotional – that nourishment of daily bread from His heart to ours!

What God Cares About!

Fresh Manna© by Pastor Tim Burt

Philippians 2:4 “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”

Have you looked around recently? If you do, you will notice all sorts of people that are in need. Some will openly tell you about what they are going through and others will hide it behind a smile figuring it doesn’t do much good to complain and few like to listen anyway. Whether you notice them all or not, there are an abundance of them out there.

When we do find out about them the thought that so often comes is, “What can I do about it?” You add to this the fact that most people are looking out for their own lives busy building their place of safe haven. People work to build and store up what they will need. It takes a lot of work just to get their own issues taken care of and their own needs met. Don’t they deserve the right to look after themselves?

No one has the right to tell another person how much they can or cannot have in this life or how much they can accumulate in riches and assets. As long as what they work toward and build is done with integrity, their truly is no limit. God is not moved negatively by stuff we accumulate. Jesus did warn us that the stuff will become outdated or rust or worse. Matthew 6:19-20 says, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves.”

Even though Jesus was saying this, it wasn’t a statement about not accumulating things. It was an instruction of heart to keep our focus on His view of things and what we need to keep as the central focus of this life’s pursuit. He wanted our life’s focus to be one who touches other people with Jesus’ love – helping others know of the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ and to help people learn of God’s ways and how to live by His Word. When that is the central focus of our life, then our heart is centered in the perfect will of God.

Again, Jesus wasn’t coming against riches in His warning of riches. Some of the greatest Bible heroes were extremely rich men. Being rich wasn’t the issue. The heart attitude toward riches was the issue. 1 Tim. 6:10 says, “For the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.” It is the “love of money” that is the root of all kinds of evil. Every person I have ever known that has great riches and assets has had to work through learning to manage their attitude along with learning to manage their money. They would be the first to admit that having an excess of finances above their needs creates the opportunity for pride and wandering from their faith and purpose in life. I know people with great assets and riches that HAVE worked through those attitudes but have become focused on God’s focus – now using what they earn and have accumulated and built up for helping finance the spreading the gospel and building the kingdom of God.

I have known Christians over the years that have had little or no money but were always craving for more money. Many of them have wandered in their faith. In their craving for more money, they wandered from integrity. They’ve made promises they did not keep. They lied to get what they want. They cheated people – bosses, customers, insurance companies – even their own families trying to gain money. They crossed moral and ethical boundaries for the sake of money. In many ways, a person lacking money is much more susceptible to “craving money and wandering from the faith…” than a rich person might be.

The anchor that keeps either person – rich or poor person anchored is their heart attitude toward people and whether they are keeping God’s focus of life – touching people with the love of Jesus. If you have money and things, they can be used to help people. If you don’t have money and things, you can still have what you need to help people. It all starts with the attitude of caring about people.

We may think we know what is disturbing to God or put in stronger terms, what is an abomination to God. We can learn something more by looking at Ezekiel 16:49-50. “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me…”

In these verses Ezekiel was giving God’s people greater insight as to why Sodom (not Gomorrah) was judged. The people were living in a lush and flourishing land. Abundance flowed in this land. There was no lack. Because many people had everything they needed, people were idle – busy at being busybodies. They didn’t use their abundance of resources and wisdom to help and strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. Instead they were prideful, critical, and snubbed their noses at those that needed help. God saw this as an abomination.

The only way to protect yourself from this kind of attitude creeping into your life unawares is to be focused on living your life caring about others and being that light and touch of God’s love. If you live like this, it won’t matter what your financial condition is. You will be a blessing to those around you whether it’s a listening ear, a compassionate reply, and a prayer of faith, or whether it’s an action of good deeds that brings immediate help. Anyone that has concerns and needs can be counted as one who needs their hand strengthened.

Today’s Fresh Manna verse says, “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” It goes on to say that this was the heart and mind of Jesus and it should be our heart and mind also. Let it be in you! To whom much is given, much is required!

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt
http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright© 2007 Tim Burt, All rights reserved.

What is Fresh Manna? God’s Word – the Bible, should be exciting and alive to us. God wants to speak to us through His Holy Spirit and give us a fresh word from heaven every day. Fresh Manna is a daily devotional – that nourishment of daily bread from His heart to ours!