James 3 Dont be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards. And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, youd have a perfect person, in perfect control of life. A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything - or destroy it! A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you cant tame a tongue - its never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! A spring doesnt gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees dont bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes dont bear apples, do they? Youre not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you? Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Heres what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. Its the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isnt wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isnt wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isnt wisdom. Its the furthest thing from wisdom - its animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever youre trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others throats. Real wisdom, Gods wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen. If a man sayeth, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. Praise God For Wisdom, From Wisdom Comes Love! Let Us Love One Another
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 03:21:17 +0000
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