Your Words

Your words can hurt others.

Your words can hurt you too.

I’ll never forget it.  I was a newly minted teenager.  Full of myself.  Angry at my little sister.  I’d done something hurtful to her in my anger.  She told Mom.  I got in trouble.  Then, in the self-serving righteous indignation that my sister was really wrong & I was really right, I got even angrier.  In my anger, I recall making a conscious choice.  A choice I’d never made before but knew I’d act on now to express the depth of the mistreatment I felt I was suffering.  I cursed.  To my mother.

I don’t remember much that happened after that.  Mom’s eyes on fire.  Her hands like lightning.  Jerked up her jerk son.  Yanked my mouth opened.  And filled it with a pump squirt of LOC.  Soap.

Amway’s LOC (Liquid Organic Cleaner) was kept under our kitchen sink since it had many household uses.  “Multi-Purpose Cleaner” the label says.  “Washing out teen boy potty mouth,” was just one of the many uses my Mom had now discovered.

I learned a lesson that day.  Not the apparent, “Don’t be dumb enough to curse in front of your God-fearing Mama.”  I had calculated the use of that curse word to hurt others, but that word ended up hurting me.  That was the real lesson.

Your words can hurt others.

Your words can hurt you too.

There is enough hurt in the world, don’t you agree?  Why don’t we make a decision - actually many, daily decisions - to use our words to help instead of hurt?  Blessing instead of cursing?  Praying instead of complaining?

Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what help, each word is a gift. Ephesians 4:29 (MSG)

A Christmas Offering

We bring an offering of worship to our King

No one on earth deserves the praises that we sing

Jesus, may you receive the honor that you are due

O Lord, I bring an offering to you

- Christmas Offering, Paul Baloche -

Offerings are worship.

Humility handed over.

We give what is worthy to the One who is worthy.

Considering the first Christmas and it’s participants, each had a different part.  Each had a different gift to offer.  Each, however, gave more than just some thing.  Each gave themselves.  Each laid their pride at the Child Messiah’s feet as well.

The shepherds gave the offering of their witness.  Shepherds were cultural outcasts.  Ancient nobodies.  Near the bottom of the social ladder.  And stuck out in the fields with the smelly sheep.  Their story is in Luke 2:8-20.  While keeping watch over their flocks they were terrified by an angel of the Lord who appeared with God’s radiant glory to announce the birth of the child Messiah.  A heavenly host chorus - hundreds or thousands of angels - followed, singing, “Glory to God in the highest.”  And these shepherds, overwhelmed as they were, hurried off to see baby Jesus.  What raises my questions is how they lowered their pride.  These guys who so much could have used a credibility lift, went out - at risk of sounding crazy & further damaging their reputation - and spread the news of the Messiah to anyone & everyone who would listen “and all who heard it were amazed.”  They risked the little they had to tell everyone about Jesus.    They gave the offering of their witness, an act of worship, laying down their pride.

Do I believe God worthy enough to tell everyone His message of love?  All the people I know?  All the folks I meet?  To offer my witness of Christ?  Trusting God with my reputation and the judgments of others upon me?

The Wise Men gave the offering of their work.  The magi or kings as they have been known, were astronomers from a far off place.  Matthew 2:1-12 tells their story.  The Bible doesn’t tell what their jobs were.  Were they professional astronomers?  Ancient college professors or professional sages of a sort?  Maybe they were independently wealthy and already had the means to make such a trip?  No matter their funding, the fact remains that they took a trip that may have lasted years to meet someone they didn’t know to give physical gifts worthy of a king.  They risked their lives along the way - ancient travel was dangerous without TSA or cell phones or dependable law enforcement - and in arriving they risked even more due to local King Herod’s murderous ways.  They risked everything for their work of finding the child king.  And, they sacrificed their ability to work & make income to provide for their own family needs.  Plus, they spent the income of their previous work to make the trip.  They gave the offering of their work, an act of worship, laying down their pride.

Do I believe God worthy enough to give my work life & my life’s work fully to Him?  Every minute?  Every project?  Every dream?  To offer my work to Jesus?  Trusting that all I do and all it earns will be enough to provide for my family and all God intends? 

Mary gave the offering of her whole being.  As a teenager betrothed - like engagement but more binding - to be married to an older carpenter named Joseph, she was surprised by an angel to learn of her pregnancy.  Luke 1:26 and following tells her story.  “How can this be since I am a virgin?,” she asked.  “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you,” told the angel.  Not by an act of flesh, but by the power of God she was a mother.  Mother to God in flesh.  Emmanuel.  God with us.  And, Mary answered in Luke 1:38, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me as you have said.”  She was willing to give everything.  Her physical body to carry, bare, and care for this child.  And if child bearing was not hard enough, and the nine months pregnant donkey travel and manger delivery didn’t make it harder, she would have this child in a cloud of suspicion due to the immaculate conception.  She gave her reputation.  She gave her community standing.  She believed God.  And so she gave her whole self as an offering, an act of worship, regardless of her pride.

Do I believe God worthy enough to give him my everything?  My life?  My control?  To offer my whole being?  Trusting the entirety of myself and my future completely to Him?

We don’t live in the Ancient Near East.  No donkey trips for census.  No camel journeys following stars for us.  But we sure have pride.  Selfish pride.  Posturing, self-righteous pride.  And we have communities of people who watch us.  And judge us.  Even today.  And we do allow our perception of their judgment, our concern for reputation among others, and that foolish pride of ours to hinder our obedience to our God and Father.  Our offerings become subject to self-righteous scrutiny.  Humility is hamstrung by pride.

Each of us must consider.

My witness.  My work.  My whole life. 

Do I trust God enough?

Do I love God enough?

Do I worship God enough?

To give Him the offering He desires.

The offering He is worthy of.

Even if it means laying down my pride.

Hammer and Nail

I took my heavy canvas tool bag to church yesterday. Loaded up with various tools. A cordless drill with bits and drivers, a 2' level and his son the bullet level, pry bar, tape measure, a hammer, and even some sunflower seeds just to name a few items included.

Handing out tools illustrated my sermon, "His Heart, His Hands, His Voice," from 1 Corinthians 12.  I handed them to various church members unfortun... I mean "lucky"... enough to be sitting along one aisle.

At this point you are thinking, "I get free tools at Aaron's church?," or, "What happens next?"

To answer the former: I took the tools back once we applied the lesson to conclude the sermon.  They are tools because they are useful to me as they work together by my guidance.  That was the point.

The answer to the later.  It gets interesting.  

You know the claw on the backside of a hammer's head?  Not only can it be used for removing nails, but it is also effective for catching the mouth of tool bags and launching a hammer from a pastor's hands at unsuspecting congregants!

In one swift motion, I rocketed that hammer four foot high and four foot forward spinning toward a dear, ducking for cover sister.  A sister who was wishing she hadn't have chosen the aisle seat.

"Congregant Nailed By Pastor's Hammer In Sermon," the headlines would have read.

Would have.

Thankfully, it fell short of hitting her and landed on the carpeted aisle.  But the Onion couldn't tell it any funnier.  And surely Headlines on Leno surely would have featured that one.

It gets me to thinking.

When is the last time I was nailed by God's Word?

Am I opening myself to His Word regularly to hear from Him?

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Share your comments below and share this article with a friend.

Bread You Did Not Know

He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had know, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 8:3.  Not an easy verse.  Not too pleasing to consider.  Might make you down-right angry.

 God did what?  To his own people?  Who He says He loves with an everlasting, covenant love?  And he did it why?  That mean, hard, inconsiderate thing?  Humbled?  Hunger?

You might be tempted to ask God, “What were you thinking?”  Or to give him a piece of your mind, “That’s not nice! How dare you? Your own people.”

Before we go off on God, let’s remember a few things: One, He is all loving, all knowing, & absolutely without flaw - no matter what we think; Two, we are NOT Him - no matter what we think.

When life doesn’t seem to be going my way.  When I have sown poor choices and begin to reap the consequences.  When I have simply fallen into unfortunate chance but still have to deal with the mess.  When I want to play the victim making it the fault of anything but me.  When I want to name someone else the villain making it their fault alone.  When in any of these scenes or more as a follower of Christ I want to doubt God’s goodness or question His plan I need to remember.  I need to remember Him.

Don’t forget.  Remember.  God is sovereign.  God does love me.  God does have a plan bigger than I can imagine.  God has created me to fill a special role in His plan.  God knows all my circumstances.  God feels all my sorrows.  And God can use everything in my life for His glory.  Will I let him?

When I am humbled.  When I am hungry.  When I am hurting in any way.  Will I turn to Him?  Knowing He has a plan and He will carry me through.

And did you notice what God did in the midst of their hunger to remind them of His love and power?  He did something no one had ever known before.  He fed them with manna.  Miraculous manna.  God used bread they did not know to teach them about a living bread - His Word - they did know.

So it is today.  It is His Word that sustains us.  Maybe you’re feeling malnourished.  If so, then this might be a good time to start a new Bible reading plan this year.  Or maybe a new daily devotional.  There are so many ways to engage God’s Word that we have no excuse.  Other than our heart and commitment.

Remember.  God uses everything in our lives.  Especially the hard things.  To show us His power, to teach us His provision, and to draw us closer to Him.  Are you humbled or hurting?  God is after your heart.  Turn to Him in faith.

Tandem is an easy, electronic way to engage God’s Word throughout your day.  With a schedule & by means you choose.  Email, text, even voicemail.  All customized to you.  All done well.  You’ll be blessed.

Leave a comment & let us know how you engage God's Word.  Or, share this post using the tools below, to encourage others.

If They Could Just See

A dear, sweet friend, Amy Cooper, got my attention when we talked recently.  You gotta know Amy.  A wife of decades.  Mom of four.  Grandmother of six.  Retired missionary to the Orient.  An old fashioned gentlewoman.  She’s from LA - Lower Alabama.  Accent sweeter than cane syrup.  Smile warmer than the southern sun.  Eyes that glitter like lightening bugs.  And a hug that could only come from a grandma.  To know Amy and her amazing husband, Virgil, is to love them.

While talking about church planting and evangelism Amy, this loving, wonderful grandma, said, “I’m convinced if they could just see the Jesus I know, then they’d accept him.”

If they could just see the Jesus I know, then they’d accept him.  Can you see how she got my attention?

Amy begs the question: What Jesus do I know?  The Jesus of the Bible.  Revolutionary yet rational.  Judging yet gracious.  Holy yet merciful.  Or the Jesus of my own creation.  The Jesus of traditions and assumptions.  The Jesus I don’t know at all through a growing personal relationship.

Amy knows Jesus.  Risen Savior.  Loving Lord.  Righteous Judge.  Victorious Warrior.  She knows him through a relationship that is real and lasting.  Intimate and honest.  She knows Jesus can change lives.  I know that Jesus too.  And I’m with Amy.  I want others to know Jesus.  I’d imagine that you are too.

So we gotta ask: Why can’t they see Jesus?  If they can’t see the Jesus we know, is he obstructed by what they see of us?  Too much me.  Too Little Jesus?

John the Baptist said of Jesus, "He must become greater; I must become less."  How far from the conviction of John 3:30 are we?

Does our carelessness damage Jesus' perfection?

Does our pride obstruct Jesus’ humility?

Does our will hinder Jesus’ mercy?

Does our judgment destroy Jesus grace?

Does our anger erode Jesus’ love?

What about you, My Friend?  What is it in you that gets in the way of other’s seeing Jesus?

What did the Holy Spirit just tell you?  Will you confess it and repent from it right now?  Share a comment below so that others might pray for you or praise God with you.

The world around us - our neighbors, coworkers, friends, and family - are dying.

To see Jesus.