Tuesday, May 2, 2006
The man in the Disney movie was an inventor. One of his inventions was a shrinking machine. Some have suggested that's what happened to me - a shrinking machine. It did happen to his kids' baseball. It crashed through the window of his laboratory and it landed in dad's shrinking machine, turning it on as it landed, and the kids were amazed to see how their ball suddenly shrank. Thinking this machine was really cool, they started playing with it - until the machine suddenly shrank them to an almost invisible size. And the anguished cry of the father is the title of the movie: "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Chain Saw in Your Mouth."
Sadly, too many of us have a shrinking machine that is shrinking our kids, maybe our spouse, other people we love. That shrinking machine is in your mouth. It's a tongue that says things that repeatedly diminish some of the very people maybe you love the most: angry things, cutting things, sarcastic or critical things, discouraging things.
It's almost as if we have this verbal chain saw in our mouth that keeps cutting people we care about. It may be that you've been doing this for so long you hardly even notice how destructive some your words are. But the people who are hearing them are not only noticing your words, it's quite possible they'll never forget them. We can still remember names we were called decades ago, can't we? Some of us have replayed over and over again something hurtful someone said to us a long time ago. Some of us have even defined our self-worth, or lack of self-worth, based on some of those shrinking things someone said to us. That's how what you say now impacts those you love.
The Bible doesn't talk about a verbal chain saw, but it does talk about a verbal sword. It says, in Proverbs 12:18, "Reckless words pierce like a sword." Proverbs 18:21 raises the stakes even higher: "The tongue has the power of life or death." Your words are either making the people around you feel more alive inside, or they're killing them inside. We replay people's failures over and over, we diminish people by constantly comparing them to someone else, we mark them, maybe for life with the names we call them. We spew out reckless words to win the moment, but we scar people for life.
Jesus said, "Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." ( Matthew 12:35) A runaway mouth comes from something down deep inside; a dark, angry, wounded heart. Until the heart gets fixed, the mouth will keep shrinking and scarring people we care about. It's all part of this sin thing the Bible talks about; our separation from God because we've pushed Him out to do things the way we want to do them. The hurt we inflict comes from a sinful heart.
God knows that. That's why He sent His one and only Son to pay the price for our sin, to rise from the dead, to make it possible to be forgiven for every hurting and unholy thing I've ever done or said.
Ezekiel 36:26-27, our word for today from the Word of God, makes this incredible promise: "I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit in you. I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness." A new heart, cleansed by Jesus' forgiveness, and filled with His love. And a new beginning for any man or woman who reaches out to Jesus in total faith, admitting their sin, surrendering their sin, and grabbing Jesus as their personal Rescuer from their personal sin.
If you've never done that, then you've never experienced the difference His love can make. The people you love have never experienced God's love coming through you. But all that can change today if you'll make this the day that you say, "Jesus, I'm Yours." I'd love to help you do that. That's why I've put a brief explanation of how to begin your life-changing relationship with Jesus on our website. You can read it or listen to it at yoursforlife.net. Or you can call and get a printed copy of Yours for Life at 877-741-1200.
Because of Jesus, it doesn't have to be the way that it's always been. He's been loving and changing people for a long, long time, and He's waiting to do that for you. Letting Jesus into your life is the most loving thing you will ever do for the people you love.