June 28, 2022
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I was a young teenager when I faced my first issue with gun control. My dad took me out hunting pheasants. I was a rookie with that 12-gauge shotgun. The first time a pheasant roared out of those cornstalks, it scared me so much, I couldn't fire a shot. I had no gun control.
But so much deadly violence and so many heart-wrenching deaths of innocent victims have now catapulted gun control issues seriously to center stage. And this isn't a forum for debating those questions; there are other places for that.
I do know that my Bible commands me to pray for "all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness" (1 Timothy 2:2). That's always a good reminder. But while our political leaders work on what to do with guns, I've got another issue to deal with on a much more personal level - chainsaws. Long before there were guns, there were chainsaws - the kind we carry in our mouth.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Verbal Chainsaws Cutting Deep."
Because, as the Bible says, "Reckless words pierce like a sword" (Proverbs 12:18). Our words alone can cut a person to the heart. No blood on the outside, but all over on the inside. God goes on to say that "the tongue has the power of life and death" (Proverbs 18:21). It's true. Words can either make a person feel more alive or more dead inside.
The chainsaw called the tongue cuts long and cuts deep. We all know that from our personal experience. Think about the ugly names, the scarring words, the crippling put downs that we've never forgotten. Chances are, the person who spewed those words doesn't even remember them, but you sure do. And yet, we who are the wounded are also the wound-ers.
God's pretty blunt about our verbal chainsaw. He describes it in our word for today in the Word of God in James 3. He calls the tongue "a world of evil...set on fire by hell...full of deadly poison" (James 3:2, 5-8). I wonder how many times I have left - to borrow the name of a dark chapter in Native American history - a "trail of tears" behind me. From my careless words, my critical words? All the nice words don't erase the nasty words. James 3 again says, "Out of the same mouth comes praise and cursing...this should not be" (James 3:10). "No man can tame the tongue" it says. We don't want to keep wounding people with our words. But, honestly, we just keep doing it.
The disarming of the human tongue requires nothing short of divine intervention; a "Savior," to use the Bible word, asking Jesus to take control of an out-of-control tongue. When we, like an addict in rehab, admit to Him that we're powerless to tame our tongue, we take the first step to changing.
Of course, our words are only the symptom, they're not the problem. Jesus' diagnosis cuts right to the heart of the issue literally. He says, "Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34). Dark words are really the toxic radiation emitting from the waste dump in our heart. That's why only Jesus can tame a tongue, because only Jesus can change a heart. His game-changing sacrifice for our sin on a cross means that "sin shall not be your master" (Romans 6:14) including the relentless sins of the tongue.
Jesus can clean out a heart that's full of anger and resentment, the pain of the past, and turn a life-robbing chainsaw into a life-giving river. That's why I need to make King David's prayer my prayer each day. He says, "Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips." After all, the man who conquered death should have no problem taming my tongue.
If you've never begun that cleansing,power-giving, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ and you would like to, tell Him that today, "Jesus, I'm yours." If you're ready for this kind of life change that only He can make possible, visit our website, ANewStory.com. And today, make Him not just the Savior, but a personal Savior for you.