What Kind of Fruit Does Your Tongue Bear?!

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.  Proverbs 18:21, NAS

I think this is a pretty familiar verse, particularly its warning that with our tongues we have the power to encourage or discourage, to build up or crush others' spirits. That's a heavy responsibility, and we tend to let our tongues wag pretty freely! The second half of the verse may be less familiar. While we have that power at the time we speak, but our words don't end there. If we use the tongue's power destructively, that power will bite us back! It might be the bitter fruit of crushing our children's spirits that will haunt us in their adult years. Or it might be that our tongues are so uncontrolled that we put down the wrong person, some one who is able to hurt us worse than our words hurt them. On the other hand, if we use the power of our tongue to build up others, God promises that we will eat that fruit as well. I think it safe to say that the fruit of a tongue that blesses will be much sweeter than that of a tongue that crushes!

What Is Your Value

Society values people by what they have and what they do to get  what they have. Christ values us for what we are, and what we do is because of what He does in us.

Gadgeterianism & Me

I'm not a big Gadgeterian. It's a little odd that I'm not, since I live in Silicon Valley and work in the electronics industry, the home and source of gadgets. It's not that I don't have or don't use gadgets. I'm typing this on a Nook Color e-reader/tablet computer.

 

I'm just not that into gadgets. I try to focus on things that will be useful and use what I get (and not use them for the sake of using them). They are things to be used, not things to have! I use them, they don't own me. What I really don't get is people who have to have the latest (whatever). And there certainly are quite a few Silicon Valley companies who stake their future - it's almost their business model - on producing the latest (thing) and persuading people they need that latest (thing). It might seem pretentiously religious to say this, but I do not think this is how God intends for His children to live!

Reasons for Doing Good

"Because it is right," is a good reason for doing right things, but it is not the best reason. "Because I love and fear/respect God and it pleases Him," is the best reason. For Christians it is the right reason.

Compartmenting Scripture

Our home group is starting a study that will focus on the fruit of the Holy Spirit, as spoken of in Galatians 5. It occurred to me that we Christians tend to put spiritual things in neat boxes. Galatians 5 lists The Fruit of the Spirit; 1 Corinthians 12 lists The Gifts of the Spirit; Matthew 5 has The Beatitudes; 1 Corinthians 13 is The Love Chapter.

Certainly, these passages speak of those topics, often very eloquently, but those are not the only places the Bible speak of those topics. By affixing special labels to passages such as these, the risk is that we limit what we learn and understand ... about the kind of character traits the Holy Spirit works in believers ... about the ways in which the Holy Spirit empowers believers for ministry ... about the kind of character God blesses ... about selfless love. God spread teachings and examples of these qualities throughout His word. And we should honor Him by learning from all of His word.