Post Pandemic Preaching

"Evil plans are an abomination to Jehovah, But pleasant words are pure."

Proverbs 15:26 in the Recovery Version

[This is the 11th lesson of this series]

The old book of Proverbs (part of the Jewish Scriptures) is a treasure chest for God's (Jehovah's) wisdom.

It is 31 chapters long, and each one can be read in one sitting, just right for daily readings. In fact, we can read one chapter a day easily if we will just decide to do so. Many wise sayings out there has its origins in Scriptures, so why not go to the source. We might be surprised that many of the things we say or hear are in fact iterations of sayings which were taken from Scriptures.

Series on Proverbs - God's Wisdom Series

Anyway, in Proverbs 18, it says:

Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

And like real fruit, the fruits of our words are both sweet and bitter. Well it can be sour as well. But eventually once our words go out, it is hard to take them back and they come (boomerang) back to us.

When we speak nice words, words of encouragement, words that unite and not tear down and divide, words that motivate and not discourage, and words that heal and not hurt then the fruits are pleasant. So in other words if we do not have evil plans or say things out of evil intentions then the fruits we will eat will not necessarily be tasting bitter.

They say karma is a b---- (the b word). This is a common saying and is true. It has its roots in many sayings all around the world, but is also in the bible.

Apostle Paul wrote:

The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life (or a roundabout way of saying life or death is in the power of our words).

Gardening

People reap what they sow. A person who plants tomatoes, expects to harvest tomatoes and it is the same with our words.

Jesus of Nazareth said a few times that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Meaning whatever evil intentions we have in our hearts, however hard we try to hide it, will eventually come out of our mouth with the words we say. In the same manner our good intentions will produce sweet words.

Pandemic of Harsh Words

There has been a lot of angry and hateful and unprintable words that has come out during this pandemic time, both out in the real world, masked or unmasked, social distancing or right up face to face, and also inside the virtual world, in virtual meetings, email, text messaging, social media, youtube, facebook, twitter, tiktok, this list is endless.

Jesus said it is not what comes into our mouth which pollutes us, but what comes out of it -- out of what fills our hearts. This is why God takes our old stubborn, hurting, hardened hearts and puts in a new heart -- one thats sympathizes, empathizes, one which is sensitive to God's heart and others' (a healed heart).

This is the only way the first followers of Jesus could obey the two commandments that Jesus left them to keep (the same we too can).

No He didn't give us 613 or so commandments. He only gave us two -- love God and love others, okay love ourself is included.

We can do all three only if we accept and use the same love God first gave us through the finish work of redemption and reconciliation of Jesus Christ. There is no other way. Hence Jesus said, He is The Way.