WATCH Your Words, Actions, Thoughts, Company and Heart

By Boyd Hurst

The Power of Words

Words hold immense power.  As James 3:8 warns, the tongue is difficult to control.  It can build up or tear down, bring life or destruction.  Similarly, Colossians 4:6 encourages us to let our speech be full of grace and seasoned with wisdom.  The words we choose reflect our hearts and can either edify others or lead them astray.

The Weight of Actions

2 Corinthians 5:10 reminds us that we will all stand before Christ’s judgment seat to give an account of our actions.  Everything we do has consequences—whether good or bad.  Our actions should reflect our faith and values, as they are a testimony to those around us.

The Influence of Thoughts

Philippians 4:8 calls us to focus on things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and praiseworthy.  Our thoughts shape our attitudes and behaviors, influencing how we respond to challenges and opportunities.  If we dwell on negativity, fear, or sin, our actions will reflect that.  But if we meditate on what is good, our hearts and lives will be aligned with God’s will.

The Company We Keep

The people we surround ourselves with have a significant impact on our character and choices.  1 Corinthians 15:33 warns, "Do not be deceived: evil company corrupts good habits."  Also in the words of wise Solomon, "Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil." Prov. 4:14.

The Heart as the Source

Proverbs 4:23 further emphasizes the importance of guarding our hearts, "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life."  Jesus teaches in Matthew 15:18-19 that our words, actions, and thoughts come from the heart.  If our hearts are pure, what flows out will also be pure.  But if our hearts are filled with sin, our lives will reflect that.  Keeping our hearts aligned with God’s truth is essential for living a righteous life.

A Call to Watchfulness

2 Timothy 4:5 urges us to "be watchful in all things."  This means being vigilant about our Words, Actions, Thoughts, Company and Heart.  As we strive to live righteously, we must also remember that others are watching us.  Our lives serve as an example, influencing those around us for good or bad.  May we be a light to others, reflecting God’s love and truth in everything we do.

A Salute to a Young Christian Mother

By Larry R. Coffey

Francis Chan wrote a book entitled “Crazy Love” in 2013.  Here is a quote from that book.  "We are consumed by safety.  Obsessed with it, actually.  Now, I’m not saying it is wrong to pray for God’s protection, but I am questioning how we’ve made safety our highest priority.  We’ve elevated safety to the neglect of whatever God’s best is, whatever would bring God the most glory, or whatever would accomplish His purposes in our lives and in the world.”

This reminds me of the Covid pandemic.  Many brethren didn’t attend the worship services for weeks, even months, and some never came back to the church.  That despite the multiple efforts made to provide a safe environment.  That is a once in a 100-year event.  But what about something more common: like the weather.

I have now been a member of the church for 65 years and I have never seen anything keep members away from worship more than the weather.  Something as simple as rain on Sunday morning will keep some away.  Heaven forbid what happens if there is snow or even a forecast of snow.  I want to review two recent weather-related events.

On a recent Sunday morning, it stated snowing about 8:00 am.  Up to three inches was predicted.  Of course, that kept a lot of folks at home.  But, not a young Christian mother with an infant.  She drove by herself almost 50 miles one way to be at worship.  I didn’t actually see her, but it was pointed out to me by one of the men.

Then on Wednesday night of that same week, it was predicted up to one inch of snow on that night starting after 9:00 pm.  I don’t know about others, but from my house to the building, the roads were as clear as any July night.  It did start to snow around 10:00 pm.  I have no lists of people, but I would estimate over one-half of the congregation was absent.

What about our young Christian mother?  Again, I didn’t see her, but a different man other than the one I have mentioned pointed out she was present with her baby.

Another Chan quote: “People who are obsessed with Jesus aren’t consumed with their personal safety and comfort above all else.”

I am told these blogs have low readership.  I am not writing this to put down our members since most are not likely to read it anyway.  I have learned after 65 years, it would be a waste of time.  My purpose is to salute this young mother.  It is obvious to me she is obsessed with Jesus.  Plus, I would not have known this information if two of our men had not been so highly impressed with her, they had to share this news.  And she doesn’t know this is being written.

I am saluting her faithfulness, her example, her commitment and love for our Lord.  She makes me want to be a better person and to never allow safety to come before my commitment to serve my God.  As we read in Heb 10:24-25, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as we see the day approaching.”

Looking At Ourselves: Using Scriptures as the Mirror - Part 1

By Tom Rose

As nearly as I can tell, most Christians as well as secular people today are goal-oriented. It fits the American style. The less popular option is to be process-oriented. Just getting there is not all that counts, because how you get there and what happens to you and to others along the way are at least equally important.

Consider the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Lk. 10:25-37. The priest and Levite on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho were goal-oriented. On their minds were things other than a mugging victim, perhaps important things. The Samaritan of the parable was process-oriented. He, too, was on his way to Jericho, but for him getting there was not only less than half the fun but three-quarters of the pain. He saw not only the road, but the ditches alongside. He didn’t pretend that he had not seen what he saw. He didn’t try to convince himself that his goal down the road was more important than a deed of mercy to be transacted then and there. In stopping and stooping, he was not taking time out of his life; he was living life. Goals are points in time; process is time itself.

In one of his books, William Barclay tells the story of a group of people who were talking about heroism. Everyone, they said, sooner or later must practice some kind of heroism. A brash young man in the group turned to an old woman who looked ordinary and serene; he did not know that life for her had been a series of tragedies. “And what kind of heroism do you practice?” he asked lightly. “I?” she replied. “I practice the heroism of going on.” Recall that Jesus told Peter and Andrew, “Follow me and I will make you to become. ...fishers of men.” (Mk. 1:17), it was not an overnight transformation. Every step along dusty Galilean roads, every encounter with need, every response to happenings, would be a bit of “becoming.”

We generally demonstrate so little staying power. Most often what we do is to leapfrog, bypass the difficult or messy things in life in order to get on with it, when the process of everyday living is what life is mainly about. Even in our attempts to shortcut or anesthetize ourselves, we are “becoming.” When we shut our eyes, stop our ears, try to shield ourselves from feeling our own pain or that of others, we are “becoming.” By the road they traveled and their unique reaction to events along the way, the priest, the Levite–as well as the Samaritan–were in the process of becoming and thereby being shaped into their own respective personalities.

So where does individual responsibility begin? And end? When I look at the way Jesus ministered, He, like we, lived in a sea of need. In that hot land of Palestine, blindness was common, leprosy was a feared scourge, and sickness, hunger and sorrow abounded. Yet, Jesus did not heal all the sick, feed all the hungry, and raise all the dead. Surely Jesus knew He was only scratching the surface of need. How did He live with that knowledge? In searching for an answer, I find it instructive that in all the Gospel accounts, Jesus never turned away anyone who came within the scope of His awareness and ability to help.

Scope of awareness. It was this which placed an inescapable compulsion upon Him, and which places it upon us. When I see, when I hear, and when I know, then something happens to me that has not happened before. It is then that the problem, the concern becomes mine. When the knock comes to my door. When the empty hand reaches toward me. When the eyes look into my eyes. Then I must do something or surrender some piece of my Christian credibility.

Fortunately, awareness is an ability that can be cultivated. We hear what we need to hear, what we want to hear, in the same way that a mother immediately catches the first cry of her awakening baby. However, there are those who are afraid that they will hear something, who avert their eyes lest they see something. How lonely to walk the streets of life, afraid to look up, afraid of what might be seen in even a fleeting glance at another face. In truth, we avert not only our eyes, but also our hearts, lest some compulsion leap across the gap and forever bind us together. For, even from our own small experience, we know deep down that having seen, we cannot ever again unsee. Having heard, we will never again be able to unhear. And unless our conscience is dead, we will have to act.

Consider two scriptures: one paints a negative picture “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” Jas. 4:17. On the other hand, Jn. 3:16 reminds us of a singular, supremely positive event that changed everything, “For God so loved the world that He gave. . .” Let us continue to become and to give of ourselves, as unto the Lord, as that is the penalty, and the incomparable reward, for being a follower of His Son.

Jesus Knew What Was in Man

By Paul Earnhart

From the very beginning of His ministry, Jesus made a great impression on the people who met Him.  Some were impressed negatively.  He did not fit their expectations of the Messiah, and they refused to consider the evidence of His divinity.  Others, who were not prejudiced, saw in Him those qualities which set Him apart from all other men.

This was the result when He first visited Jerusalem after His baptism and the beginning of His personal ministry.  John 2:23 says, “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed on His name, beholding the signs which He did.”

But this early faith was not a deep faith.  Jesus knew full well that some of those early believers would turn against Him.  And so the next verses say, “But Jesus did not trust Himself unto them, for He knew all men, and because He needed not that any one should bear witness concerning man; for He knew what was in a man.”  (John 2:24-25)

Two things are evident from these verses.  First: Jesus was divine.  Ordinary men simply do not know what other men are thinking.  Only God can read a man’s mind; so if Jesus knew what men were thinking, He must have been divine.  His ability to know what men were thinking was demonstrated again and again during His lifetime.  It must have been a frustration to His enemies.

Second: If Jesus knew what the people of His day were thinking, He must know what is in our hearts as well.  We can fool our neighbors and the people at church.  We may even fool our families.  But the Lord knows what is in our heart; He knows our motives and what we really think, regardless of what we say.  And He is the one who will judge us.  Eccl. 12:14 says that "God will bring every work into judgment, and every secret thing, whether it be good or evil."  Are you ready for such judgment?