Encouragement
Throughout the course of our lifetime, the words that come out of our mouths have had, are having, and will often have, a much greater impact than what we realize.
Be it for the better or for the worse, our words not only determine the location of what will be our own eternal experience (1), but can greatly influence the decision making process of others, as well.
On the upside, God will use our words to evangelize, edify, inspire, heal, guide, and encourage others. On the downside, the devil will use our words to deceive, misguide, wound, bully, and discourage others.
Regarding the latter category, Scripture (Matt. 12: 36 NASB2020) warn that, “ . . . for EVERY careless word that people speak, they WILL give an account of it on the day of judgement.”
For believers, the day of judgement can be any day that God chooses to impose divine discipline (2), here on Earth.
The word “careless” in Matt. 12: 36 NASB2020 is an English translation of the Greek word a-r-g-o-s found in the (inspired) wording of the original manuscripts that became what we now know as the Bible.
Argos refers to words that are spoken that cause injury to the one being spoken to, or being spoken about. Argos can include, but not limited to, false doctrine (3), gossip (4), maligning (5), and or murmuring, complaining, and disputing with persons in positions of authority (6).
The tongue is a relatively soft, boneless organ, but can inflict more pain and deeper injury than a clenched fist.
This is not to say that the truth might not be painful to hear. In such cases, the communicator of such truth is to do so with gentleness and respect (7).
Ambassadors for the kingdom of God must develop good diplomatic communication skills, getting the point across without excessive offense.
The difference is that the painful truth is spoken to edify and benefit the recipient, whereas careless or idle words are spoken to hurt, crush the spirit, and intentionally offend and hurt the feelings (or reputation) of the one being spoken to, or being spoken about.
The near-end, last, or departing words of a believer can be either the crowning glory of one’s post salvation spiritual life, as in 2Tim. 4: 7-8, or a bitter acknowledgement of failure of his or her post salvation life, bemoaning all the things that he or she will leave behind, many of which he or she allowed to take the place of God in his or her Earthly experience.
One’s attitude towards his or her impending departure is what confirms or brings into question, much of what he or she, as a Christian, claimed to have believed, throughout the course of his or her time while here on Earth.
The deaths of loved ones, or having a near death or life-threatening experience of our own, will bring to the surface the reality of the need to be prepared for our own inevitable departure, when our appointed time comes.
This is why Scripture (8) says it is more beneficial to go to a wake than a party!
Advancing disciples will tell you that they are not afraid of death, as they are confident of where they are going (9).
Less mature believers will tell you they want to go to Heaven, but not necessarily today.
It is what the process of dying may or may not involve that can raise consternation. Very few healthy, wealthy, active, believers ever reach the level of spiritual maturity where they can honestly say, “to live is (for) Christ, and to die is gain (10).
As long as things are going their way, nominal Christians are quite content to remain here in the devil’s (11) world.
Only as one spiritually matures, does one’s interest in what this world has to offer diminish, being replaced with the things of God.
I believe that one of the reasons God allows social isolation and physical conditions (12) associated with the aging process, to put limits on how and where we can spend our time, is to give us a grace period before we depart, in order to meditate on eternal issues that we didn’t seem to find the time for earlier.
Spiritually immature Christians can be just as earthly-minded and oriented as their unbelieving counterparts, evidenced by the content of their prayer requests, predominately focused on the here and now.
Human beings have their natural limitations. There can come a time when many believers may feel that they have “had enough” of the pain and suffering that life here on Earth can bring, to the point that they would consider their departure to be an answered prayer.
But the advancing disciple has learned that he or she is not here to do what comes natural, but to do what is supernatural with the enabling and sustaining power (13) that God supplies.
Along the road to spiritual maturity, the advancing disciple has put all of his or her plans (that were independent of what God had in mind) “back on the shelves,” making His plan and their plan, one in the same.
Advancing disciples will have no desire to remain here in the devil’s world once all their divine assignments have been completed, but neither would they want to depart, leaving any undone work behind.
The fact is, God has a plan, with work for His advancing disciples to accomplish, during each and every day of our post salvation spiritual life, up to and including the day of our departure.
If you are a disciple, and you woke up this morning, there is divine work for you to do TODAY!
Our opportunities to deliver the most powerful testimonies will be during times when facing the greatest challenges.
The days in our individual life span were numbered (14) by God and recorded in the Divine Decree (15) BEFORE we took our first breath.
Some of us will see our Earthly departure coming, giving some of us our final opportunity to prepare for it. This foreknowledge will provide those who receive it with an opportunity to express a powerful testimony to those around them.
Others, will never know what hit them, but will suddenly find themselves in Heaven or in the Torments of Hades. Their sudden and unexpected departure has a testimony of its own for others to acknowledge, as no one knows if we too, will experience such a departure.
End of Part One
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(1) Matt. 12: 37 (2) Heb. 12: 6 (3) 1Tim. 4: 1 (4) Roman 1: 29 (5) Eph. 4: 29 (6) Phil. 2: 14 (7) 1Pet. 3: 15 (8) Eccl. 7: 2 (9) 2Cor. 5: 8/Rom. 8: 1 (10) Phil. 1: 21 (11) Luke 4: 6 (12) Eccl. 12: 1-7 (13) John 15: 5 (14) Psalms 39: 4 (15) Psalms 139: 16
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Oh how true of the tongue. What casts more seeds of lies into the field of humanity than the gossiping tongue?
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