Mat 12:36

But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

I am challenged by a very clear memory that replays conversations for me, especially those where my witness was, shall we say, “less than perfect.”  And I am challenged by a vivid imagination that plays back conversations with a modified dialogue, one where the words I speak are almost always either direct quotations or clear allusions to Bible passages.

I am not really sure which kind of mental video pains me more, the first kind, where I spoke “idle words” for which Jesus tells me I will have to answer, or the other one, where I could have spoken words Jesus would have said.  Of course the worst situation is one where both videos play in my mind: Not only did I speak poorly, but I missed an opportunity to speak the words of my Lord.

I have written before of a time in my life when my knowledge of Scripture was used to confuse Christians, in an effort to at least embarrass them, and hopefully “deliver them” from the Christian faith.  It pleases me to know that my knowledge of Scripture is now used (sometimes) to speak as Christ would.  I know God is pleased when I do this.  And I know He is not happy when I do not.

The best part of this is the awareness that the more I spend time reading the Bible devotionally, the more the words of Scripture are burned into my mind, and the easier it is to bring them out when God gives me the opportunity to speak for Him here on earth.

“Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

I will pray for you, and will you please pray for me?  Pray that, when the moment arrives, and God trusts us to speak for Him, that we will be able to use the words Jesus would use, and not the idle words for which we will someday have to answer.  And let’s all pray for the people God honors us with the opportunity to to speak to.   Let us all pray that God’s words will be the first ones that come to mind whenever we open our mouths to speak.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Stevene

This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under comic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.