Matthew 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."
Oh man does that include Facebook?
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| Top Fuel |
There I am in the front row. Our hearts were roaring as loud as the engines of the Dragsters that were fueled by Alcohol. We have waited all night for this moment there the two best guys were racing each other. The smoke of the burning tires filled our nostrils and clothes mixed with the distinct smell of burnt alcohol fuel. The sound was deafening. We tried to talk to each other and our mouths moved but the sound was drowned out by two of the coolest machines to ever grace earth. The idle was awesome. As the lights beat down the rack to green so our hearts raced with total elation this is the moment we have been waiting for. As green came the sound of the engines went to 10 times louder and our ears felt blown. The exhaust fuel of the car closest to us sprayed us like an elephant taking a bath. It stunk. My eyes began to burn instantaneously. I tried to keep them open for the 2 second run down the 1/4 mile track. Screaming so loud we lost our voices. We walked away with smiles from ear to ringing ear with the taste of fuel in our mouths and eyes burning like crazy saying that was the best time ever. As much pain as we endured it was the best time ever. As I was reading the verse above I was taken back to this time where the engines were loud when idling but were 10 times louder when going full-throttle. It got me thinking about our words. Our idle words are loud. People hear our idle words, especially those closest to us. We are not the same people when others are around. We have allowances; the dirty 7 have there place in certain situations. I was always taught in home or out of the home to be that person you're supposed to be to everyone. Yet when we give our idle words freedom to slip out here and there it warms the engines of the heart so that when the time is right and the go light is given our words can be 10 times more painful and violent.
I remember back at the Baptist church one time I went to a basketball game between two rival churches it was a heated exchange with very rough play that turned ugly when a guy was checked in the air so that when he came down he landed on his ankle and broke it. The vocabulary I heard was like those engines at the track-deafening. It was echoing off the gym walls 10 times louder than anything we heard before. The Christian brother was in a lot of pain granted. But I have watched in society as the walls of language have morphed into a degradation to where I have heard some preachers openly cuss in their messages. I have never witnessed this personally but I have been involved with private meeting one on one with men in service but its as if I'm their good buddy and the walls of fake come down and there is a slip here a epitaph there. I always get a sick feeling in my stomach and feel tremendously uncomfortable. Now let me not be Pharisaical here I have been the gutter mouth in my time. I grew up in the church and I left the church cussing better than I did when I went in. Hey we are all sinners right?
Yes! that is true. But we are accountable sinners. Just because you're a sinner doesn't give you license to act like one. I have to mind my words. I have been thinking idle cuss words. The trauma of the disasters in the last year and my failing health have weakened my mind to a point where I have been thinking these words in some situations. The other day I stubbed my toe with a hangnail really good. And with a bit lip I muttered a word. Whoops, did my kids hear that? Whew, that was close. HA HA. But the Lord was speaking to my heart that trauma doesn't give me license to allow slips. Trauma doesn't excuse behavior. So in heaven if I am standing before the Lord giving an account am I going to have the trauma card to trump all the whoops. Hmm. Ecc 7:29 "Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." We always seem to try to rationalize things to a point that we are not looking at things. In God's presence that luxury won't be afforded. We will for the first time in many peoples lives stand there... speechless.
Paul in Romans 14:12 says, "So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." We can excuse idle words right? Who cares? It's just linguistic phonics that have been assigned meaning by mankind. Right? Hmm, God made language. Remember the tower of Babel? The Jews were instructed to not cuss even in a foreign language. Solomon had much to say about not cursing the king and rich people.
What do we do? How should we think? For starters preventative measures can be taken by simply following the words of God.
"By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God
continually, that is, the fruit of [our] lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they
watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do
it with joy, and not with grief: for that [is] unprofitable for you. Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly." Hebrews 13:15-18
1 Peter 4:11 "If any man speak, [let him speak] as the oracles of God; if any man
minister, [let him do it] as of the ability which God giveth: that God
in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise
and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."
ECC 10:20 "Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy
bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which
hath wings shall tell the matter."
Who is going to hear your thoughts? God! I always wonder if my angel can hear my thoughts and records them down? But as I ask God to forgive me of that thought or those harsh words in Jesus name. The angel gets out his heavenly white out more like Blood out to blot out the recorded sin. That is a happy thought but the blotting out refers to the Book of life not your deeds. No we will account as the Bible says. Not excuses for sin and cheap grace. So many want to ask if I did this an then asked for forgiveness it'd be okay right? NO that is your buddy Satan in your ear like Eve's. It's okay he'll forgive you. Have fun.... God knows our weaknesses and will excuse things because your a product of upbringing or dysfunctional sociology and dysfunctional theology. Ha Ha I want to be in the court room to hear that excuse. Sad part is that will be most everyone's excuse these days. Jesus said of that generation, "Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will
do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth,
because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of
his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."
Hey it's on you. Each man must give an account of himself to God in the end. Both Christian and Non-Christian, Now the judgement will be diametrically opposite. The Non-Christian will have a harsher judgement. The Christian will loose rewards and be ashamed. I will have to give an account.
After the death of my son I could have cussed up a storm in an angry rage and that would have been perfectly acceptable by anyone's standards. Really God's too? He did tell Ezekiel to not grieve for his wife Ezekiel 24:15-27? Not say one word. Wow. Can't even cry. I did but I didn't cuss or curse God. I didn't need to. I was walking with God he was holding me up. Your in a battle with shrapnel flying around and as your hit and someone is trying to help you back to base how can you blame him for helping you? He didn't pull the trigger. Man did back in the garden.
After my son died, 10 months later my new born daughter was diagnosed with the same disease. I could have cussed then. Yet I was a broken man. I was a wounded man. I needed God to get me through. I wasn't to be blaming God. Although, after the transplant, I wish I had never did. But I did. My daughter had just received the miracle of life through a heart transplant. She was one of the great joys in my life. We came home and tried to get back to some kind of normalcy. It was fake and awkward. We just went through two of the worst tragedies of our lives and we were pretending its all good. I was inside a raging angry man bottled up. I was exploding releasing pressure here and there. I hated how I belittled my kids and my wife. They didn't deserve that. It was a shame it was wrong it was sin. There was no excuse for that. My anger only grew because I didn't know what to do with it. My career was in the toilet we needed money, my ministry had been hijacked by legalism. I was mad. I wanted to quit ministry. I wanted to run away and hide from all the attention and well wishers. I got tired of telling people with a forced smile, "Yea we're okay." No we weren't. It was so hard.
I went to a men's retreat at CCCM. There God came and lovingly took all my anger and sin as I went forward to lay it all down at his feet. I was ordained by Pastor Chuck Smith a year prior. I had the gift of the Holy Spirit and was in fellowship with him... but here I was needing to repent from all the allowances and excuses that led to bad behavior. The flood of cleansing and the filling of Jesus' Holy Spirit was a miracle and a revival. If your in that place like I was. Maybe it's not the loss of a child but a job, spouse infidelity, your own secret sin that Jesus hasn't taken away from you. You must repent! Jesus said, "Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand." That means take all your stinking idle excuses that allow 10 times more bad behavior and lay them down at the feet of Jesus. This kind of repentance means you love Jesus more than your anger and sin. So many say turn from sin. The direction is what we look at. We hear turn and think streets and life direction. NOT. It is turn the frying pan of sin off in your life and chill with Jesus everyday.
I am in Japan, I was here teaching an English Class when the earthquake hit. We are on the 7th floor. It was massive. It was unbelievably massive. We rallied troops for Christ and started relief efforts. We were just trying to do anything for Jesus to get people help and aide. Teams began to come over from the US to help and there I am getting weaker and weaker each day. What is happening to me. I should be at the peak of my game. By Summers end I had to go and stay in a hospital for 7 weeks. I am diagnosed with the same heart condition as my kids. I am a dead man walking. I have a heart condition that I can literally drop at any time. Each day is 100% more precious. I thank God for allowing me one more day with my family and the ministry. Each time I have heart troubles and feel dizzy I think this could be it. But here I am. I could go on for many many years like this. But each day is more special. I don't have time to allow my idle words to be cynical and sarcastic giving way to cursing leaders and rich people. Whoops what have I been doing on Facebook? Wow it's like a reoccurring disease yea that is sin and that is why we are given instruction how to behave in the New Testament not excuse behavior.
Your choice. Romans 12:14 "Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not." AND CURSE NOT.
Imagine your joy, if you do what the Bible says and dwell in the praises of the Lord and are filled with scripture and you come to a difficult time where your engine revs up to 10 X the volume and you shout the praises of God. Hallelujah! It don't matter how bad the situation stings or smells or feels. The pain? Who Cares? Praise God we don't have to be ashamed of our excusable words.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are]
honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure,
whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report;
if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these
things. Philippians 4:8
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14
In Acts, chapter 15 the legalists come into town and rip off everyone's joy. Paul and Barnabas are ticked. There was no small discussion. Now in a Jewish culture this means elevated voices and hands flying everywhere. The argument was the ole your not saved because…. There are too many ministries putting heavy yokes around peoples necks to make them Christian especially here in Japan. They want to de-weed the soil prior to planting the seed. They want to make the person worthy of the seed. Jesus never did that. He just spoke the word and scattered the seed. The legalistic guys were of the persuasion to medicate with the law. The Law will make you worthy of Jesus and the Jewish culture. It is interesting to point out that the Law is not a medicine. It is a blood test to see what pulses through your heart. You want to test your spiritual blood. You apply the law and wham you have dangerously high levels of covetousness. You have a lying tongue disease.
So as God sees the heart as a sickly diseased thing why do well meaning Christians say quiet frequently, "Oh you just have to trust your heart on that one." Proverbs 28:26 says those who trust in the heart are fools. So if your on an airplane and the engine just quit you have to put on a parachute. The flight attendant hands you a moldy bag that is stained from being stored in the back of the plane. It is fuzzy with mold and smells bad. A bug crawls out. The Attendant says, "Its okay you just need to trust the chute!" WHAT? Give me a new one. Trusting your heart is like that rotten chute. You won't know the result and risk disaster. 
We need to trust God especially when he says in John 7:38 "He that believes on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." You want to be a healthy Christian. Why do we trust in sick evil wicked things? But if we believe in Jesus and look to him we will out of our belly/ (or heart as another translation says) will flow rivers of living water. Not just a stream of sentimentality. It is a multiplicity of rivers of living water.
But if you plant a seed you greatly enhance your chances of seeing Christ work in your lifetime to save that person. Faith in Christ comes by hearing the Word of God. Those who trust their heart are fools and spew poison that leads to eternal death. So be healthy by giving your sick heart to Jesus and allow him to give you the upgrade to a powerful loving heart that is full of rivers of living water. 
One of the sayings that Pastor Romaine said that I loved so much was, "Be a garden hose in the hand of a two year old with the Word of God." They will be walking somewhere and not be conscious that they are dousing everything on the way. I love it. Amen
Praise God for Noise
