Song: Words https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anVweXDcxhA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGXDfxWM2r0
Prayer: Father God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for each precious heart here. Help us to REST in your deep steadfast abiding love for us. Help us for at least this bit of time, to simply “be” with you and one another as we gather around your Word. In Jesus name, amen.
James 3:1-12
Well it has been difficult for me to settle into this chapter of James. I mean I “get it” but could not figure out how we are to approach it with application for our own individual lives. Not all of us are “teachers”.
Or wait….maybe we are in a sense. Each and every one of us have people in our lives, our sphere of influence. Those people are watching us. Sometimes we are “teaching” Jesus without saying a single word. Other times they may ask us questions. So in a sense we are all teaching by our actions if not our words.
Therefore it does have application. And of course if you teach children or grandchildren or a literal class or Bible study somewhere it has an even deeper meaing.
We are going to just read James 3:1-12 now.
Just the chapter heading might ring a bell for all of us.
Taming the Tongue
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.
If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.
So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!
And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.
For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue.
It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?
Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
Dodi Note:
We could read that first part about teachers and then skip over the rest, but it does not say people who are not teachers will not be judged by what they say. It says teachers will be judged MORE severely. All of us need to heed this portion of James.
Think back to today or the past week. How many times did you say something then wish you had either not said it or had said it differently?
How often did you talk unkindly about someone else who might have upset you?
Or worse how often did you speak unkindly about yourself?
More and more as I age I catch myself saying to myself things that are not true. Like, “Stupid, you are so dumb”. Or, “I can’t do this” while I am actually doing it.
Or milder things such as, “Things never go right for me.”
Do you ever catch yourself?
Let’s look at some other verses about our speech, the way we are instructed to talk. And you know what? As we learn to be aware of what we are saying outloud or even “inside our heads” and modify that our entire outlook on life will change.
Words are powerful. Words we say and think reflect what is in our heart and what we truly believe.
Col 4:5-6
5 Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Dodi Note: I think this is about getting along with others. But it also tells us our speech, the things we say should be gracious and seasoned with salt. Salt makes food “tasty” maybe our words should be seasoned with grace and then bless others.
Psalm 109:17
He loved to curse; let curses come upon him! He did not delight in blessing; may it be far from him!
Dodi Note: Oh no! We do not want to be acursed do we? Lord help us learn to tame our tongues and DELIGHT in speaking BLESSINGS over ourselves and others we come in contact with.
A kind of fun learning tool, is to be intentional about speaking a blessing over random clerks in stores or strangers we run into. It costs nothing.
A more difficult person to learn to do that with is our immediate family member or friends.
And even harder at least for me, was to learn to be kind toward myself.
Remember the song? Words can build you up, words can tear you down?
James said we bless and curse. Another verse says blessings or curses are in the POWER of the tongue. It is in Proverbs 18:21 and it actually says….
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.
I really want to speak LIFE not DEATH over everyone including myself.
One of the verses that I try to remember is found in Deuteronomy 30:19 .
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,
Dodi Note: That is a powerful verse, setting before us a powerful choice. It is part of a beautiful chapter where the Hebrew people are being exhorted before entering the Promised Land. I will show you a bit of it.
15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. 16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.
17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.
19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
Dodi Note: I believe each and every day we still have that sort of choice. To obey God and live a full rich abundant life or to deny God’s ways and live a miserable hopeless life.
And living a full rich abundant life does not preclude hardship. A full rich abundant life is a life of JOY and trust.
Ever see a video of those very poor children in a third world country playing with JOY in the dust? They have nothing but JOY is still part of their heart.
We were created and designed by God for joy. Each and every moment we have a choice, don’t we? We can focus on what we DO have or we can focus on what we don’t have. We can choose to obey God and bless others or not. I am trying to learn to watch my words and thoughts and live that Philippians 4:8 life more and more. As I choose what to think about, my speech and actions are changing too.
A reminder: 8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.
https://www.bible-knowledge.com/power-t ... us-christ/
I want to spend some time looking at some other verses about times when blessings were spoken over others. It is from an article called:
The Power To Bless Through Jesus Christ
By: Michael Bradley
But first I want to share a verse he did not mention. God is a GOD whose desire is to bless His children. We ARE His children. You are his child and so am I. We are not just children, we are BELOVED children. God is not as good as the best earthly father ever, God is our PERFECT Father. And he gave us a cool promise about blessings and curses. It is found in the Ten Commandments. But we often skip over it or read it in different translations.
In ESV it says (in context): 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Verse 6 in other translations says, NLT But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.
KJV And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
NASB but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
CEV But if you love me and obey my laws, I will be kind to your families for thousands of generations.
The blessing of God and his love endure for thousands of generations. Do you want to bless your generations? And other people? I do. Don’t we want to serve God and point others toward His Salvation? I think we do it by one word choice at a time and one obeidence at a time too. Let’s see what the author has for us.
Another very powerful tool we have in our arsenal as born-again believers is the ability to bless other people in the name of Jesus.
I think this is one of those benefits that we have forgotten how powerful it really is. We are so used to praying before our meals and asking God to bless the food with which we are about to eat, that we forget how much further we can really go with this privilege that we have already received from the Lord.
The ability to bless other people and other things is an extremely powerful prayer tool and every Christian should try and do it on some kind of a regular basis, as you never know how far God will actually work with you in this realm.
Here are some of the definitions on exactly what a blessing is from some of the different Bible Dictionaries:
* To bestow happiness or prosperity upon; praise and glorify
* Pronouncement of God’s gracious favor
* The act of declaring, or extending through pronouncement, God’s favor and goodness upon others
*
* As you will see with some of the examples I will give you below, there is literally an infinite number of things and situations that you can try and bless in the name of Jesus. And when you do bless other people or other situations, real life spiritual transactions can actually take place with the person or situation you are blessing. In other words, the Holy Spirit can actually move to impart the specific blessing that you have just prayed over someone.
* “Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” And He took them up in His arms and blessed them. (Mark 10:15-16)
* Dodi Note: I love this picture of Jesus. The disciples and the culture of the time felt children were a bother. But Jesus BLESSED them. Do you ever want to be held close and blessed? Like the picture in this verse. Well we ARE His children. And maybe we can start to give others what we desire. Or could we begin to catch our thoughts and bless ourselves by remembering how much Jesus really does love us?
* “The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the habitation of the just.” (Proverbs 3:33)
* Dodi Note: We are “the just” because we are “in Christ” and have His imputed rightness…righteousness. Therefore we are blessed. Sometimes we need to just change our focus and look for the blessings. We are alive. We are here with computers. We can look forward to being here with one another again and again. This place is a blessing. (Thank you eye). We are a blessing. etc
* “And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven.” (Luke 24:50)
*
Dodi Note: Wow! The last thing Jesus did was bestow a blessing upon those He loved.
* “Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitudes.” (Luke 9:16)
* Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Luke 1:42)
Dodi Note: This is a cool one. Blessed are you, Elizabeth said to Mary…the unwed mother who probably had become an outcast among her family and friends. And we know that yes, she was indeed blessed. But was her life perfect? Or easy? No, but she was still blessed. Probably one of the most blessed humans who ever lived. Not easy always but blessed. Can we say the same? I am still learning to think of myself as both blessed and a blessing. Have you ever considered yourself that way? As a blessing and one who is blessed and gives forth blessings to others?
* “So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.” (Joshua 22:6)
Dodi Note: In the OT fathers always blessed their wives and children. Leaders blessed, prayed and spoke blessing over their people. Jewish men and Messanic Christians still have the Father speak forth a blessing over their wives and children at least once a week on Shabbat. I have seen it done and it is one of the most beautiful things ever. Once we read a book at our church, many years ago called “The Blessing” by Trent and Smalley. It was something I wish I had followed through on.
* “You are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'” (Acts 3:25)
Dodi Note: Abraham got a huge one and we got to reap the benefits.
* “When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.” (Deuteronomy 8:10)
Dodi Note: This is one of the instructions we were given through the OT.
* “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of His benefits.” (Psalm 103:2)
Dodi Note: This is a beautiful Psalm. Let’s read the first part together as a blessing for our hearts and difrected toward God Himself.
Psalm 103:1-5 Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.