“Stop Talking”

Hey there BCU Fam!

For this post, because of the informal format, please tune into the podcast recording (click here or on the BCU avatar below) and refer to the written post for the highlights. We pray the post blesses and encourages you. If so, please thumbs up AND leave a comment! Thank you and enjoy the post!

Podcast highlights:

  • Because of my schedule, I often update my friends about the happenings in my life while I am on the go.
  • In a seemingly innocent conversation, I was in mid-sentence, the Lord told me to stop talking.
  • I initially questioned if I was hearing correctly, but the Lord assured me it was Him!
  • It is important for us to hear God, obey and apply the lesson from the correction so we’ll see Him in peace.

Hebrews 12:11

11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

James 3:5-10

5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:

8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.

10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be

Proverbs 21:23

23 Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.

Jeremiah 17:9

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

I John 3:20

20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.

Psalm 51:10

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Matthew 15:18-19

18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.

19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

Ephesians 4:29

29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Revelation 12:10-11(a)

10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony;

BCU Fam, the update I was giving was meant as a form of entertainment, so in the moment, it “felt” okay to keep going in the conversation. While I did not understand why the Lord asked me to stop in the moment, after some thought, I realized that perhaps in my zeal to share, the hearer may not have been edified at what was said, maybe it could have caused them to stumble, or perhaps the talk was out of a place in my heart that God needed to work on. Or maybe a combination of all of the above. As I work though that in prayer with God, I do thank Him for hearing and obeying His voice! When we do get the victory, it’s important to testify about it, and therefore God is glorified, the accuser is horrified, the people are edified and Jesus is magnified! Amen? Amen! Let’s pray!

Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank You for the time we had together and the lesson You taught us about our communication, and how we should filter our words through the Word of God. Bless us Lord, to acknowledge You in all of our ways, including in causal conversation. With Your help, we want to have wholesome conversations with laughter and fun, but only from a pure place from our hearts, and that edify and administer grace to the hearer.

Lord, please bless those of us who struggle in this area to be sensitive to Your voice as we interact with others, so that You are well-represented, honored, glorified and praised in our lives. Thank you for the victory in our conversations so that we can see You in peace. It’s in Jesus name that we thank You for this and all You do for us, we pray and we bless Your name, Amen!

As a reminder, if you have not subscribed to BlenCouragesU.com, please do so! It’s free and a good place to get the encouragement, inspiration and information based the Word of God! Additionally, you can also see what we are up to on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Also, if you so inclined, join us for our Thursday Night Bible Study––we are LIVE on YouTube 8:05EST/7:05CST. You can also listen in and subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform BCU is available on. Some of those platforms are Amazon Music, AnchorFm, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify,  Stitcher Radio , and many more of your favorite podcast platforms!

Thank you SO much for stopping by! May God bless, keep and make His face to shine upon you as you #StayOnTheWall!

Love,

BCU

BlenCouragesULeave a comment

The repeat offender…

Hey 👋🏾 there BCU Family!

Typically, you have the option of listening to our podcast, reading the notes or both. For this post, because of the conversational format, please tune into the podcast recording and refer to the written post for the corresponding Scriptures. We pray the post blesses and encourages you.  If so, please thumbs up or leave a comment! Thank you and enjoy the post!

A while back the Lord blessed us to conclude a study on #TamingTheTongue–where we talked about how we will be offended (Matthew 18:1-7) or we will OFFEND others (James 3:2). Armed with this knowledge, we want to respond to offenses and apologize to those we offend in a spirit of love and humility.

During a conversation with a friend of mine, we talked about “repeat offenders”,  and how that type of disobedience is offensive. Moreover, not only is it offensive to the person who gave the directive or asked a behavior be stopped, but offensive to others who are actually obedient (it’s distracting and often causes more work for the compliant people–for example, getting to work on time, etc.), and most of all, practiced offending offends God. Yes, it does.

Please click below to listen in!

Scriptures to meditate on:

Woe unto the world because of the offenses! For it is needful that offenses will come, but woe to the that man who brings the offense (Matthew 18:7).

In many things, we offend all. If any man offends not in word, the same is a perfect man, and is able to also bridle the whole body (James 3:2). 

To him that knows to do good and doesn’t do it, it is sin (James 4:17). 

And Samuel said, has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than to sacrifice, and to hearken, than the fat of rams (I Samuel 15:22). 

So, BCU Fam, what’s your reaction to practiced disobedience equating to sin? What is it that you may be holding on to, in the way of repeat offending? What other thoughts do you have on this call to action?  Please scroll on down to the comments section and let’s continue our conversation!

In the meantime, if you have not subscribed to BlenCouragesU.com, please do so! It’s free and a good place to get the encouragement, inspiration and information based the Word of God! Additionally, you can also see what we are up to on Facebook, Twitter , Instagram, and  YouTube! You can also listen in and subscribe to the podcast on Stitcher Radio , Google Play, and iTunes!

Thank you SO much for stopping by. God bless, keep and make His face to shine upon you as you #StayOnTheWall!

Love,

BCU

BlenCouragesU13 Comments

Series: Speech Therapy..the words of my heart.. (Part 6).

Hey BCU family!

As usual, please enjoy the audio podcast (click on the icon below), the written transcript, or both! In either case, God bless you as you read, hear and apply the Word of God.

Let’s review our anchor Scripture! 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). Last lesson, we talked through some examples of idle words as Jesus warned us about in Matthew 12:33-37. Additionally, the book of James chapter 3 reminds us about how our tongues, as small as they are, are an  unruly evil and full of deadly poison. On top of that, we bless God and curse men with the same mouth and that really ought not to be. So, let’s wrap up #SpeechTherapy with some of the other idle words that can get is into trouble.

G.  Talking too quickly–He that answers a matter before he hears it it is folly and a shame to him (Proverbs 18:13).

Did you even stop to consider the victim and their side of the story? How many of us judge, jury and execute someone based on one-half of the story? Or on opinion? Or on how YOU understand it? In some cases, what you thought you saw? What you thought you heard? What if people made their decisions about YOU on what one half of the story? How many people have been wrongly accused and punished on partial info?  Case in point..
A good while back, my little podcast helpers, Jaz and Peanut were at my house and I came upstairs to find a drawing on my wall. Now, I do NOT think that’s as cute as others may—we have paper aplenty over here. Now, immediately Jaz says Peanut did it and he says no. Initially, it did look like Peanut’s handiwork and wall drawing is his style, so I started to scold him, BUT…the Lord stopped me, led me to question further and look closely at the picture and the detail…it turned about that Jaz, who is older and should have KNOWN better was the culprit! I almost took dessert from the wrong kid! James 1:19 says to be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath. This way, we can get the proper information and make sound decisions based on what God reveals.

H.  It’s not your story to tell. Yep, this is an area that all of us have struggled in from time to time, myself included. Let’s go to the Word of God.

A talebearer tells secrets, but he that is of a faithful spirit conceals the matter (Proverbs 11:13).

Where no wood is the fire goes out, so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceases. (Prov. 26:20)

Slanderer/whisperer/backbiter/–they all fall under the umbrella of talebearing. Some historical research revealed that a talebearer in Old Testament days. was equivalent to trader or merchant—a merchant carries/sells goods;  a talebearer brings AND carries information. Can someone say confidentiality? Moreover, Jewish law says all things are considered secret unless the person tells you otherwise. Gossip hurts three people—the teller, the hearer and the subject. So three things:

  1. As people confide in us, let’s keep the information to ourselves, rather than over dinner with family or friends. Refer back to Proverbs 11:13.
  2. We also need to stop receiving gossip and slanderous talk from others. Pray for a word of wisdom to share with the gossiper so that gets shut down AND FAST! You may lose a friend or two, but God knows how to work it out.
  3. Keep in mind that Romans 1:29-32 mentions among other things that whisperers, backbiters and malicious people AND those who take please in participating–no matter how trivial are will not enter the kingdom of God. No amount of information is worth losing your soul over.

Another thing the Lord brought to me was not just speaking verbally, but POSTING in this e-world we live in. We speak via posts.

I. Watch what you click and share.
There are so many stories about people and what’s going on with them, and it can draw us in. I was scrolling through the newsfeed and saw a story posted by a fellow “Christian”. The headline read about a Christian couple (who I like quite a bit), where it looked like they were splitting up. My heart dropped a bit because who liked that report? I’m like oh, I need to pray for them..this must be a request from them…etc. So yep, I checked it out and come to find out, it wasn’t true—in fact, the couple were talking about how strong their marriage was after all the years, trials, etc.

The issue: 1) is how the poster entitled his post 2) and the source he used seemed more like “The Enquirer” type tactics—they bait you to get you to read the story. 3) Why even go there? Why post something that intentionally deceives the audience? Maybe the poster didn’t think anything of it, but what does the Word say? The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. (Proverbs 18:8).

My takeaway: I’m quite leery of the person and their posts now. I’m learning to leave that stuff alone. I thought I heard the Spirit say to leave it alone, but I clicked anyway. Lesson learned. As someone who wants to get someone’s attention, I understand catchy titles, hashtags,etc, but I don’t want to ever intentionally deceive my audience into seeing something that isn’t there. This is where they yay and nay come in.

2) The other thing is watching what we REPOST.
2a) Why share posts where the original poster has profanity in the post? Or okay…not profanity, but the letters that mean the words. Or the symbols in place of the words (@* –), y’all know what I mean. Why is that okay? It isn’t. We talked that #SpeechTherapy part 4, where Matthew 12:33-37 talks about swearing and idle words. Replacing a swear word/phrase with its initial/s is still swearing.

2b) Video posts where people repost—with this disclaimer: “please excuse the language/profanity/partial nudity/music with cursing in the background, but the message is really good”. Really?!

Ok, so lets say there is box with a pizza on the table. At some point, a rat dances across the right corner of the pizza. Are you going to eat the part where the rat didn’t dance? Five second rule! Hey, he didn’t touch that piece, though—it’s still good, right? No, you likely will NOT eat it!

Same thing. Why promote the “good” part of what someone is saying rather than rejecting the profane message? A little leaven leaveth the whole lump. (Galatians 5:9).

2c) Consider the source—do we check the source of where the post came from prior to reposting? There was some post about someone who was dancing in the Holy Ghost from a different denomination—and it was a beautiful thing! I didn’t doubt it was a legit praise, now and I REALLY wanted to repost it. There was something about the original poster—something on his wall, some nekked pic or some smoky lounge something that made me uncomfortable, so I followed the leading of Lord and just refrained from posting it.

#BottomLine: Do we really want to knowingly repost anything that has origins in something that doesn’t honor God? I don’t want to drive any traffic to a Fb’er whose beliefs are obviously counter-productive to God. No, I don’t expect every post to be a full of Scripture—I have some non-Biblically based, yet wholesome posts on my wall. I don’t expect everyone to be saved or believe like I do. But I like a clean wall.

BCU family, was this a tough lesson or what? Me, too! Yet we praise God for another chance to get things right before we go to see Him. With God’s help and our willingness to be obedient, we WILL be victorious in this area!

This actually concludes #SpeechTherapy season 1–stay tuned for season 2 coming up! Thank you MUCHO for stopping by!  God bless you, make His face to shine upon you, and until we are together again, #StayOnTheWall!

 

 

Love,

 

BCU

 

 

 

 

 

 

BlenCouragesU1 Comment