Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits (ESV)
The complexity of the tongue, untamable but yet very powerful, and if taken into the captivity of Christ, a tool that can bring much glory to His name. James 3:8-10 “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.” Clearly we see a stark contrast in the blessing and cursing of the tongue, one leads to life and the other leads to death. The choice is ours, whether we choose death or life we will eat the fruits of that choice.
I want to focus in on the fruits of one who chooses life. Which brings me to Proverbs 11:30, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise.” From the tree of life abounds the fruits of righteousness. I love the latter part of verse 30, because I believe this is a priceless fruit that abounds from the tree of life. I look at it like this. To capture ones soul and lead them to Christ, there is truly no greater gift. For when this life is over what are we left with. A soul, that will spend an eternity somewhere. Either heaven or hell, one who finds eternal life here on earth will forever be in the presence of the Lord. I can not think myself of a better gift to give someone. I could make earthly items my priority, giving to those who have need, which is biblical and is a blessed action. Although earthly items are only temporary, the eternal matter of a soul is priceless.
I am lead to proverbs 10:21, “the lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense.” This verse is such an encouragement to me, knowing that my lips, or words, which I have the ability to freely give, can feed many. I could meet needs physically, but this is a limited action, I am stuck within the scope of what I can afford and the means to disburse. Although with words, I can feed many. With no cost, expect a death to self. The cost was already paid, Christ gave his life that I might have salvation. I am now driven by a love for my savior, to pour out what has been freely poured into me.
Its verse 22 of chapter 10 that brings my point home. “The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.” The last part can be translated and toil adds nothing to it. When we allow the Lord to use us, we are able to be a blessing and take part in that blessing. I think of it like this. When your in the ministry serving the Lord, its not another day at work, if it is you have missed the point. If the work you are doing is in the Lords will it is not in vain. I look at the life of Paul, “For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God.” Paul understood what it meant to toil for the Lord. That yes there will be struggles, yes it will get hard, we will grow tired, physically, mentally and spiritually but the key is perspective.
With a proper perspective we are then able to take the task at hand and be driven by the eternal hope set before us. A proper worldview drives our behavior, it is then we are able to do a work with no sorrow added. It is important we keep this order, because its when we try and let our behavior drive our worldview we experience shortcoming. We grow weary and let our flesh limit us to our own perspective, our own frame of reference, only taking into consideration our own knowledge. But we look at this world through the lenses of Christ, filtering our thoughts and motivations through His word. Know this truth, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ's, so also are we.”
Application:
Today I am flying to Kenya. I will have opportunities to share Christ and what he’s doing in my life. I will trust that the Lord wants to use me to “capture souls”, and being obedient to that call step out in faith and be bold.
Just to update on this post. Shortly after i wrote this i boarded the plane in Dallas, for a nine hour flight to London. The first two hours of my flight was spent talking to a man named Andy. He is a buddhist, but i shared a lot of my testimony, about Jesus Christ, and answered many questions he had, pointing him back to Christ. He did not accept Christ to my knowledge but I know a huge seed was planted, he was very attentive and really wanted to know about the whole "God" thing. Thanks Lord for you faithfulness as we, your people, step out in boldness.
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