The Most Powerful Tool
(07/17/04)
Greetings To the Church That Used to Meet at Betsy's House,
What I want to share with you in these next few lines is the most powerful tool we have at our disposal today.
Like all things powerful it can hurt and destroy or benefit and build.
There are those who have used it's power for selfish reasons yet others who put it to use for the greater good of others.
Using this tool is truly an art. It can be mastered by the simplest or most intellectual of humans. All that is required is a sincere desire to learn.
This tool is so important that God, Himself, has elevated it to the highest of all positions, even higher than Himself.
That tool is the "word". God even made His Word flesh and He dwelt among us. He said "in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God".
Words are expressions of what is in the mind of the communicator. It is the manifestation, the proclamation, the outward, visible "something" that was what was once only in the mind of the communicator.
The word "word" is translated from a Greek word, logos. The ancient Greeks were the greatest word inventors the world has ever known. They, in fact, invented the word "word". The word "word" expresses the idea of the harvester bringing the cut wheat of the field together and tying it into sheaves. So it is with the word "word". It expresses the idea of bringing thoughts, ideas, concepts, feelings or a myriad of things together and expressing them in a single symbol the Greeks called a "logos", a word.
So it is with our loving God who sought to give full expression of all that He is and what He desires to communicate to man in a single, powerful and clear manifestation. He did that with the giving of Himself as the Living Word, Jesus Christ.
Now, it logically follows, if God demonstrates His value of the Word doesn't it seem reasonable that we also should accept it as powerful and important?
By His word He created all that is. His word is so powerful that He is able to create something from nothing.
It is obvious that our word's are not like His in the respect of creating a physical thing from nothing simply by saying it. We can, however, use our words in ways that are akin to that creative force.
Let me explain. Think about a parent, for example, who uses words to put their children down or encourage and build them up. Doesn't that affect them? Most surely it does, and will, for the rest of their lives. Or how about a spouse who abuses his or her mate verbally? Or a employer, a teacher, a "friend", a coworker, a brother or sister or countless other people with whom we live.
Words are powerful and can create, by their mere utterance, or destroy. These powerful tools can confuse or illuminate, hide or reveal, comfort or disturb.
Unlike art, which can be an expression of the artist in many forms, verbal expression is the most powerful. Verbal expression is definitive in nature, gives explicit direction and is the clearest of all forms of expression. God expresses Himself in His physical creation but is only clearly understood by His verbal expression. In fact, without it we would be left to subjective speculations which are as varied as mankind itself. His choice is to give us the objective explanation using His written and revealed Word.
Therefore, our first order of business, so to speak, it to recognize and respect the power our words have. My youngest son said he would rather punished physically than to be yelled at. The old rhyme "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me" couldn't be farther from the truth.
Having accepted the fact that words are powerful we are ready to approach this whole thing of verbal communication.
The Bible is our greatest guide, example and teacher when it comes to learning how to use this powerful force called verbal communication.
As we were reading last week, in our beginning study of I Timothy, Paul wanted Timothy to remind those whom he was admonishing that his motive was love, not merely correcting doctrine or behavior for it's own sake, an end in itself. Verbal communication, if it is to be good and beneficial, must always originate with the purpose of doing good for the hearer.
As God's dear children we are set free to express ourselves. In so doing He also gives us the responsibility of using that freedom wisely. Words may not always sound like love to the one who hears them but we must be certain that it was our overriding motivation.
I encourage all of us to enlarge our arsenal of wonderful, powerful, life enhancing words. It is my hope that our words bring comfort and hope to a lost and dying world. That first, and foremost, we say the most important words of all, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who loves You and gave His life a ransom for all so that we can be reconciled to the Father for all eternity.
Having done that that we will continue to proclaim the good words of encouragement, love and hope. That we seize upon every opportunity to tell a friend, family member, coworker or the countless other people with whom we cross paths daily that they are wonderful, unique and loved creations of God. Remember God expresses Himself through us, we are His voice of love in this lost, hopeless and dying world.
You won't want to miss this week as we continue our study of I Timothy. We are still in chapter one and I am eager to share with you some thoughts on those verses. I was struck by a very obvious and important consideration that we overlooked last week. I promise you that when we discuss it this week it will get you thinking about God's Word in ways that you have probably never considered. As you see this very important principle it will reorient your thinking not only to this portion of Scripture but to the whole Bible.
See you this Friday at 7:30PM at IHOP.
In His Love,
Tomme
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