Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. Acts 14:22 ESV
God’s people have their trials. When God chose His people, He never planned that they should be untried. They were chosen in the hot furnace of hardship; they were never chosen to have worldly peace and earthly joy. Freedom from sickness and the pain of death was never promised to God’s people, but when the Lord drew up the contract of our privileges, He included discipline among the things to which we would be heirs. Trials are a part of our experience; they were predestined for us in Christ’s legacy. As surely as the stars are fashioned by His hands, as surely as their orbits are fixed by Him, so are trials assigned to us. God has ordained their season and their place, their intensity and the effect they will have on us. Good people must never expect to escape trouble; if they do, they will be disappointed, for no one before them has been without trials. Note the patience of Job; remember Abraham, his trials, and his faith under them—he became the “father of the faithful.” Read the biographies of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and you will discover that none of these people, who God made vessels of mercy, escaped the fire of affliction. It was ordained long ago that the cross of trouble would be engraved on every vessel of mercy—it is the royal mark that distinguishes the King’s honored subjects. But even though hardship is the path of God’s children, they have the comfort of knowing that their Master has traveled it before them. They have His sympathetic presence to cheer them, His grace to support them, and His example to teach them how to endure. When we reach the kingdom, it will more than make up for the many tribulations through which we passed to get there. - C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening
Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. COLOSSIANS 4:6
Have you noticed the similarities between the New Testament letters of Ephesians and Colossians? Many verses in Colossians have a parallel in Ephesians. For example, notice how Colossians 4:6 corresponds with Ephesians 4:29, which says: “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it might impart grace to the hearers.” Our words shouldn’t be “salty,” but seasoned with salt—tasteful and appropriate, useful for helping others and building them up. The Chinese Christian leader Watchman Nee devoted a chapter in his book The Normal Christian Worker to this subject. He wrote, “Because of unrestrained speech, the usefulness of many Christian workers is seriously curtailed. Instead of being powerful instruments in the Lord’s service, their ministry makes little impact on account of the constant leakage of power through their careless talk.” If you’re in need of wiser, more gracious, salt-seasoned speech, here’s a prayer for you: “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips” (Psalm 141:3). - Dr. David Jeremiah Morning and Evening
What a strange yet complimentary description of today's post.
One certainly has something to do with the other. Our trials and tribulations are guaranteed in this world. Those who believe otherwise are deluding themselves. Add to it the control of the tongue or lack thereof adds to or abates those same trials and tribulations.
Our belief in God, in Jesus, the Spirit and the Father, are all through our tribulations and our daily trials. Not around them.
We require His holding onto our hands not ours holding onto His. He can never accidentally let go of us, however the same can never be said of you or I.
We cannot maintain full control of our tongue as we ought until we get to Heaven in praise and worship for those who believe and believe it or not for all who are in Hell as well. In Hell? There are none in Hell, angry at God or not, who do not cry out to be released from their torment.
It is an interesting paradox that in all of creation from Heaven to earth to Hell the only place the Supreme Sovereignty and Rule of our gracious merciful Lord, Savior and God is here on Earth. Once anyone dies, ALL doubt is erased permanently. The problem is once you die your earthly decision to receive Christ or reject him is either written in blood. If in your blood it sends you to Hell, if written in the blood of Jesus you enter into Heaven.
Your lips, as Jesus taught His Disciples, are where the contents of your heart come out.
They reveal your heart not only to you, but to others as well as before God. They indeed can alter your life even by a single spoken word.
You can easily use your words to lift someone up or tear them down. You can add to someone else's trials and tribulations or relieve them.
My friend we cannot expect a life of pleasure and happiness in a sin cursed world. We should never buy into health, wealth and prosperity 'gospels'. Jesus Himself said that if the world (and it does) hatef Him they will hate you too. I have on many occasions told you that I firmly believe that God showed me decades ago that when He returns the world is going to feel cheated that it was taken away from them to wipe out Christianity.
Right now, in the United States and around the world hatred for Christians is on the rise. Painted as a problem people. Painted as the source of why people are the way they are in all things negative. They are why racism exists. They are why same sex marriage is vilified. They are why transexual people aren't accepted. They are why homosexuals are not accepted.
Hatred for Christians is growing exponentially. By executive order even President Biden is trying to silence Christian values. The media is silencing Christian values. So-called celebrities are vilifying any prominent Christians who have died. They are celebrating! Look ahead into Revelation. When at last the two Witnesses appear to have been silenced, at the peak of rebellion against God, the world celebrated and made a holiday out of it. Sending each other gifts.
We are seeing people being conditioned to a sinful worldview. By way of a sinful tongue.
If you haven't chosen Jesus as your Savior and Lord you are not going to see Heaven. Your good life is nothing but filthy rags without Christ. That's not me speaking that's the Bible. You cannot go to Heaven on your own merits. If it were possible then as Scripture says Christ died needlessly.
With that same tongue that can vilify others that same organ can confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. But you have to choose, you have to speak it, to confess your need for His Salvation. You must ask Him to come into your life to save you. You. Nobody alive can ever pray someone out of Hell.
Pray this morning, this evening or whatever time it is for you right now to be saved. It will not remove you from your present woes of life but it will bring the greatest Defender in all creation to your life. Jesus will see you through your dark valleys and will see you through even your good days. Looking at my life I am glad that He always has and am glad that I have never known a moment where He failed to keep His promise.
The world potentially is barely 7+ years away from the absolute rule of Jesus on this planet for 1,000 years. We are potentially minutes to hours to days from the Rapture of the Church and the beginning of the horrors of the book of Revelation. All the trials and tribulations we experience are either going to draw us closer to Jesus or away from Him. That's on us....again...what we choose determines where we go next Heaven or Hell.
One of my specific prayers when I get to work is for Jesus to guard my mouth and my mind. I can't do it alone. He has that power, I do not.
Prayer, aside from the whole armor of God as written in Ephesians, is our most formidable weapon against the darkness of this world. If you aren't praying, if praying isn't that important to you, my friend, you really need to reconsider that poor decision. To get through trials, tribulations and our lips we need that now more than when we first believed.
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