Friday, October 7, 2011
Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
James 3:9-10
“God I love you, but I hate what you love. God I love you, but _________ you are worthless. God you are incredible, but I don’t want to obey you.” Those statements just don’t go together do they? That’s James’ point as well. That’s why we’ve got to allow God to change our hearts and our minds so that our words can be changed.
Application:
One last application regarding our words this week- A great idea to start to allow God to change your heart is to memorize His Words. Can I recommend some?
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me thy statutes.
Psalm 119:11- 12.
Study the Scriptures with Ben Jennings 
This verse is saying that with our mouth the same mouth we bless and curse people and we shouldn’t do that we shouldn’t bless people and then curse them we should only bless them. For example a water spring does not give you fresh and bitter water out of the same opening it gives you fresh water not bitter. This is why when people say that they want god in there lives but then they say I don’t want to do this for you or this… that’s why we need to let Jesus in our hearts and change us for the better and when our heart is changed then our words and minds are changed as well and then everyone’s happy.
Just like pastor been said on wensday that we like to get the part of god that we want and the parts that we don’t want just like a buffet we pick pits and peices of food that we want and then say eww! I don’t want that and ssometimes we do the same with God as well.
Mafalda, I am so proud of you. We are literally watching you grow online 🙂 Keep up the good work girl.
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me thy statutes.
Psalm 119:11- 12.
I am going to challenge myself to memorize this versus! 🙂 it’s just like pastor ben was saying if ur at a buffet and u don’t like certain things. It’s the same as saying oh I want some salvation and
some forgiveness but I don’t want love thy enemies. I don’t want to love them tht sounds weird! We do the same exact things with God!!! And it’s really important!! 🙂 it’s kinda the same as playing the game called church. U say u believe in god but u dont live the way in Gods eyes. His is what I got out of Wednesday and today’s devos!!!! 🙂
That’s great, Tristian. Memorizing scripture is so important. Keep up the good work!
Thanks sandi! 🙂
we need 2 listen and apply his word so we can grow in him! we should all really listen 2 what God has 2 teach us and not sit there and play the game called church.Im gonna try 2 memorize this verse cause i need this in my daily life! loved the devos and Happy friday!!!! 🙂 love u guys!! ❤ ❤
hows your brother doing? 🙂
he’s doing great!! he got 2 new pairs of glasses yesterday! he can see a little better thru them! thanks 4 asking!! praying 4 ur family grace!! hope u guys can work things out! 🙂
thank you! 🙂
These verses remind me of people being two faced. They said good sometimes and then other times they are being ugly. We all can be guilty of this. We have to choose each day to put God’s love in our heart so that when we open our mouth the love of God is on each word we speak. Hiding His word in our heart is an excellent way of replicating the bad with good so good comes out.
James is saying the way to get rid of a bad mouth is letting God change your heart. And im gonna try to memorise those verses!:)
Yea for you Blake!! 🙂
Sometimes, I feel like a walking contradiction. When I do or say something that pleases God, I feel good,like I’m moving closer to Him. But, then I turn around and say or do something wrong and feel like I’m going backward away from God. Like James says , how can sweet and bitter water come from the same fountain? How can I show others Christ’s love if my actions and words are godly one moment and sinful the next? It’s a constant struggle. We can’t do it without God’s help.
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee”. God wants us to remember His words and lean on them when we are tempted. The closer God’s word is to our hearts, the more likely we are to respond in a way that shows the world that we are followers of Christ.
Happy Friday, Allie! See you all on Sunday.
This passage is cool! “So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.” James said that a fountain can’t have both salt water and fresh, it’s one or the other! I think it’s the same way with where our hearts are at. If we’re not doing what’s right, like hurting someone with our words, most likely our hearts aren’t in the right place. If our heart is in the right place, I think it would be a lot easier to do the right thing!
I’ve started to allow God to work in my heart and change some things, and it’s been going really good! Just listening to what He wants me to do and actually doing it makes me a lot happier! And I’ve been working on using my words as an encouragement! 🙂
I think memorizing God’s word is a great idea! I memorized Psalm 119:11-12 when I was younger, but it’s a great verse! There’s two verses that I have memorized that have really helped me a lot, both of which were in the proverbs devos we did a while back! Proverbs 15:1-2 “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.” I think this verse kinda goes along with what we’ve been talking about!
The second one is Proverbs 3:5-6. This doesn’t really have anything to do with what we’ve been learning about, but this verse is a very good reminder to keep your eyes on God, and it has helped me a lot! 🙂 Have a great weekend guys, see you on Sunday!
I feel that a lot of the time i contradict myself too, like i say one thing that doesnt match up with the other. For example, “I’m hungry i could eat a horse, but i dont want any food right now.” Obviously that makes no sense and i think thats why James uses contradicting statements to make a point! God is the only one that can change our words and i’m glad He’s got my back though that 🙂
Psalm 119: 11-12 is awesome- “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me thy statutes.” I want to be able to memorize this verse! It’s a good reminder how our words should be used. Its saying that we have God’s word hidden in our hearts, and because of that we know not to sin against Him! I have God’s word in my heart.. and i feel it everyday now. About a year ago i never felt His presence honestly..isnt that terrible? I mean i knew God was there, i was saved, and i cared about the relationship I had with Him. But i honestly couldn’t feel God with me. Now i do, i feel Jesus in my heart all the time! So this verse is cool because i actually understand what it means to have His word in our hearts & to feel like i dont want to sin against Him!
The main question here is, “God will I give you 100% of my life, or will I give you a certain percentage because this is MY life?” it’s crazy how the series on Wednesday is correlating with what we’re looking at in the book of James! God must really want us to get this!
If we truly want to change the way we’re living, and really show others we love God with ALL of our hearts, and that He has 100% of us, we first need to let God make a change in our hearts. We can want to change all we want, but unless we let God work in our hearts and really start applying scripture to our lives, prayer, we will see no change. God is where the brighter light comes from, not ourselves! Memorizing verses is really great! I don’t have that great of memorization skills, so I kinda lack when it comes to memorizing verses. But I have verses posted up on my bookshelf and I read them every night laying in bed. Pumping God’s word into our hearts and actually doing something with it, is where the beauty begins! We can start using our words for the greater good, when we initially get our hearts right first!
Greattttt stuff! 🙂 so blessed to have God’s word! Hope everyone had a fantastic friday! TGIF, it’s the weekend! 🙂
A lot of times when it comes to our relationship with God we try to just take what we want… and the other stuff? Who cares..too much work. God doesn’t want that. He wants all of us or none… Like Melanie said, we need to try to give 100% because that’s what he wants! We need to know His word in our heart so it can change us to the way He wants us to be 🙂 I know, personally, a few months ago there was something that I kept doing OVER and OVER again…in my heart I totally knew it was wrong, but every single time I just didn’t want to give it up. I kept trying to get close with God while still having that sin in my life. How stupid right?! “Hey, God. I’m just gonna do everything you hate, but we should still be like super tight.” That’s basically how it was, but I’m glad I have that gone. Now I’m trying to become closer and closer each day. So far its going good. 😉
P.S. please pray for my family..not allowed to share but they’re going through some stuff and they definitely need prayer
OH.. and a great verse to memorize is Philippians 4:6 “Dont worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs and don’t forget to thank him for his answers.”
Good comment 🙂 I’ll be praying for your family!
Praying for your fam!
This is talking about being a practical atheist. It’s not enough to talk the talk you gotta walk the walk. Like it’s not enough to just say “yeah I love God” you should want to and have the desire to back it up with works. We can’t be hypocrites where we say one thing an do another.