On Sunday, Darren preached on James 3 and the power of the tongue.
- What you say has the power to direct
- What you say has the power to destroy
- What you say shows what you are really like on the inside
The thing that stood out for me was his illustration of taking a sip of water from his little girl's water bottle and finding out that there was some leftover milk or something nasty in there, souring the water and making it taste terrible. What is on the inside flavors what comes out - it's a great picture of that. What was powerful, though, was that he said he put it in the dishwasher. He didn't know what was inside, but knew that it would come out clean and usable again. He likened that to forgiveness; asking God to clean up the sin we know is inside us. Another powerful picture. And what jumped out at me was just like the source that was souring the water was unknown, I don't have to be able to identify exactly what it is that needs forgiveness to put my soul in that dishwasher of forgiveness - I just need to have a repentant heart and ask God to give me a clean start again. And he does.
For the record, I'm sure that identifying that which soils you makes you better able to stay away from that particular thing in the future; it's just nice to have the reassurance that a clean slate does not depend on specifically naming every blemish.
What were your thoughts on Sunday's message?
