The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe – Video Clip – about 2:00:00 – 2:05:00 Lucy using her magic healing serum to bring healing to Edmond.

Last week we started talking about words, and last week we specifically talked about the power of our words to create evil, to hurt other people, and really, the power of our words to create hell on earth.

We started last week with this premise: We all understand at some level that our words have power. People say hurtful things and those words affect us? And yet, the very same people can say really good things that put a smile on our lips and joy in our hearts. Those words feel good. There’s something therapeutic about words that come out a good heart, out of good intentions, out of a heart that loves

We started with this scripture last week.

Rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Proverbs 12:18

We said that carefully chosen good words bring healing and help those around us become the people who God created them to be (blow up a balloon). On the other hand, rash words, words said without much thought or much caution could do great amounts of spiritual and emotional damage to those around us, much like a sword thrust (pop balloon with sword).

Jesus said, Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 

Our words come from our hearts. There are not good words and bad words, but rather good words come from a good heart and bad words come from a bad heart, and we said that a bad heart is one that is governed by fear and a good heart is one that is governed by faith or love.

We briefly looked at the idea of speaking out of fear last week, so this week we’re going to look at what a heart of faith looks like.

Read the rest of this entry »

You and I speak thousands of words a day, but how often do we think about the words that we speak? You and I speak thousands of words daily, but how often do we take our words for granted? Do we stop and considered the affect of our words on the people around us? You and I speak thousands of words daily, but do we ever considered the enormous effect that our words have on our lives and those that we speak to everyday?

Shortly after we began elementary school we stopped jading our enemies saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” because we realized that wasn’t true. Words do hurt. Very early in our lives we found that to be true. Words affect us.

What is it about words that hurt us? What is it about other words that make us feel so good? There is no physical weight, size . . . no density to any word that we speak. You can’t smell them or taste them but you can feel the sting of a word or the peace and goodness that comes from a word rightly spoken. What is it that makes some words hurt, while others feel so good? The writer in Proverbs says this about the power of our words: Read the rest of this entry »

Nanny Clip

How many of you have seen one of the Nanny shows? Yeah, she comes in and rescues people from these unbelievably, bizarre incompetence in raising their children. Now, what would it look like if a super nanny came into a house when the kids where old enough to be on their own. That’s not the way that super nanny’s usually work because they normally come into a home when the kid’s are young and impressionable and at a time when she can make a difference.

It would be very different if a super nanny came into a home where the kids were now young adults because then most of who they will be is pretty much formed in many ways. By the time a child is 13 years old, most of their beliefs and behaviors about life are already formed. Now all of us know that failure is not final. But if we do not start well in the arena of relationships, it becomes more and more difficult to develop positive relationships.

What’s undermining most of our relationships today, and is certainly undermining the relationship that parents are having with their children is because we are reactive in our relationships. We are often times reactive in our marriages and in our friendships and parents are most often reactive in their relationships with their kids.  Our relationships are often times poor or deeply challenged because we tend to be reactive in the way that we relate to one another.

  Read the rest of this entry »

I’d like you to take just one minute to come up with 4 words that describe the last decade of your life. You have two minutes and I’d like you to share your 4 words with someone around you. You cannot explain your four words. The only thing you can say to each other are the four words. Make sure that you include those people around you so that everyone gets included. 4 small words can give us great insight into the lives of other people, even over a ten-year period.

What if we could describe the meaning of the whole Bible in just four words? What if we could impart who God is and who we were created to be in just four words? Wouldn’t that be cool? I don’t know about for you, but for me, I like things simple and easy to understand. Sometimes the Bible isn’t all that easy to understand. But, wouldn’t it be cool if we could understand the main point in this book with just four small words?

  Read the rest of this entry »