Lucky Strike Words
James 3:3-10
Take it deeper
When I was a young boy, we used to go camping. As you can imagine, we had a fire to keep warm, and in some cases cook food. Obviously, I was enamored by the flames as they licked at the wood and the rocks of the fire circle. I used to look for sticks that I could use to play with the fire. I never got burned by camp fires; I had a healthy respect for the power they held. The most I ever did playing with the fire was to poke it and prod it and move wood around so it burned better. Our fires were relatively small by comparison, but my uncles who would take their trailers with us, had a much more liberal approach to fire making. They would get a nice “shoe melting” fire that was barely contained in the campsite, let alone the fire ring.
As you undoubtedly read, James uses the imagery of a forest fire that is set off by a small spark. It interesting to think about the juxtaposition he uses to describe the tongue. Any of us who have read this verse before kind of gloss over what he’s eluding too, but don’t get quite what he is saying here. James is saying, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that our words have power. Like the rudder on a ship, the bit in the mouth of a horse, or the Lucky Strike match that starts a forest fire; words have power.
Think for a second, the words you have said to other people in the last hour, the last day, and the last week. Were all of them positive? Before some of you start getting down on yourself for possible negative words remember that God doesn’t want to slap us over the head with this word. He want us to realize that our words affect things here on earth AND in Spiritual realms we can’t see. You have power in your words that is more powerful than any beating, injury, or abuse. You can hurl one negative word at someone and ruin their life. Or, you have the choice to hurl a positive word, an encouraging word, and help them receive the breakthrough they so desperately need. The question is what negative words have you spoken about others? What negative words have you spoken about yourself? Those words impact us. Whether we like to admit it or not, the words we speak about ourselves have just as much to do with who we are today as the choices we have made. Now we can either embrace what GOD thinks about us and begin speaking that into our own lives; or, we can believe negative things (whether the enemy sent them to us or we came up with them on our own). Do the same exercise I had you do a little bit ago and change the “other people” for “me.” God is the master of positive words, his words literally create things. He spoke and light came into existence. Here’s a thought for you, the bible says that God looked out and saw the various things he created and called them “Good.” Do you know that if God had not called creation good, it would not have been good? Now, I don’t believe it would have been evil, but just by the sheer fact that God called creation good, made it good. He looked at man and called us “VERY GOOD!” God is not a liar, so what makes you or me think that God is wrong? God told us, through Jesus, that there are NO boundaries to him except Jesus. We have to go through Jesus. So then why are we so insistent on manufacturing non-existent walls between us and God? Is it because we feel we are just too bad to be near Him? Funny thing, God doesn’t think that, in fact, He sent Jesus to earth to fix that gap. Now that the gap is fixed, the bible says we can approach our Father God, the KING of all the universe, of all of eternity, and receive grace and strength and peace, and whatever else we need when we are in crisis. YOU CAN DO WHAT GOD SAYS YOU CAN DO, and you can most definitely be who God says you can be.
We have to stop the negative speech about others and about ourselves if we are to start to reverse the cycle of negativity and Lucky Strike words that start forest fires in people’s lives. Just stop, put a 5 second gate on anything you want to say to someone. If you can’t wait 5 seconds to think about what you are going to say, you probably shouldn’t say it.
Prayer
Father, I pray that you would please forgive me for talking negatively about your children and about myself. I realize that my words have power and I pray that you would show me how to tame my tongue. I know, father, that James says no man can tame the tongue. But I also know that Jesus said, “With God all things are possible.” So today, I pray that you would teach me how to control the lucky strike words. God I pray that you would help me to recognize areas in my life that are negative and begin to show me how to prune those areas off. They are suckers that deprive my spiritual life from all the nutrients you want to give me. I thank you for all that you are about to do and I declare today that I believe you! I pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Questions to grow deeper still
• What words have you spoken about someone recently?
• Were they positive? If so, why not take a moment to pray over them too; if not, why not go and apologize?
3-5A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!
5-6It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.
7-10This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue—it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!
10-12My friends, this can't go on. A spring doesn't gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don't bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don't bear apples, do they? You're not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?
Take it deeper
When I was a young boy, we used to go camping. As you can imagine, we had a fire to keep warm, and in some cases cook food. Obviously, I was enamored by the flames as they licked at the wood and the rocks of the fire circle. I used to look for sticks that I could use to play with the fire. I never got burned by camp fires; I had a healthy respect for the power they held. The most I ever did playing with the fire was to poke it and prod it and move wood around so it burned better. Our fires were relatively small by comparison, but my uncles who would take their trailers with us, had a much more liberal approach to fire making. They would get a nice “shoe melting” fire that was barely contained in the campsite, let alone the fire ring.
As you undoubtedly read, James uses the imagery of a forest fire that is set off by a small spark. It interesting to think about the juxtaposition he uses to describe the tongue. Any of us who have read this verse before kind of gloss over what he’s eluding too, but don’t get quite what he is saying here. James is saying, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that our words have power. Like the rudder on a ship, the bit in the mouth of a horse, or the Lucky Strike match that starts a forest fire; words have power.
Think for a second, the words you have said to other people in the last hour, the last day, and the last week. Were all of them positive? Before some of you start getting down on yourself for possible negative words remember that God doesn’t want to slap us over the head with this word. He want us to realize that our words affect things here on earth AND in Spiritual realms we can’t see. You have power in your words that is more powerful than any beating, injury, or abuse. You can hurl one negative word at someone and ruin their life. Or, you have the choice to hurl a positive word, an encouraging word, and help them receive the breakthrough they so desperately need. The question is what negative words have you spoken about others? What negative words have you spoken about yourself? Those words impact us. Whether we like to admit it or not, the words we speak about ourselves have just as much to do with who we are today as the choices we have made. Now we can either embrace what GOD thinks about us and begin speaking that into our own lives; or, we can believe negative things (whether the enemy sent them to us or we came up with them on our own). Do the same exercise I had you do a little bit ago and change the “other people” for “me.” God is the master of positive words, his words literally create things. He spoke and light came into existence. Here’s a thought for you, the bible says that God looked out and saw the various things he created and called them “Good.” Do you know that if God had not called creation good, it would not have been good? Now, I don’t believe it would have been evil, but just by the sheer fact that God called creation good, made it good. He looked at man and called us “VERY GOOD!” God is not a liar, so what makes you or me think that God is wrong? God told us, through Jesus, that there are NO boundaries to him except Jesus. We have to go through Jesus. So then why are we so insistent on manufacturing non-existent walls between us and God? Is it because we feel we are just too bad to be near Him? Funny thing, God doesn’t think that, in fact, He sent Jesus to earth to fix that gap. Now that the gap is fixed, the bible says we can approach our Father God, the KING of all the universe, of all of eternity, and receive grace and strength and peace, and whatever else we need when we are in crisis. YOU CAN DO WHAT GOD SAYS YOU CAN DO, and you can most definitely be who God says you can be.
We have to stop the negative speech about others and about ourselves if we are to start to reverse the cycle of negativity and Lucky Strike words that start forest fires in people’s lives. Just stop, put a 5 second gate on anything you want to say to someone. If you can’t wait 5 seconds to think about what you are going to say, you probably shouldn’t say it.
Prayer
Father, I pray that you would please forgive me for talking negatively about your children and about myself. I realize that my words have power and I pray that you would show me how to tame my tongue. I know, father, that James says no man can tame the tongue. But I also know that Jesus said, “With God all things are possible.” So today, I pray that you would teach me how to control the lucky strike words. God I pray that you would help me to recognize areas in my life that are negative and begin to show me how to prune those areas off. They are suckers that deprive my spiritual life from all the nutrients you want to give me. I thank you for all that you are about to do and I declare today that I believe you! I pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Questions to grow deeper still
• What words have you spoken about someone recently?
• Were they positive? If so, why not take a moment to pray over them too; if not, why not go and apologize?
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