July 24, 2016: Say It With Grace

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2016 - Day 206  

Devotional Song:  … GO TO THIS LINK …   Please take the time to take in a You Tube video of images from the group Unspoken singing … Call It Grace, declaring how we should speak to others … with and from God’s grace.

 Winter Horse Shoe

Highlight Passage:  Psalm 34:13 [NKJV] …   1
3 Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. 
… Good advice … tough at times to put on this truth.
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Highlight Context – Psalm 34:11-18 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… David admonishes fellow believers to avoid casting fear on others by what we say.
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Reference Passage #1 … Proverbs 18:1-8 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Solomon follows his father’s wisdom with his own words about our words.

Reference Passage #2 … Ephesians 4:29 [NKJV] … 
29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 
… God, thru Paul, exhorts Christians to use our tongues gracefully to edify others.

Reference Passage #3 … James 3:1-12 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …  
… What we say can have power way beyond the size of the tongue.

My Journal for Today:  … Our Daily Bread author, from Singapore, C.P. Hia, uses an interesting historical reference to illustrate how overlooking a very small item, the right horseshoe [see attached photo], can produce disastrous outcomes. He wrote: Napoleon's defeat in Russia 200 years ago was attributed to the harsh Russian winter. One specific problem was that his horses were wearing summer horseshoes. When winter came, these horses died because they slipped on icy roads as they pulled the supply wagons. The failure of Napoleon’s supply chain reduced his 400,000-strong army to just 10,000. A small slip; a disastrous result! 

And I think most reading here with me have taken in the illustration Jesus’ brother, James, uses to warn Christians how one of the smallest organs in the body, … the tongue, … can wreak havoc on others by what we speak (see James 3:1-12 linked above). And the other wise authors of the Scripture passages above exhort us, as Christians, to speak only those words which either build up or give grace to our hearers (see especially Eph. 4:29).

 So, as we go forth today, let’s all make it our mission to say what God’s grace - and only HIS wisdom - lead us to say.

My Prayer Today:  O, Heavenly Father, … I pray that I will share your love and grace but the words I speak to today … and always.  Amen    

Blogger Note:  Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries.  If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.