Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of song and lyrics from Laura Story singing … Grace Abounds … poignantly singing of how we must turn to God’s grace, especially in our interactions with others.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Isaiah 6:5 [ESV] ... 5 And I [Isaiah] said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
… Isaiah given a vision of his uncleanness of thoughts and words.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Isaiah 6:1-10 [ESV] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… Isaiah was shown by God that he was a man of unclean lips, requiring atonement.
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Reference Passage : … Ephesians 4:29 [NLT] … 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
… God, thru Paul. shows us the only speech (i.e., words) which should come from us in our relations with others.
Reference Passage : …James 3:6-10 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru James, warns us of the hazard our tongue or words can be as we relate to others.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Jennifer Benson Schuldt, uses a word picture of how we sometimes need a hazard alert on the words we use in relating to others. … The ODB author wrote: The sound of a siren increased to an ear-piercing level as an emergency vehicle sped by my car. Its flashing lights glared through my windshield, illuminating the words “hazardous materials” printed on the side of the truck. Later, I learned it had been racing to a science laboratory where a 400-gallon container of sulfuric acid had begun to leak. Emergency workers had to contain the substance immediately because of its ability to damage whatever it came in contact with.
As I thought about this news story, I wondered what would happen if sirens blared every time a harsh or critical word “leaked” out of my mouth? Sadly, it might become rather noisy around our house.
Any fellow readers ever said or communicated words that we wish we had a hazard warning [see photo] on before we let them out from our mouth or online in social media? I’d guess I’d get an unanimous “AMEN” on that one.
James was right, wasn’t he, about the danger of the tongue (or these days online) when we say or write words which are hazardous to our relationships with others [see James 3]? Oh how we wish we had some sort of “hazardous word” warning, as Isaiah did (see highlight passage] to help us carry out God’s instructions, from Paul, in Ephesians 4:29.
That’s basically, from God’s word, what my mother used to say, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all!” And I pray that we can all take her advice (and that of God’s word) and use our words with the grace of God today (as Laura Story sings in the linked song).
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, ... for giving me Your grace to share in words with others today.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me today, to say or write only those word which build up or give grace to others.
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.</ span>
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