love

“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.” – James 3:9-10

I love these verses, yet feel cut to the core.

How can we praise God with the same mouth that tears down our fellow man?

We sing songs to God and we angrily mouth off the person who cuts us off on the freeway. We proclaim God’s goodness, while criticizing those who aren’t like us. We share the love of Jesus with the same mouths that just spewed off hurtful remarks to our fellow believer for simply being, well, themselves.

And then to take a bit further, James reminds us that our cursing isn’t just toward another person. They’re toward people who, ultimately, are created in the likeness of God. If it’s true that we serve God by serving people, then the same is true when we verbally tear someone down. We’re actually ripping God apart when we verbally abuse someone.

Thoughts?

Let’s talk.

I…am drunk
Intoxicated
Inebriated
And elated by the Spirit

Fearing the Lord in submission,
I’m in remission from my sinful intuitions
Death…was my destination
But Christ is my restitution

My resurrection
My justification
My redemption
My dispensation of freedom
My vindication
My absolution…The…solution

My breath of life

I’m enamored by His glory
Head over heels by His beauty
Smitten by His holy humanity
Captivated by His mercy
Fascinated by His magnanimity

My inequities are obliterated

He integrated life into my eradication
The destruction of death resulted in my evacuation into heaven
My…Exodus away from Egyptian occupation

I
Am
Free

Swimming in ecstasy
Jesus became me
The Father stepped into humility and walked with humanity
The Spirit turned our insanity into eternity

Oh Israel, He is real
Gentiles appeal at the foot of His sacrificial zeal
Life led Him to reveal
His unabated work in creation

All the while, we’ve wasted His emancipation
We’ve wasted His declaration to the nations…

…That…we are His people

We are His people
We are His sequel post Noah’s rebuild
Yet we’ve settled for comfortable cathedrals and
Sunday to Sunday refuels

Our peripherals only see the we we want to be
Visions of eternity capsize under the fearful seas
Of…ridicule
Our peripherals lead to minuscule identifications of the heavenly’s

If the demons tremble at the sound of He, then why don’t we

We’ve concluded that love is all we need
We’re pleased with seasons of spirit-filled gatherings
And occasional church wide fastings
And dashing for the exits at the first sign of the preachers’ endings

And it’s never ending

Our cycles of depending
On those once in a blue moon moments
Of spiritual revival

And once God rivals our daily survival
We’re back on our cycle

Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge
Yet fools despise wisdom
Fools despise discipline

Fools…fall in love

Fools wait for love to win
Fools backspin and give in
To the wages of sin

Yet the demons tremble
The demons tremble
The Lord’s voice rumbles
And the demons tremble

The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life
It’s a fountain of renewal
A fountain of eternal reproval

That…He is I Am

I am…drunk
Intoxicated
Inebriated
His voice reverberated through the fabrics of time
And the foundations of my soul were shaken

I’m
Floored in worship

Let everything that has breath praise His Lordship
Praise Him with songs
Praise Him with cymbals
Praise Him beyond our comfortable cathedrals
Praise Him into eternity

Praise Him with holy trembling
Praise Him never ending

Praise Him
Praise Him
Praise
God
Almighty

Tag: love

Taming Our Tongue

Psalm 777