The power of the tongue

Words Fitly Spoken…

The power of the tongue

By Brenda Cannon Henley

Senior Correspondent to The Examiner

Man, words are powerful things. They can bring joy, pain, laughter, tears, fun, sadness, comfort, unhappiness, and they can ruin a person’s reputation with just a few of them hurriedly strung together and shared. Words can also be uplifting, edifying, teaching, complementing, and godly, according to Scripture. A friend’s words are pleasant, but an enemy’s word can cut to the heart and soul of a person.

The tongue and its power is discussed broadly in the small Book of James. In only five chapters, we are given more truth than we can probably handle.

The Book of James was written in A. D. 45 to Christian Jews scattered from Jerusalem. The author was not the brother of John, according to scholars who know a lot more than I do about the matter. It was instead “James, the Lord’s brother,” according to Galatians 1:19 and mentioned again in Matthew 13:55, along with Jonas, Simon, and Judas or Jude who wrote the Book of Jude. James presided over the council at Jerusalem, according to Acts 15:2, 13-21.

The Book of James includes themes of faith versus works, the sin of the tongue, and healing in answer to prayer. A brief outline of the book could include: Chapter 1, 2 — Faith tested and proved by tribulation. 3 — The evil of an uncontrolled tongue. 4 — The rich are warned. 5 — Affliction, patience, payer of faith for healing. Wow, that’s a lot to cover in five short chapters.

I particularly like the passage in Chapter 2 where we learn we are not to have respect of persons because they are wealthy, wear bright, colorful clothing, or can help us. We are warned about becoming judges of one another and ignoring the less fortunate among us.

James 3:3 tells us that men put bits in the horses mouth to tame them and that ships are guided by small rudders, and yet, our tongues are very small parts of our bodies that can cause great disturbances. We learn that the tongue is like a fire and an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing and that should not be so. “Does a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?”

Verse 16 teaches, “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” Our busy tongues fan the flames of gossip, cheap slander, untruths, and hurt. Chapter 4 teaches a vital truth to real Christianity. “Draw nigh unto God, and He will draw to you.” If we are diligently attempting in our daily walk to draw nigh unto God, we will have to be busy guarding those wagging tongues and keeping those “potty mouths” silent.

Going back to Chapter 1 of the Book of James, again we read in Verses 5 and 6, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth (does not scold one for asking) not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering (not vacillating). For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”

In Sunday school classes the world over, pre-school boys and girls are taught to sing, “Oh, be careful, little mouth, what you say. Oh, be careful, little eyes, what you see. Oh, be careful, little feet, where you go. Oh, be careful, little hands, what you do.” Might not be a bad song for all of us to sing again and mean it from the depths of our hearts.

Brenda Cannon Henley can be reached at (409) 781-8788 or at brendacannonhenley@yahoo.com.

Bio sketch: Brenda Cannon Henley is semi-retired from The Examiner and makes her home on the Bolivar Peninsula on the beautiful Southeast Texas Gulf Coast. She has enjoyed a long career in writing and has many awards and testimonies to her professional career. Read more at Henley’s blog spot at brendacannonhenley.blogspot.com. If your church is having a planned event or special speaker, please let Henley know and she will cover as many as time permits.

Dancing with the stars...literally By Brenda Cannon Henley Senior Correspondent to The Examiner This week's column is dedicated to the memory of Torchy Salter whose favorite parting to all was, "Wishing you the moon and stars." She's enjoying them now for herself. Buzz Aldrin, famed space pioneer, is best perhaps known to this generation as a beginning contestant on this year's Dancing with the Stars TV show. At 80 years of age, this true-to-life legend is a role model for seniors to get out there and do it...and enjoy doing it. Our school children know that forty years ago two human beings changed history on July 20, 1969 by walking on the surface of the moon. But what happened before Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong exited the Lunar Module is perhaps even more amazing, if only because so few people know about it. Buzz Aldrin took communion on the surface of the moon. Some months after his return, he wrote about it in Guidepost magazine. Others have told the story since that time, but it is still significant for all Christians to remember that this legend of our time thought it important to do. Aldrin was a dedicated elder at a Presbyterian church in Texas during this period in his life, and knowing that he would soon be doing something unprecedented in human history, he felt he should mark the occasion somehow, and he asked his minister to help him. And so the minister consecrated a communion wafer and a small vial of communion wine. Buzz Aldrin took them with him out of the earth's orbit and on to the surface of the moon. He and Armstrong had only been on the lunar surface for a few minutes when Aldrin made the following public statement: "This is the LM pilot. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way." He then ended radio communication and there, on the silent surface of the moon, 250,000 miles from home, he read a verse from the Gospel of John, and he took communion. Here is his own account of what happened: "In the radio blackout, I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. "Then I read the Scripture, 'I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. "I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, but at the last minute [they] had requested that I not do this. NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madelyn Murray O'Hare, the celebrated opponent of religion, over the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmastime. I agreed reluctantly." Aldrin said that he ate the tiny host and swallowed the wine. "I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements." And of course, it's interesting to think that some of the first words spoken on the moon were the words of Jesus Christ, who made the Earth and the moon and Who, in the immortal words of Dante, is Himself the "love that moves the sun and other stars." The Bible teaches us in Luke 22:19, "As oft as you do this, you do it in remembrance of Me." What a place to remember the Lord Jesus Christ. Brenda Cannon Henley can be reached at (409) 781-8788 or at brendacannohenley@yahoo.com.