"The Power of the Tongue"

Today, as I thought about my blog and what I would post, I thought and thought. And came to this idea as I was driving around in my sister's car. That I would post the talk I did at Rainstorm the night before, if it was a good talk and if the people enjoyed it and thought it was good. So this is the start of that. There with be weeks when I do not do the talk at Rainstorm and the blog will be about something different then. Hope you guys like that idea.

So to start it off we are going to look at the tongue and the Power it can have.

First to those of you would did not come to Rainstorm
I opened the talk off with a clip from Seinfeld season 2 the Heart Attack. Elaine dates a doctor she met at the hospital. He shows off his knowledge of tongues by holding Elaine's tongue and pointing the different parts of it. Next I came back and read something about the tongue and here it is: The tongue is the large bundle of skeletal (I changed to very thin because I could not say this word and it means the same) muscles on the floor of the mouth that manipulates food for chewing and swallowing. It is one of the organs of taste. Much of the surface of the tongue is covered in taste buds. The tongue assists in forming the sounds of speech. It is sensitive and kept moist by saliva, richly supplied with nerves and blood vessels to help it be moved.

We moved to look at what the Bible says about the tongue. And yes the Bible does talk about the tongue. Here are are the verses we looked at:
...my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer. Psalms 45:1
Your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor... Psalms 52:2
...men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords. Psalms 57:4
They sharpen their tongues like swords... Psalms 64:3
hey make their tongues as sharp as a serpent's... Psalms 140:3
Their tongue is a deadly arrow... Jeremiah 9:8
Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body... James 3:5

The Bible talks pretty hard about the tongue. I hope people do not talk about your tongue the same. As something like a sword that can cut people; or like a razor that can cut, or can be shot like deadly arrows. Let's hope people do not say that about you. But it also does give good pictures of what the tongue can do.

Now we are going to look what it does and how people use it. And we turned to the Bible to see what it says. Here are the list of verses we found:
My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long. Psalms 35:28
The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. Proverbs 15:4
As a north wind brings rain, so a sly tongue brings angry looks. Proverbs 25:23
...So come, let's attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says." Jeremiah 18:18

People can use the tongue to praise God and speak his righteousness. It can also be used to bring healing or to crush people. It can get angry looks. It can be used to attack people. It is up to you how you will use your tongue.

Finally we are going to look at the challenge that Bible gives us about the tongue. Here are the list of verses we looked at:
...but a man of understanding holds his tongue. Proverbs 11:12
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. James 1:26
These verses ask us to hold our tongue which can be hard. But we can do more when we hold our tongue.
He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity. Proverbs 21:23
We need to be people that guard our mouth and our tongue and it will keep us from trouble.
but no man can tame the tongue... James 3:8
We can not tame the tongue but we can choose what we are going to let come out of it.

One last challenge is found in Proverbs 18:21 it says: The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. The tongue can bring life of death. You need to choose which one you will let come out of your tongue. I want to be known as someone who uses his tongue to bring life and not death.

I hope this blog challenges you to think about your own tongue and the way you use it. In two weeks the blog with be about the power of words and what they can do. We would love you see you at Rainstorm one night to add to the talks we have. You can also add to this by leaving a comment.

Thanks
Howden Matt Howden