words are like a fire...

what i say can destroy what i have. james 3.5 & 6 (ms), it only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. a careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. by our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.

yesterday congress sent to president obama a bill that would conserve and protect a wide swath of the west. but there is nothing that the government or anyone else can do when a spark sets off a forest fire. we have seen on tv fires that destroy.

in 1983 in australia, one fire overnight destroyed 600 miles of land, villages, livestock, all from a single match. james says, your tongue can destroy like that. you can lose it all. a careless camper can destroy a life overnight, thousands of lives. gossip is like fire. it spreads quickly and it wrecks havoc. it's like a fire.

proverbs 18:20 (tev), you have to live with the consequences of everything you say.

verse 6b (niv), it sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

he's saying here that words can create a chain reaction. you can say something that you didn't mean to have any harm, but it can have devastating effects that are beyond your control.

let’s say you come home from work and you're tired and grumpy and cranky. you walk in and yell at your wife and she yells at the oldest kid and the oldest kid yells at the baby sister and the baby sister goes out and kicks the dog and the dog goes and bites the cat and the cat comes in and scratches the baby and the baby bites the head off her barbie doll. wouldn't it be a whole lot simpler if the husband just bit the head off of the barbie doll himself? chain reaction, the course of hell.

set on fire by hell itself. a couple comes in for counseling. "i said this and then she said that, then i said this…" then what happened? "all hell broke loose." our words can cause "all hell to break loose."

james says you've got to learn to manage your mouth, not only because it can direct you where you go but it can destroy what you have. you can lose your family, your kids, your career simply by what you say. it's like a fire.

proverbs 21:23 (ms), watch your words and hold your tongue; you'll save yourself a lot of grief.

just some thoughts up here on the front porch…