Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
From a couple of letters via the internet a few years ago
The warning that God has been giving us lately seems to be that we should not listen to idle talk or gossip. If talk is not going to be edifying, then don’t listen to it. One time, the Lord posed a question to me: “How much information do you need to have, and how much do you want to know?” That is a good question to ask ourselves. There is some information that is good for our safety, but there is some that can be damaging to our spirit. The damaging information is the part we want to know beyond what we need to know. It is important to listen to the things God is telling us because He is telling us for a reason. It is also important not to listen to what other spirits want us to hear because it will not be edifying.
We want to stay happy and clean, and when we give ear to the wrong words, we can be robbed!
It struck me while reading a recent email from Brother Gary Savelli that sickness may come upon those who listen to the wrong thing as well as upon those people who say the wrongs things. I don’t remember having that thought before.
When it comes to talk, we are apt to think only of the talker having control of his tongue. It is equally important that we have control of our ears. David said in one Psalm, “I will set no wicked thing before my eyes” (Ps. 101:3). Should we not have the same attitude concerning our ears? Will we protect ourselves from being influenced by evil sights and yet leave ourselves vulnerable to evil influences that seek to enter our hearts through our ears?
Solomon observed that “life and death are in the power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:21), and Jesus echoed that truth when he said, “By your words, you will be justified, and by your words, you will be condemned” (Mt. 12:37). But the Bible also reveals the danger of “giving heed to false lips” (Prov. 17:4). The organ of the tongue is not the only organ by which we can harm ourselves and displease the Almighty. We can be foolish with our ears and eyes and hands as well as with our mouth.
Paul spoke of all the members of our bodies in his great exhortation from his letter to the Romans: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, that you should obey it in its lusts. Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves to God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Rom. 6:12-13).