Dear friends:

Below is a daily devotional from Pastor Bill Powell of the Village Christian Fellowship in Suffolk, Virginia.

It will probably give you a chuckle.  But may it also remind us to speak words of grace and healing to people.  Many people, even Christians, use the Internet to vent and attack other people, sometimes ruthlessly, and in a condemning way.  Such behavior reveals something awry in their own soul.  Instead of that, may we use the Internet as an instrument of blessing and edification.

Jim
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Proverbs 12:18.  “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
 
Larry Crabb has written numerous books on counseling and spoken publicly for Jesus Christ with great effect.  But it was not always so.  As an older teen, Crabb attended a church that conducted a “Youth Sunday” and it fell to Larry to lead the congregation in prayer.
 
Crabb certainly prepared ahead of time but that morning while walking to the front of church he became unglued.  Looking out on all the people (who were obviously looking back at him), his brain scrambled.  “Filled less with worship than with nervousness,” Crabb later reported, “I found my theology becoming confused to the point of heresy.”  He thanked the Father for coming to earth to hang upon the cross.  Following that unique viewpoint, young Crabb praised the Lord Jesus Christ for triumphantly raising the Holy Spirit from the dead!
 
Finally, Larry heard himself say, “Amen”, and returned dejectedly to his seat.  Then and there, Larry Crabb solemnly vowed that he’d never again stand before a group and try to communicate.  He made plans to escape out the rear of the church the moment the service concluded.
 
Quickly moving to the exit, Jim Dunbar intercepted the discouraged teen.  Dunbar was an elder and now put his arm on the young man’s shoulder.  He looked him straight in the eye.  “Well, here it comes,” Larry thought.  “Just endure it and then get to the car.”
 
Then Mr. Dunbar broke the silence: “Larry, there’s one thing I want you to know, son.  Whatever you do for the Lord, I’m behind you one thousand percent.”  Then the gentleman walked away.  Mr. Dunbar employed the “tongue of the wise”; and he brought “healing.”  His words had power to encourage in THE moment and BEYOND the moment as well.  They reached deep into Larry’s heart and lifted his burden.
 
What person who lives or works around you today is twisted up in their own emotions, doubts, or wounds from “reckless words”?  What would Jesus Christ have you to say to them as an encourager?
 
 
The Proverb of the Day is a brief devotional based on the Book of Proverbs.  It is distributed by Village Christian Fellowship.