James 1:19

MARKS OF MATURITY (Part 3— JAMES AND THE TONGUE)

(June 06, 2025) Dr Richard Winter shares a vital challenge…

High School in my day was where they prepared you for your university experience. If you were to take a Bachelor Arts Degree you would need to have a language— our choice was Latin or French. Latin? Aww… that’s a dead language and no one spoke that! But French? Now that sounded good; had me dreaming that perhaps one day I would go to Paris. Off we went learning our French vocabulary.

And as inquisitive teenagers we soon learned some French phrases that were not complimentary— like Ferme la bouche— shut your mouth! I tried it on my sisters at home but my mother worked out that what I was saying was not a compliment.… and I got into trouble!

Have you ever said something that you later regretted saying? On the other hand, have you ever wished you had said something that you later regretted not saying?

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MIND YOUR LANGUAGE!

(August 28, 2023) Mama Lava challenges us regarding our language…

Words are essential every day… some describe feelings, others tell of actions.

1. Complaining Words
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about words.

Guess that is to be expected when starting to write something, especially a blog… What is the message I want to convey? How do I want to say it?

When I write, I can be thoughtful and intentional – I have the benefit of backspace. But spoken words can be harder to manage.

The poster-sized James 1:19 reminder to the right? I have it hanging in my house:

I intend for my audible words to withstand rigorous checkpoints before they get through my lips, but they often escape with astonishing ease. The Bible points out the inconsistency of my tongue very well: ‘With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness’ (James 3:9).

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