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Deterioration of the Heart
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” - Matthew 12:33-37.
Twenty something years ago when I was working in the oilfield I had started going to church and wanted to invite the men working on my crew to attend church with me. There was a revival at my church and so I invited them.
Their response was a surprising one. They said that whenever I stopped cursing they would come to church and laughed. Well it was true I did have a problem whenever things would go wrong or I would hit my finger or whatever one or two words would just seem to come out of my mouth. But we made a deal if I could stop for a week; they would come to church. It took e six weeks before I made it through a whole week without a curse word coming out of my mouth. Only one of them ever came to my church but I have never had a problem since with cursing.
According to a Parent’s Television Council report released March 30 sex, violence and foul language on television have increased by three-fold since 1989. Specifically since 1989 foul language has increased five and one-half times. References to previously unmentionable things have also many times. I do not have any statistics but I would suspect that the language of people as a whole who watch television programming has deteriorated on a similar proportionate basis.
Luke 6:45 gives us some direction for controlling our speech and actions. According to Luke 6:45 if we store evil things up in our hearts then evil things come out in our lives. However, if we store good things up in our lives good things come out. Romans 13:14 in the KJV tells us not to make provision for sin and another translation tells us not to even think about how to gratify our sinful desires. (Philippians 4:8) Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
As I found out with my language problem once you have the sin problem it is much harder to rid yourself of it. The best thing to do is to guard your heart/keep your heart (Proverbs 4:23) so that evil things are not coming into your heart. If you only have good things stored up in your heart it is much more likely that only good things will come out. What have you been putting into your heart?
By Ed Wrather
Submitted by Richard
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” - Matthew 12:33-37.
Twenty something years ago when I was working in the oilfield I had started going to church and wanted to invite the men working on my crew to attend church with me. There was a revival at my church and so I invited them.
Their response was a surprising one. They said that whenever I stopped cursing they would come to church and laughed. Well it was true I did have a problem whenever things would go wrong or I would hit my finger or whatever one or two words would just seem to come out of my mouth. But we made a deal if I could stop for a week; they would come to church. It took e six weeks before I made it through a whole week without a curse word coming out of my mouth. Only one of them ever came to my church but I have never had a problem since with cursing.
According to a Parent’s Television Council report released March 30 sex, violence and foul language on television have increased by three-fold since 1989. Specifically since 1989 foul language has increased five and one-half times. References to previously unmentionable things have also many times. I do not have any statistics but I would suspect that the language of people as a whole who watch television programming has deteriorated on a similar proportionate basis.
Luke 6:45 gives us some direction for controlling our speech and actions. According to Luke 6:45 if we store evil things up in our hearts then evil things come out in our lives. However, if we store good things up in our lives good things come out. Romans 13:14 in the KJV tells us not to make provision for sin and another translation tells us not to even think about how to gratify our sinful desires. (Philippians 4:8) Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
As I found out with my language problem once you have the sin problem it is much harder to rid yourself of it. The best thing to do is to guard your heart/keep your heart (Proverbs 4:23) so that evil things are not coming into your heart. If you only have good things stored up in your heart it is much more likely that only good things will come out. What have you been putting into your heart?
By Ed Wrather
Submitted by Richard
