Theological Thursday --- Let There Be...(Part 2)

Last Thursday we looked at the method God chose to create the world...Speaking! He could have done it any way He desired, but I believe God chose this method to show the power of words. Consider, with words alone you can make somebody laugh, cry, angry, happy, upset, excited, etc, etc, etc. You can also with words alone curse God, praise God, use His name in vein, or worship Him. You can also lie, gossip, slander or honor, encourage, and build up. Our words have power! And what an awesome illustration of that power in the Creation Story! The Biblical writer James (Jesus' brother) captures the power of our words in chapter 3:

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. This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue—it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!

One word of caution...although our words have power, they must also be followed by our actions. If we profess to be a follower of Christ, our character should be moving in a direction that reflects Him more and more as we mature in our faith. And as powerful as our words are, our actions can many times override them. I leave you with 2 quotes showing the necessity of actions to accompany our words. The first is from Saint Francis and the second one is a little saying from Ralph Emmerson I see sitting on Jill's desk everyday:

Preach the Gospel at all times and, only if necessary, use words.

Your actions speak so loudly, I can't hear a word you are saying!