Word.

One of my high school friends told me that she really likes school, just not the school work part. That made a lot of sense to me when she said it. This week, the above book popped into my mind from my grade school days. It was the book that we used to learn new vocabulary words each week in class. I remember it so clearly. It had four or five different exercises each week that used the week's vocabulary words to help you learn the meaning and spelling of the words. The week culminated in a spelling and definition matching test. For some reason. I kind of liked "Wordly Wise". Interesting title.

Our tongue, on average weighs about 60-70 grams. About the weight of a tennis ball. Not terribly weighty, but so incredibly weighty in our life and living. Words are crazy amazing. The fact that God made words such a woven part of our daily existence is pretty fascinating really. The fact that Jesus is actually referred to as "the Word".... Pretty telling. And so this 65 gram body part packs a wallop. I praise and bless with it. I lie and curse with it. Me. And you. Caressing with words. Spewing with words. All from sweet little ole 65 gram tongue.

James the bible writer teaches about it in the bible book of James, chapter 3, verses 1 through 12 and specifically in verses 5, 6 and 8 if you want to glance at it. Here is his teaching. The tongue is like a small spark that torches a massive forest. I'm thinking Gatlinburg fire or California wine country torching. The tongue is like a fire. It sets the whole course of a life on fire. And hell itself, strikes the tongue match. Yikes. That's intense. It's in there. The tongue is like a world of evil. What a way to say something. You're thinking of way to say that something is really big. What's really big? The whole world is big. Mammoth. It's like a world of evil. It corrupts and stains the whole person. Little body part, affecting the whole person. It is a restless evil. Rest Less. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. The tongue is like a deadly poison, emphasis on deadly, emphasis on poison.

Man James. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Six bam. What are you trying to say? Little tongue, vast impact. Thank God James is teaching us about it. Pay attention to your tongue. Your words are really powerful. In three short verses, James describes the potential, torching evil force of our tongue. Deadly fire storm. Not casual. Life threatening. Then, notice this gift. Because we are being taught about the possible destructive force of this little 65 gram flame thrower, we are called to attention, we are called to sanctification. God is transforming our tongue. Imagine the transformation potential of the six descriptions above. From small spark, fire, world of evil, staining the whole person, restless evil, deadly poison.....to.....

....Heavenly spark, Holy fire, world of righteousness, life altering growth, godly life transformation, life giving antidote....from your tongue. Yes. Your tongue. Christ in you, the hope of glory transforming your words into life giving ammunition against hell fire, producing holy fire. All from the presence of God in your mouth.

The mouth is a really intimate place. Biting into a delicious, juicy piece of meat. Intimately kissing a mouth or a cheek. Our words are part of that intimacy. So how does it change? How do our words transform from hell storm to godly health? How do we become "Wordly Wise"? Bible book of Colossians, chapter 3, verse 16. And let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly!

It keeps coming back to this intersection. Are you feeding on the Word of God? Am I really? Go to the Word of God. My tongue needs transformation, desperately. The Words of God is my source for new vocabulary. In the fourth grade, Wordly Wise had my new word list for that week. God's word is our new vocabulary for this week.

God transform my tongue. Please forgive me for the sin of my tongue. Renew my tongue with the holy fire of heaven, burning for you, not torching my brother and sister.

There's more.