Loose lips, sink ships or.... the power of the tongue

Disclaimer: This was posted with paragraphs and formatting but this app did not retain them. Can you keep a secret? What if you were professionally trained to keep secrets and partake in covert operations that were of the utmost importance to your country’s security? It would seem to me that if this were the case, you would be less likely to brag about your military prowess or medals even decades after the events. I mean, if your military file is truly mostly blacked out, so secret that, to this day, no one can view the whole thing, it would mean that you were specially trained for such sensitive missions that no one can ever know. Likely, if true, you took an oath. The medals you may have earned were ones that other people had to die for. I have heard of many cases where those who fought would never discuss the war, their service or medals, ever. Their families would only discover it by going through their things after death. I am sure that you have heard of the saying “loose lips sink ships” and many such slogans brought on by World War II. Even now, things that may have taken place are sealed by the oath taken by so many of our men and women who served. Like links in a chain, if one opens up, they all are affected. It is, surely, a matter of honor and reverence for the mission and those who put their lives on the line and, for all we know, still serve, yea? You risk others lives and put yourself in a compromising position if you are willing to open your mouth solely for bragging rights. IF your comrades are still serving, or your operational information might still be useful, people could die. And, when I hear such stories from the mouths of braggarts, I am not impressed. I shake my head, perhaps only in my mind, and think how starved for attention they must be to be willing to forgo honor for the sake of a little attention. I also doubt the truth… because, as I said, I believe that anyone who truly was trained for such things would NEVER violate the oath of secrecy at any cost. And what if the braggart is a liar as well? You see, I tend to think that real heroes wouldn’t brag, but that is just me. Real heroes would sit quietly by and maintain their integrity and honor in humility. They would maintain reverence for the oath that they swore. Did you know that there are laws all over the world regarding military impostors? In the United States, it is called “The Stolen Valor Act of 2013”. But of course, it only refers to false claims that try to profit. It, unfortunately, doesn’t impact people who pretend to have valor. I know, I know, what does THIS have to do with the price of tea in China? Meaning, how is it relevant? Well, on my many God given mental rants, late at night usually, I began to consider something else. What about those Christians who behave other than what is righteous, as well? It happens you know. People are people. People seek attention and for some reason, they want to feel more important than the person next to them. People crave acceptance and seek it in the most contradictory ways. It is important to understand how this impacts our mission. Let me explain. Well, you can’t LET me because you aren’t here to dissuade me… captive audience and all, but here is my very brief summary and then we can dig deeper. 1. I know that the bible is the literal Word of God. This means that nothing can be added or taken away. It is what it is. 2 Tim 3:16: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” 2. It is our mission to SHOW LOVE and bring the Word of God to the world so that they might be saved. James 2:8: “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.” 3. The worst thing, well one of the worst things, that we can do is to turn people away from God. Usually that means behaving in a manner contrary to His Word/commandments. John 14: 15: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” 2 John 1_6: “And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.” First of all, if you read and know your bible, then you know that the bible, all of it; even the parts we may not like so much, are His Words. He has breathed life into those Words and gifted them to His disciples to ‘feed’ the world. We may want to pick and choose but, if we believe that He has breathed out every word, than it is not for us to decide. It is similar to following the rules of the military or government or your employer. Only in this case, it is dependent on your faith in God, His Word and your love for others. So you are a soldier in His army. As part of God’s army, there are many commandments to keep. One should behave in a manner that reflects love for others and reverence for Him. Love the sinner, hate the sin. I should not deny any part of God’s word to make someone else happy nor should I use His word to beat them over the head with it. I must shine a light in the dark corners of the world to help others find their way… but always with love. The most vital commandment is to Love your neighbor. I always like to talk about how to make a good marriage last. If YOU are putting your spouses needs first, and your spouse is putting your needs first, then you are most likely to succeed because all of your needs are covered. Let’s face it, we aren’t used to doing this AT all. We want what we want when we want it and we feel it is our RIGHT to have it. We DESERVE it. Why should we always be the ones to bend over backwards for someone who fill in the blanks? Our first reaction is the human one because, guess what, we are human. We want to have it our way. But this ain’t Burger King, people, it is life and death. It SHOULD be a Christian life in which our love for others is more important than our own selves. Don’t get me started on the selfish, vain, ‘tell the world about how good I am’ people out there. I will fall down a rabbit hole and you will not want to follow me any more. But let’s just talk about love. If I love God, believe His word and want to save His people then I better understand that I have to die to my own flesh and try my very best to live in the Spirit because no good is in me. Argue all you want, but I KNOW that it is a constant battle up in my head to ignore the initial worldly thoughts in my head and fight to seek the righteousness of God. I don’t care WHO you are, you all got to work on taming the beast that tries to take control of your thought life every minute of the day. Sometimes God makes it easy and sends the Spirit to give you what you need to speak life into someone... but sometimes we must fight against the flesh for it. The evil one does his best to gain a foothold in your thought life. Once he festers in your thought life, he starts to seep out his poison in your behavior and thus contaminates your soul. I ain’t even kidding! We have talked about this before. What you think is ‘justified’ looks more like un-Christian behavior to someone else. Do you know how many Christians turn away from God, blame Him, for the behavior of other Christians? Well, neither do I, but I was once one of them! The actions of a baptist pastor turned me from the church and from God for the DECADES. I was a DEVOTED newborn to the faith and God. I LOVED Him with my whole heart. I craved His word. I was saved by faith by that Pastor knocking on my door with his Christian brother. And just as fast, I ran from that church due to my pastor’s sin, the thorn in his side, his hypocrisy and evil intent. THINK of the lives that I could have impacted for God’s kingdom in those decades that I wandered in the desert! The lives that COULD have been saved. What we say and do can turn others from the Light… worse, can mean their very death, can mean the loss of eternal life. But more than that; we aren’t just talking about those other Christians who need guidance, are we? I am talking about those ‘other’ people. The people that we love to hate or judge. The people that we like to exclude because they are sinning. THOSE people. Well, here we go again… what does scripture say? Mat 5: 43-48: ““You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? ...” I got to remind you, love, THOSE people are the ones that He chose to eat with. Those people had thorns in their flesh and struggled (just like every single one of us by the way) as well. THOSE people are us! WE, though we may like to pretend that we have risen above it all, are still struggling with our own thorns if only in our minds. 2 Cor 12: 7-10: “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Guess what? I was in sin when I was called and I wasn’t immediately freed from it. Thank GOD for not giving up on me. Thank GOD for sending me good Christian people to mentor me and show me what living for Christ looks like. Thank God that I heard all about the struggle to stay strong in the faith and to fight my thought life every minute so that I can stay in His will. Because it isn’t those who are sinless that we seek. It is those who are buried in darkness and are starved for the light. But how can we show others his love if we behave without honor and humility. (See? I did finally wrap it around) We are His soldiers. We are to fight evil and spread the Light to others so that they may know the Truth. The Truth will set them free. Anything less than that may cause them to lose their faith. Loose lips, sink ships. Cause people to lose their lives, their faith, their eternal salvation. I have seen the beast rear his ugly head inside the most beautiful of Christian people in a manner which could very easily mean death to those in earshot. Do ya know what I mean? If I speak of God then talk down to the broken, whom He loves, how am I any different than the beast that speaks to them in their heads; telling them how they aren’t worthy or loved? How can I hope to save them from darkness and death if I speak out of vanity and pride instead of the love of Christ? Mat 12:36-37: “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” So many people are caught up in darkness and cannot see their way out. I pray that God continues to send them messengers of love and redemption. 1 Cor 13: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body,a but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.”