Renewed and Ready

7/26 - Karl Haffner

By: Pacific Press Author

A student was sitting in church when the speaker stood to preach. Seeing who it was, he remarked to the elderly woman next to him, "Oh, no! I can't believe he's preaching. That's my seminary teacher. We call him 'Old Stink.' I've already heard him five times this week. Had I known he was preaching, I would have stayed in bed."

"Um, ah," the woman stammered, "um, do you know who I am?"

"No."

"Well, then, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Mrs. Stink."

The student replied, "Do you know who I am?"

"No."

"Praise the Lord!" the student said.

"Oh be careful little tongue what you say," James tells us, "because the tongue harnesses incredible power."

Ironic, isn't it? After all, what is the tongue, really? It's a four-inch, two-ounce slab of mucous membrane that houses an array of nerves and muscles to help us chew, taste, and talk. That's it. Yet James argues that it's an instrument of extraordinary power.

In a similar fashion to how a bit controls the direction of a horse, or the rudder controls the direction of a ship, so the tongue controls the direction of a life. In fact, words can control the destiny of entire corporations, congregations, and you and me.

Oh be careful little tongue what you say.


From Out of the Hot Tub and Into the World by Karl Haffner, p76

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