Pensamientos para hoy (afterthought for today)
Fire Prevention
A friend of mine told me a story about how her father's house burned down because of a plumber's carelessness. According to my friend several years ago during a particularly cold winter the pipes in her father's house froze. Her father called a plumber and the plumber used a butane torch to thaw out the pipes. The plumber was able to get the water flowing again; so he packed up his tools, got in his truck, and drove away. A few minutes later the house burned to the ground. Apparently the plumber's blow torch ignited the floor joists near the pipes. For some reason he failed to notice that not only was the flame of the torch heating the water pipes, it was also heating the wooden floor joists. In a similar situation here in Belleville, New Jersey where I live, workers doing repair work on the roof of a restaurant--also using butane torches--ignited the joists in the roof. The building began to fill with smoke and the customers were quickly evacuated. The fire department eventually discovered that the source of the smoke was from a small fire in the roof that the workers had accidentally started. The Bible tells us that we too can accidentally start fires. James the brother of Jesus wrote a letter to Jewish Christians living outside of Palestine and said: "Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell (James 3:5-6)."1 Our tongue is such a small part of our body; yet it can be so destructive. If we want to follow God, then we need to be able to use our tongue for good. We need to bring our speech under the control of the Holy Spirit. Several years ago an elderly pastor gave me some good advice: "Pray every morning that God would help you to watch what you say." I have tried to follow this advice. In fact I have found that sometimes it's helpful to pray this prayer prior to any event where I might find myself tempted to say something I might later regret. We have to use our tongues, but we need to be careful not to start any fires. May God help us to use our tongue only to encourage and build up and never to hurt or tear down. Trying to Prevent Fires, Pastor SteveFootnotes1 James 3:5-6, NIV (New International Version). Unless otherwise noted all references to the Bible will be from the NIV.
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