I took a minute to thank Him, again, for the grace of Christ and the mercy He shows me when my mess overflows. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.Īlternately, if we remember that a brother has something against us, we should go to him and make that right too (i.e., Matthew 5:23-24) - and we should do it before the sun sets.Īs I mopped up the mess in my son's bathroom, gagging on the smell, I had a new appreciation of the stench of my own sin from God’s perspective. If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. Jesus offers a simple way to keep the pipes clear in Matthew 18:15: Stirring and venting are off the list.Īnger was in my lap, alright, and when you ignore God's instruction to get "un-angry" before you see the sun set, you’ve set the stage for a big, nasty mess. Verse 22 of the same Proverb says, “An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered one commits many sins.” Ecclesiastes 7:9 says it too: “Anger resides in the laps of fools.” Speaking through His word in Proverbs 29:8 and again in 29:11, God reminded me that a wise man turns away anger, and a fool gives vent to it. By the time the next opportunity came along, a "clog" had accumulated in my heart causing an overflow of epic (or should I say septic?) proportions. I had been given ample opportunity prior to our argument to "flush" my anger away, but I waited too long. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. The source of my foul overflow was a violation of Ephesians 4:26-27 which instructs: I was forced to recognize that the overflow of my heart had been equally unpleasant as the one I was now sitting in. Jesus said in Matthew 12:34 that "out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." Well, the illustration of that truth was certainly becoming clearer from my vantage point on the floor. Leave it to the Lord and His wisdom to arrest me using such vivid imagery! Surrounded by toilet water, I was indisputably in the right place to receive His lesson. While considering the probable cause of the toilet's overflow, I was struck by a sense of irony, because this incident came on the heels of recent argument I had with my husband. In my case, the mess was caused by my son's backed-up toilet, and I feared the obstruction was pretty serious judging by the roll-sized clumps of toilet paper lying in soggy piles all around me - not to mention what may have gone before the paper. Do you ever find yourself in the middle of a mess, looking around wondering how you ended up sitting there with wet sweats and soggy slippers? It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire.My son’s toilet overflowed the other day.Īs I was running to grab the old towels, I slipped and fell right into the middle of the mess. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. James 3:2-6 “We all stumble in many ways. James 1:27 “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.” For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:33-37) In context: “wicked, injurious, false, malicious). But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken (vain, thoughtless, useless a word that accomplishes no good. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.
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