Daily Jewel

by Pastor Carnell, McAlester, OK
Apr. 4, 2012,br />
“All Natural Mouthwash”
“Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips.” – Proverbs 4:24

I am about to make one of those “guilty-pleasure” confessions—I am a hopeless Scifi (that’s science fiction for some of you folks) fanatic. It started as a child when the television series, “Lost in Space” was all the rage and then increased to higher levels when the enormously popular series “Star Trek” aired. I have been hopelessly hooked ever since. For those who may not have been exposed to such elements, Star Trek was supposedly taking place in the 23rd century. It revolved around the adventures of the Starship Enterprise and its crew. Many of the crew members (characters) were not only of various races but many also were supposedly different planets. One of the main characters was the ever-logical thinking Spock (Leonard Nimoy), who was from the planet Vulcan. In the 1980’s there were a series of six Star Trek movies filmed and released. One of the movies, the fourth in the series, was called “The Voyage Home.” A series of events lead the crew of the Enterprise to return to the 20th Century Earth to capture and retrieve a humpback whale and take it back to the 23rd Century. As Spock and Captain Kirk search for a whale they must first go through a series of encounters that Spock would find peculiar. He also notices that in Captain Kirk’s speech (William Shatner), he was using a number of “colorful metaphors” that Spock was unfamiliar with. Essentially, he was using swear words. Apparently, such words were not used on Vulcan, nor were they used by earthlings in the 23rd century. Wouldn’t that be great? I went through that entire dialogue (and three centuries) to make a point—that swearing, or as Spock would say, the use of “colorful metaphors,” is both unnecessary and pointless. The Apostle Paul makes a great statement in the book of Ephesians that also goes along these lines: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” (Ephesians 4:29). The King James Version uses the word, perverse. (As does the NIV in the verse from Proverbs.) The Message says, “…let nothing dirty or foul come out of your mouth.” The Amplified Bible uses the word(s), worthless talk. The word perverse means: “…to turn away from what is right or good.” That leads me to what Jesus says that makes a person “corrupt.”
"Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.' “(Matthew 15:17-19)

Jesus is saying that our words and actions are the direct result of what we are feeding our mind, heart and spirit. The use of perverse speech is all over the place. We hear it on the television. Movies are rated based primarily on the use of strong language. I hear it on the streets. A recent event in our neighborhood—a couple just a few houses away got into a very heated discussion (they were arguing…loudly) and a number of “f” bombs were thrown. Most of you will know what that stands for. What was the most bothersome and troubling about this particular event is this couple has three small children who had front row seats to what was happening. The bottom line here, those who have to use color metaphors to express themselves are obviously not feeding themselves with a spiritually healthy lifestyle. The conclusion here is Guard Your Heart and keep your speech clean by keeping your heart clean. There is absolutely no need to use words or actions that in truth—make no difference. In fact, wouldn’t it be great if we did not have to wait until the 23rd Century to eliminate the use of words that are completely unnecessary?
Pastor J. T. Carnell