The Vocal Christian on The Vocal Christian

It is amazing how life is ever-changing, ever evolving, taking us to places we would have never imagined. As I was looking through pictures trying to decide which one would represent me on my blog, The Vocal Christian, I ran across this picture of myself as a baby. I smiled looking at that cute little baby face, focusing in on the fact that, "that's me"! I decided this would be my blog picture and then I heard the Spirit of the Lord say "The Vocal Christian on The Vocal Christian". I knew exactly what He was talking about and got excited in my spirit. I was to write an article about myself.

I named my blog The Vocal Christian because I am now and always have been a very outspoken person. As a young girl I received more whippings than I can count, all because of my mouth. My mother always used to say to me, "Your mouth is going to be the death of you." It really and truly was. Not physical death, but spiritual death simply because the words I spoke were not full of love or edification. They were mostly full of sarcasm and intended to hurt. Back in my days before I gave my life to Jesus, my vocality left nothing to be desired. I didn't use much profanity, but I knew how to use my words as swiftly as an assassin yielding a sword. Not only was I bringing death to me, I was wounding the spirits of others with my words. I was a know-it-all who knew absolutely nothing and let whatever came off the top of my head spit forth from my mouth without the least bit of worry about hurting your feelings or about the consequences.

But praise be to God, after Jesus came in and took hold of my life I allowed Him to take control of my mouth and my words as well. The Lord had me to begin a personal Bible study on Sundays after church and He lead me to start with the book of James. The whole book had plenty of life lessons for me because I was a new baby Christian trying to learn how to live the way God wanted me to. However, when I read the third chapter, I was completely convicted. I knew he was talking about me! Verses 6 and 8-10 say: "And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is a world of evil placed among our body parts. It pollutes the whole body and sets on fire the course of life—and is set on fire by Gehenna (Hell). 8 But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our LORD and Father, and with it we curse people, who are made in the image of God. 10 From the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be."

Just imagine how those words would grip a true babe in Christ who was looking to walk pleasing to Him! I also ran across Matthew 12:37 which says: "For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

I decided then and there I was going to clean up my mouth to speak words of life only. It's comical when I look back on it now, but for months whenever I felt the "assassin" about to wound another victim, I would put my hand over my mouth. People would ask me, what are you doing? I would say I'm stopping myself from saying what I really want to say because I know it's not going to be nice and I don't need to say it. That would not be pleasing to God. They would say, that's crazy. But guess what? It worked! As I said this was many years ago, and even today my mouth is still a work in progress. The Lord has taught me so much patience in how to hold my tongue. Every now and then things slip out, but as I said I'm still a work in progress and I will be until my dying day.

I can tell you from experience that you truly do reap what you sow, and your life gravitates toward the words coming out of your own mouth. Your words can be your greatest treasure or your worst enemy. You decide what they will be to you.

These days I take this same mouth and use it for the glory of God, to tell the world of His goodness with the same boldness that I used to tell someone off or "give them a piece of my mind". When you give away too many pieces, you don't have any left for yourself!

When situations present themselves where the old me definitely would have had something to say, most times I do not say anything because I know from my past that is best. When it is necessary for me to say something, I pause and ask Holy Spirit to help me and give me the right words to say. Family members have said to me on many occasions, I can't believe you didn't say anything to that. The "old you" definitely would have had something to say. I praise God because that is a testament to what He can do in your life if you let Him. I have given all to Jesus, and He has made me brand new.

So now you will be hearing from The Vocal Christian on a variety of topics as the Spirit leads. They will be bold and radical because that's just my nature, but I can guarantee every last one of them will be the truth according to the Word of God and will glorify His Name!