Words Mean Things...

I love words!  I love to talk, I love to read, I love to see the words of someone acted out on stage or sang in a melody...Words mean things! That sounds simple enough, right?  I tell my writing students this simple statement at the beginning of the year and then have them write an essay on some words that changed the world.  That sounds so ridiculously obvious, but is it? Do we stop  to think about how the major events of all human history have been shaped by something someone created in their brain and spoke with their smallest, yet most uncontrollable member: the tongue?
 As I was reading THE WORD this morning I read over a familiar passage, but I was prompted to see it in a new light.  Hebrews 11:3, "By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible."
 There it is:creation, life, words!
God created the universe out of His words.  John 1 speaks of Christ in the following manner: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God...all things were made by Him...The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Their it is again, just as in Genesis, Words becoming flesh. The Earth came out of the word of God, here is Jesus coming to the earth in flesh, to be among us, to be a sacrifice for us.  So what was so unique about reading Hebrews 11:3 this morning?
We are created in the image of our Creator.  He gave us the power to create.  He also gave us the power to speak, write, sing, ultimately he gave us the ability to take our words and create life.  Of course, it isn't in the same sense that God did it, but it is a reminder to us that we are his children.  We have a responsibility to our fellow man to create things that give life.
Proverbs states that the power of life and death is in the tongue.  In your words!  How often we- I forget that.  Your words today could create an environment of life for someone in your sphere of influence.  Our fallen nature has a tendency to use our words for death, for destruction, but our life giving God, wants us to use the power of the word to change others and the world we inhabit, the homes we run to for comfort and the jobs we work at each day.  We can create a better everything with our words.  These words can imitate the giver of life and built up or they can imitate the one who came to"steal, kill and destroy" and they can actual destroy the world you influence.  Give life to the hearers of your words and readers of your posts.  Words are power, words mean things!  Create wisely.
-Melissa Pyle