Hello readers, this is part 3 of my impromptu year in review series for 2023. I usually do some end of year style blogs but I’ve never done them like this.

In the first two blogs, it’s kinda been more a lamentation than a Song of songs, but there’s a time and place and season for everything right? If the Christian life is a melody and song, I’ve been struggling with being out of tune!

But believe it or not I am getting somewhere with these. … Well, hopefully anyway! I’ve encouraged myself a bit in the Lord in them. If nothing is encouraging, sometimes you just have to encourage yourself… in the Lord, as David did! And amazingly, my aim is for your encouragement and benefit as a reader.

Actually, thinking about that word en-courage. We throw that word around a bit without even knowing what it means. This world lacks courageous Christians… probably because despite the raft of “encouraging” messages and ministries… they aren’t actually spreading true Biblical encouragement for Christians to take courage from to live for Christ in this world.

One of the things about going through the stuff we go through as Christians is so that we can identify with, understand and help others going through their stuff. I mean, my blog is going to draw from the story of Job quite a bit today (good old Job for hard times aye!)… but you know why his friends were so useless to him?… it’s because they hadn’t gone through what he went through.

His friends had the theory, but they had no idea how to translate it to reality. A lot of modern Christianity is really just theory. I can study all the theory I want about driving a car, until I drive it, I don’t know nothing yet.

And nobody really goes through the same thing. Like every snowflake, it’s always different. You know how we say “I know how you feel”… and though some might more than others comparatively speaking, nobody really knows how we feel… except Jesus Christ. If knowing how we truly feel qualifies our ability to help… I can only offer you Jesus Christ, dear reader.

After writing my first two parts of my yearly review, a train of thought came to my mind from the book of Job, because I’d done a lot of writing.

In Job 8:2, one of Job’s friends … Bildad… said this to him “How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?”

Job had just spent 2 chapters pouring out his complaint. And I feel like I’ve been doing some complaining. People who know me know I can get my complaint on… I can be a complainer. (And I feel justified everytime!) But it was like God was using this verse to speak to me and say to me as a loving Father… How long? How long are you going to go on like this? You done yet? You got it out yet?

It all got me thinking about the words of my mouth in general, and how they can be a strong wind. Reflecting not just on my year, but on my life, I’ve thought about things I’ve said. What did I say to God? What did I say to other people? What was my manner of communication? I think I have intimidated some people, been insensitive, spoken out of turn and hurt some people along the way. Some of it is unintentional and sometimes honestly it just isn’t really my fault I don’t believe. … But I have to focus on what is my fault, what I can control, and I have needed to apologize to people… profusely at times.

Yes, I might even have been right in some cases and yet still needed to apologize, because we can be right… and yet be so wrong. Jesus one day rebuked his disciples saying “ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of” when they had wanted to emulate their hero Elijah and call down fire on a city of the Samaritans. I have looked back at the spirit of my words at times… and it was the wrong spirit, even if the right words. And I didn’t need to be told by anyone else, I knew it inside my heart.

It’s important to note that when Bildad asks these questions to Job here as quoted above, I’m > not < very inclined to agree with Bildad in the context of the story. I mean, come on… I think Job’s entitled to vent a bit. I think he’s entitled to be a little upset.

But the difference is, I feel his question is a lot more justified to me than it was to Job! Because I simply cannot compare to Job, and so I borrow from his story here in this blog not as an equal in any way, shape or form. I couldn’t have survived what he went through and kept any integrity I may have begun with… sure maybe with an extreme level of God’s grace, but it’s doubtful God would even mention to me to Satan to begin with “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth…”

… Satan sure had considered Job! If Satan doesn’t take notice of me, is that a compliment, or an insult to my profession? If your life isn’t attracting spiritual opposition, maybe it’s because the enemy is not seeing you as a threat.

And just as a brief detour… that’s quite a statement “none like him”. Did that make Job pretty lonely? Sometimes it can be a bit isolating following Jesus Christ, particularly if you truly are sold out to him, that thins the company out quite a lot. Jesus’ company was thinned out so bad it was just a company of one by the time he was lifted up on the cross. I’m sure none of us are that isolated by how “good” we are yet.

“None like him” isn’t a statement of you’re better or superior or elevated above anyone else… but it does make you unique. Samson bore the burden of having no “equal” in his life. He wasn’t like any other man… but he wanted to be, and eventually he got his wish in the lap of Delilah. The curse of modern Christianity is wanting to be like everyone else… because the church and Christians are a peculiar people in this world. Peculiar or just plain weird? You decide what you are! Some are just weird.

In a weird way this year, no pun intended, I have borne a little bit of burden for being different. Not to elaborate too deeply, but if I had been a little less different, my year might have gone quite a bit “better”. Not truly better, but I would’ve got my own way probably a bit more. … But I can’t have Samson’s hair cut… I can’t allow all that Christ has done in my life to be shaved off to gain acceptance with people that don’t even truly love me and have my best at heart to begin with. Remember, Delilah was not truly with Samson. He loved her… but she didn’t love him. Watch that one way relationship all who are thinking of getting involved with someone else “Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee”!

Anyway, to arrest the direction of this blog! Back to words, and my words, and my performance with them this year!

I had never truly grasped the damage that words can do. Or maybe I had, but I just didn’t care enough about my neighbor to really do something about it or really seek God’s grace in this area of life to really change my life here. I’ve been hurt by words before. I know how utterly hurtful they can be. I can appear or maybe feel a bit bullet proof at times, only at times though, because most of the time really I’m anything but. Most people aren’t nearly as bulletproof as we might think.

There’s a difference between the offense of the cross and being offensive. Particularly more fundamental Christians can struggle to make that difference. We are not a hero or doing God’s work for being offensive. We are not heroes for hiding our malice behind our supposed cloak of liberty. We have not been set free to break other people with our words.

Our words truly can be like a strong wind. It can blow people away for good… or bad, and like any strong wind, it can do a lot of damage and leave a lot of carnage in its wake. You look at what gale force winds can do… the destruction can be immense. And that’s a reality check for me. Yes we all need to be cut down, but there’s a big difference between God cutting us down and making the necessary cuts through the work of the Holy Spirit deep in our heart (remembering because he loves us and his goal is to build us up)… versus our malicious, nasty, mean, hateful, bitter, envious words.

The tongue can be a real problem! I’m sure we’ve all said things we wish we never had, which have affected relationships, lives, even our witness permanently. “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” And so out of this year , I’ve realized something vital to my growth as a Christian through introspection… not blaming others, it’s hearing Nathan say to me “thou art the man”.

Introspection, truthful introspection is a vital part of Christian growth “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts”. Christian success isn’t achieving some elite level of hypocritical deluded self righteousness, it’s something as simple as a truthful heart, especially when it comes to self in light of God’s word. I don’t necessarily that easily welcome home truths about me. And I know and have seen people, this year included, who showed an extreme rejection to the truth. Which wasn’t attractive to me. I think we all have to make sure we always have a heart, no matter how far we fall, that we are not cut off completely to truth. Once we are incapable of coming to truth, there is no hope.

Back to the tongue. One thing I’ve always had is a need to get the last word and be right. I can react to things be be alarmed myself at what comes out. Usually I quickly and instantly regret it, but damage can be done pretty quick too. We all may think we aren’t that bad, and maybe we are not, maybe even I’m not… but really in every case often all that is required is the right conditions to unleash the tongue. Kind of like a bushfire on a very hot summer day here. All it needs is a spark and off she goes, usually there’s a big banked fuel load of bitterness and discontentment just waiting to catch fire!

Have a look at this verse… James 1:26 “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.” You think this is an important issue? It doesn’t matter how religious we are, if there is no bridle on our own tongue… it’s all a complete empty waste. When is our salvation going to change us?

Whenever I do some introspection and review, it ends up with me liking me less and less. I’ve been in 1 Peter a little bit in heart and spirit, and thought about this from 1 Peter 2:23 “Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not…”

Of course that’s pointing to the example of Jesus Christ in suffering for righteousness sake. Could this be me? Ha! Definitely not! … and yet as a Christian, isn’t this supposed to be me? If the Spirit of Christ is in me, shouldn’t this be me finally once Christ perfects this in me?

I take comfort from Paul, and a detail I noticed in Acts 23 this year. In this chapter he is on trial, and he begins talking about his good conscience to those who are sitting in judgment of him. And the high priest who is there tells someone standing by him to smack him in the face. That’d be hard to take. Imagine being slapped in the face for something you said because what you said is esteemed worthless, a lie, a joke and you need to be shut up.

How would I have reacted to that?  Well Paul had a most holy reaction and he retaliates and even calls the priest a “whited wall”. Hang on, I’ve heard that before, from Matthew 23 where Jesus called the Pharisees whited walls. Paul rebukes the high priestfor violating the law of God in whacking him in the face… but they say hey, aren’t you not supposed to speak to the high priest like that?

Wham, it’s almost like you can see the question check Paul right there and then. And Paul in the midst of that heated moment goes hey, you’re right. That’s something God hasn’t necessarily tempered in me yet. He’s begun too, I’m not like I was. In the heat of a moment a lot can be said that does a lot of damage… but Paul stopped right there… even if he was right… he knew he didn’t say it in the right spirit. See, Jesus called them whited walls without compromising his integrity, but Paul was calling this priest a whited wall correctly to be honest, but not with the right spirit.

“God shall smite thee, thou whited wall”… you ever felt like saying that to someone? Ha! Yeah we might be too holy to admit it, but there are times I wouldn’t mind seeing people get what they deserve. But then I think, later of course, what if I got what I deserved?

So in reflecting upon this year… could I, a person known in some capacity for my ability with my words which I can wield like a sword, could my tongue be tamed? If my tongue was a horse, and it was ready for battle… could it be bridled? See, the bridle is what makes the horse useful to the rider, because the rider directs the horse. The horse has the “horsepower”, but without the bridle all that horsepower doesn’t have much use does it.

I’ve met Christians who have a lot of talent and ability, but it is yet to be “harnessed”. And it’s not my job to harness it, because I’m not the master, and not their master. We truly have to subject our strengths to the Lord, or we may end like an Asahel in our Christian walk yet… skewered by the consequences of our own lack of wisdom. And it’s no matter that James, which hits so directly on the tongue… also hits hard on wisdom also.

When Jesus came into Jerusalem, he told his disciples to go fetch a colt. That’s pretty random! Go fetch the colt. Because there was a certain colt over in yonder town “The Lord hath need of him”. It’s quite a touching scene somehow in the Bible, because we know what it’s picturing. The colt was tied up just waiting to be loosed. He was ready to go, he was good to go, but he just didn’t have the right rider yet. He hadn’t met his match, he hadn’t met the one person in existence who could break him, tame him, direct him, and make him useful in the service of the King. There’s someone for everyone they say, well this colt was for one person alone. There’s no substitute for a personal walk with Christ. Salvation is deeply personal, and we cannot and never should get in between God’s dealing and using of someone else. No man had ever sat on that colt. Could Christ somehow use this colt, the foal of an ass?

This year I’ve discovered again that I still have childish tendencies. 1 Corinthians 13 shows what a man of God looks like. But many childish things I have yet to put away. Could Christ use me? Can Christ use us… despite us?

If someone has the jawbone of an ass, it’s often us Christians. And we can be like in Samson’s hands, stacking up the casualties. … Or we can be used as the oracle of God.

In the light of the story of Jesus and the colt, it’s quite incredible to think that God could have need of us. Because how could God need anything from me? Do we know how big a privilege we have as ambassadors for Christ? Do we know the privilege that we have in carrying Christ to this lost world?

It’s amazing what Jesus Christ needs. He needs that untamed, wild colt. To take him through the gates of Jerusalem “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” And so we’d all be surprised who God saves and who God changes. That’s why we should never judge any person too low or unworthy of the grace of God. Because that person you think doesn’t deserve it, is the biggest candidate for it.

Anyway… back to the start, remember how we started or did I lose you on the way… and I wasn’t like the Spirit of God with Elijah, I lost you on some mountain or in some valley back there! But Bildad asks Job this question “how long are you going to carry on for Job?” And it turns out… well… quite a bit longer… because it’s quite a few chapters later before he will stop! Just let him go Bildad, turn ‘er loose Job!

It is in Job 31:40 that Job finishes up. In this verse, Job finishes a big chapter of “ifs” and “thens”, and after his dialogue… which has turned into a monologue… and the Bible says this “The words of Job are ended.” He said his piece! The defence… rests! *mic drop* You ever felt like this after a long discussion or impassioned defence of yourself “I rest my case”.

Good on you Job, you got it out. And he had no idea what God could possibly be doing and where God was in this, but God listened. Isn’t it amazing that our words can be so stout and so strong… daring even against the most High… and he doesn’t zap us with a bolt from heaven? God is the “bigger man” isn’t he.

And thank God our words, and he knows, many of them just belong to the wind. We can say a lot of things we don’t really mean… but God saw Job’s heart. My view of Job has really turned around this year more than any other year. I used to kind of agree with his friends a bit, but now I see they didn’t get it and they were way off. It was interesting that at the end God said Job had said right things of him, yet Job’s friends who were devouring him with their words thinking they were defending God’s honour… as it turned out they had not said right of God. Hmm, Makes you stop and think! And as an ambassador for Christ, that should make us all stop and think, just how are we representing the Lord to others. Far out, it’s a fearful thing to misrepresent Christ to this world.

Yes, sometimes we just need to vent. And venting can bring a lot of things out which otherwise would not. And God let Job vent. He’s the person to vent to, no human on earth can understand and deal with our venting, and know how to reply and answer in just the right way like God does. Some do better than others. For instance Elihu, Elihu who knew we all need to vent, because he needed to himself! “Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles.” … He’d had something to say for a while, and he got his chance after Job had come to his end.

Don’t you hate (well hate is a strong word but anyway) … but don’t you dislike how certain people can dominate a conversation and they never let anyone else speak? At least in this conversation, everyone had their time and space to speak and be heard. That’s important in life.

… So I’ve gone on a bit too long. This was a bit of a strange blog, almost like a confessional… but “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.”. The Bible says that ““Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” There’s quite a lot in that. This year, I’ve learnt about the power of the tongue… and it’s something that I really have needed sit up and take notice of and urgently to surrender to God. Worse than my advancement being on the line, Christ’s testimony is at stake, remember we are forgiven “for his name’s sake”.

Maybe I vented to the wrong crowd and the wrong audience at times, maybe I took my complaints to the wrong place… to people that could not hear them, that could not fix them. Can you put a price on a good listener? But ultimately I would encourage you to go to God, only he truly knows what to do with you. There are many things unique to us which nobody can understand or “get” … it’s amazing when someone does truly resonate with where we are at in life. Maybe you’re at the phase where Job was… where is God, why is he making himself so strange to me while I kick and scream. But just because you don’t see him yet, and can’t see him yet… it does not mean he is not there. God’s complaints department does not close, does not grow weary, does not grow tired… and his hand is still outstretched ready to save, and most assuredly lift us far above the miry mess of all the injustices and unsolveables, riddles and cyphers of this present life.

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