Update on Charlie Pitts Grand daughter, Elyse:
Texted to me:
"Dr, just spoke to family. Not looking good. Tumor larger than expected --- like a small orange. Suspected of possible malignancy. Won't know until first of next week. Please continue to pray. We stand on God's word by His stripes, Elyse is healed. We praise God that she is healed.
Please keep Elyse, her parents and grand parents in your prayers.
Let's not just pray FOR healing....
Let us join our prayers and PRAY healing to her.
While we're on the subject, pray for a friend of mine whose son has struggled with alcoholism for years. In and out of rehab's. Does well for a while and then returns to his old lifestyle. Preparations were under way to get the son into a treatment facility, but Sunday he left and has only had contact with family through texts he sends. This man (the son) doesn't have many trips "out there" left. As with most alcoholic's, he has no quitting sense once he starts drinking. Our prayer is that God would "catch him". If that means going to jail, so be it, but do whatever it takes to save his life. Pray for the family as they are really trying to deal with the situation in the appropriate manner, and not rush in and try to save the son by enabling his behavior. Tough love is exactly that.....tough. Tough on everyone involved. But such is needed if one is to save the life of a loved one.
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Ephesians 4:29
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
Words are merely evidence of what the heart is filled with.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
You want to know where a person is spiritually....listen to their conversation.
They may sound religious, but do they sound like they have a real relationship with Christ?
Or is their sentences merely stuffed with terms and catch words that convey the idea of salvation?
To me, you can only do one of two things with your words. Build up......or tear down.
In Strong's Concordance, the word corrupt means "rotten / filthy". This doesn't always imply cursing....it implies words chosen to impact the one who is listening. Impact in a negative manner. TO damage or hurt, wound or cut with out words is sometimes the cause of some of the greatest pain a person could ever experience. Tell your children that you'd wished they'd never been born, do so out of anger, and watch the damage that is brought to those young lives. Unless God intervenes, those wounds never heal. Those wounds grow with infection and affect that life for a long, long time.
Addiction unleashes the tongue to do damage on a grand scale.
It sets fire to everyone around within listening distance.
It judges, pronounces judgment and then becomes the executioner of family and friends.
The one thing I hear over and over from those who are coming out of addiction is the regret from having talked to family the way they did.
Cursing the Mother because she wouldn't give money so they could buy more drugs.
Cursing the Father because he just expected to much from them. Expected such things as "getting a job"......."supporting yourself"......."Having a future". You know...unreasonable things. So the weapon of choice is "words". Lash out and try to return fire by name calling and accusation.
I love the part in the Ephesians passage that tells us we have the ability to impart grace to those who hear our words. How cool is that? We can become grace-givers if we allow the Spirit of God to work in us. We become grace-givers to those we once tried to destroy with our dark words.
Build up?
or
Tear down?
I think I'll be in the building business with my words....
God on you..
mb
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