Have a few devout men who will discuss God and the Scriptures with you...Hold no converse with anyone who is given to idle or worldly gossip, or with anyone who grumbles about what he can neither prevent nor rectify.

- A Rule for Hermits (Irish, 9th century)

Let no corruping talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

- Ephesians 4.29

As a clan, we Christians are not very good conversationalists. Oh, we talk a lot - about this, that, and the other - but our conversations are not particularly edifying. That is, we don't much talk with one another about our faith, about the Lord and the joy of knowing Him, about our ministries and the work of the Gospel, and about how we might build one another up in our most holy faith.

We're wasting a good deal of breath and words on things that have no eternal value. Spend a day paying close attention to your own conversations. Mark the topics you engage, the tenor of your speaking, the quality of your listening, and the effects of your speech on the people around you. Does this sound like Kingdom-seeking to you?

Peter's advice to "gird up our minds for action" would seem to be particularly important before we begin to speak. We will have to give an account of every idle word we speak. I suspect that will go something like this: The Lord will ask, "And why did you spend so much time and give so many words to talking about yourself?" Or sports, or the weather, or simple idle chatter or banter, or any other of the myriad word-wasters in which we regularly engage.

Treat your words like gold to invest in eternal returns. Speak only what edifies, and only what you can speak with grace. Use your words to edify; don't cheapen your words by sullying them with things that will amount to nothing for all eternity. Your words can change lives!

When you begin to believe that, you'll be more careful and edifying in all your speech.

Today in ReVision: The Islam Moment - Like it or not, Islam is the religion of the moment.

This Week's Download: Soul Friends - Get a soul friend and practice conversing like Kingdom citizens.

Prayer for revival this Thursday. If you like to join our call-in group, send me an email, and I'll see to it you get the information you need.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.