Fire

My mother used to have a little wooden plaque hanging over the kitchen sink. I read that plaque many times as a child and onward. On the little plaque was a proverb that read:

"It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool,

than to open it and remove all doubt!"        

Perry's Nut House
Belfast, ME

Many years later, my own family was travelling through Maine, when we passed a place called, "Perry's Nut House". I had to stop there and go in. As well as selling nuts, sure enough, they also had on their walls for purchase plaques of proverbs in all different sizes. NOW I knew where my Mom had found her little plaque all those years ago.
The years have proven my Mom's plaque to be a true proverb. Our Book of Proverbs in the Bible also has numerous verses regarding the pitfalls of the tongue, and the words out of our mouths. Here are just a few, including one that must have been the inspiration for the words on my mother's plaque:
"He who has knowledge spares his words, and a man of understanding is of a calm spirit. Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace; When he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive."   Prov. 17:27-28
"Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit." 
                                                                                                    Prov. 18:21
"A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart...A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul."   Prov. 18:2, 7

How many times I remember something I have said, and wince at the stupidity of it. I say to myself, "You should have kept your mouth shut." I used to be talkative, but after hearing my own words played back in my mind, as well as the words of others, I became much more reticent to open my mouth.
To multiply the problem of careless words, the world is full of unfortunate "Tweets" and regrettable Facebook posts. We don't realize what our outpouring of words reveals about ourselves. Regardless of a desire we might have to be careful in our speech, often, it seems, the words pour out of our mouths, seemingly beyond our ability to stop them. Jesus said that what we say reflects what is in our hearts, and many times, it isn't a pretty picture:
"Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things."  Mt. 12:34-35
"But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man..."   Mt. 15:18-20
We may think that because we know and sincerely love the Lord that we are not the ones for whom Jesus meant these words, but for unbelievers only. Not so. Jesus also heard what came out of His own disciples' mouths, and discerned that the source of the words spoken were evil spirits, and even Satan himself (Mt. 16:23, Lk.9:54-56). One of these instances concerned the disciples' suggestion that they call down fire from heaven in judgment, while thinking that they were speaking righteousness according to the will of God. What have we spoken that we thought was righteous, but might cause Jesus to say to us, "You don't know what manner of spirit you are of "?
Paul wrote:
"Let no corrupt (rotten, unfit for use, of poor quality, worthless) word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification (building up), that it may impart (give, deliver, bestow a gift, furnish, supply) grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor (loud quarreling), and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another..."   Eph. 4:29-32
Jesus said that the end times would be like the days of Noah. In the days of Noah, evil and violence totally pervaded the hearts of men (Gen. 6:5), and we know that out of the heart, the mouth speaks. We only have to hear a small portion of the news to see this same level of evil and violence flowing out of people's mouths, and filling their actions. This evil is spreading like a fire, because of the times in which we are living. We are not immune to these spirits, especially if we are careless and unwatchful.
In discussing the danger of the words that we speak, we must go to the Book of James:
"So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath...If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless...Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course (a circuit of physical effects, to incur extreme peril which requires the exertion of all one's effort to overcome) of nature ("genesis": nature, course of life, existence, lineage, human origin, generation-the whole multitude of men living at the same time); and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison."    James 1:19, 26, James 3:5-8

We are literally setting the world, a whole generation of the living and their progeny, on fire with our tongues. The Greek language used in these verses does not limit the devastating consequences of reckless words to the spiritual realm, which is serious on its own, but the Greek specifies effects to the natural realm on a huge scale as well. And James was writing to the brethren, the believers. As I see out-of-control fires destroying homes and taking lives, I never realized that these raging fires could be a manifestation of the words out of man's mouth, out of my mouth.
I did not expect to make this discovery when I started this entry, but I should have known not to take the scriptures lightly on this topic, or any other. As we saw above, Jesus took this topic very seriously and warned:
"But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."   Mt. 12:36-37
And David, a man after God's own heart, prayed:
"Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips."  Ps. 141:3
I don't want my words to kindle fires, spiritual or natural.

Our Father is urging us to bridle our tongues.