And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. 
James 3:6
​
The Sins of the Tongue

The tongue is man’s agency for inciting to moral evil.—“The tongue is a fire.” A spark of fire which, if only it fall in fitting place, will do fearfully destructive work.
1. The unclean word may burn up innocence in other souls.
2. The slanderous word may burn up the reputations of other people.
3. The critical word may burn up trustfulness in other people.
4. The doubtful word may burn up honesty in other people. A word spoken, or heard, in early life may work as a deadly poison through a whole life. The serpent in Eden incited Eve to disobey with his words. “Every idle [mischievous] word that man shall speak, he shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”

I. Among the many sins of the tongue are idle words. “Avoid foolish talking.” A wise man “sets a watch on the door of his lips” even when he utters a pleasantry.
II. Malicious words are cousins in sin to idle words. Kind words are the oil that lubricates every-day inter-course. There was an ancient male-diction that the tongue of the slanderer should be cut out. A slanderer is a public enemy.
III. A filthy imagination comes out on the tongue.
IV. There is profane swearing. This is the most gratuitous and inexcusable of sins. The man who swears turns speech into a curse, and before his time rehearses the dialect of hell.--
​Theodore L. Cuyler.
Defiling Power of the Tongue.—There is a great pollution and defilement in sins of the tongue. Defiling passions are kindled, vented, and cherished by this unruly member. And the whole body is often drawn into sin and guilt by the tongue. The snares into which men are sometimes led by the tongue are insufferable to themselves and destructive of others. The affairs of mankind and of societies are often thrown into confusion, and all is set aflame, by the tongues of men. There is no age of the world, nor any condition of life, private or public, but will afford examples of this. Where the tongue is guided and wrought upon by a fire from heaven, there it kindleth good thoughts, holy affections, and ardent devotions. But when it is set on fire of hell, as in all undue heats it is, there it is mischievous, producing rage and hatred, and those things which serve the purposes of the devil. As therefore you would dread fires and flames, you should dread contentions, revilings, slanders, lies, and everything that would kindle the fire of wrath in your own spirit, or in the spirit of others.—(Matthew Henry).

It is much easier to teach people what they should be and do than to obey our own precepts. Even the best of us stumble in many respects; but our most frequent failures are in speech. If we could control our tongues, we should be masters of the whole inner economy of our natures. The refusal to express a thought will kill the thought. Let Christ bridle your mouth, and He will be able to turn about your whole body. Let Him have His hand on the tiller of your tongue, and He will guide your life as He desires.
​
A single spark may burn down a city. The upsetting of an oil lamp in a stable led to the burning of Chicago. Lighted at the flames of hell, the tongue can pass their, vitriol on to earth. Man cannot tame the tongue, but Christ can. He goes straight for the heart, for, as He said long ago, the seat of the mischief is there.  (F.B. Meyer)

Mar 7:14  And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: 
Mar 7:15  There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. 
Psa 51:10  Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 

Note: In posting this devotion-I'm also preaching to myself, and allowing the Holy Spirit to convict me, and asking Him for forgiveness, and help to keep my tongue from sin. In this world today, this is a serious problem, because profanity, and lying is rampant in society. I ask for His help in this area, all the time. Satan uses this the most in hindering God's people, because it's linked to every other sin. I'm glad when I feel the conviction of the Holy Ghost in my heart, showing me I need to repent, and feel his correction-it shows me I'm his; He's correcting me as His child.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6

All we have gone astray.—The speakers are primarily the penitent Jewish nation, who at last have learned how much they had at first misunderstood the servant of the Lord. But the “we” and the “all” of our text may very fairly be widened out so as to include the whole world, and every individual of the race. Iniquity is the universal burden of us all.

The fact that every man is a transgressor of the law of God is the prime fact of humanity, and the all-important truth needed for the apprehension of the very rudiments of the Gospel. We shall never know what we need, or be able to understand what Christianity, as gathered in Christ—who is Christianity—offers to do for us, unless our eyes are opened and our consciences made sensitive to the unwelcome but undeniable truth that we all “have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” I believe that almost all of the mistaken and unworthy conceptions of Christianity which have afflicted and do afflict the world are directly traceable to this—the failure to apprehend the radical fact affecting men’s condition that they are all sinful, and therefore separated from God.1 [ A. Maclaren.]

“Gone Astray!” Two little words spoken in a moment, but how humbling to man’s pride.
There are men of great intellectual grasp and culture. They have swept the heavens with telescopes, and searched them out. They have explored and mastered the secrets of the earth. To them science and art have laid bare their treasures. We admire and honour them. We do well; for their discoveries confer immense benefits upon the human race. But God looks down upon every one of them by nature, and says, “Gone Astray!” There are men of great wealth. Broad acres own them as lord, their rent-roll is reckoned by hundreds of thousands of pounds. In addition to this, they are philanthropic and kind. It is joy to them to succour the fatherless, and to care for the widow. With open hand they delight to help forward any scheme which promises to lighten the sufferings of their fellow-men. We love these men. We do well to do so. But God looks down upon every one of them by nature, and says, “Gone Astray!” There are men of the strictest integrity and the highest morality. All their business transactions are conducted with honour; and in all their private relationships they are scrupulously upright. Everybody respects and trusts them; yet God looks down upon them all by nature and says, “Gone Astray!”

There is only one Individual in history of whom it is a likeness. The life and death of Jesus Christ—lived and died five hundred years after the very latest date to which any one has assigned this prophecy—fit it feature by feature, tint by tint, as nothing else can. And the minute external correspondences between the prophet’s vision and the Gospel story, important as these literal resemblances are, are mainly important as pointing onwards to the complete correspondence between the spirit and functions of the suffering servant of the prophecy and of the Jesus Christ of the Gospel history.
​(Excerpt from Great Texts)

​Who finds for me a rescuer? Who provides me with a Savior? It is the Lord. It is God the Father and God the Judge. It is He whose commandments I have broken, and whose sentence I have incurred. Not, however, without the fullest consent of Jesus, did God assign Him a task so sorrowful and a burden so heavy. The Shepherd’s delights were with the foolish and willful sheep, whom he could not bless without passing through the furnace and the flood. Ah! there is no God like mine. God is Love—God the Father and God the Son; and between the affection of these two I dare not discriminate. (Note: A. Smellie, In the Secret Place)

"The words, “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” are a foreshadowing of the death of Jesus. The man who uttered them was thinking of life. He knew that many righteous had suffered for the unrighteous. Probably he was patiently suffering for others. The whole chapter is the heart-utterance of one who bears the sins of others, who feels the guilt of his fellow-men. Human experience is revealed in these immortal, soul-subduing words. They reveal an eternal principle, and only Jesus expressed it fully in His life and on the Cross." (Excerpt from F. R. Swan, The Death of Jesus Christ​)

“The Lord hath made to light on Him the iniquity of us all.” In the compass of three verses of this chapter, there are seven distinct, emphatic, and harmonious utterances, all bearing on the one thought of the vicarious suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ.
(1) “He hath borne our griefs”;
(2) “And carried our sorrows”;
(3) “He was wounded for our transgressions”;
(4) “He was bruised for our iniquities”;
(5) “The chastisement of our peace was upon Him”;
​(6) “And with His stripes we are healed.” And they are all gathered together in the final word of this text—“The Lord hath made to light on Him the iniquity of us all.” I venture to say that if these words, in the variety of their metaphor and the fulness of their description, do not teach the Gospel that Jesus Christ bore in His sufferings the sins of the whole world, and bore them away, language has no meaning. Nothing could be more emphatic, nothing more reiterated, full, and confident than this sevenfold presentation of the great truth that He lived and suffered and died for us because He suffered and died instead of us. [Note: A. Maclaren.]

Lord, dost Thou look on me, and will not I
Launch out my heart to Heaven to look on Thee?
Here if one loved me, I should turn to see,
And often think on him and often sigh,
And by a tender friendship make reply
To love gratuitous poured forth on me,
And nurse a hope of happy days to be,
And mean “until we meet” in each good-bye.

Lord, Thou dost look and love is in Thine Eyes,
Thy heart is set upon me day and night,
Thou stoopest low to set me far above:
O Lord, that I may love Thee make me wise;
That I may see and love Thee grant me sight;
And give me love that I may give Thee love.
​ [Christina G. Rossetti.]

​Robin Mark -- The Wonder of Your Cross
https://youtu.be/K6fv9rkIIZo?si=lgVIf83nYVcRNVAI​

But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Luke 21: 12-13
​
​It Shall Turn To You For a Testimony
The Testimony of Life

THE PREDICTION here implied, that the apostles should not fail of adversaries to oppose them. This, indeed, was to be no small argument of their apostolic mission. For such as engage themselves in the service of that grating, displeasing thing to the world, called “truth,” must expect the natural issue and consequent of truth, which is a mortal hatred of those who speak it. The next thing offering itself to our consideration is, how this enmity (especially in the apostles’ time, which the words chiefly point at) was to exert itself. And so we find the apostles frequently and fiercely encountered by adversaries of very different persuasions, by Jews and Gentiles, and the several sects belonging to both. They were perpetually railed at as deceivers and impostors, even while they were endeavoring to undeceive the world from those wretched impostures and delusions which had so long and so miserably bewitched it: in a word, they were like physicians exchanging cures for curses; and reviled and abused by their forward patients, while they were doing all they could for their health and recovery.
​
The tale of it shall live on. The light of their lives shall shine through their forms and reveal the inner glory in eternity. This is the eternal recompense—revelation. The revelation of the Christlike spirit in a world where to be Christlike is to be glorious and blessed; where the scars of battle are marks of honour, and the martyr’s brow is anointed like Christ’s with the oil of joy and gladness through eternity. And now what are we doing which shall turn to us for a testimony at that day? A testimony of what? What is the record that shall be read out about us? What hidden things shall the book of remembrance reveal? How much is said and done daily because we love God and must do His will at whatever cost? Many a clever stroke of business is done, no doubt; many a happy speculation; or perhaps a brilliant trick, or next door to it. Quite right, quite fair, no doubt, as business goes in these days, but not the kind of thing which will turn to you for a testimony when it is read out on high. Realize it. Set it before your mind’s eye. Beings of angelic truth, purity, charity, all round you, circle beyond circle; and Christ, who lived that life which it makes us blush to read about, in the midst. And what is there in your life in tune with it; which you will hear read out with joy in that great company; which makes you the blessed freeman of that world in which “the Lamb who was slain” is King? What deeds do we leave for recompense at the resurrection of the just? No matter what the world thinks about it, the real question is, What do we think of it ourselves? In the quiet hours when the world is shut out, and its babbling is silent, what do we think of it? There is a sterner, surer Judge within than any that the world can set to weigh us. How stand we before that tribunal? It will prophesy to us how we shall stand before the bar of Christ at last. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)

Patient self-possession in times of trial
Be collected, that you may be strong; stand still, and stand firmly, if you can do nothing else; do not slip back, or step aside, or attempt anything wrong or questionable. Patience is not merely a passive submission to evil, a dull, stupid, unfeeling indifference, like the insensibility of wood or stone; it is the result of thought; it implies effort; it is a sort of active bearing up of oneself under the pressure of calamity, which at once indicates self-possession and secures it; it reacts upon that from which it proceeds, and causes it to become stronger and stronger. ​(W. Binnie, D. D.)

When standing before the enemies of Christ, we are given clear instruction-and encouragement on how to stand in faith:
​Luk 21:14  Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: 
Luk 21:15  For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. 

​That was a beautiful reply of Margaret Maitland, Scotland’s maiden martyr, to her persecutors. They had bound an aged Christian to a stake far out between low and high tide, and Margaret herself to another stake nearer the shore. They hoped that, seeing the struggles and painful death of her companion, she would be terrified and would recant. She gazed on the awful scene with deep sympathy, but without any manifestation of fear. When they asked her, “Margaret, what do you see yonder?” she replied, “I see Christ suffering in the person of one of His saints.” She knew that when her turn came to be suffocated by the rising tide Christ would be with her also; that He would share in her sufferings; that He would sustain her in the terrible ordeal. This is the kind of faith we need for ourselves and for the Church.

​Life is a steep climb, and it does the heart good to have somebody "call back" and cheerily beckon us on up the high hill. We are all climbers together, and we must help one another. This mountain climbing is serious business, but glorious. It takes strength and steady step to find the summits. The outlook widens with the altitude. If anyone among us has found anything worth while, we ought to "call back."

​If you have gone a little way ahead of me, call back--
’twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track;
And if, perchance, Faith’s light is dim, because the oil is low,
Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I go.

Call back, and tell me that He went with you into the storm;
Call back, and say He kept you when the forest’s roots were torn;
That, when the heavens thunder and the earthquake shook the hill,
He bore you up and held you where the very air was still.

Oh, friend, call back, and tell me for I cannot see your face,
They say it glows with triumph, and your feet bound in the race;
But there are mists between us and my spirit eyes are dim,
And I cannot see the glory, though I long for word of Him.

But if you’ll say He heard you when your prayer was but a cry,
And if you’ll say He saw you through the night’s sin-darkened sky
If you have gone a little way ahead, oh, friend, call back--
’twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track.
-- Selected

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them,
​that they had been with Jesus. Act 4:13

We must be with Jesus, if we would bear a good testimony for Him in the presence of the world. To have heard of Him, to have read of Him, is not enough: we must be with Him; walk with Him in a consenting will, love Him as having first loved us, be joined to him in one spirit. Thus alone can consistent testimony be borne to Him by His people. They who have been with Jesus do not fear the pomp, nor the scoffs, nor the threats of men.

But we stand not merely in the presence of foes without, we have other and more powerful foes within. Many a man could bear testimony for Christ, before a world in arms, who yet is hushed into silence in the council chamber of his own heart. Would you find a remedy for this? Would you uplift the spiritual part of a man, so that it may give bold testimony for Christ within him, assert Christian motives, press Christian rules of action, put forward Christ as His pattern? Then must that man be with Jesus; Christ must dwell in that heart by faith. Till that is so, while Christ is absent, heard of, read of, talked of, but not present, there will be no testimony at the heart’s fountain, no Christ in the thoughts, words, actions.

Yet again, we all have to grapple with sorrows. Ere we have gone on long in life, they stand thick around us: hopes betrayed, fears realized, joys dashed with bitterness—these are every man’s companions by the way. Would you arm the man for a successful conflict with adversity? Would you enable him to bear a consistent testimony in the presence of sorrow? Once more, he must be with Jesus. Here, above all, he requires his Savior's presence.

There will come a day when each one will be called on to wrestle with the last foe; to bear in the presence of his past life, and in the presence of those who are to outlive him, his witness to Christ. Would we meet death fearless, and in humble assurance that we have a part in One who has robbed him of his terrors? There is but one way, and that way is to have been with Jesus during our lives here.
(H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. ii., p. 77.)

Do people realize that there is something about us which cannot be accounted for except that we have been with Jesus? Our company always influences us. A man is known by the company he keeps. Good manners are caught by association with the well-mannered. What, then, will not be the effect upon us, if only we live in fellowship with Jesus! Our faces will shine with a reflection of His purity and beauty; and the ancient prayer will be answered, “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,” Psa_90:17. Our converts are our best arguments. The man which was healed (was) standing with them-his face suffused with the light of a new energy and hope. That fact answered all the sophistries of these Jewish leaders. It was as impossible to stay the effect of that miracle as to bid the sun cease shining. Note the exuberance of the life of God! We cannot but speak, Act_4:20. When once we have got the real thing, we cannot and dare not be still; we must speak. As the swelling seed will break down a brick wall, so when the love of Christ constrains us, though all the world is in arms, we must bear witness to our Lord. (F.B. Meyer)

Personal Testimony
(excerpt from my book The NightWatchman)

"This morning, after I knew she was on her way to school, I started down the regular route to work, it was still before dawn, and the headlights needed to be on. As I drove along the river to my right that had a deep embankment, and the road curved sharply in and out of high rock ledges, I saw headlights coming at me before the vehicle actually made the curve; I got over as far as I could, and slowed down. It was a livestock truck, but it was in my lane, and I had nowhere to go, I closed my eyes, waiting for the impact. I heard a slight crack to my left, and saw the truck just going past me, and taking my side mirror off as it went; I looked out my rear view mirror to see it continue down the road. I knew who it was, he lived right in the town I was going to. He never stopped to see if I was alright, he kept on going. I started driving, it sunk in, just how close I came to being killed; again. As I kept driving, the several other times I’d come close to death went through my mind, this time the thought came to me “Why is God allowing this, and what does He want me to do?”
 
When I reached the mill I went upstairs to the supervisor’s office, told him what had happened, and that I needed to go home. He nodded, “Sure, see you tomorrow.”
 
When I got home, I went to the living room, took a book my sister had given me the last time she visited me, laid it on the stand next to me, and just sat looking out on the water for a long time. 

Then I started reading the book. It was a paperback, and I was able to read most of it quickly. For the first time, it explained to me in terms I could easily understand, why Jesus had to come into this world, die on the cross, and what it meant to me. It explained the great love God the Father has for all people, how Adam and Eve’s sin separated them from God, and that their sin passed down to all of us, to this day. It explained clearly we are all born in sin-because of their rebellion. Jesus came into this world to redeem us from the sin of Adam and Eve, and his sacrifice paid the sin debt for every one of us. And, that He would have come, and died the same death, for only only one. When he rose from the grave, he conquered sin and death, and anyone who repents, asks for forgiveness and for Jesus to come into their heart and life; He will come in, and redeem them from the fall of our first parents. Then it said, Christ would come into our lives, and help us live for Him, and we can have a personal relationship with Him, as a child of God. This it explained, was what being “born again” meant.
 
I closed the book, tears were streaming down my face; I rarely cried. Then as I sat there in silence, I began to sense a Presence, that filled the house. I waited, and it became stronger, I knew I was not alone in the house. A tremendous surge from my soul rose up, and I spoke to this Presence, “Lord, I’ve done so many things wrong, so many sins, please forgive me. I believe in you Jesus, that you died for me, and I ask for you to come into my heart and life, and help me live for you.”
 
The Presence remained, in silence, and an overwhelming sense of peace overshadowed me. I looked at the clock, it was almost 11:30 in the morning; I fell asleep.
 
My eyes opened, and again I looked at the clock, it was past 3:30 p.m. The first thing I did, was say another simple prayer, “Lord, one thing I ask, would you please help me to want to keep on going. Please give me a reason to stay here, or take me home now. I’m so tired, and ready to go, if you don’t need me here.”
 
As soon as I finished this prayer, I looked out the living room window, to see Carrie coming up the driveway, dragging her book bag along behind her. I knew that prayer had been answered.
 
My usual routine each night had been to fix myself a drink, and then start dinner, and help Carrie with her homework, if she had any.
 
I helped her with her school work, cooked our meal, Lynn came home and we enjoyed the night together. Lynn and Carrie went out to the barn to get the chores done, then we watched some television together. It came to the end of the night, Carrie needed to get to bed for school the next day. As I started up the stairs to her room, I realized for the first time in years, I had not taken a drink, or even thought of one. I knew, deep inside, I was free. The same Presence hovered over me, and in my heart heard “Let your first step of obedience to Me be destroying the alcohol and pouring it out.”
 
I went to the refrigerator, there was sherry and several whiskey’s, took all of them to the sink, and poured out the contents down the drain.
 
The next morning, I felt a strong sense I should stay home again, so called work and asked for another day, they said there would be no problem.
 
I had a bible, a black one I’d bought years ago, while still married to my first husband, but never read. I found it upstairs in a drawer, and brought it downstairs. As soon as I had the basic cleaning and mornings dishes done, I got in the chair next to the glass doors and started reading. I didn’t start at the beginning, or the gospels; I went right to the back-the book of Revelation. I wanted to know the end of all of this, what was the bottom line, and purpose of this sin sick world.
 
I began at chapter one, and read straight through it to the end. Being a new believer in Christ, and not knowing any religious types who might try to discourage me, I let my heart tell me what to read. I’ve learned this is the best way to be. Let the Holy Spirit be your guide, not the religious crowd, who may sway you with their unbelief.
 
There were times as I read it, I’d have to stop, my eyes were full of tears, my heart aching for what God was telling me was going to come on this world someday-and it was because of our own rebellion. Even as a brand new believer, I knew this."

​Note: Now, in 2023-I could write another book of the answers to prayer, and testimonies of some people I've had the privilege to pray with who received salvation. There is no replacement for "being with Jesus". And, whom the Son sets free, is free indeed.
Lorna Couillard

Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter. Psa 74:17

​“Thou hast set all the borders of the earth.” Land and sea receive their boundaries from thee. Continents and islands are mapped by thy hand. Observe, again, how everything is ascribed to the divine agency by the use of the pronoun “thou;” not a word about natural laws, and original forces, but the Lord is seen as working all. It will be well when all our “ologies” are tinctured with “theology,” and the Creator is seen at work amid his universe. The argument of our text is, that he who bounds the sea can restrain his foes; and he who guards the borders of the dry land can also protect his chosen. “Thou hast made summer and winter.” Return, then, good Lord, to us the bright summer days of joy. We know that all our changes come of thee, we have already felt the rigours of thy winter, grant us now the genial glow of thy summer smile. The God of nature is the God of grace; and we may argue from the revolving seasons that sorrow is not meant to rule the year, the flowers of hope will blossom, and ruddy fruits of joy will ripen yet."  (Treasury of David- Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

One of the chiefest charms of summer is its fulness. And in this fulness is its peace. Summer has the deep consciousness of fruitfulness. It knows it has done its work; it rejoices in its own fulness and wealth. Man’s content is in looking back and seeing that his beginning of things has now been led on to some fulfilment, however small, in having accomplished something of his aspiration, in producing some fruit.
​
The real looking forward we should have, the real aspiration, is that which the summer has; and it is one of content, not of discontent. It is the looking forward to harvest, and it is founded on faith, which has its root in the fact that work has been already done. We believe in a harvest of our life, because the fields we have sown are whitening already for harvest.

There is another contentment that summer images; it is the contentment of rest. The earth rests from her labour, and her works do follow her. There is no flower, tree, mountain, or lake but seems to half slumber in the humming heat. They know their own beauty, and abide in it as in a shell. There is only one way to win something of God’s peace. It is to learn the lesson nature gives us of daily self-forgetfulness. Content is its reward. It is the lesson summer gives and the reward she wins."
(S. A. Brooke, The Fight of Faith, p. 351)