Newsletter 3.27.2025

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. - John 1:14

As noted at the beginning of the book of Genesis, God created the universe with just His words. As noted in the beginning of John’s Gospel, it was the Word that was there before the origins of the universe. The Word was with God. The Word was God. We know by reading the prologue to the Gospel of John that He equates the Word with Jesus Himself (John 1:14). He states, in essence, that Jesus is the Creator of heaven and earth. That nothing that exists was made without Him. Then the Creator came down and lived among us. 

In a poetic way, Jesus is to God what words are to thoughts. Thoughts are inaudible, invisible, unknown, intangible. To sinful and ignorant humans, God the Father seems to be the same; inaudible, invisible, unknown, unapproachable, untouchable. Therefore God sent forth His one and only Son to reveal to the world what He was actually like. Jesus became flesh, human. He, the Word expressing God’s inner thoughts and feelings, became visible, able to be heard, capable of being touched, known, approached,  and understood. 

This is beautiful. But there is another lesson for us to learn here. One that is a little less contemplative and a lot more practical. When God spoke, worlds appeared, the lights of the sky formed, animals came to life. The simple point…God’s words have power. Wouldn’t you want to have the ability to create things with only your words? If you did, what would you make?

Well, the Bible states in Proverbs 18:21 that both death and life are in the power of tongue. Meaning, you do possess this power. The capability to think and then to speak and to create or uncreate. You can help and harm with just words. You can build up or tear down, just using words…or thoughts made audible and visible. Some of us are the products of positive words that were spoken to us by some parent or teacher. They poured ideas into us that became something that had not existed or would not have existed had they never been said. Some of us bear the emotional and psychological scars of words that cut us deeply and destroyed our confidence and will to live. Words have power. 

The Bible tells us that from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). Whatever is in the heart is what will be expressed. When God spoke in the Old Testament He made a wonderful world with His words. But the human predicament is that we are evil and unrighteousness and when our mouths speak, foulness and deceptions leak out. Cursing, lying, name calling, gossip, debating, and other such species of unholiness are on our tongues. But this is not pleasing to the Lord.  

And while humans were not initially created with words, but from material that was spoken into existence, in order for us to be a new creation we must be re-created by the Word of God. Christ must reshape our hearts. We must become a renewed human beings, crafted in the image of our Maker. We have to allow the Holy Spirit to convict us of all sin and permit Him to empty us of words that destroy and then fill us with words that give life. We have to ignore words from others that are not aligned with the words of Jesus. We should resist even negative self talk that will deplete our souls. This way, Jesus the Word will reside in us, dwell in us, and speak through us. May the words of our mouths, and the mediations of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord our strength and our Redeemer (Psalm 19:14). 

Pastor Dean