Latest / Beliefs, Ballots, And BullDawgs / Friday 5/1/26
Transcript
- Greg: Good morning guys and happy Friday. It is in fact Friday and it is the first day of May. We're on a fresh month and a fresh start and looking forward to a beautiful and blessed weekend. I'm your host, Greg Miller. The name of the show is Beliefs, Ballots and Bets. Just a short daily show where we discuss faithful steps that hopefully lead to wiser choices. The word of the day comes from Proverbs again. We're going with Proverbs 15, verses 1 and 2. The scripture tells us, It's a pretty consistent theme and one that think is very applicable to the world we live in, where we're just inundated with information, misinformation, and malicious information. The proverb here kind of contrasts two different kinds of speech and two different kinds of dispositions. The first couplet pairs the form and effect of a gentle answer diffusing anger while a harsh word inflames it. And then in the second verse, we're talking about the couplet of content and character where the wise use words to commend knowledge. and the fool overflows with folly. Our speech is very much one of our primary moral arenas. Your speech is a gift from God. is part of us being made in His image, and therefore the capacity to speak comes with a responsibility as well. Our speech often reveals kind of our orientation of just how we're wired and where we're grounded. And a gentle type of speech kind of shows and signifies ⁓ a self-control and an underlying fear of the Lord and respect for the Lord. Whereas that reckless speech is folly and moral immaturity and not the look we're going for. Being able to speak and being able to communicate on the level that we can is a reflection of us being made in God's image. But like I said, therefore, it... comes with a responsibility. We are to use our speech and our communicative abilities to reflect God's character, to reflect truthfulness, but also grace and wisdom. ⁓ You know, it's a simple case that our words can either reflect God's image or completely distort it amongst our society. ⁓ Scripture repeatedly links immoral and inaccurate speeches as a sin. So it's not a question. It is absolutely a sin to to lie or use immoral speech, it gets into the discipline of the tongue being part of your sanctification. It's not just speaking on a moral level about don't say bad things, but it is more intentional in using your speech to do good things. And as we've talked about so often in the past few messages that that living in the Word of God and living a life in Christ is not the freedom to do all the things that the world tells you you want to do. It's the freedom from those things, but it's the freedom to have the comfort and the conviction to do good things, to purposefully do good in the world around you. And that's what I think this proverb is calling us to do. It's asking us to say, if I need to... that the truth is important, but I need to do so in a Christian frame. And often that time just, it means gentleness and kindness, but it also means sticking to the truth. And we have to be very aware of the fact that the world around us does not always stick to these manners. And it is very easy to see where the emotional folly of the fool is all around us and people are... are so quick to capitalize on emotional and fuel and fiery posts and fiery responses. And like we talked about yesterday, that if you're truly trying to approach things from a God-centered point of view, correction has to come gently. Correction has to come in a manner that the other person is actually willing to receive it, or it doesn't do any good. And if we get caught up in the moment and in the emotional and vitriolic nature of what we're dealing with everywhere, And if we become one of those, you know, harsh word gushers that the Bible speaks of full of folly, you know, we're at that point, we're distorting the gospel. We are allowing people to see us and our tribe as a combative person, not a reconciling person. ⁓ And this can wound people around us and reputations and relationships can be damaged in that. And the big picture of that is if we're not careful in how we speak. And even when we're responding in confrontational manners, if we're not careful about how we speak, we overall weaken the witness. Angry and foolish speech becomes a reflection of Christianity as a whole. So the proverb, it's simply about choosing gentleness in a public witness. And that becomes a witness to a different kingdom. It's not earthly, it is of heaven. And it requires courage. means, you know, refusing those quick moral victories that we all like to have so much. It refuses, you know, calling somebody out and having one of those gotcha moments. So just slow down and remember that the end of the day, our goal is to get to the truth, no matter what the headline, no matter what the clip, we all need to ultimately continue to dissect things until we get down to the truth. Because once we're all operating from the truth, then I think we have a little better operation or a little better operational chances of getting people on the same page. All right, guys, we went two and one yesterday, stringing together a couple of two and one days back to back. Never going to complain when we're stacking chips and the balance is growing. Got three plays for the day. We've got two baseball plays and a basketball play. We're going with the Cleveland Guardians and the A's under nine and a half. We're going with the Kansas city Royals and the Seattle Mariners over seven. And then in the NBA, we're going with the Detroit Pistons and the Orlando Magic under two ⁓ nine and a half this evening. Guys, that's a, that's going to wrap it up. so in summary, know, the, those two verses and proverbs, and it's been a very consistent theme all week. And I feel like, you know, it's, been a pretty consistent theme because of what's going on in the world that speech and words and getting to the truth is, is just so crucial to help alleviate some of the challenges we're dealing with. And Proverbs here, it teaches us that, you know, a gospel shape for our speech, so to speak. is a gentleness that turns away wrath, and it is the wise that commend knowledge rather than gushing folly. ⁓ And if you want to find the knowledge and you want to be the wise, then you know what we do. It's always in our closing. Get in your Bibles, say your prayers, love each other, and tell the truth. God bless.