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Good morning son,

Sorry for the delay in getting this one out. Momma P and I went out last night for our date and saw what must be one of the stupidest movies of all time. In seminary we had to take a movie and examine it for theological messages. I wish the movie we saw had been out then. “Twilight.” The theological contexts and messages were so twisted. I have sometimes wondered why we (me included at times) as people are so messed up as to these spiritual things. Last night showed me one reason.

We flirt with evil like it is good. Protect the poor vampires and werewolves. We don't want to break the truce with the humans and vampires and the werewolves. Vampires known to have to live on human blood trained to live on the blood of animals. Werewolves who “imprint” (what is that?) a female thereby allowing them to be forever protected from destruction from their own. A baby demon born of the mixture of seed from the dead and the egg from the living. We take our understanding of good and evil from Hollywood. But the place where we are supposed to get our knowledge from we do not even crack open the book. Wow! How beautiful that movie was! What great values it taught – the lead vampire would not mate with the human until after they were married in “holy matrimony.” Wow! So cool!

Really? Really!!

I am afraid to say too much more about the movie lest you decide to waste your money and go see it. I was glad it was at the dollar theater myself. So was Momma P. But I must say this, the world of evil seemed so glamorous. The wedding was exquisite. All the evil dead had mad money. The humans, not so much. And the humans walked and talked with, and accepted the vampires as one happy family. Indeed the vampires acted more like family than did the humans.

Proverbs 10:6 “Blessings crown the head of the righteous, but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked.”

For those times that you wished that I would write less, well today you have your wish. I have very little to say. Sometimes what is before you is just so self-evident. Blessings versus violence. “Blessings crown the head” – “violence overwhelms the mouth.” I think it is rather interesting that the violence is not a choice of the wicked but it is a fact of life as it is overwhelming. They may, like our friend the vampires (sorry, still bugged by that movie), have a truce with themselves, believe that they are okay and will not drink a human's blood any more and yet the word says of the wicked (forget vampires for a moment) that violence will overwhelm them. And as for what it will overwhelm – the mouth. Ironic huh?

Throughout the bible there are verses and verses about speaking and the power of the tongue. God speaks the world into existence. God speaks from the burning bush. God speaks from heaven to the crowd when Jesus is baptized. Jesus speaks to the fig tree and it is withers away. “Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done.” Matthew 21:21

The power of what comes out of your mouth. And here the writer tells you that only violence can come out of the mouth of the wicked, for violence overwhelms their mouth.

The violence he is speaking of is the effect of their words. What may seem innocent and tranquil indeed accomplishes violence. It destroys good. It attacks the righteous. It comes against the truth. It does violence to the proper order of things. Compare this passage with the following:

Proverbs 10:21 “The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of judgment.”

From the mouth of the righteous, their speech brings nourishment to many. It builds up the person in the way that they are designed to be. It accomplishes good not evil. It supports the God designed order and life.

Take what Jesus said in Matthew quoted above. Is there a mountain of “crap” in your life? What do His words tell you to do. Speak with faith to it to get up and be cast into the sea. Now if you could actually do that, would your life improve or not? Improve right.

And indeed you can.

Okay, about now you may be like I was when this light burst through thinking, “so I can just name it and get rid of it.” The answer for that stupid boss. That co-worker who annoys the heck out of me. But may I stop you for a moment to note WHAT was the context of what Jesus was saying. It came after He had cursed a tree which did not bear fruit at a time that it was supposed to bear fruit. It was going against the order of its God's given design. Then he gives this teaching.

Are you beginning to catch on . . .

We have the power to speak to the mountains in our lives that are outside of God's order for us. Paul writes that it is sin within our flesh that draws us out against what we should do. This is going to sound funny but here I go . . . speak to it. Identify the sin in your life. Tell it to leave in the name of Jesus, and then follow up in action in accordance with the word. See for the word to work there is a requirement for “faith.” You must believe what you speak. But for there to be living faith there must be works done in accord with that faith. “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” James 2:17 So don't go around here saying I told my body to stop desiring cigarettes and the word didn't work. Did you follow up that command with actions. Did you trash all your cigarettes. Did you begin to transform your mind about who and whose you are:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2

In speaking to your body, did you offer your body as a “living sacrifice?” Did you examine the patterns of when and how you would choose to disobey God? Write them down? You know – when you are maybe Hungry Angry Lonely or Tired (“HALT” – good acronym for what you should do when in those conditions). The places that you are most likely to sin. Perhaps the stresses and your responses to them that help lead to it. Having identified those areas, those patterns, have you committed to not follow it any more and WRITE OUT the different responses that you are going to do when faced with them again. Look to the Word of God for strength and guidance. Continue reading Proverbs and Psalms, and the Gospels. Learn from other saints. Renew your mind. See it is not enough to simply cast something out. It is important what you put there in place of it.

But don't miss the fact that NONE of this occurs unless the speech is correct. None of this is possible if you are listening to those whose speech is overwhelmed with violence. You need to be speaking right and listening to those, the righteous, whose speech is nourishment to you.

Looking back on the movie, there were many things that really disturbed me. I guess the most obvious is the so called good which came from the actions and words of the wicked. It was like looking at a flipped parallel universe – one which does not exist but would seem to be so desirable.
Sin does not live in a parallel condition of peace with righteousness. Evil is not good and good is not evil. Big problem there.

Isaiah 5:20-21, 24 “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. . . .THEREFORE, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.”

Got it?

Got Word? Then do it.

Love yah,

dad