By Not Known
Most people would not imagine what it would be like to lose the power of speech until it is too late. You couldn’t share effectively or easily with others the needs you have, or the feelings you hold dear to your heart, or the desires you possess as you are unable to express them meaningfully. You wouldn’t be able to correct false impressions or tell others about your ideas. You also could not encourage or reprimand or inspire. You wouldn’t be able to express anger or love or joy. If you could not talk, you would be forced into a shell of your private world and it would be a lonely place indeed.
Of course, you may argue that you may express yourself by actions or if you are mute to express by a specially devised sign language. Still, it may be difficult.
Words have power, you know. So, let’s talk about it.
When God speaks, his very speaking accomplishes the purposes of His words. Isaiah tells us: “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Is 55:11).’
We have been told that the words we say may become blessings or curses (Js 3:8). Jesus himself is God’s “Word becoming flesh” (Jn 1:14). The prophet Isaiah again tells us: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,” (Is 52:7).
But how do they bring the good news?
In Romans 10:14, Paul helps us to unravel that: “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”
So how does one preach without words?
When we talk about missions, we invariably think of missionaries being sent to remote tribal people to share the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ with them. But that is not all about missions. Missions is what we say and how we use the words when we speak and with that, how our actions illustrate what we say.
Words have power, we say. But how do we use words in our daily lives and how are our lives illustrations of those words?
Missions is when others witness the power of our words by the way we live.
Peter Poon