After the praise and worship, a few people took the opportunity to tell of encouraging things which God has done for them.
Pastor Jonathan Fiddy spoke about how we need to let God help us to control our tongues. James 1v26 says: "If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless"! Jesus said: "I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgement for every careless word they have spoken" (Matthew 12v36).
James 3 teaches that we all make mistakes with what we say sometimes, but God wants to help us to tame our tongues and use them for His glory, instead of pulling people down or criticising them. What we say is very important - Proverbs 18v21 says that "the tongue has the power of life and death." We can either encourage and empower people with our words, or discourage them.
As Christians, we should be following God's standards for our lives. Colossians 3v5-10 talks of putting off our 'old self' and its wrong and immoral practices, and putting on our 'new self'.
In v8, it says: "you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips." It says we should not lie to each other, but should speak gently and kindly, not hastily or sharply, forgiving each other and not bearing grudges. There is a place for righteous anger too, but we need to speak calmly to each other and not out of control.
God is holy and righteous, so we should not be living any way we please. Yes, we can be forgiven, but our sin cost Jesus dearly on the cross when He died for us. His light shows up our darkness, and shows us the areas in our lives that we need to ask His help to change. He wants to make us more like Jesus, but we cannot do this by ourselves - we need to let God help us. If we give ourselves to God, it's amazing what potential for good our tongues can then be.
Pastor Fiddy is available to talk to on 871975, and the website is emmanuelgospelministries.org. CDs of the messages can be bought for £1. All are warmly invited to a barn dance in the church hall on Friday, February 27, at 7.30 pm, tickets £5, with all proceeds going to the Christian charity, Release International.