Words

I love words. I love painting a picture for the mind to expand...making art by the spin of words I pick to write down. I have loved words since age six.
Words. I was thinking about how powerful words are, and how one wrong word can destroy a person, or one right one can lift them up. 

Not surprising, then, really, that the Word is so important. Here is a collection of Words inspired by God to shape and change us into better beings--- to show us Christ. Here is a collection of Words that have changed the world.
People often like to say that the Bible is...judgemental I guess would be the word. The fact that there are commands to not do things seems to irritate us, regardless of what it is. 
When we read the Word, the Spirit brings things to light for us. Things pop out of the Bible indeed as a double edged sword, stabbing and slicing at us with guilt. We read in the New Testament many things that we decided to do, and then get angry at our guilt. As if it is God's fault that we picked sin and now feel the shame of holding the Word in our hearts. What foolishness. 
We know what sin we have, be it fear, lust, gambling, gossiping, or bad cooking. (Sorry, I don't actually think that last one is a sin. Unless I have to eat it. Ha!) We just refuse to let go, ask forgiveness and actually ask God for help stopping. 
We prefer to do step one and two and forget step three. Oops! I put salt instead of sugar in all those cookies. Oh well. Ask forgiveness. Put salt in the cookies next batch. 
It is still sinning. And I would say from my own experience and others', we know when we ask forgiveness that we aren't going to try and stop our sins. 
We must own up to our sins, for that is why the Word points them out to us. 
God is so amazingly good to us. Far beyond what we deserve. He holds us so dearly...dearly enough to abandon His Son on the cross. That is pretty deep love. 
Let us listen fully to the Word and when the Word cuts us, let us respond fully to repentance. 
Words do, after all, lift one up.