Gtcotr/ws082411
You know how it is when you hear a song you like – you want to hear it again and again and again. Pretty soon you have it in your head so much that it plays over and over in the background and you find yourself saying things like, “I’ve been thinking about that song all day!”
Our brains are that way. Almost like a computer or a voice recorder of some type – whatever you put in, whatever you record, is all you have.
Last Wednesday night I heard A. Breezy perform a Rap song for our Church. It had so many words that he repeated one right after the other. I really enjoyed it but how did he remember all those words? I imagine that A Breezy has rehearsed those words out loud and in his mind over and over and over again. That’s why he knows it and that’s why he feels it when he raps it. Those words are his words.
Those words are his words not just because he wrote them but because he has repeated them so much that he feels them – they have a life, they tell a story, they connect with an emotion, they are truth to him. It happens even with songs and sayings, poems and passions we believe in and repeat to ourselves and others over and over and over again.
This is a principle – “We get out of our life what we put in.” and “We control how much we get back by how much we put in.”
This works with all of life but it especially works with spiritual things. Why? Because there is an extra, added power attached to spiritual things. Words are powerful – but God’s Words are super powerful.
A Breezy could have written any words he wanted, rehearsed any words he chose … it was his choice which ones to keep and which ones to discard – he memorized and practiced the words he wanted, the words he felt, the words he believed so that he could tell the story he hoped you’d hear.
His words had a message – his words had power --- “All Words Do!”
But the ones we repeat over and over and over to ourselves and others actually release power, the power to program our lives and the lives of others.
This is why God commanded Joshua:
Joshua 1: 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
With that thought in mind, let me say something to you which you have heard before. And, I want you to repeat this to yourself and others all year.
The Apostle Paul wrote to his church friends who lived in Thessalonica and said this to them. (I paraphrase …) 1 Thessalonians 4:13a “My friends, I don’t want you to be unaware of the truth like some of the other people who live and work among you.”
So, here are the five important life lessons which I have learned in the more than 40 years since I was in school. These are my words of wisdom for this school year. Maybe I should rap them so you will remember them.
1. What you say will be said.
a. Even by your best friends
2. What you do will be found out.
a. Both good and not so good stuff
b. God will set you up to succeed – the devil … to fail
3. What you compromise to keep, you will lose.
a. You don’t get ahead by cheating!
b. It’s not who gets there first, but who stays there.
4. What you believe will be tested.
a. Don’t worry – you can pass it … it’s an open book test.
b. The questions may change, but the answers never do!
5. What you did not break may become your responsibility to fix.
a. Just because it’s not your fault does not mean it’s not your responsibility.
