Take Out the Trash!

There were some pretty quiet times in my childhood.   I was always told that if I could not say something nice about someone, I was to say nothing at all. Deafening quiet ensued. Boy, have times changed!  Sometimes it feels like we have become a nation of trash talkers.  Being in an election year seems to have opened Pandora’s Box on all kinds of negative trash talk.  Add to that the vast array of so-called reality shows, radio talk shows, and the wide world of sports, and it seems like an avalanche of trash is careening down on us on a daily basis. Just pick up a paper (if you still have one) or read the news on your iphone, listen to secular radio, or watch TV. Sadly even closer to home, read your facebook page, call up a friend, or get three or four people together for dinner.  We feel it is our right to voice our opinion, good or bad, on anything and everything and about anyone and everyone.   I wish I could say that the Christian world was exempt, but sadly trash talk has seeped into our churches and our homes.   Our world, and if we are not careful, our own lives have become trash talk bins.   

A very basic definition of trash talk is simply a war of words.  It is getting into your opponent’s head and messing with him for your own advantage. Can you believe you can actually google steps for trash talk!  Take a look at this site on how to be a better trash talker.

http://www.wikihow.com/Trash-Talk

1.       Identify the situation. If you are only joking around with your friends on the soccer field, meaningless jests about each other's mothers is usually the most effective way to go. On the opposite end, if you are currently engaged in a fist fight and honestly want to mentally crush your opponent, then use many vulgarities and compose a mean look on your face.

2.        Continue to talk about your unending skill in whatever activity you are currently engaged in. Even if these statements are not true, use them! False trash talk is equally effective as true trash talk (although sometimes you will have to back it up).

3.       Repeat the steps as necessary. If you feel that your trash talking is ineffective, it's probably a good idea to stop. Many people have built an immunity to trash talking and therefore it doesn't affect them at all. If you run across this kind of person, your best call is to just shut your mouth and own them at whatever you are doing. If this happens it is much easier to trash talk that person next time you challenge them at this particular event.

4.       In the event that you lose, remove yourself from the situation as soon as possible. If many people hear you talking trash and then see you lose, no one will respect you. Also, your opponent could make fun of you. If you feel you are losing, stop trash talking. Continuing will only make your downfall even worse.

5.       Challenge the opponent to another match, whether you win or not. You must be willing to put your money where your mouth is, which is an expression that means to do what you say you are going to do, even when you are talking trash.

The Bible shows us some heavy duty trash talkers.  Remember Goliath calling out David?

1 Samuel 17:43 (NLT) 43 “Am I a dog,” he roared at David, “that you come at me with a stick?” And he cursed David by the names of his gods.

The King had some pretty intimidating words for Daniel.  

Daniel 3:6 (NLT)6 Anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”

Moses was on the end of a long rant by Pharaoh.

Exodus 5: 1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”

2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.”

3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”

4 But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” 5 Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”

6 That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: 7 “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. 8 But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”n to this exchange between Pharaoh and Moses

Jesus was not exempt from trash talk.  Listen to Satan trying to get into the mind of Jesus

Matthew 4:3 (NLT) During that time the devil[a] came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

Bottom line is that we are not exempt from trash talkers or from trash talking ourselves, so how do we NOT get ourselves tangled up in a mudslinging contest where no one wins, but everyone gets dirty?  We are to live our lives with the word of God written on our hearts.   Remember how Jesus handled Satan’s trash talk - “ It is written.”

     2 Corinthians 3:3 (NLT) Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry             among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.

      Luke 6:45 (NLT) A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an        evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.       

    

1.       The battle is won or lost by the tongue speaking what comes from your heart.

      Amplified Bible (AMP) Proverbs 21:3 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it (for death or life)

2.       Make sure what is in your heart is good.

     Philippians 4:8-9  (MSG) Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

3.       Expect victory

     Romans 12:21 (NLT)  Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.

4.       Joy is the evidence of a trash free heart

     Psalm 1: 1 – 3  Oh, the joys of those who do not  follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners,  or join in with mockers.  2 But they delight in the law of the LORD, meditating on it day and night.  3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season.    Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.

Every year my husband and I settle on something to give up for Lent, and this year we decided to give up negative words.  Now I have never considered myself to be a negative trash talker, but I have been unpleasantly surprised by the number of times negative words have come out of my mouth.    I am once again revisiting those quiet times of my childhood. 

Psalm 141:3

 Set a guard over my mouth, LORD;

keep watch over the door of my lips.

Dancing with David

How many of you know what the three letters PDA stand for?  If you said "Public Display of Affection" then ding, ding, ding, you win.  When I was growing up there were always two letters that went before the three letters PDA, and those two letters were NO! 

As a young person, and especially as a teenager, I heard the phrase NO PDA over and over.  The five letters even made their way into my parental repertoire of sayings passed on to my children.  There would be no handholding and absolutely no kissing in public.  Those things were also greatly discouraged in private, we just didn’t have letters for that.  It is funny how boundaries that are set up for our benefit and protection can take on a life of their own and seep into our thinking coloring every area of our life. Somehow NO PDA found its way into my spiritual life. There are definitely boundaries for displaying our spiritual affections such as...

Matthew 6:3   (MSG)

2-4"When you do something for someone else, don't call attention to yourself. You've seen them in action, I'm sure—'playactors' I call them— treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that's all they get. When you help someone out, don't think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.

Matthew 6:4-6  (NLT)

4 Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

5 “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. 6 But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

These are boundaries that are set up to keep our relationship with God pure.  Our love is to be intimate.  It is meant to be expressed in private only for God’s pleasure.  But does that mean there is no place for PDA?

So is there ever an acceptable time for PDA?

Luke 9:26 (NLT)

26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in his glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels.

2 Samuel 6:14 (MSG)

 12-16 It was reported to King David that God had prospered Obed-Edom and his entire household because of the Chest of God. So David thought, "I'll get that blessing for myself," and went and brought up the Chest of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David, celebrating extravagantly all the way, with frequent sacrifices of choice bulls. David, ceremonially dressed in priest's linen, danced with great abandon before God. The whole country was with him as he accompanied the Chest of God with shouts and trumpet blasts. But as the Chest of God came into the City of David, Michal, Saul's daughter, happened to be looking out a window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before God, her heart filled with scorn.

And then there is Jesus dying on a cross on Golgotha’s hill for the entire world to see.  Was His death a Public Display of Affection for you and me? I think it was.  So how do we sort out white t-shirts and red socks?  When the word speaks about not praying for the public recognition, or helping someone out for the accolades, or giving to be seen, those are our white t-shirts.  Prayer, acts of service, and giving are all ways we express our love for Jesus.  Purity and humility are vital to our relationship with God, but that does not mean we can’t dance in our red socks sometimes.  By that I mean that there are times, when like David, we dance openly before the world not caring who sees or judges because our love cannot be contained.  Jesus was willing to die on a cross for me so I should be willing to show my love for Him openly. 

If you are one of those people who has no problem with publicly displaying your affections, and by that I mean you have no problem hugging a stranger, than your red sock drawer is probably full and you need to check your white t-shirts and see if you are humbly expressing your love for the Lord in private.   For me, my white t-shirt drawer is pretty full, but I am not sure I have any red socks. I would say in my life I voted for whiter whites and refused to buy red socks.  I am wondering if the boundary I set up to protect me from pride and self-righteousness has robbed me of the joy of expressing my love. I think there are times when PDA is not only appropriate but also demanded. 

Food for thought:  David’s wife Michal scorned David for his PDA and the Bible says she was barren the rest of her life.  I am wondering if unexpressed love renders me barren? 

So look out world, I have bought my first pair of red socks and I bought a pair for a friend.  I don't think you can dance in red socks alone.  

Bigger Than the Oscars

They arrived in shiny black limos and then their feet hit the red carpet.  Yes, the stars had arrived as I watched the Oscars Sunday night hosted by  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science. The event was televised in over 100 countries and is estimated to have drawn 41.3 million viewers.  Oscars were given out for best actor, best actress, best director, best movie, and 21 other categories.  There were lavish parties and small neighborhood gatherings of friends who watched.  The excitement built as the TV broadcast the red carpet that leads everyone to the big event. The red carpet is 500 feet long and 33 feet wide and took workers two to four hours just to unroll and can actually been seen on google earth.  Along the red carpet there were a few strategically placed interviewers.  They bantered back and forth with the stars and then the question that we were all waiting to hear – not a serious question about a movie, a director, or even the actor or actress themselves, but “Who are you wearing?”  Now no one actually had a designer attached to his or her gown or tuxedo, but we still understood and wanted to know, “Who are you wearing?”  I had not seen most of the movies so all I really cared about were the dresses.  I think there is still a little girl in all of us that wants to play dress up.  Now the big names like Versace, Vera Wang, Valentino, and Ralph Lauren were batted around.  Of course, we all know that no outfit is really complete without a killer pair of shoes so Prada, Jimmy Choo, and Christian Louboutins make their way down the red carpet.  On a night like this, who you are wearing and how well you are wearing it is almost more important than if you win or lose.  The designer label matters and Monday morning was filled with the best and worst dressed reviews.

There is no chance that my little feet will ever walk that red carpet in a pair of Christian Louboutins (I hear they really do kill your feet) and there is no chance that I will ever try on a Versace, Valentino, or Lauren let alone shell out the money to actually buy one and wear it to any type of gathering, but I can say with 100 percent certainty that one day I will attend a party that will dwarf anything Hollywood could ever imagine or dream.  One day I will walk through gates made of pearls and down streets made of gold in white robes of righteousness without spot or wrinkle designed and custom made by the King of Kings just for me.  No one will have to ask who designed my robes because if you are at this party, Jesus designed your robes.  

Revelation 19:6 -8  (MSG) 

Then I heard the sound of massed choirs, the sound of a mighty cataract, the sound of strong thunder:

Hallelujah!

The Master reigns,

our God, the Sovereign-Strong!

Let us celebrate, let us rejoice,

let us give him the glory!

The Marriage of the Lamb has come;

his Wife has made herself ready.

She was given a bridal gown

of bright and shining linen.

The linen is the righteousness of the saints.