MEDALS OF FAITH: Living in a way that adds luster to the Gospel (Part 4 cont'd)

For all you shy lurkers out there, here's a little something more to spark an outpouring of your thoughts about the medal of gracious speech that is to "adorn, make attractive, add luster" to the Gospel in our lives:

"Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone" (Colossians 4:5-6 NIV).

Here's the same passage from The Message:

"Use your heads as you live and work among outsiders. Don't miss a trick. Make the most of every opportunity. Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out."

Given what James says about the tongue (namely, that it "is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body...and is itself set on fire by hell"), how then does gracious speech develop in our lives?

Jesus said, "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart" (Luke 6:45).

He told the Samaritan woman at the well, "...whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life" (John 4: 14).

He declared to His hearers at the feast in Jerusalem, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water'" (John 7:38).

So...the picture is that when we repent of our sins and place our faith in Christ, He takes up residence within us by His Spirit and, as a result, some radically different speech inevitably begins to flow from our mouths.

This was my experience when I came to faith as a teenager. The profanity and vulgarity that had previously marked (marred) my speech, but that I myself had been unable to control or alter, just changed. The reason was that there was a new spring bubbling in my heart, and what came out of my mouth demonstrated it. It wasn't really something I did -- it was something He did in me and through me. And others around began to notice it, and to be curious about what had happened to me. This gave me the chance to tell them about Jesus.

Now -- CAN I GET A WITNESS? Has anybody else experienced this? How, and what was the result in your life? Come on, don't be bashful...tell us about it!