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WFS - INTRODUCTION

             For those of you who do not know me, I am Beverly Rainwater, I am currently living in St. Louis, Missouri where my husband is the preacher for the Lemay Church of Christ.  We have been in the ministry now for almost 33 years.   We moved here in December of 2005 and we have two grown children, a son and a daughter, and two grandsons.

I am a poetry writer, and have written and published a book (that is out of print at this time) entitled, “To Soar On Wings With Eagles,” which is a book of poetry and devotionals.  I also have two Bible tracts that I have written, one on women’s role in the church and the other on the Christian and dancing.  I have lead the singing at Ladies Days, as well as spoke at them and have been teaching classes of all ages since I was sixteen years old.  This, however, is my first attempt at trying to instruct a class of this kind, so we will be learning together. 

            As we begin this course let me first give the items needed.  First, I will be using the King James Version in my study, so all quotes will come from that version and you will need to have access to the same version if you are going to be able to fill in the blanks correctly when quoted passages are used.  Second, I am not generally the kind of instructor that uses tons of research materials or reading materials for you to have to find and use in order to take this course.  I tend to use the open Bible way of teaching and for the most part your Bible is all you will need to get through this course.  Thirdly, I want this course to be a joy not a burden.  I want it to be a means of enhancing your Bible study not make you crazy and anxious!  If for some reason you cannot get your lesson in on time, let me know and we will make arrangements that work for us both.  I realize that sometimes our plans get changed, I understand it, and will therefore, work with you on things if you work with me.  The email address I will be using for this course and that you will be sending your completed lessons to is:  RainwaterB3@aol.com , I will need you to copy and paste each lesson in its entirety and then add your answers in with a different color type so that I  can quickly find your answers and get your lesson graded and sent back to you in a timely fashion.  Also make sure to put in the subject line of each lesson the acronym, WFS-Lesson#-your name, so that I will know who each is coming from at a glance.  This will make a vast difference for me and  will allow me to get back to each and everyone of you in the shortest amount of time.  If you have any questions or comments please email those to me so that I can share them as part of a discussion for each lesson.  By sharing our questions and comments we will have the best possible class and learn the most we can.

When you receive this introduction please take a few minutes to introduce yourself to the class by sending your introductions to me at the above address and I will then send them to each student via their email address.

This will let each of us feel a little more comfortable in the class and maybe enhance the feeling that we are a class and allow us to feel comfortable making comments. 

            In this study we will be looking into the power of words and how they can build up or tear down.  Hopefully, through this study we can determine how our words can be for the furtherance of the gospel of

Jesus Christ and not a hindrance to it.  In Proverbs 18:21 we are told,

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”

Powerful words in the scripture here.  Our tongue has the power of death and life!  Awe striking isn’t it?  Do we think of our tongue this way?  Are we careful about what comes out of our mouth so as not to damage the example of Christ that we are suppose to show?  These questions and more are what this whole course will be about.  We will learn just how crucial it is to have power over our tongue and just how much not having it can put us in heaven or hell in eternity. 

A WORD FITLY SPOKEN

Why is it so hard to taste our words

Before we spit them out?
Is it that we do not listen before we spit,

Or that we think words do not count?

Do we not know that words fitly spoken

Are like apples that are made of gold?

Words can be like a salve to a wound

Or they can be the knife that strikes!

Would it not be better to taste our words

Before we throw them out and about?

The Bible tells us in its infinite wisdom

That man can have joy by a word fitly spoken.

 

To everything there is a season,

We need to think and debate before

We break the silence and speak a word

That would better be left unspoken!

Children of God are we and thus

We need to show our love instead of hate.

Shocked are we when we are accused

Of using stinging words of hate!

We sometimes did not mean them as such

But did we think to taste and debate,

Before we rashly spoke those words

That caused someone to hurt?

How can we lead others to God

If we do not first know how,

To lead our thoughts and our words

So as not to wound and cut.

Would it not be just as easy to give

Wonderful words of Jesus’ love.

@1999, Beverly Rainwater

 lProverbs 25:11 -  “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”  

            Now as a means to get our minds running in the right direction  let us all take some time and run a reference search on the word “tongue” and see what we can find out about the tongue.  If you have a Strong's Concordance you can do it that way or if not go to Bible Gateway on your computer and put in the word “tongue” and see what you can find.  Share your findings by sending in your search on the tongue and how it pertains to the words we speak and the examples we set.  

I hope that you will enjoy each lesson and that it will help enhance your study time in God’s Word.  May God lift you up and teach you to fly on wings as eagles.

 Beverly Rainwater

RainwaterB3@aol.com