"Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire ignites. And the tongue is a fire...."

How's your tongue doing these days? A thorny question I know but  how we use this little fire lighter is very very crucial.
More relationships have been wrecked, more friends lost, more marriages ended, more wars started when this small part our our bodies runs amuck!
How important I say that we take control of this area that has the power on the one hand to destroy and on the other give words of life and hope.
How are you using your mouth?
This passage of the word describes one part of our lives that has the capacity to turn events, one way or another purely on the basis of what we say.
Never doubt that the words that come out of your mouth daily, have the power to do great good or great harm. James says here that the tongue is a fire a very world of iniquity that has the capability of defiling and corrupting our whole body! Think of that the next time you give somebody the benefit of your un-guarded words.
It goes on to say that the Tongue sets on fire the whole nature of a person or situation.

You must have experienced that awful moment when you say things in anger or mood and you see the reaction you've caused to someone else of hurt or offense or equal angry retort that builds into a full scale inferno.
I know a story of a mother and daughter who exchanged hostile words, then never spoke again for ten years! A decade! No wonder the bible says that the power of life and death are in the Tongue. It can separate the best of friends given the chance.
Like this verse we're looking at today says, the Tongue may be small but it boasts of great things. It's astounding sometimes what comes out of somebody's mouth!

The tongue is a restless evil full of deadly poison, which when you think of it describes some of the stuff people can speak.
James talks about the comparison of a spring of water that one minute Is sending forth sweet tasting water, then the next bitter foul polluted sludge. From the same spring!!
One minute your sing praises to God the next your cursing someone made in the image of God by the words you speak over them.
This should not be the way things are. We need to correct our inner thoughts and our outward actions so that we put control over our Tongue.
What we need is work done on our heart, heart change for as Jesus said what's coming out of our mouth is linked to what's going on in our heart!
If we are to give account to God himself for every idol word we speak, then you can see how much importance God puts in your words.
There's a real need for us to turn this mouth that can be used by the flesh or even the devil and place it into Gods hands and influence.
Great good, great encouragement to each other, kind observations, the right word spoken at the critical moments of life, how much we need Gods grace to become a vessel of honor in his house!
All of us need to put some work into this area of our lives.  David said it like this " let the words of my mouth and the thoughts and intents of my heart be pleasing unto you my God and my redeemer! "

Dade