GUARD YOUR MOUTH

GUARD YOUR MOUTH

I first met John Davidson in October 1987. He served as Vice-President of what was then Columbia Bible College and Seminary. We met in Chicago while he was attending a conference. He had made arrangements with to meet me and have a preliminary interview for a position at the college. I've now known him for almost twenty years; he's a very good friend and brother in Christ.

As with all the people I've written about this month, John influenced-and still influences-my life in godly ways. He has proved himself a faithful servant of Jesus Christ in many ways. He's got a strong marriage. He has served in the same church (which he helped start) for more than twenty-five years. He continues to manage resources for several Christian organizations, and he does that with integrity. He's been a role model for me in all those areas during the length of our friendship.

But his influence has been most significant in another way. I've always been a "shoot-from-the-lip" kind of guy. It's led me into trouble throughout my life. John Davidson showed me I didn't have to be like that. I can't tell you that I've learned the lesson perfectly, but it still informs my life after being away from John's daily influence for more than fifteen years.

I was sitting in his office one day. We were talking about a situation he was facing with one of the men who reported to him. I was involved in the situation because of my position, but I wasn't part of the problem. John was frustrated with the other person and with the situation. He was about to say something critical about the person, but he stopped in mid-sentence. He put his hand to his mouth, stopped what he was saying and then looked at me. He said to me "I don't need to say what I was about to say." I'll never forget it.

He showed that same kind of spirit-driven self-control through the four plus years I worked for him. I've heard the same kind of discipline through the last fifteen years as we talk regularly. He refuses to engage in idle, critical or self-serving talk. I need men like that in my life. God is gracious us to us as we travel the path to victory by placing in our road the men and women who can influence us for godliness. He even gives us men and women who can show us how to guard our tongues.

"Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps is soul from trouble." (Proverbs 21:23) I'm grateful that John Davidson has taught me how to do that. (Pastor John Strain - First Baptist Toms River)

Great Quote: Christ is a person so dear to the Father, that those who are in Christ need not be at all jealous of being accepted upon his account. If Christ is accepted they must of consequence be accepted, for they are in Christ, as members, as parts, as the same. They are the body of Christ, his flesh and his bones. They that are in Christ Jesus, are one spirit; and therefore, if God loves Christ Jesus, he must of necessity accept of those that are in him, and that are of him. But Christ is a person exceedingly dear to the Father, the Father's love to the Son is really infinite. God necessarily loves the Son; God could as soon cease to be, as cease to love the Son. He is God's elect, in whom his soul delighteth; he is his beloved Son, in whom he is ell pleased; he loved him before the foundation of the world, and had infinite delight in him from all eternity. Jonathan Edwards