“Sticks and stones may break my bones; but words will never hurt me.” Some kid, on some playground, back about 45 years ago said that very thing. And all the while tears were flooding down his face. “Words will never hurt me”?? Come on!! Words hurt and they cut and they can pull your heart right out of your chest. “You’re dumb”, “You’re fat”, “You’re stupid”, “You’re not my friend”, “I don’t love you anymore”, “You’re fired” – just words, right?? Each of them are powerful, life altering, and in some instances, life destroying.

James, a direct writer, says, “We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue is also a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. No man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” (James 3:2, 5b-6, 8) Ansel Adams, an amazingly talented photographer, early in life was trying to learn to play the piano. But he wasn’t very good. After playing a piece he was greeted with this critique, “Congratulations! You never missed a wrong note!”

They are powerful, aren’t they? Words. Jesus said, “By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:37) But words are not just for destroying – they are for bringing life and hope and blessing. “You’re the best!!” “Nobody could do what you do!!” “Great job!!” “You’re pretty, you’re handsome, you’re smart, you’re just the right size!!” “We pick you – you’re hired!!” Words create and bring life, they take us and lift us up, they inspire and instruct. Today as we begin a new year of words spoken in our Sunday School and Bible Classes I want us to be overwhelmed with what God does with words.

With words He created. Our text from the opening verses of John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) I think that John wanted to imitate the first words in the Bible – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) Do you remember how God made everything that we see, everything that exists? He simply spoke. It was all in a powerful word. “And God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3) Every day of creation begins with the same word, “And God said. ‘Let there be…’” And there was – wonderfully!!

I hadn’t been to the Denver Zoo for quite a few years, not since our kids were kids, but when our granddaughter came to town I had to take her. I’m not sure if she will remember everything that she saw and everything that I told her that day, she is only a year old, but I was reminded of God’s amazing creation when we went. I saw things that were huge and tall and then small and slimy. I saw things that fly and swim and burrow and hide. I joined with lots of parents and grandparents trying to get the littlest ones as excited about all the animals and birds and reptiles as we were. I even saw a Buffalo – he had trouble catching up with all the other animals!! I think he was running away from a Ram and this little rodent from Toledo!!

And it all came to be miraculously, wonderfully, with a word that He spoke. With amazing faith, with profound appreciation, speak with confidence the words in the creed, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” In Psalm 8 the writer stands in awe of what God has done in the glory of His creation, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! When I consider the heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him.” (Verse 1, 3-4) But powerfully He made us as the height of all His creation.

Words are powerful, aren’t they? They can destroy or they can make alive. They can create. And they communicate. God wants to communicate with us, to speak to us, to have a word with us, and to do this He sent His own Son, Jesus. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-5, 14)

Words are powerful. But there is nothing more powerful than the word that God wants to speak to us through Jesus Christ. Through speaking a word God made this world. But He is not done creating by His words. Today Chloe Lillian Winckler has the creating, powerful word of God come into her life – she is baptized!! God by His words says that she is washed in her heart from the infection of sin and given faith, she is His child and a receiver of all of His good gifts. And it all happens because God speaks a word.

But that is not the last word that He speaks to her or to any of those that are baptized. He is still speaking a powerful word. I saw on the AOL Homepage – on the Internet “10 things not to do on a cruise.” One of the ten is “Don’t touch the Bible they place in your cabin.” Don’t worry, most people never touch the Bible, whether it is the cabin on the cruise or in their home or anywhere they might be. But we should.

I want to direct us, as God’s people, to the powerful words that God still speaks. This word, the Scriptures, powerfully lead us to a trust in Jesus Christ. The only place that I want to direct you is to Jesus Christ. I want you to trust Him and know the confidence of your salvation through His work. He died for our sins and rose again in great majesty. Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ has everlasting life. I want you to grow in faith, for God ever to be creating in us the life that glorifies Christ, that is strong and godly, that is filled with joy and purpose. That is what God continues to create and do in us.

The powerful word needs to be studied and read. Read it at home, read it with your family, spend a few minutes each day taking in God’s creative word. At this church we have at least half a dozen studies for adults, studies on Wednesday and Sunday for children and teenagers – we want everyone in this congregation to touch the Bible, and to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest it even more than we have. We want you to know it, to grow in it because it is God’s powerful, creative, saving and strengthening word. The word, the Bible, leads you to the Word, Jesus Christ, God’s wonderful way of communicating to us.

When I spoke those words years ago on that playground, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”, I don’t think I believed it. And now I know I don’t believe it. But I do believe in God’s powerful word. It created and it still creates. It saves and makes strong, it provides new direction, it gives life.

May His powerful words truly be powerful in each of us. Amen!!