By Life Before Lip

 

I listened to my pastor preach

And he was as usual on song,

He had my undivided attention

Though he was a little long.

 

“Preach the word,” he admonished,

“Use words when necessary.”

From that entire message

This will likely remain with me.

I always thought that preaching

Was about the words one use

But in the spreading of God’s love

There is a better way to choose.

Before one utter a single word

One’s life must speak for Christ

It is life before lip you see

And very often life will suffice.

“What we do speak so loudly

That others do not what we say,”

So life before lip is the way to go,

It is a better evangelism way.

Action is the key, my friend,

To attract a prospective convert

And when he queries your modus operandi

Then to words you can revert.

What makes you tick he’ll likely ask

Then to him you can reply,

I am quickened by the life of Jesus

That came for my sins to die.

Because of God’s indwelling Spirit

I now live not after the flesh

But I live by the Holy Spirit

By whom everyday I am refreshed.

The explanation comes by words

But the attraction by the life we live,

So preach the word; use words when necessary

Is good advice that one should give.

Stewart Russell © March 2019