Walking with Our Mouths

By L.T. Peters

We’ve been living and practicing Christianity wrong for centuries, and as a result, many who claim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior will eventually find out that they are not of Him but Satan.

If you want to know where the world has gone wrong and help yourself and others get back on track, then this book is for you. The author pinpoints our errors, answering questions such as:

• What excuses prevent us from reading and meditating on God’s Word?

• How can we truly understand God’s truth?

• What must we teach those coming into the faith?

• How can we uncover hidden wisdom?

This book is for those who know something is missing because they are not seeing Christ in others or in themselves.

If you want to be welcomed by the Lord into eternity and hear the words “Well done, my good and faithful servant,” then you’ll treasure the guidance in Walking with Our Mouths.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664276611

L.T. Peters

L.T. Peters is always striving to glorify God to the world. The author’s goal is to follow Christ in the way He wants us to follow Him. May God use this book to open your eyes to see Him clearly and to develop a relationship with Jesus.

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Copyright © 2022 L.T. PETERS.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-7660-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-7659-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-7661-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022915961

WestBow Press rev. date: 9/29/2022

CONTENTS

Servant’s Page

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

About the Author

SERVANT’S PAGE

To my brothers and sisters in Christ,

Many things you read within this book might challenge your standing in Christ; however, I do not want you to go into this book thinking that because I have written it that I have attained all of what is written. I strive, just like you, to present each day to God as one that will glorify Him to this world.

I fall, I fail, but I get up again, hoping to reach my goal and gain the prize. I live in the principle set forth by Paul in Philippians 3:12–14 of pressing on. I don’t write to you as a preacher, teacher, or a learned one, but I write to you as a servant—a servant whose only goal is to follow Christ in the way He wants us to follow Him.

Though there are points within this book in which I do use you, they are not there because I believe I have found perfection in these areas, but at times, even when we read, we need to make things personal to understand that this is not everyone else’s issue but our own, and they need to change. We need to change to shine God to this darkened world.

May God use this book to open our eyes to see Him clearly and to develop a relationship with Jesus so that we can shine Him in the way He deserves to be seen.

May God always be your path,

a striving servant

CHAPTER

1

I breathe only to serve Him again.

I want to ask you a question: Do you breathe only to serve Him again? Do you wake up each morning waiting on Him to tell you how He wants you to go about you day? I’m sure we do in words. I’m sure in words we state that we live our lives for God and believe in His word. But in the end, do we?

Are we willing to lay our lives on the line for Him in all things—all aspects of our lives or our families’ lives? The words lord, bond servant, and servant are words that we, as Christians, commonly use freely without any true understanding. We use our mouths to state things that our hearts and minds don’t comprehend or want to comprehend. We call Jesus our Lord and Savior, but have we truly spent time counting the cost, as He has told us to do, before uttering words we don’t understand? Do we teach others how to count the cost, or in our ignorance do we teach others to say words that in the end give no weight within their lives?

• lord—one having power and authority over others.

• bond servant—a slave; one bound to service without wages.

• slave—a person held in servitude as the chattel of another; one who is completely subservient to a dominating influence.

• servant—one who serves others.

According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, the definitions of these words are clear. If we place these words in a Christian context, then Jesus is our Lord, to whom we are bound to service, completely subservient, and directly responsive. So, again, I ask: Do you breathe only to serve Him? Do you wake up each morning waiting to hear what He wants you to do for the day? Or are you doing what you feel is right, doing what you feel He’d want you to do—the most logical, ideal plan to satisfy the Christian aspect of doing something Christlike each day?

Don’t get me wrong—I don’t believe how we walk is done with malice, but we must take a step back to question ourselves and to deeply examine how we are portraying Him within our walk and to the world. When we begin to wonder why those who are not Christian don’t see Jesus as the true way—the only way—we need to then deeply examine how we as a single part and as a whole part of Christ’s body represent Him daily. If we were to truly search ourselves, most times we’d find that we do what everyone in the secular world does. They, too, wake up and choose to approach their days as they see fit, and within it they might even do something nice for others. Therefore, when looking at us, they see no differences. We are just like them, and when they express this to us the only reply we have is, But I’m going to heaven, and you aren’t, because Jesus isn’t your Lord and Savior, which honestly wouldn’t convince many to accept Jesus into their lives. But I must ask: If we’re living a life just like theirs, are we indeed going to heaven? Is He truly our Lord and Savior? Matthew 7:21–23 speaks about those calling Him Lord and them saying they have done things in His name, to which He replies, I never knew you. As Christians, this might be what many of us experience when He returns. Many of us have spent time praying for others and giving to the poor, yet He never knew us.

It’s sad to think about, but what is even sadder is that this could be stopped, but we choose to continue to believe and teach people without having a true understanding of our beliefs. The verses following Matthew 7:23, which speak about a man building his house on a rock, show us that we need to be firm in our beliefs so when trouble does arise we will not fall or sink but be firm and steady. Sadly, however, as seasoned Christians, we don’t teach this to people, and when a problem comes, a sin comes, they fall and fail, and many times they never get up again.

Let’s quickly go to those who want to say, Oh, but we are not perfect. That’s not an excuse. If a baby used the same excuse about learning to walk, that child wouldn’t make it too far. The reason children will walk and keep trying is that they have their minds set on a goal. They will try it over and over again until they can get it right because their desires to attain this goal are greater than their impulses to remain the same. Each day they follow the principles of walking, never quitting or wavering. Each moment they are moving toward accomplishing their goals. This principle is the same with our walk in Christ; therefore that excuse of we are not perfect is probably invalid for most of us, as we have been claiming Him for so many years. We are not waking up trying to be more Christlike. We are not practicing toward Him, and instead we practice our subpar actions and place a God stamp on them. The Bible, the word we stand on, states, He who practice righteousness is righteous (1 John 3:7). Therefore, those who practice allowing God to be their Lord will have Him as such. He doesn’t become our Lord just because of our words. We must prove it with actions in our own lives and in our walks with Him. And when we do fail, we must refocus, place our eyes on the goal, and once again begin to walk toward it. We need to have a life that exudes Christ. We need to have a walk that shows our desires to be like Him are greater than our instincts to remain the same.

Do you know that God has given us dominion over creation? This power was not given to make us lesser gods, but with this knowledge we can move mountains. The important aspect is who gave us this authority—it is not just within our strength or knowledge or even wisdom but due to His power. For a moment, let’s dwell on this authority found within our speech. We rarely think about our speech as something tied to authority—unless we are reading the New Testament that week—but if we truly think about it we’d see our mouths are tied to our hearts. One of the biggest problems we face today in Christianity lies in the fact we don’t breathe to serve Him again. In many ways, we’ve never cultivated His truth of Him being Lord in our hearts. Instead, we’ve just said words that have no real meaning or substance.

Many sections of the Bible reveal to us that God weighs our hearts, and we frequently use this phrase. But we often use this line consciously and/or subconsciously when we know we haven’t given true effort in how we go about our daily lives. This makes the words God knows our heart a sad phrase. Why is it sad? Because we are correct. He does know our hearts. He knows we come up with excuses like being too busy, too tired, or late for work as reasons for why we can’t read His word and meditate daily. He knows that our ever-useful stumbling block of that’s just the way I am has us failing to become more like Him, which is our supposed goal. He knows we use any and every reason to not do something He’s told us to do. In short, He sees we are not practicing toward being like Him in His righteousness but practicing toward us and our rightness. He sees we’ve done nothing to place Him first in our lives. What our hearts ultimately show Him is that we do not breathe for Him—that He is not our Lord. Harsh, right? But when we boil it down, that is exactly what we are saying. Then we wonder why things within our lives shatter so easily, faith included. It brings to mind a pond that has its first freeze. If you look across it, you see no water. Everything looks as if you can walk on it without falling through. Yet it’s only the top layer that is frozen. Any real weight applied, and it will crack. This is how many of us are walking in Christ. On the outside, we look like we are solid, but truly we are a thin sheet on top of raging waters that the devil can’t wait to crack. Sadly, we allow this to be our constant. What’s worse, we teach others to do the same. This is why we can’t have any true influence over people’s lives. We are blinded by our own words while confessing what our hearts and minds don’t hold to, and it is shown throughout our walks and through our teachings.

We teach and preach 1 John 1:9–10 and Romans 10:9–10, which in general speak of confessing with our mouths that we are sinners so that we are saved. Though it sounds nice on paper, we are wrong. We are not wrong because the Bible is wrong in saying such. The Bible is correct. If we believe in our hearts what is written, we will be saved if we confess we are sinners. All are truthful statements. But how we are going about it—meaning, before and after this confession—is where we are wrong. We are wrong because we don’t know their hearts, and we don’t know if they or ourselves have counted the cost before stating these words that we all love to proclaim, yet in truth do not follow.

Before I go on, I’d like to mention that, of course, God can and will use all things for good for those who love Him. So, yes, meeting those people who may have been led into our paths so we could say whatever it is God needed us to say, which in turn caused that person to realize they need and want to choose Jesus, can and does happen. Please don’t get this wrong—I’m not removing or trying to remove the idea of God’s grace or the Holy Spirit working. But we still must have a deeper comprehension of the process because overall we are causing a decline in understanding His truth, which sadly is hurting the church, but more importantly hurting God and making it harder for people to see who He is through us. When we truly understand the process, we will speak what we believe and have a walk that mimics what we say. In other words, our walk will continuously grow closer to being more like Christ. What we’d also be doing is strengthening our relationship with Him, and by