In Mark Chapter 7, there is a confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees where He calls them out for their hypocrisy and self-delusion. Jesus pointed out that although they are religious about what they eat, where they go, and what they do with their works and their words (externals), the fruit of their hearts is what speaks volumes, and based on the evidence, their hearts are wicked and lives are dysfunctional and defiled. He calls out the fact that a person isn't holy/healthy by their actions, or the food they eat (what goes in), but that the reality of their life is evidenced by the substance of what comes out! That it's possible to put on the appearance of health and righteousness, but in actuality be full of wickedness and error.  Jesus said that you can tell the truth about a person based on what comes out of their mouths, that a Holy life is evidenced by Holy lips.  (For a fun parallel read, see Isaiah 6:1-6)

After this encounter with the Pharisees, who looked righteous but had poison on their lips, Jesus leaves and goes to Tyre and Sidon, a gentile and notoriously wicked area, where he encounters a deaf man who couldn't speak and he heals him. Is this a coincidence that Jesus goes from the Pharisees, who he pointed out that the fruit of their lips was evidence of their dysfunction, to this encounter with a deaf man? No, it's not a coincidence. The deaf man, we are told, had a hearing condition that was evidenced by an inability to speak plainly.

“After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.” Mark 7:33-35 NIV

Jesus spits (something that to an orthodox Jew was seen as vile, the gross stuff that comes out of a person), and with His spit, touched the man's tongue, and commanded his ears to be opened. At that moment, the man is not only able to hear, but it's evidenced by his clear and plain speaking! 

This is a picture for us to see that (stay with me) what comes from Jesus, "the stuff," is mighty to heal, save, sustain, and transform us.  His grace, His word, is the power to open our ears, our spirits, so we can HEAR the Word of life and receive the power that changes us from being deaf to the Truth and reality of Heaven, thereby mumbling incoherencies & inconsistencies with our mouths, to us being able to receive the frequency of Heaven in the deepest parts of us.  This is a declaration that Jesus is the Word of life, that every word that comes from His mouth is what transforms, and that the key to life is that we Hear his word, absorb His grace, and when we do, the stuff that comes out of us will no longer defile us, but will glorify Him. 

The evidence of a holy life is holy lips. Holy lips are the fruit of a holy heart, and a holy heart comes only from hearing His Word and receiving His healing grace.

In the classic hymn "Come Thou Fount," Robert Robertson opens the stunning song with these words, which is a much more poetic way of telling us what I’m trying to say:

Come thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.

This week, may we be quick to listen to the sound of His voice.

May we not think our actions are what define us, but seek His grace to refine us.

May the fount of His grace flood our hearts.

May we sing His grace. 

May our speech bring life to us and others, as it brings glory to Him.

May we guard our hearts against defiling influences, and keep them for Him alone.

"But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." Psalm 19:12-14