I heard a funny story from a friend of mine who sits on the board of a couple of BIG Las Vegas casinos.
He says, that wealthy gamblers on a “winning streak” will traditionally order a bottle of 1982 Petrus, Pomerol wine to CELEBRATE.
(They say, more bottles of ‘82 Petrus are sold in Vegas each year than were ACTUALLY ever bottled. How interesting!)
Self Deception
One night, a lucky “high roller” requested a bottle of the RARE $4500 wine.
The casino manager (wanting to make absolutely SURE that it was an AUTHENTIC bottle of the ‘82 vintage) personally opened and served the wine, himself.
When the gentleman tasted it, he proclaimed, “I’ve had MANY bottles of 82 Petrus before…and THIS IS NOT IT. Send it back!”
Apparently, this man had consumed so many bottles of COUNTERFEIT ‘82 Petrus that when he ultimately tasted the REAL THING, he didn’t even recognize it!
Too Cool For School!
When I heard that story, it was like FIREWORKS went off in my soul!
I think OUR participation in this “counterfeit culture” has become so FAMILIAR to us that we sometimes don’t even appreciate the REAL DEAL when we see it!
We blindly REPEAT popular slang without even thinking.
• We call each other “DOG”.
• We say that a situation is “WICKED COOL”.
• We comment that a girl looks “PHAT”. (But in a good way.)
These are all words that we probably wouldn’t want said about US if we actually CONSIDERED their authentic and original meanings.
Learn to Spot a Phony
We can’t allow ourselves to be FOOLED by an enemy who wants to HIJACK our lives.
We DO RECOGNIZE that it’s our language and our words that will ultimately SHAPE our future.
“And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right!” James 3:10 (NLT)
No thanks, Vegas! I think we’ll PASS on your phony, pretentious fine wine!
We rely on the verifiable, original, genuine WORD of GOD that speaks of life, affirmation and the AUTHENTIC good life that God has designed for us!
Can you think of a situation where peer pressure tempted you to speak counterfeit words over your future?
Would you share with us?
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Life is feels too short so we have to learn these truths early. Some lessons are hard to learn truth is, the tongue is extremely powerful so would be best to learn to con.trol and filter what comes out.
Ruth – being able to filter what we say is a huge key to our success!
Words are so powerful. They may only be a few letters or an entire string but what we speak has such power in shaping our future. Be careful what you say.