Colossians 4:6 Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

Definition of diction: choice of words, especially with regard to correctness, clearness, or effectiveness.

That definition leaves out many things that occur in conversations. What if you said “Right!” but your tenor was one of sarcasm? That changes the meaning doesn’t it? Speech can be regional. What a word means in Maine isn’t always understood properly in Texas. Louisiana residence might understand Creole even if they are not Cajun. The rest of us often wonder if we heard right.

A tosser conversation is one in which words are thrown without regard of listener. It does not matter if anyone is listening, you are just filling the awkward silence with the sound of your own voice. Grace speech on the other hand is to be used to communicate important information. Effectiveness is vital if you are trying to communicate love and concern. Comfort is not comfort if sincerity is not transmitted. That takes more than mere words.

Knowing how to respond to people does not come from a familiarity with a dictionary. It comes from a heart of compassion, empathy and relationship. The same words mean more coming from people who have proven relationships. Relationship is the foundation of effectiveness; otherwise it is just a drive by shout out.

Grace speech requires that grace is in you, that it has been spread abroad in your heart first. The way to give grace in receiving grace first.

John 1:16-17 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ

Matthew 4:19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

My dad taught me how to fish. He was an avid trout fisherman who loved fly fishing. The basics of casting and retrieving are pretty much standard without too much regard for the type of water you fish. The fly on the other hand is a totally different matter. If you are on a pond and it is spring, insects are falling out of the trees as they change from their pupas stage to become a winged insect and fall upon the water. You will see the trout rise and take them before they can strengthen and fly off. We would collect a sample of those insects and match them from our collection of dry flies. Then it was only a matter of presentation.

Now fast water fishing is a whole different matter. The trout likes to lay in wait and feeds by ambush. So you have to go to likely ambush spots and use a wet fly which will sink below the surface and be carried by the current. There is no indicators of where the fish are, you have to look for places in the stream which pose as a likely area for feeding. Neither do you know what they are biting on or if they are feeding at all. This kind of fishing takes an enormous amount of patience. If you do not get a bite, you do not move on, you change flies. You change flies until you are somewhat sure that you need to change spots. Then you move on and repeat the pattern.

So how does this relate to winning souls to Christ? Think of the pond as being a closed in area where behavior can be observed. Lost souls wander into church from time to time for various reasons. If we pay attention to them, we will see what they are biting on and will know where to cast the dry fly. If lost souls keep coming to church, they are looking for something and they probably keep coming back because they found something to feed on. Eventually they will get hooked. All you have to do is keep feeding them and don’t scare them away.

Now the fast stream is another matter. It could be looked at as street evangelism or just those chance encounters. You have to be prepared to test the waters and not give up just because you do not see anyone biting. If you are a street evangelist, don’t keep putting out the same old tired tracts that haven’t been working. Switch bait. If you have to move to a new spot do not be discouraged, the nature of this kind of fishing is like making a thousand casts before you get a bite.

The last piece of fishing advice goes back to the trout. They have a tender mouth and if you jerk on the line as if they were a large mouth bass, you will lose them. Once you set the hook, you have to be gentle and patient still so as to not lose them.

Bye, gone fishing.