In the course of gathering and reading through articles, essays and posts on godly speech - I came across this book which is well written, well formatted and offers food for thought on the topic of godly speech for free. I'm still unsure why it didn't get wider release - or why it's available now for free - but it is. You can download it here - though if you'd prefer to pay some coin to Amazon - they'll happily let you do so and give you a kindle version or paper copy - just go here. 

The book is divided into an introduction and six chapters - each written by a different contributor examining a different assumption or passage on speech. At the end of the last chapter (which is on words of and for worship) - there are two "conversations" - or further discussions between the various contributors regarding the importance of this discipline and embracing the impact that it has (good and bad) and intentionally choosing what impact we want our words to have on our world.

Like me, the authors found that it is often our own words about our lives and the lives and intentions of those around us that influence us - far more than we realize. The words we speak to ourselves are so incredibly important. Taking full ownership of our words seriously and allowing God to search our hearts - not just in the heat of the moment but reflectively through the practice of silence and to a continually deeper level of understanding can literally revolutionize our understanding of God's transforming grace at work in the lives of His people. The more I study this topic - the more I realize that there are perhaps several revolutions not only available - but helpfully beckoning to us. I'm finding as I continue to study that my speech is sometimes the noise that keeps God's whispers of truth from landing on my heart. I'm also finding that the more I surrender my speech to Him - the more able He is to use my mouth to offer freedom to myself and others. To that end I find the conversations, exegesis and discussions in this book helpful and thought provoking. 

The authors are clear and open in what they write - and it seems that if you wanted to have a group discussion on godly speech this would be an excellent resource to start with - and hard to beat on price! Sometimes free resources are just a mess - this one seems to be more of a gem and will offer some food for solid discussion and challenge everyone at multiple points. I recommend it for individual study too - and have found it worth a couple of reads since I first posted about it a few weeks back. I can easily imagine reading it again in the near-ish future or breaking down the chapters for individual discussion here. Even discussing a particular point of this book with one friend or another over the last few weeks has led to fruitful insights. 

I don't know how long it will remain available as a free-to-download pdf - so maybe download a copy now for future study.

Enjoy!