I Don’t Understand Everything I Know…

I don’t understand everything I know…

The past few months have brought tremendous change in my life. Half of my ‘one flesh’ has gone to be with Jesus. I don’t have a ‘person’ anymore that shares my store of knowledge and memory. My pastor and shepherd of the past 16 years is gone. I’ve moved out of my home of 33 years. I downsized from a big house, with a workshop and 2 acres of land to a storage unit and a bedroom in another city and state. In my effort to bring coherent thought to what comes next, I’ve been reviewing what has passed: things done and left undone – people known and lost – and those influences that shaped me into what I am now. During the reruns, I spotted an easter egg – a hidden clue - about an ability I believe I have been given and my propensity for word pictures and plain speaking.

It’s all about language – it’s all about words.

At the start of this intriguing journey to discover what being a disciple of Jesus Christ was all about, I had a conversation with my pastor at that time about the curious language used almost exclusively by the church and how that needs to change. There are words that have no everyday use for an unbeliever (or a new believer) like sanctification, anointing, and justification. There are events in the life of Jesus that are proceeded by capital T: The Transfiguration, The Resurrection, and The Ascension (and if you are a real disciple you are supposed to just KNOW what they are!)  

There are phrases like ‘washed in the blood’ and ‘slain in the Spirit’ and ‘lay hands on’ that sound kind of disgusting, disturbing and aggressive without a frame of reference. Others just make no sense without context – ‘bringing the Word’ and ‘traveling mercies’ and ‘hedge of protection.’ I heard it asked once ‘Why can’t we just call it preaching, ask for safe travels and tell the Lord to keep our peeps from harm?’ Yes, why not?Because it doesn’t sound ‘enlightened’ enough or ‘Christian’ enough? Hmmm…

There are also words that have fallen out of favor like ‘sin’ and ‘salvation’ because their use has harsh associations. It is extremely popular to tell those seeking God only about His goodness and His acceptance of man ‘just as you are’ and gloss over the entire question of separation from God and our need to be saved from the consequences. [Yes – it is true that you can come to him without ‘cleaning up your life’ – but you just can’t expect to have a relationship with Him that doesn’t change you and think these hard truths are ‘fluid.’]

Then we have words that are common in modern language and are used to express a plethora of situations and open to the experiences and interpretation of every, single person. Words like ‘love’ and ‘faith’, and ‘grace’ and ‘hope’ can be used in any situation and have no specific scope without a qualifier: God’s love, Man’s faith in God, God’s grace, Man’s hope in God. Without a relationship with the qualifier, we have no real understanding of the words. We can only interpret the meaning by our own human experience. Since we all have different experiences, our interpretations differ. It is only through the standard that God sets for these things can we truly have a universal understanding of love, faith, grace, and hope.

Relationships don’t just happen. It takes time and effort to have one and continuing time and effort to have a good one. It is the same with God. You don’t just snap your fingers and boom you have arrived. You don’t have a relationship with Jesus because you go to services every Sunday and Wednesday and know the lingo and hang out with the right people. The congregation of God’s people to praise Him and hear His words is not the meeting of a morally superior social club boasting exclusive membership with special knowledge. We should always remember that we are ordinary people that have a relationship with an extraordinary God, and it is out sole purpose to know Him and make Him known. Never forget that the two most important commandments Jesus gave us were to love God and love each other. That doesn’t mean we are to just care about other believers. He meant EVERYBODY and especially those who don’t know Him. 

Circling back to the opening of this blog, I will encourage you. Don’t just know the words you are speaking – understand them. Take the time to investigate EXACTLY what you are saying and why. Then take the time to examine them based on the knowledge and understanding of your listener. You might be surprised at how convoluted or even obscure your words sound to someone who just needs to hear you tell them about Jesus.

I’ll be writing about some of the words and phrases in Christianese over the next blog or two. Until then, may God bless you with revelation (the divine or supernatural disclosure to humans of something relating to human existence or the world) 😊

In His Service,  <><Cass