Are You Bilingual?

When I first became a Christian and entered the world of church, I quickly understood that ‘Church People’ had some code language that I needed to learn. Phrases like Hallelujah, praise the Lord, Spiritual gifts, Foyer, Charismatic, Calvinism, Arminianism, “washed in the blood of the lamb”, “die to the flesh”, “become a living sacrifice”, “step out in faith” and “grieve the Holy Spirit”, along with others. I also had to learn how to pray, out loud! I noticed there were certain acronyms that I needed to learn as well; PTL (Praise the Lord) was a common tag that people wold say after good news was reported. I also remember PBPGIFWMY (Please be patient, God isn’t finished with me yet) - some of my friends wore a pin with this acronym hoping someone would ask them what it meant. Then there is the famous, WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) bracelets and finally IXOYE which stands for Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior (from the Greek language).

Here is a short video that illustrates Christianese...

During times I spent with my ‘church family’, I would employ these code words and acronyms along with praying with really nice sounding words and other clever phrases. As I began to grow in my faith and became fluent in my new language of “Christianese”, I began using this new language at work or at the store or in conversations with my friends only to find them not understanding what I meant. I was looked at sort of weird and a little off; “What has happened to Ed?” is what I imagined they thought. I quickly learned that “Christianese” was only to used at church or around my church friends and not anywhere else.

Here is another short video illustrating a bilingual Christian...

I had become bilingual and it wasn’t good. I used one language when at church and a whole different language everywhere else. I became so good at this bad habit that I had forgotten how to speak to my friends and co-workers about the love of my life (Jesus) without using “Christianese”. This lead me to simply stop speaking about my faith in and love for Jesus for a period of time. I somehow learned that my faith life is to be separate from my normal life - this is a dichotomy that Jesus nor the Scriptures ever intended to be true.

I’m not certain we should be bilingual when it comes to spiritual issues, but if we are, we should learn to be fluent in the normal language of our culture. We should learn to take spiritual truths and communicate them everyday and in every place. There are way too many followers of Jesus who have ‘bought’ the politically correct idea of the separation of church and everything public (State, work, leisure etc). How can we be lights to the world if we forget we are followers of Jesus while at work or at the store or car shopping?

We need some strong conversations on how to be normal and in love with Jesus at the same time while we work, rest and play. We can be lights at work with our attitudes (Phil. 4:8), kind words that are free from gossip (Eph. 4:29) and by being others centered (Phil. 2:3-5). Our words ought to be following the promptings of the Holy Spirit (Luke 21:12-15) and full of encouragement, integrity and truth. Our love for people should be genuine and our hearts should always be calling out to Jesus to bring our co-workers and friends to a Biblical understanding of who Jesus is actually.

If we would rely on the Holy Spirit to lead our thoughts, actions and conversations throughout our lives, we’ll find natural doors being opened daily to communicate one or more portions of Jesus’ good news. This is the purpose of Jesus’ coming. This is the purpose of our lives interacting with those not yet following Jesus - the purpose is to offer them the good news in their own language and in their own context as the Spirit leads us. So let’s become fluent in the truth of Christ, communicated to the world we live in, as lead by the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual Growth & Personal Responsibility - Part 2

For way too many Christians today, life gets in the way of faith.  When this happens, spiritual growth is rare.  We run from home to the gym to school to work to practice and then to meetings and finally, to bed only to get up the next day and do it all over again with minor tweaks.  Part of this challenge is that we live in a world that considers and even demonstrates faith as one option in life that is rarely exercised.  We are fed a view of success in life and it usually doesn't include commitment to faith as vital.  What this view of success does include is a hefty dose of 'me'.   

So many followers of Jesus are trying to cram their already full lives with faith and there is little to no room available.  As the guilt of not being 'spiritual' enters our lives we sprinkle in a couple hours a month of sitting in rooms with nice music and words from the Bible to stir up our spiritual selves.  We desperately crave for something deeper but we cannot figure out how to squeeze any more time out of our life so we can have more of Christ.  We make attempts at increasing our spiritual selves by signing up for daily one verse pop-ups on our computer screens or we read 'Our Daily Bread' while we do our daily duty in the bathroom.  We may turn on a radio station that plays music with Jesus lyrics and feel the soothing of our souls.  All of these things are good, yet we know they are not enough.  These may appease our conscience for a while, but the hunger, the hunger born from the Holy Spirit stirs us for a more active and/or deeper faith in the creature and lover of our souls.  This battle rages in part because Christ is one aspect of our life instead of being our life!  

If we begin thinking about faith as one part of who we are, we will never find enough room or time for a healthy amount of Jesus.  We must begin by seeing ourselves first as followers of Jesus.  After all, we are said to be aliens and strangers (1 Peter 2:11) on the earth.  This world is not our home.  When we begin by seeing ourselves as children of God and our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20), our perspective can change.  When Christ who is our life (Colossians 3:4) is central, we can then begin to fit life into our faith.  When Christ is central, we can choose to submit our time, money, energy, priorities etc. to Him and let His Word and principles dictate how we ought to live.  When life on earth is our priority, life will dictate if and when we have time for faith and that foundation is out of sync with Jesus' principles (Matthew 7).

Abraham Lincoln once said, "Every man...is responsible for his own face."  Each follower of Jesus must fight against the seduction of our culture to put life first and to fit Christ in.  Life can be cruel and will often work hard to keep little to no time for the things of Christ.  Christ, on the other hand, is full of mercy and grace and desires us to have a life that is full of meaning and fruit.  Christ will always help us to sort our priorities to help us be the best people possible for the community He has placed us.  Each person must choose if their life will be centered around life or Christ.  Every person should take personal responsibility to think deeply and choose wisely.

I would lie to hear you insights.

Get out there and cast some seeds.