Glory of Christ in Words

Just to settle the thoughts of all of our readers, the fanny pack from last week is not from my personal collection. Personally it might have been a little controversial to put anything up with the of the princesses. I probably should have simply picked 1.
The subject at hand however is words and their global purpose for the believer.

What should our words be focussed at? Christ's glory. Its amazing how what is being felt comes from inside and works its way out. When your happy, your words are more cheery. When your mad, anger tends to flow. When your thankful to God you praise Colossians 3:17, Psalm 63:5.
Obviously there are times you will be upset, there just isn't a case that I know of that should keep a follower of Jesus Christ fighting for the right to use vulgar terms as a freedom. “Lighter” cussing may not be offensive to pop culture anymore or even terms in texting that abbreviate the same four letter words. But to the believer we shouldn't be as anxious to try converting these words to everyday speech. Instead we should weigh the cost and make sure that the positive glorify aspects of speech far out weigh the negatives. We should be way more focused about correcting our hearts than if its ok to cuss or not. Once both sides hearts are right then we won't even have to worry about whats worse, not cursing or not feeding the hungry. Hopefully at that point we will have both down a little better.

Glory of Christ through words is fixing your heart and mind on things above and putting behind the old self. This will work itself into speech Colossians 5

Thoughts or comments?

What are words?

Part 1 of the series I am attempting to do was Just a little Babel and at the end I posed a question.
I hope at the end of this one we can get some dialogue because I would like the discussion to help shape part 3.

There are many questions that run through my curious mind about different things, but one in-particular thing lately has nagged at me a bit longer than usual. Where do words get their meaning? How does a culture go from have one very vulgar term one day to 20 years later it is a term flippantly used by children. At what point does the Christ follower have to shut down certain speech even though its widely accepted or un accepted?

Recently I listened to a sermon by Matt Chandler (warning if you are from Australia this next story could be considered offensive) where he spoke about his trip to Australia where he was doing some preaching. He was in the middle of talking at a conference and needed to use the word fanny pack to explain a nerdy type of guy. The crowd immediately gasped and he then was faced with trying to figure out what the problem was. In the process though he continued to say the word that was offending the crowd. So at what point does culture define a word, and yet we are to have Colossians 3:8 in mind.

This question came from a few years of hearing the argument “You can say what ever words you want. Words only have the meaning that you give to them”. This mixed with a Derek Webb song titled “what matters more”, where he cusses. Comments were made about the song such as “I thought with all the controversy that he would have said something a lot worse than that” and “he's trying to make a point and needs the shock value. These blended together with the Tower of Babel and James 3:3-12 in my study.

In James 3 we see that the tongue is a desirable thing to tame and control (I'm not there yet and according to James it itsn't looking great for the future either). This means that the words you speak come with meaning. Jesus unpacks this even further. In Mark 15:17-18 Jesus says that the words that come from our mouth are generated by our hearts. So regardless of the actual words you speak it might not be a bad idea to search the source first and hen the dictionary.

So where does the Christian draw the line? Is it with Derek Webb like soft cussing? Or is it ok to use cussing or foul speech if you don't mean it in anger? Is it ok to use it to get attention? Is it ok to use any words to express anger?

I ask these questions with Colossians 3:17 in mind. Not to hold fast to tradition or relevance. But simply to ask why do we hold so tightly to a “freedom” to use “any” words that we desire if the impact could be someone stumbling. I have seen even pastors fight for their right to use light cussing to be relevant rather than to use another term which has the same meaning (which brings up another point for some. Why is it ok to use one word and not another if they mean the same), and not to be bogged down by legalism. But for what cause do we do this.

I have a few rules for discussion: 1. No cursing, if you feel the need to use inappropriate words then hold off on comments or email me. 2. If you don't want to comment on the blog you can facebook me or twitter. 3. look through the lens of Colossians 3:17.

I pray discussion is productive and glorifying to Christ. Part 3 will be the unpacking of this topic and words for the Glory of Christ.

Just a little Babel

What power do words really hold. I have figured out recently that words have more impact than I ever thought when growing up in a home of 3 boys. In my family words bounced off as though meaningless. But now I'm married for less than a year and realizing that words have impact... sometimes even when I don't mean to put anything behind them.
Recently through some conversations I've had and through blogs that I have read it is very clear that the dialogue of words and their meaning are constantly being challenged. I do not mean the words themselves and definition is being challenged as much as the impact.
The next couple blogs I post will be on words and the impact. I hope to learn through this. Please post opinions if you have any.

In the old testament we see many instances where God does some pretty human life altering things. I wont place this as #1 but very high on the list is the separation of language at the tower of babel. Its very tough to imagine a world where people all had one single dialect and people group. When I first read this it made me think about how cool that would be, mostly because I naturally think positively about it. However then I began to think about the story and what human nature did with it. Sure it might be cool if everyone agreed on wholesome things but I look at the tower and the acts that went on surrounding Genesis 11:1-9 and I realize that once it starts going in a direction it doesn't stop. There are no barriers.

God dispersed these people all over the world into different people groups which actually made the humans do what we were told to do in Genesis 1:28 and fill the earth. He made it so they could not work together for evil. If we look all over the nations today it seems that the closer we get to being unified in dialect the further we seem to be going from the morals of God (not that I think we were ever collectively very close). Even more than that, we seem to have a task on our hands when it comes to the gospel... or do we. The task at hand may seem like a bad thing, but God has a plan. I don't believe there are accidents with God. God will be glorified when all tongues praise God in unison Revelation 5:9-10 and Revelation 7:9-10.

Dialogue is very important, it can destroy a nation when its lost. Think of what it will be like when it is restored. I know I feel a certain distance from people who don't speak english but the second I find a english speaker in a foreign country that I visit then that person is my new best friend. How beautiful is it to hear others praising God in their native tongue. Its the sound of the gospel being bigger than all words.

Has the spreading of the gospel been hindered or spurred on by the dispersing of language?