Monday, July 25, 2011

God Knows Your Lingo

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and
to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are
wrong and teaches us to do what is right. (2 Tim 3:16)


The year was 1897. In a village garbage dump at
Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, two British archaeologists
unearthed some scraps of paper—the discarded
contents of a wastepaper basket. When the men read
the first few words on the “trash,” they knew they had
discovered something big—very big.


The Greek New Testament has a vocabulary of nearly
5,500 words, of which some 500 words were unique to
the New Testament, not seen in any prior Greek literature.
Some Bible scholars thought the unique words had been
created by the Holy Spirit to suit the purpose of God’s
revelation. But with the uncovering of the Oxyrhynchus
scraps of paper, it became clear that the words of the New
Testament simply reflect the common language of the street.
As we read, “All Scripture is inspired by God” (2 Tim.
3:16), doesn’t it shed new light on the Author of Scripture?
God is holy, but He’s also deeply personal. He doesn’t
speak to us in grandiloquence (extravagant language),
but in a way that captures the meaning of an abbreviation
that people sometimes text: “HTHT” (heart-to-heart talk).


-- Poh Fang Chia

This is our God. How absolutely awesome is He? There are not enough words to describe is attributes. It is His desire to communicate with us. He knows the language He needs to use for us to "get Him". When we read of the account of the Holy Spirit coming to indwell believers on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 we read,

"When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language." (Acts 2:1-6)   

Each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. God comes to us. He knows our language. He knows our lingo. He will meet us were we are at. He will send someone to us who knows our language to share His truth with us. That language is not necessarily a different speaking dialect.

Have you ever used the saying, "Now your speaking my language"?

Sometimes that language is someone who somehow knows exactly what is in your heart and on your mind at exactly that time and is able to absolutely and completely relate to you and is able to relate the truth of the Word of God to you in a way that speaks to you where you are at, at that very moment in your life.
Our God is good like that.

Sometimes I mean to say one thing but something else comes out. Something totally random usually. An example happened today. My husband asked what time I was leaving to go pick up our girls from their church camp (Winshape) today.
To which I replied, "I'll plan to leave here around 5pm because they get out at 5pm and by the time they load the kids and drive from Birmingham it will be about 5:30pm before they get back to the church." 

Now I suppose that sounds like a perfectly normal statement... except for the fact that what I meant to say was First Bible not Birmingham.
Birmingham is an hour south from First Bible and is a city not a church. I have no clue where Birmingham came from, but it came out of my mouth anyway.

I do stuff like that all the time.
Fortunately the people around me know my language or are at least learning it. Actually some of them even speak it. And yes I believe that's one of the reasons that God put us in each others paths.

God knows our lingo. He can speak our language. He speaks to us plainly and His Word translates to the dialect of our hearts and transcends to the depths of our very souls. 
Yes, He is indeed good like that.

"His disciples said, “Lo, now You are speaking plainly..."
(John 16:29)




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