Using biblical truth

For a long time I have struggled against Christianese, the language Christ-followers so often use that means so much to us, but so little to those, most of them newer Christians, who don't understand the concepts completely. Every time I realize the true definition and use of a term, I stew in mild anger, thinking about the thousands of people who were in my position, not understanding but more importantly not realizing the glorious truths of the bible.

So finally I came up with a solution. From time to time I have and will continue to post interpretations of words and concepts as I learn them, but this is a general rule which I will describe in the rest of this post: You have not fully learned a concept or word, you have not yet fully realized its implications and taken to heart its life-giving support for your spirit, until it becomes practical. Practical means that you use it with intentional, separate meaning. You recognize it when you see it, you consider it relevant to many situations and ask questions about its status. You depend on it like a mathematical equation or a sociological pattern. It gives you joy to see it, it gives you great joy - you feel it in your heart - when you finally realize its full meaning. It's tangible. For those of you who are visual thinkers, it has a clearly defined color, shade, shape, dimensions, etc. They are abstract concepts, but they are far less abstract than you think. For musical or language thinkers... I don't know. Maybe its syllables are pronounced clearly in your head, the background noise fades. For kinetic thinkers like me, it no longer has a fog around it, no ill-defined gray cushion around the cube. You can hold it, it's sharp (ish).

Here are some comparisons. When you consider a baseball player you ask, "what's his batting average?" or looking at a house, "Does it have a plain concrete or finished basement?". In the same way you might ask a fellow believer, "how much grace have you been feeling/seeing from God lately?" and I mean literally feeling or seeing. When grace, good things and help from God, becomes clear in your head, you SEE it when, for instance, some random person you meet at Church happens to work at a carpet company and can replace your carpets for cheap. Everything is controlled by God. Or, for instance, you may ask a ministry, "Do you primarily rely on community or personal devotions or some combination of the two to be built up?" You USE it. USE it.

So my friends, when you hear grace, love, peace, joy or other words. When you hear of running the race, Jesus living inside of you, dying with him, carrying your cross (something I don't understand yet), heavenly treasure, administering justice to the oppressed, etc, etc. Do NOT, I repeat do NOT dismiss them as just words. Know that you don't understand them and be at peace. Keep a keen eye out for understanding them, and when you see them in the bible, stop for a little while. Dwell, look, research a little. Find. And you will be pleased by another one of the pleasures at our lords right hand.

Peace be with you.