Definitions

As school for my kids is nearing the end of week 3, the quizzes and tests have begun to arrive with some consistency. It seems that, with some regularity (including last night) that I am being asked, "What does the word _______ mean?" And like the good spelling bee winners, I often ask, "Can you give me a sentence with the word in it?" It seems that so much of our verbage is dependent on context these days.
In these past few days, I have been confronted head on with the reality that, even in the church, we can use a lot of similar terms and yet mean something totally different. As I was finishing up writing my sermon for this Sunday (a missions day at another local church), I realized that the words we use in our church planting context may be misunderstood. I also realized while talking again this week to a young dad today who is involved an incredible faith ministry...that we often can get comfortable in our own 'word culture'.
Then...as if to put an exclamation point on the thought...I was listening to a song and I realized something so incredible. God, who is so infinitely indescribable, sent His Son so that we could have picture of His love and grace in order that we might understand and wrote the Bible written so that we could know Him...at least as much as our finite minds could. If that be true, don't others deserve for me to put into their context my definitions.
They may not ask the exact question, but it may sound something like this: "Can you use that word in a sentence that I can understand?"