A New Word!

I was preaching at the 8:30 service when something strange happened.  I COULDN’T FORM WORDS.  I don’t preach from a manuscript.  I walk around a lot.  I get animated and into it.  The main thing is the sermon is not rehearsed.  I know my points, but what happens in-between is led by the Holy Spirit.  So I am making my point and all of the sudden I realized I could not form the word that would describe my point.  I knew what I wanted to say, but could not think of how to put it into a sentence.  I was so excited about my point too, but it just didn’t come out right.  Let me tell you the word.  REJOICEMENT!  It was actually funny and I paused to say…”That is not a word!”

Funny how we can make up words.  When we get into stressful situations or when there is pressure our tongue gets twisted.  I am ashamed to say we can do that with the message of Jesus as well.  When someone hurts us or harms us our tongue gets twisted and out comes anger and hate.  Or when we are faced with decisions that force us to stretch our hearts our tongues get twisted and out comes “Maybe tomorrow” or “Not yet.”

I might have gotten my words twisted, but I would rather get tongue tied than forget their meaning.  I think that is important.  Do you know how to rejoice, how to love, how to give, how to serve, how to forgive?  Do you know what our Lord says about them?  Do you know how to show them and share them?  Do we know what they mean?

I will try not to get my words twisted next time, but my church will always know the meaning of them.  They will always see the passion and the enthusiasm for Jesus and serving Him. I might make mistakes, but they will be mistakes made trying to grow the Kingdom of God.  I might trip and fall, but it will be because I was helping someone else up.  So don’t be afraid to create new words.  New ways of doing ministry.  New ideas and the rest.  Let’s just not lose their meaning.  Let’s just not lose the spirit that lives within them all.

We will be sharing a lot of them this Sunday.  Hope to see you there.

Love you all,

Rev. Jim