Jesus...Vocabulary...Change?

Has Jesus changed His vocabulary? Is that possible?

As Christians we are supposed to have Christ living in us, speaking through us. So does our vocabulary match what we see Him using in the Bible?

Approximate # of time these words appear in the KJV Bible. (and to dismiss the complaints now, I used the KJV because those numbers are the easiest to access.)

LORD- 7,946
GOD- 4,444
JESUS- 983
LOVE- 551
ANOINTED- 98 - Do an interesting word study, study all words with the root anoint, after the age of the prophets, priests, and kings.
ANOINTING- 28
REVIVE- 8
REVIVAL- 0

In no way am I saying that the words on the bottom are wrong and should never be used. I do question looking at many main stream ministries and listening to brothers and sisters who are learning from these teachers, it would appear that Jesus has changed His vocab. Is that possible? Hebrews 13:8?

If His passions and vocab were going to change, why didn't He give us the appropriate "new" vocab, before He completed His word?

Scissors, Bangs, and Grace...

So if you are like me, from time to time you have struggled with understanding grace. It is foreign that we would receive something that we do not deserve and we can't earn no matter how hard we try.

Through the antics of my ever entertaining 4 year old, God again showed me what a beautiful thing His grace is and how much He loves us as sons and daughters!

Recently my wife was doing some work while Gabby(our 4 year old) was working on some craft projects of her own. The projects involved cutting, pasting, coloring, all the normal stuff. At some point she became bored and scampered off to the play room, somehow managing to escape with the scissors!

Not to long later Alyson overheard my 10 year old daughter Haly enter the room and ask "why are you doing that Gabby?" The response given was "I wanted to cut bangs, don't tell mommy!" Haly responded as any great older sibling would "I think we have to tell mommy."

So as the two of them came into the room Alyson could no doubt see the look of fear in Gabby's eyes and Gabby responded "don't be mad mommy." To which,  Alyson responded "I am not mad, but I am going to need to fix it." Gabby knowing that she was unable to fix her hair herself willing let Alyson finish cutting her bangs.

Alyson did instruct Gabby that she shouldn't cut her hair again, and the response was classic..."but mommy what if I forget?" My wife being an awesome mother some how was able to keep it together and responded, if you forget we will fix it again.

What an awesome picture of how Jesus loves us even when we make messes of our lives. He says to us I am not mad but you can't fix your life. Only I can because of the work that I did for you on the cross. We don't deserve it but we are His sons and daughters and He loves us. And when we forget and do it again, He still loves us! 

Jesus, yellow skinny jeans, and game calls!

So post one, my identity crisis! Yes, I own yellow and pink skinny pants and even a mustard cardigan, while also owning enough camouflage to outfit a militia. I like blowing on a steamy cup of coffee with my hipster friends, while day dreaming about blowing into my game calls in the middle of nowhere! My justification…I have rural AND urban camouflage! I am who I am, I can embrace the confusion and live an extraordinary life!

I work in a church in a county where there is a church on every corner. With that said I can safely say that the church has an identity crisis! I talk to people all the time who are frustrated with the differences in church culture, others are so frustrated because the church is not what they think it should be. To the later, I would say are you what you should be? 

This blog will not be about pointing out the faults within the body of Christ, but more a call for an understanding that yes indeed…WE ARE JACKED UP! Jesus is not surprised, the bible acknowledges that even the early church had issues, and we see at the end of the story that churches have issues until the day of Christ’s return.

So together we will try to embrace the identity crisis, acknowledge that we are different and celebrate that the church has both urban and rural camouflage. 

Together hopefully we can encourage each other the way Paul encouraged what could possibly be the most jack up church in history…

“Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”  

-Paul’s conclusion to his letters to the church in Corinth.