Skip to main content

Avoid Talking Lingo


I had phone coffee with a new Christian recently, and she asked me this: "What is Psa?" (I had written down some Psalms for her to read, not realizing that Psa. meant nothing to her eyes.)

When we've been saved for years, we tend to speak in shorthand that is only understood by those who read shorthand. It's better to spell things out, and to remember when we didn't know our way around in the Bible. (Turn in the Bible to Zech-a-WHO?)

This was her next question: "Romans 10:13...Does that mean chapter 10 and verse 13?" This baby Christian wanted to share the Gospel with her dying father in plain English, and when I reviewed that verse with her, I had abbreviated the reference, forgetting that "ten-thirteen" would be foreign to her ears.

Romans ten-thirteen. I know what that means, and you (probably) know what that means, but do you remember when you didn't know? I learned a good lesson from this new Christian. She taught me to slow down and ditch the lingo.

This reminds me of the story in the book of Acts where Philip was helping the man from Ethiopia to understand a passage from Isaiah. The Ethiopian man didn't understand what he was reading, and wanted to know more, so he asked Philip to help him:

"And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired that Philip would come up and sit with him." (Acts chapter 8, verses 30-31)

When working with a young Christian, speak plain English, and if something needs further explanation, take the time to break it down into bite-sized pieces. The Bible doesn't indicate how long these two men spent in study and discussion of this passage, but we do see that it ultimately led to the Ethiopian man getting saved and baptized (Acts 8:35-39).

The next time you catch yourself talking "lingo" to a new Christian, slow down and translate your words. "I'm going to sing a special today" may mean something to you, but if I were a brand new Christian, I'd think you didn't know how to finish your sentences! You're going to sing a special?

A special what?

"So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For ye shall speak into the air." (First Corinthians: chapter 14, verse nine)


www.keeptheheart.com

Comments

  1. Wow! I needed this reminder!! I grew up in a Pastor's home, so "Christianeze" IS plain English to me, but twice now I have been made to realize how very difficult it is for new believers to "learn the lingo". It is so easy to forget. Thank you so much for the reminder today. Love your blog!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Parents Are Not Responsible for That

Parenthood is not a role for wimps or whiners. There are the exciting times such as music recitals, sports tournaments, and graduations. But if your tribe is like ours, you've probably also had the maddening moments, like the time one of our children discovered how to unfasten the tapes on his diaper and used the contents as "chalk" on the bedroom  wall (yes, it was "his," so that narrows the field of suspects). Children are young for a few blinks, and then we spin around and we're hearing "Pomp and Circumstance," that familiar graduation march as our "babies" walk down the aisle in cap and gown. If they choose to go on to college, four snaps later, we're sitting in the auditorium at their college graduation, scanning a long list of names in the commencement bulletin while waiting to watch them walk across the platform to receive yet another diploma. It's warp-speed fast (except that diaper stage). Parents don't min...

Why Abishag and Not Bathsheba?

When you read Bible stories, do you ever wonder about things? I often wonder, and one story on my "wonder list" is the account of the aged King David and his lovely young caregiver named Abishag. David already had plenty of wives, including one very beautiful stolen wife named Bathsheba. When David was struggling to stay warm (Scripture says "he got no heat"), why didn't he call for Bathsheba? I wonder...and I'm going to hazard a guess that they had grown apart over the years. I can't prove it, but it can't be conclusively denied, either. Here's the Scriptural account, to refresh your memory: "Now kind David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he got no heat. Wherefore his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin: and let her stand before the king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get heat. So they sought for a fa...

Woman Down at the Beach

"Ah yeah ah...we have a woman down on the ground here at Pensacola Beach. Not sure what happened, but she fell and then she got up and then she went down..." I could hear a man's voice trying to describe what had happened, but I couldn't speak. I was fighting my way back to consciousness. All I was trying to do was go shelling at the beach. I was on my way from my car to the restroom, which is the custom before a long walk. Restroom first. If you're over 60, you don't need a translator. A little toddler on the sidewalk was trying to sweep the sand with her hand, and her effort made me smile but also distracted me. I wasn't looking ahead,  and the moment my sandal connected with the edge of that sidewalk (right where the sand and sidewalk met), I went flying through the air and skidded across the hot, sandy cement. Breaking a fall usually includes broken bones, so I am grateful to be typing this with no broken anything that I know of at the moment...