The Gift of Language

How often do we stop to think of the gift of language? Without language we would be unable to communicate with one another. Without language there would not be a printed word. Without language there would be no alphabet. Without thought there would be no ideas to put onto paper in no language.

How significant is it that we have language? Without language we would never have heard the Word of God. It is no easy task to learn language even our own native tongues from infancy to adulthood and beyond. We take so much for granted even if we don't mean to be thoughtless. The routine of the gift we accept and expect is not even thought of as we communicate with one another.

How do we communicate with one another? Through the spoken word, the written word. How does God communicate with us? Through the Bible, His Written Word, through His ministers of The Word. The Lord God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit via a language we can understand.

To English speaking people, we hear Him in English. To Spanish speaking people, He is heard in Spanish. To Italian speaking people, He is heard in Italian and so forth and so on.

Language! Thank God for language. He is the Creator and He created - language. Down through the ages, because of the gift of language, history, religion, all learning has come to us through God's gift of language.

How do we personally use language? What language do we hear that helps us? What language do we hear that hurts us? What emits from our own mouths that helps us and others? What do we say that hurts or harms others or ourselves? Do we know when to speak, when to speak up, and when not to speak? Do we know when to hold our tongues? Do we know when to bite our tongues?

Do we read what the Lord would have us read? Do we read the Bible?

Do we encourage others by reading and laughing at the off-color jokes they send ? Do we read magazines and books that demean the human being and the human spirit? Do we read sensational headlines and buy those periodicals in the supermarket check-out areas? Do we read and fall for the enticements published to get our money? Do we seek out, view and read what is lascivious via internet, books, movies, or actual places where things like this take place?

We can see that ill-used language can be for our disgrace.

These questions are intended for taking personal stock of ourselves. Since God created all language, ought we not to revere Him, respect Him, love Him and serve Him by keeping good tabs on ourselves and those He has placed in our charge? Ought we not to guard our eyes to see and read all that is wholesome and good? Ought we not make our opinions known even if it is unpopular? Ought we not take a stand when it is called for? Ought we not do everything we can for our children and children's children to guard them from all, as much as possible, that can harm them, and instead provide them with what will nourish their minds, good and wholesome books, television and movies. Of course we should.

The language of much of our newspapers is sensationalism enhancing the negative so much so that it permeates the mind and soul after reading much of it. How much better is a person for having read of street crimes, wars, rumors of more wars, devastation, etc.? Granted, we need to know what is going on but we also need to feed our minds with what is of God and we can pray for those who suffer because of the evil visiting them, taking the lives of loved ones, ravaging storms destroying homes and lives. Aside from supporting those we can with charitable contributions, our help where and when feasible, we can be mindful of them in prayer and care continually.

We don't want to say a prayer and put it or them away and say we did our part. It is imperative to continue to pray for our besieged brothers and sisters worldwide for do we not all bleed the same, hurt the same, cry the same?

Coming back to language, each is understood in their own native tongue. We pray for the ministering people who tend to the forgotten, the lost, the homeless, the hurting, the wounded, the ill, the dying all over the world, those who have learned a foreign tongue and gone to help. We pray for them and for those to whom they tend. Again without language, there would be a monumental disadvantage suffered.

Let us become a little more aware of this gift of language, for instance, here, where I may write a few words now and then, where I am able to read messages that come across my own screen from you, from others, from our sisters and brothers in our beloved prayer groups.

Let us take language and the gift of it a little less for granted. Let us be mindful of the great gift it actually is. Thank you, Father. Thank you and Praise you for this grand gift. I cannot even imagine how great a gift language is. As I think about it, what more fruitful, beautiful and inspirational language is there than the language of love our Father has given us.

Let's think about it !

© Mel Patterson, 3-19-07

EASTER PEOPLE

EASTER PEOPLE

“Blessed be God, the giver of Salvation, who decreed that mankind should become a new creation in Himself when all would be made new. With great confidence let us ask Him:

Lord, renew us in your Spirit.

Lord, you promised a new heaven and a new earth, renew us daily through your Spirit,--that we may enjoy your presence for ever in the heavenly Jerusalem.Help us to work with you to make this world alive with your Spirit,--and to build on earth a city of justice, love and peace.Free us from all negligence and sloth,--and give us joy in your gifts of grace.Deliver us from evil,--and from slavery to the senses, which blinds us to goodness.”

(the above is from my prayer book)

***

As we celebrate the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, on this Easter Feast Day, let us be mindful of the Sacrifice, of His very Life, that He made for us.

In the beginning the Word was. This is an awesome truth. Before time, as we know and understand it, He was. Most encouragingly is He still is, and He always will be.

He created us and willed us into being ~ to be with Him forevermore. We are made in His Image and Likeness. Eternity with Him in Heaven is now possible because of Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, who has laid down His human life for you and for me.

What was God telling us about humility and poverty when He presented, the Infant Jesus, born of a simple and pure young Jewish woman, a virgin, in an animal’s stable? That God’s Son was born in the human family of man tells us volumes innumerably about humility and poverty of soul and spirit. The proud were brought down; the humble exalted, not by themselves, but by God.

Is this not a lesson in itself? The haughty and the proud have their own reward right here and the humble, the forgiving, the loving and serving ones shall be exalted, with every hope, one day of seeing God face to Face.

In this context we can see that Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd, is the Lighthouse, is the Keeper of the Gate, is the Risen Lord. He leads us to where He is and He is everywhere we permit Him to be. It is up to us to open the door to our hearts when we hear Him knock and to receive Him.

How is it we never tire of hearing the story of Christ’s Birth, Death, and Resurrection? I think it is because we want and need to be fed spiritually everyday. We need to be reminded of His incomprehensible Love for us and as we gaze at the Cross we begin to see what great a price He paid to win our souls. His Passion was the cruelest any human being could ever suffer. We can’t begin to imagine what he went through. If we have seen “The Passion of the Christ” as directed by Mel Gibson, we can see a hint of Jesus’ great sufferings and His death. That film has opened many an eye and brought many people to their knees, perhaps salvation to very many.

Born in poverty, living simply with His Mother and Foster Father, Joseph, Jesus grew up in wisdom and grace. Sometime before His public life His Foster Father died. There is no record of this fact but we can safely assume Joseph passed beyond the veil into eternal life before Jesus’ Passion and Death or surely he would have been there.

Jesus began His public life, recruiting His first apostles and disciples. All they had to do was listen to Him to want to follow Him and they did until His Death. When they were in limbo, so-to-speak, until Sunday morning, they were in a spirit of waiting and wondering. They knew He said His Promise would be fulfilled on the third day.

I have to wonder about Mary, Jesus’ Mother, and what she went through watching every step of her Son’s Passion. Her heart had to have been breaking by her son’s brutal scourging, by the pointed thorns He wore as a poor king’s crown, the painful step by step carrying of His Cross, the nailing of His Hands and His Feet, the hiking up of that Cross and His three hour long slow death until the consummation of His Spirit to God, His Father. That poor Mother! I cannot conceive a son of mine dying such a death without losing my mind in the process.

When I think of the evil stench of sin that compelled Jesus to offer the ultimate Sacrifice, I have to say, “I am guilty, my fault, my fault, all my fault.” Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea MAXima culpa!

The third day arrived and with it the Lord’s Resurrection heralding Easter Sunday. Hallelujah !!! Alleluia !!! HE IS RISEN !!! Now, there was no doubt He purchased Salvation and in doing so, opened the Gates of Heaven to His followers.

We are His followers today. Just as He lived and died then, we benefit in our age bringing His Life and Death before us today. When we sin, it is we who hammer the nails. We know He took, whole and entire, all of the sins humanity committed and those to be committed, upon Himself and in so doing, we are as guilty as were those of the time in which He lived, suffered and died all souls to win.

It is necessary we realize we need, not only daily conversion, but minute by minute conversion. We need to examine our thoughts and our actions. Do we think a thought that is not of God and wade or wallow in it until it becomes habitual or enjoyable for the moment, the minute, the hour, the day? There goes a blow of the hammer. Take that, Jesus! Crucify Him! Have we treated a loved one with disrespect? Have we hurt the feelings of a loved one, a friend, an acquaintance, a neighbor, a stranger? There’s another blow or two into the nails of his hands or his feet. Crucify Him! It is important to realize we do need to examine and re-examine ourselves continually. No one is perfect. We need to keep working on ourselves. We need daily conversion.

The way we participate in crucifying Jesus is by our sin, for which He has already died but time to God is the eternal now. We may not fully understand that concept but we live in the eternal now. We place ourselves at Calvary and the reason He suffers is because we have placed Him there through our sins. Let us not strike another blow, place that crown of thorns upon His head, spit upon Him, or cause Him one more minute of agony.

The redeeming fact is that when we confess from our hearts that we are sorry for our sin, our beloved Jesus forgives us and remembers the sin no more. However, we must do likewise and forgive our brothers and sisters in our hearts as we pray the prayer Jesus taught us, the Lord’s Prayer. This is no easy task and takes some of us a long, long time to reach the point where we can do to and for others what we would have them do to and for us. Our merciful Father knew this from the beginning and gave us Jesus as Savior that we might gain entrance into Heaven where He has prepared a place for us. Let us strive to become holy even as He is Holy.

Through and by our RISEN LORD we can hope to spend eternity with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, our One Triune God. GLORY !HALLELUJAH !!! HE IS RISEN !!! GLORY to GOD !!! Our GOD of GLORY keeps calling us. PRAISE GOD now and for ever !!!

" We Are an Easter People "

We are an Easter people believing in One Lord;

In joy filled celebrations we sing in one accord.

We are a hopeful people looking toward the day;

We will see Jesus face to Face; O, for this we pray.

We are a faith filled people trusting in our Jesus;

He loves and blesses us in any way He pleases.

We are an Easter people praising the Risen King;

Let the voices in all nations jubilantly sing !

We are an Easter people

PRAISING the RISEN KING !~

Today is EASTER SUNDAY ~

HEAR THE CHURCH BELLS RING !

PRAISE the RISEN KING !

PRAISE the KING !

SING !!!

Mel Patterson, Easter 2007