The inadequacy of language

I’ve been wrestling recently with how inadequate language seems to be to describe the God we worship and love, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.  If God is truly infinite, truly omniscient, truly omnipotent, truly omnipresent (and I believe God is!) then how on earth can the finite mind conjure words that properly describe Him? (or should that be ‘it, they, her’ etc!) It reminds me of when our kids were little and they drew pictures of our family.   The colourful squiggly lines that were meant to be mum and dad weren’t even close to resembling us.  But, to me as a parent it was an amazing drawing, a source of great joy.  It was also an expression of love from my child, and to be honest I didn’t really care whether those squiggles were in proportion or were the right colour or shape at all! It came as

Love is…

I’ll be frank, I’m massively challenged by 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (the whole chapter). We all think we know what love is and are happy to concede that it is necessary for a fulfilled, happy and fruitful life. Both to be loved and to love is how God ministers to us and how we are in turn to minister to others and walk in the Spirit. It seems easy to walk in this kind of love when everything is going swimmingly and there is nothing but bliss in your life, but lets be real, that rarely happens. When the pressures of life pile in all of that seems idealistic and more often than not you find out that you don’t resemble the kind of ‘God love’ described in this passage. When it comes to patience and forbearance and endurance in my case, I’m definitely a work in progress! When I’m sleep

Being “Used” by God and other phrases

Language is a wonderful gift and when used well it is a vehicle to communicate love, acceptance, grace, goodness and wholeness to heal and restore others. It can of course be used to tear down, divide, destroy and discourage. I’ve wondered lately whether the usage of Christian jargon in our language is really helpful or a hindrance to people who are unfamiliar with it. I’m particularly thinking of those souls that haven’t been raised in church and perhaps don’t know the Lord yet. How many times have we heard in a sermon or read on a newsletter words and phrases like “sanctified”, “washed in the blood of the Lamb”, “used by God”, “cleansed by His Word” and so on? Have you ever wondered how that sounds to someone who has never heard it before? Let’s take “used by God” as an example. Have you thought about what it would be