Semantics
I don't want to let semantics keep me from truth. Jesus taught in parables so that those who wanted to hear could and those who were only looking for what they already knew to be true would be confounded.
If I am willing to try and hear God through other people sometimes I find out that what they are talking about is what God is talking to me about, they are just using different words to describe it.
What is the fruit?
Does the thing I am hearing make me want to give Jesus more? Does it cause me to get excited about searching his heart? Does it give me a boldness to say the true thing, and does it inspire me to do that in humility. Does it give me a restraint to put on self control or kindness or gentleness?
Or....
Is it simply terms I agree with, in a context I feel comfortable with, that is leading me to stay the same or worse, get excited while also growing in impatience, anger, jealousy, or fear?
Genesis 11:1Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.
2And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.
3Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.
4And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
5But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
6And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.
7“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
8So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.
9Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
1 Corinthians 13:4Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
9For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
10But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
If I am willing to try and hear God through other people sometimes I find out that what they are talking about is what God is talking to me about, they are just using different words to describe it.
What is the fruit?
Does the thing I am hearing make me want to give Jesus more? Does it cause me to get excited about searching his heart? Does it give me a boldness to say the true thing, and does it inspire me to do that in humility. Does it give me a restraint to put on self control or kindness or gentleness?
Or....
Is it simply terms I agree with, in a context I feel comfortable with, that is leading me to stay the same or worse, get excited while also growing in impatience, anger, jealousy, or fear?
Genesis 11:1Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.
2And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.
3Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.
4And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
5But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
6And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.
7“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
8So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.
9Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
1 Corinthians 13:4Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
9For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
10But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
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