We were in Italy last fall. I find Italian to be a beautiful language and it’s fairly easy to pick up a few words.
Right now, we’re in Hawaii and enjoying a warm respite from the Midwestern winter.
There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet; vowels A, E, I, O, U, and consonants H, K, L, M, N, P, W. By the way, were going there in January so join us!
Zephaniah 3:9 says “I will purify each language and make all languages acceptable for praising me…”
1 Corinthians 14:9-11 says “It’s the same for you. If you speak to people in words they don’t understand, how will they know what you are saying? You might as well be talking into empty space. There are many different languages in the world, and every language has meaning. But if I don’t understand a language, I will be a foreigner to someone who speaks it, and the one who speaks it will be a foreigner to me.”
In recent years our church has seen tremendous growth. The exciting thing is that the growth is not just Christians being attracted from other churches (although many have come and found a deeper faith). Some of our new members are people who were far from God and any church. The most exciting thing has been to hear life changing testimonies and celebrate adult conversions and baptisms.
I believe one of the reasons for this growth is God teaching our church how to communicate the same Gospel in a language that is meaningful, understandable, and relevant to people not familiar with the traditional language of church. We spoke to them in ways they could understand and not feel outside of the culture.
Sadly some of our members left and formed a new church at this time. I’m happy to state that they have formed an effective ministry that communicates in a more traditional language of church. As always, God’s word is true “I will purify each language and make all languages acceptable for praising me…”
Comments