COMPLICATED THEOLOGY WORDPLAY

I had a great insight the other day that illuminated within me an understanding of myself. So to explain this I have to back up to my childhood. I had a great awakening within my soul at the age of fourteen when a brother of a friend shared the story of Jesus Christ with me. I went home after that conversation and went to my room. I closed the door and got on my knees and prayed to God to forgive me of my sins and come into my heart. I caught fire for the Lord after that short time in my bedroom.

After that experience, I started to read the Holy Bible every chance I got and I was fascinated by what I was reading. As time went on I felt the desire to be a preacher. Now, this led to my Dad getting me opportunities to be a guest preacher at different churches around the city. Then people started telling me I would be the next Billy Graham. This started me to think maybe that is what God wanted me to do on planet earth?!?

Now it is obvious that I was not the next Billy Graham. But because of this, I felt like I had failed to live up to my destiny. I did go on to do religious studies and get ordained late in life. I also became a theology nerd which brings us up to the point I am trying to get to in this blog.

I was always talking about religion with big theology words. When I preached or taught a Bible study or even in a normal conversation I was using my theology vocabulary. I thought at the time I was educating and helping people. But my enlightenment this past week was I was trying to compensate for not being the big-time preacher or evangelist that people were telling me that I was destined for in my life. Living with that guilt has been a heavy burden to bear.

I am trying to say that I should have followed Jesus's example of talking plainly to people about the Gospel message. It might have had more of an impact on the people I was talking to or teaching in a Bible study and of course in my preaching. Maybe I should have saved my theological words for when I was teaching a religion course in a college or seminary setting.

I hope to talk, teach, and preach in a more understandable way to reach people for Jesus. It will take some time to adjust to a different format of hermeneutical sharing of the soteriology about the exegetical Jesus so as not to fall into hamartiology. But I think I can do it!

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