There are many
ways we use our words each day. In a recent study researchers found that on
average, women speak 16,215 words per day and men speak 15,669 words per day.
Some people use very few words, and some people seem to never stop talking,
even to talking in their sleep. By the time we are 1 year old, most of us are
using words and our vocabulary only grows from there. Most of us use at least
some of our words each day in a negative way. Gossiping, lying, backbiting,
cursing, telling coarse jokes, and complaining are all ways of spending our
words. When we spend our words in these fashions, the cost will often be far more
than we ever imagined. We may lose family, friends, spiritual brethren,
credibility, the respect of others, and possibly even our own souls. I was
shocked to hear Mr. Biden making a national declaration, elevating an ungodly
misrepresentation of humanity, declared on March 31, 2009, by the executive
director of Transgender Michigan, Rachel Crandall-Crocker (to be celebrated
each year), to dedicate Resurrection Sunday as Transgender Day of Visibility, as
he had done the three years prior. Mr. Biden, you will rue the day you spit in
the eye of God as well as all those you are supporting.
[Matthew
12:36-37] Jesus said, “I say to you that for every idle word that men may
speak, they will give an account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words,
you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Paul exhorted,
“Let no corrupt word come out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary
edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers” (Ephesians 4:29). How we
use our words each day can have a profound impact on one’s life and the lives around
us. We can use these words in a careless even destructive manner, or we can use
them in a productive way, to build people up.
If I called you
a Nimrod, how would you feel? If you are like most people, you would probably
feel insulted. The popular definition for a nimrod is an inept person, an oaf,
a moron, an ignoramus. The original name Nimrod really meant to be a skillful
mighty hunter. Its origin is found in Genesis 10:8-9: “Cush begot Nimrod; he
began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD;
therefore it is said, "Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the
LORD." How did the mighty hunter become an inept oaf? Well, it’s all Bugs
Bunny’s fault. Ok, maybe not all his fault. You see in the popular cartoon
featuring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, Bugs often times will refer to Elmer Fudd
as a “little Nimrod,” a sarcastic reference to the mighty hunter of the Old
Testament. The writers might have gotten the joke, but the general public
didn’t. They assumed, in their ignorance, the word was an insult and began to
use it as such. The new meaning took over.
This doesn't
just happen in cartoons, there are numerous examples of people taking Biblical
words and concepts and flipping their meaning till the point that more people
accept the new definition rather than the Bible one. Words like pastor, grace,
and baptism have been corrupted from the biblical meaning to a popular one.
Pastors are not a single preacher but the Biblical group of overseers
(shepherds) of God’s people (i.e., a congregation) (Acts 20:28). Grace is made
into a license to sin (Jude 4). Baptism has gone from a complete immersive
burial in water to pouring or just sprinkling (Colossians 2:12).
Words have
meaning. If we change that meaning we might as well change the word. Don't fool
yourself into thinking you are biblical if you still use a Bible word yet have
a different definition than the Bible has. If we genuinely want to be biblical,
we must hunt thru the Scripture to see if the things we are taught are really
the things that are in Scriptures (Acts 17:11). When it comes to what the Bible
says, we need to be a Nimrod, not a nimrod.
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