Skip to main content

Learning the Language

Dave Branon

As I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. Acts 17:23

I stood before the gathering at a small Jamaican church and said in my best local dialect, “Wah Gwan, Jamaica?” The reaction was better than I expected, as smiles and applause greeted me.


In reality, all I had said was the standard greeting, “What’s going on?” in Patois [pa-twa], but to their ears I was saying, “I care enough to speak your language.” Of course I did not yet know enough Patois to continue, but a door had been opened.


When the apostle Paul stood before the people of Athens, he let them know that he knew their culture. He told them that he had noticed their altar to “an unknown god,” and he quoted one of their poets. Of course, not everyone believed Paul’s message about Jesus’s resurrection, but some said, “We want to hear you again on this subject” (Acts 17:32).


As we interact with others about Jesus and the salvation He offers, the lessons of Scripture show us to invest ourselves in others—to learn their language, as it were—as a way to open the door to telling them the good news (see also 1 Cor. 9:20–23).


As we find out “Wah Gwan?” in others’ lives, it will be easier to share what God has done in ours.


Show us, Lord, what is important to others. Help us to think of their interests first, and allow opportunities to speak about the love of Jesus.


Before you tell others about Christ, let them see how much you care.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS. We have ridiculed the absolute truth of God's word and called it 'pluralism'. We have worshipped other gods and said 'give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar'. We have endorsed pervertion and called it 'alternative life style'. We have exploited the poor and called it 'lottery'. We have rewarded laziness and called it 'welfare'. We have committed adultery and called it 'playing around'. We have committed fornication and called it 'having fun'. We have killed unborn children and called it 'choice'. We neglected to discipline our children and called it 'building self esteem'. We have abused power and called it 'politics'. We have converted our neighbour's property and called it 'ambition'. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it 'freedom of expression'. We have ...
Post a Comment
Read more

#NextGeneration Stories

Cherokee Legend Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of Passage? His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone.  He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help from anyone.  Once he survives the night, he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some humans might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man! Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him.    He had been at watch the entire night, p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Do You Smoke?

6 personalized approaches to quitting forever.  Everyone smokes—and quits—for different reasons, and the key to getting smoke-free for life is to find out why you are smoking and then change those behaviors. If you are a Recreational or Social Smoker, you may feel that your limited smoking poses no serious medical harm to yourself or others. You may, however, ignore warning signs that your occasional smoking is progressing into addiction, especially during periods of stress or increased alcohol use. A periodic review of these warning signs may help motivate you to consider becoming smoke-free. The Scared-to-Quit Smoker has no end of reasons (excuses) to put off going smoke-free to some future date. Sometimes it helps to focus on just quitting for one day. If you can quit for a day, you can quit every day. This realization can be a great confidence builder, and helps to decrease your fears about not smoking “ever again.” Forever is too big a word for many addicts; thus the old adage...
Post a Comment
Read more