Communication: Complicated Made Simple

I was out and about one day in Demopolis, Alabama and paid a visit to a church member that had missed church. He owned a windshield business in town. After swapping a few pleasantries I asked why he was not attending church and what his relationship to the Lord.

He hung his head and sheepishly said that my preaching was not deep enough. I asked him to explain. He said that my sermons were too simple. I told him that the art of communication was to take the complicated and make it simple.

I try to get on the same level as my listeners whether they are two or ninety-two, educated or not, blue collar or white collar, skilled or laborer, and professional or not. I always try to reach common ground.

I said so you want more hermeneutic, exegesis, Christology, Eschatology, Apocalyptic, Parousia jargon. He smiled and said that’s what I’m talking about. I looked in the eye and said, “You are clueless to what I just said.” He hung his head again.

I told him that I could go deeper, but much of the congregation would be oblivious to what I was saying. I told him that in the congregation were children, educated and uneducated, farmers, medical doctors, nurses, schoolteachers, lawyers and a wide variety of folks.

I told him that hermeneutics was the theory and method of interpretation of texts. Next, I said that exegesis was the interpretation of text, especially the Bible. I explained that Christology was the study of Christ, the Eschatology was the Second Coming, Apocalyptic was the study of End Times and Parousia was the Rapture.

I reminded him that my Pastor’s Pals was an introduction to the sermon. I was taking the “complicated and making it simple” giving a head’s up to what was coming in the sermon. My preaching was like him installing a new windshield so folks could see better. He never returned. I guess I was too shallow for him. He eventually closed his business.

Back when I worked at the cement plant, I worked with Sam. Sam was an instrument technician. He had the ability to read an electrical schematic and explain it. When I worked with him in the electrical shop it helped me to read the schematics.

He would say, “See the thing-a-jig here connects to the Hickie-me-dodgy over there and controls the what-you-me-call powers the machine. He probably did know the technical jargon, but he knew how it worked.

I have kinfolks and friends that are ignorant of the technical, but have the knowledge to repair equipment, computers, and most anything that runs, twist, or turns. As my father-in-law told me as a young man, “You can do most anything once you understand it.”

When the Creator of the universe came to earth as Jesus, he spoke to people in a way they could understand. He took the complexity of the universe and made it simple enough for children to understand.

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Proverbs 4:7KJV

I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Psalm 78:2

Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Matthew 13:13 KJV.

I Will Speak Using Stories: Thirty-one Day Devotion Bobby E. Hopper 

What Stuff?

On or near September 1, 2015 my daughter Angela’s birthday, she texted me and asked me what I thought about the days of God’s judgment and how did I feel about all the September 23 stuff.  My reply was, “What stuff?”

September 23 has something to do with the start of the days of atonement.  Angela said it was all over the news.  I refuse to watch much news.  It is always twisted and perverted in the eyes of those reporting it.  The 23^rd has something to do with the Pope coming and something the author of the book The Harbinger wrote.  I read the book and it was very entertaining.  I told my daughter that we had been in the “last days” since Jesus came, died, and ascended.

Last days have always been good for book sales because most Americans are afraid to lose their material possessions.  In my way of thinking, if people are worried about the end of time, to me is an expression of a lack of faith.  GOD IS STILL ON HIS THRONE!  Americans have not faced what Christians worldwide have already suffered.  According to God’s Word, it’s gonna get pretty bad before He raptures the church.

Second, if there is a genuine expectation of God’s coming judgment, we would be wise to share our faith with those who are lost.

I remember in the late 1970’s that the End of Time theme was everywhere.  People had identified the Antichrist, and all was doom and gloom.  I thought I would never pay off the loan on our house because the Lord was coming back any moment.  Well, we paid off the home and it burned to the ground a couple of years later.

During this period, my dad was lost.  Knowing the imminent return of Jesus was near I was burdened for dad.  I could not stand the thought of dad dying lost and we would be eternally separated, he to hell and me to heaven.

I talked with dad and for some reason he believed he was beyond the saving of Jesus.  I told him I knew God could save him, that I was praying for his salvation, and that the Holy Spirit would draw him to Jesus.

The Sunday morning that dad publicly confessed Jesus as Lord, brought tears of joy and shouts of hallelujah to Union Springs Baptist Church.  Dad’s conversion was, a cousin of mine said, a Saul to Paul Damascus Road conversion.

One week after dad’s salvation, doctors diagnosed him with inoperable brain tumors.  One tumor, the size of lemon was in the frontal lobe of the brain and a second the size of small pea at the base of the brain stem.  The prognosis was not good.

Doctors said the operation could leave him blind, paralyzed, and loss of memory.  The morning of his surgery, he asked me to pray for him.  This is before my call into the ministry.  I read from Psalm 55 and prayed.  All of Union Springs Baptist Church and many others were praying that this new convert could live and show the world that his salvation was real.  There were those who did not believe his salvation.

When the doctors talked to our family, they said they felt the presence of God guiding them as they operated.  They were able to get ninety percent of the large tumor and treated the rest and the smaller tumor with radiation.  Everyone waited in anticipation to see dad’s response.

Dad scared the recovery room nurses. Being cold, he got up to move his bed away from the air-conditioner vent.  Nurses thought he was going mad.  Nope, dad was just cold.

A few days later, I was hosting a cottage prayer meeting for revival at our home.  About thirty-five folks showed up.  To everyone’s surprise, dad entered the room.  I will never forget the way he looked.  He always wore a blue uniform from his job.  Tied around his head was the bandage from his surgery.  The hospital released him that afternoon and he came to prayer meeting.

Joy filled the room because of his presence.  We started to pray.  I sat on the hearth of our fireplace with our pastor and I began the prayer time with the pastor to close it.

I remember where dad was seated.  Closer and closer the prayer moved toward dad.  Faster and faster my heart beat.  Suddenly, dad started to pray.  I had never heard him pray.  He always called on my brothers, sister, or me to pray.  Remember he thought he could not be saved.  Dad was fifty-eight.  As dad prayed, tears of joy and the presence of the Holy Spirit filled the room.  For two years dad demonstrated what being a new creature in Christ is.

 

Want to change America?  God’s judgment is certain, Christ’s coming is imminent, and our mission is urgent.  Stop worrying and start praying and sharing God’s plan for salvation.

 

And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much (James 5:15-16 KJV).

 

Oh!  Many of you will be reading this on September 23^rd , which is seven years past when all the End Times Stuff did not happen.