I like blogging.

La Paz de Jesus es permanente.....


So I went to Spanish Worship last night. I had asked a handful of people if they wanted to go, because naturally I didn't want to go by myself....but the Lord has a sense of humor.... and didn't let me off the hook just because I had no one to go with.


I found myself in the basement Chapel of Towers Presbyterian Church with 5 other guys and a Latino couple singing contemporary worship songs in Spanish, praying, and reading verses out of the Nuevo Testamento....


San Juan 14:23-31

John 14:23-31

"Jesus replied, 'If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.


All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.


You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe me. I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father jas commanded me. Come now; let us leave."



Now, I had only a few years of Hgh School Spanish, and I have taken basic language proficiency classes in college, so my Spanish is "ok" at best. I understood about every third or fourth word that was spoken, but the power of those words transcended language barriers. God has a way of speaking even when we can't exactly understand it.

Language is doesn't always have to be with words. I think the accepted statistic is that 70 or 80% of communication is through body language (maybe even more?). When we worship in a setting different than our own comfortable North American style, we can't rely on words to sustain us. When our words are taken away from us, we begin to see the ways God works in us that don't require us opening our mouth.

Interesting? I think so. It reminds me of the Tower of Babel in Genesis and how people didn't have one language to communicate anymore. God made it so that there were many languages. How did people even get things done? They had to rely on the Lord. They had to express their love and their faith through their actions.

"If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching."

Even though I didn't understand a lot of what the Latino gentleman was saying, I could tell that he was obedient. I could tell that la Santa Biblia was much more than words on a page to him. I could feel the meaning and power in every word that rolled off of his tongue, even if I could only take a few guesses at what they meant. I could feel the Love of Christ when he hugged me...a complete stranger, or when he encouraged me as I stumbled through verses in John in Spanish.

It was pretty sweet. He seemed like a pretty cool guy.

And even in the midst of a lot of confusion last night, I had a peace. A peace that even though my Spanish was pretty broken, that God would fill the cracks. That even if I didn't understand, God would send His grace. The peace of Jesus Christ is permanent.

Of course I talk about words and language in a Blog.... where all I have is words.

God, you are pretty funny sometimes. :)

-Aaron