Our Words

When I was seven or eight years old, my family would drive up to northern Indiana to visit my great-grandfather who was in his nineties. Grandpa Russell had been very hard of hearing since an accident when he was a young teen. He had an old house, with a old pot-bellied stove in the living room that provided heat for itself and the two other rooms. Grandpa Russell loved words and stories.

Dreams to Capture

There was an outhouse on the far corner of the property, and an old garage the housed a hand-pumped well drawing some of the strongest tasting sulfer water known to man. My sister and I used to beg for someone to allow us to draw the water into a old tin cup. Time and time again we would sip of the water only to spew it immediately from our mouths. I am not sure whether we simply couldn’t believe that anything could taste that bad or if we just like pumping the handle.

Grandpa Russell passed on a two-fold legacy to that seven year old boy. Along the fence on the side of his property grew bushels of blackberries. That small boy was convinced that nothing finer had ever entered his mouth than the fruit of those blackberry bushes. To this day, the quickest way to have a friend for life is to bring me a blackberry pie or cobbler. Grandpa passed along a love for blackberries.

Love for Sharing

Grandpa also passed along a love for words. Along the back of his property, an old Ford automobile set on blocks. The car was an ancient machine that even had a crank in the front of it. Grandpa would take my sister and I to the car where we would take turns pretending to drive all over the country. And anywhere that we would drive, Grandpa Russell had a story to tell as we would get there. “Let me share a word with you,” he would always say.

And share he did.

He would put his hand on my shoulder and tell of places he had been, people he had seen, adventures he had experienced. He opened up a world that my sister and I would never have known. It was a world of excitement. The time was a time gone by. We gleaned a glimpse of who Grandpa Russell had been … and it was an explanation of who he had become. His words painted an incredibly colorful picture on the canvas of a young mind. And when he would tell his stories, a smile would grow on the face of that ninety year old man that would reach all the way to Illinois.

Words of Scripture to Share

Lean in close. Let me share a word with you.

My hand rests on your shoulder. My face is adorned with a smile. I am anxious to embark on a journey in this old car along the internet highway. I want to give you a glimpse of who I have been and an explanation of who I am today. Most of all, I want you to see what I dream of becoming. Words express – reveal – our spirit.

Corinthian Comments

The same is true of God. That’s why Paul writes these words to the Corinthians:

4 And my message and my preaching were very plain. I did not use wise and persuasive speeches, but the Holy Spirit was powerful among you. 5 I did this so that you might trust the power of God rather than human wisdom. 6 Yet when I am among mature Christians, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world, and not the kind that appeals to the rulers of this world, who are being brought to nothing. 7 No, the wisdom we speak of is the secret wisdom of God, which was hidden in former times, though he made it for our benefit before the world began. 8 But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would never have crucified our glorious Lord. 9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” 10 But we know these things because God has revealed them to us by his Spirit, and his Spirit searches out everything and shows us even God’s deep secrets. 11 No one can know what anyone else is really thinking except that person alone, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. 12 And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world’s spirit) so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. 13 When we tell you this, we do not use words of human wisdom. We speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. 1 Corinthians 2:4-13 NLT

Hopes and Dreams

As the site grows, we’ll share stories and The Story. We will savor our words and The Word. We’ll look at Scriptures together. We will consider God’s truth and how we best can apply it to life. There will be wonder in amazement at what God has done and continues to do with His people. We will wrestle; we will struggle; we will rejoice; and we will praise.

Most of all, our hearts will love words.