An Annotated Guide to Buzzwords (Clichés, pt. 2)
HT: Baker Book House
I would add:
Accept Christ As My Personal Savior – He accepts us when we are saved through faith. To say that we deem Him as ‘acceptable’ is condescending. Personal savior sounds too much like personal trainer or life coach although God does relate to us on a personal level in addition to being transcendent.
Head and Heart or Head vs. Heart – First of all I don’t believe in these terms and never did understand them. If they are legitimate, I don’t believe there is such a schism between the two as many would lead us to believe. And if we use the term heart the way most people use it, we are straying from the Biblical definition of heart. When people say, “It dropped from my head to my heart” I just roll my eyes. There are better terms.
Share – We never speak, proclaim, preach, talk about, discuss etc. anymore. It’s all shaaaaring now.
Tithe – An Old Testament term
Any others? Thanks for sharing.
One that I loathe is “asking Jesus into your heart.” My reading of Scripture reveals a God who draws me to himself. To stretch the metaphor a bit, would Jesus come and dwell in the squaller that is an unregenerate heart?
That one was mentioned in the linked post. I think He will dwell in us and we are united with him, but where is our heart and how does asking Him to come in there save us?
Jeff
I certainly agree on the union-with-Christ concept, but your question reveals the ambiguity is this well-worn invitation phrase. I also understand the Spirit to do the work of conversion prior to our union with Christ, so this little phrase runs off the track a bit.
I also understand the Spirit to do the work of conversion prior to our union with Christ, so this little phrase runs off the track a bit.
I agree and I think that can go along with “accepting Christ” a little too. It’s not as if Jesus is pleading with us to ‘accept’ Him and then we relent and say, “OK, I accept you.”
I’m so glad it’s the way the Bible says it is and not what many of us have made up and believe.
The tricky part is not judging others who are sincere about faith, repentance, salvation, truth etc. but who use these terms, as I had in the past, because they are so permeated within Christian culture.
Jeff
I’ve got some of those in my past. I even went to trainig to say all that stuff! Once they are so engrained in you, it is very difficult to leave them behind. Every once in a while, one will still raise its head and escape my lips because of the way a conversation goes. *hanging head in shame*
I remember revivals full of “You can’t leave tonight until you chose Jesus!” And boy, depending on how good a salesman the evangelist was, many, many people did come down to the front and chose Jesus – at least for the evening.
Now I’m wondering what the history behind some of these phrases actually is because for years I didn’t even think about the lack of biblical support there was for some of what was said, it was just the way we did things.
I don’t know if you get this outside of charismatic circles, but “press-in” is pretty trendy. I’ve never quite figured that one out.
I’ve never heard “press-in”. What does it refer to even though you haven’t figured it out?
Jeff
It’s like “keep going” or something like that. Usually near the end of a worship session or prayer time, “Let’s press in,” or “We’re going to press-in.”
Tell them it should be “press on”.
In my circles it’s “keep on keeping on” which doesn’t really mean anything to me other than don’t give up which isn’t an option.
Jeff