word up

Words are a many wondrous thing.
I'm not sure if that last sentence makes any sense but I think a tiny captivates what I'm trying to say.
Words have been around for many many years and yet we seem to need more more of them to understand what they are saying.

Within the early modern society there was the concept that all words would be defined and once the definitions were agreed upon communication would be simplified and able to reach across all cultures. All society had to do was write down the definition for every word that anybody ever uses. Dictionaries were developed, vocabulary lists were studied and memorized, and a bright future of understanding and unity was not far off.
And yet here we are today. In a postmodern society filled with lightning fast communications with words that change meanings in a nano second. Being as old as I am I could give you a list of words that no longer come close to the meaning that they had back when I was a student in high school. Small words, big words, it seemed at the time everyone knew what you were probably talking about, and now it depends on where you are and who you're talking to. Examples of this phenomenon makes for great Internet forwarding e-mails mostly to old people, and an occasional funny country song.
In a postmodern world we understand that we need to spend the time necessary to identify what we mean when we say certain things. We know that not everyone agrees and in order to communicate we have to aknowledge that concept and communicate around it.
For Me it does affect the way that I teach the Bible. I tried to make it clear that my approach is not an approach that everyone takes, or that everyone should take just because I do.

I know that I no longer look for a three-point outline in a passage. I no longer look for a key verse. I no longer look for a theme of a passage. I no longer look for a title for a passage.
I believe interwoven within the words of the Bible is its ability to have meaning in all culture.that depending on who is reading it and their place in time and history the words that are read will have meaning to them. the meaning of the words will not be the final meaning, or the key meeting, or the ultimate meaning. That doesn't mean that once we have definitions for every Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic word in the Bible we will all agree, it means something far more complicated.
That complicated aspect of the Bible involves time, effort, and creativity in communicating through words to a culture in which words are constantly changing.
I do not believe our job is to convince culture to see Scripture our way I believe we are to help our culture to just see Scripture. I have faith the work of God will be done by God and my job is to communicate the best I can with the few words that I have and take the time to define within the moment they are being used.
and of course I could be wrong.

I find it fascinating that God used words to communicate to the world. That God would take on such a limited form of communication is humbling when I start to think about how proud people get including myself at how much of Gods Words We Know.
I find it arrogant that people believe that God would only use words to communicate with people. We need to listen and look for more than just words from God. And we need to understand that our words will never be enough.