Christian is a great noun and a poor adjective.~ Rob Bell
As we all know a noun is something that represents a person, place, or thing. Add an “ing” to a verb like read “reading” and it can become a noun as well. An adjective on the other hand is a word that describes, identifies, modifies, and quantifies the noun or pronoun. Now that we have our English 101 class behind us lets try and decipher today’s quote.
Depending on what angle you go at this quote one can agree or disagree with it. Duh, Karen! What a novel idea. Isn’t that what it is with anything! You can either agree or disagree. I think I need another cup of coffee.
As a noun a Christian represents a person, place, or thing. The person is Christ. The place is eternity with Him, and the thing being His Holy Spirit, grace, love, and forgiveness. The better the noun the better the representation of Christ and right there is the task we have been given on earth to accomplish being imitators of Christ.
In order to be that noun of a Christian we need action in our lives and thus we need to be a verb as well. Something that is shows action as we should show action on behalf of God’s kingdom. Once we have that we can slap a “ing” on that verb and make it a noun. “Christing” would that be the word? In any case it leads us back to the noun concept.
Some could argue that the noun is Christ and we are the adjectives, the things surrounding Him that describes, identifies, modifies, and quantifies Him. In other words, the witness people can gaze upon that points them to Jesus. If you think about it we should make very good adjectives as we paint a picture of Christ that glorifies God and builds Him up as the noun instead of us.
After a couple of swallows of coffee I think I might see what Rob Bell was after. We as Christians shouldn’t be all talk but demonstrate strongly the role of Christian. We can describe, identify, modify, quantify all we want with words but do our actions speak louder than those words. Are we “Christing” as we should?
We need to figure out for ourselves which part of the sentence we want to be? The Capital Letter at the Beginning that Leads the Way for the Rest or the noun that has a specific person, place, or thing it is representing. Or the adjective that simply is there to describe the main character. Perhaps if we look closely enough at the way we are behaving we might find we are the period at the end of the sentence. The one that says “its my way or the highway, end of sentence, PERIOD.”
Opps, been there and done that and it wasn’t the best of places to be living within the attitude of it’s my way or the highway kind of life.
What a blessing it is that Jesus gives us the opportunity to be the center stage noun person people need to see. We don’t have to stay an adjective that is full of only descriptive words; we can actually be like Christ. We will never “be” Christ but we can be like Him, there’s a difference.
“Christing” we’ll call it, is where we put together the whole sentence, a noun representing Christ, a verb giving us our action, an adjective describing what Christ is like, and yes even the period at the end. The period that says this is it, period, no more. It shows Satan that the formula for our lives is complete. Thanks to God we are a complete sentence in Christ snuggled in between the Capital letter at the beginning, the time in which we came to Christ and the period at the end. The completion of something whole, our lives with God! Amen? Amen!!
As we all know a noun is something that represents a person, place, or thing. Add an “ing” to a verb like read “reading” and it can become a noun as well. An adjective on the other hand is a word that describes, identifies, modifies, and quantifies the noun or pronoun. Now that we have our English 101 class behind us lets try and decipher today’s quote.
Depending on what angle you go at this quote one can agree or disagree with it. Duh, Karen! What a novel idea. Isn’t that what it is with anything! You can either agree or disagree. I think I need another cup of coffee.
As a noun a Christian represents a person, place, or thing. The person is Christ. The place is eternity with Him, and the thing being His Holy Spirit, grace, love, and forgiveness. The better the noun the better the representation of Christ and right there is the task we have been given on earth to accomplish being imitators of Christ.
In order to be that noun of a Christian we need action in our lives and thus we need to be a verb as well. Something that is shows action as we should show action on behalf of God’s kingdom. Once we have that we can slap a “ing” on that verb and make it a noun. “Christing” would that be the word? In any case it leads us back to the noun concept.
Some could argue that the noun is Christ and we are the adjectives, the things surrounding Him that describes, identifies, modifies, and quantifies Him. In other words, the witness people can gaze upon that points them to Jesus. If you think about it we should make very good adjectives as we paint a picture of Christ that glorifies God and builds Him up as the noun instead of us.
After a couple of swallows of coffee I think I might see what Rob Bell was after. We as Christians shouldn’t be all talk but demonstrate strongly the role of Christian. We can describe, identify, modify, quantify all we want with words but do our actions speak louder than those words. Are we “Christing” as we should?
We need to figure out for ourselves which part of the sentence we want to be? The Capital Letter at the Beginning that Leads the Way for the Rest or the noun that has a specific person, place, or thing it is representing. Or the adjective that simply is there to describe the main character. Perhaps if we look closely enough at the way we are behaving we might find we are the period at the end of the sentence. The one that says “its my way or the highway, end of sentence, PERIOD.”
Opps, been there and done that and it wasn’t the best of places to be living within the attitude of it’s my way or the highway kind of life.
What a blessing it is that Jesus gives us the opportunity to be the center stage noun person people need to see. We don’t have to stay an adjective that is full of only descriptive words; we can actually be like Christ. We will never “be” Christ but we can be like Him, there’s a difference.
“Christing” we’ll call it, is where we put together the whole sentence, a noun representing Christ, a verb giving us our action, an adjective describing what Christ is like, and yes even the period at the end. The period that says this is it, period, no more. It shows Satan that the formula for our lives is complete. Thanks to God we are a complete sentence in Christ snuggled in between the Capital letter at the beginning, the time in which we came to Christ and the period at the end. The completion of something whole, our lives with God! Amen? Amen!!
© 2010 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing
6 comments:
Wow, Karen this is great! I love this approach to the quote. We should be the words/actions that "describe" Christ. Our lives should be all about pointing to Him. Amazing word picture for this word-geek to get her head around. Love it! So glad you wrote.
I think you did a good job with this quote, Karen? What were you talking about on my blog? I especially like this:
We as Christians shouldn’t be all talk but demonstrate strongly the role of Christian. We can describe, identify, modify, quantify all we want with words but do our actions speak louder than those words.
Nice work.
I went ahead and entered your link in also, so you're good to go. Thanks!
Karen, I believe if we truly put our faith in Christ ...action will follow. Love is what is wrought in our heart as we abide in Him. Out of that love, we can't help but act in loving ways.
You always have a wonderful perspective as you write about each quote.
blessings,
Debbie
I agree with MiPa on this! The word picture that you drew really spoke to this logophile! Thanks for participating!
I always loved diagramming sentences in English class. And I love studying God's WORD! So this post fascinates me! Never *quite* would have seen Mr. Bell's quote this way -- but I like your slant!
I go back and read this again. I quite like the approach....
~es.
Thank you so much for sharing this week. Indeed the demonstration is so important!
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