Your speech reveals your heart, exposing where your affections lie. This window displays who your God truly is, whether it is the true God of the Bible or a self-made one. Ultimately, your speech reflects the truth you practice. When considering the direction of a blog article, I initially planned to use a past article. However, I abandoned that idea. I would not write those old articles today because I now have a different perspective on the Bible. The Bible has not changed, but God has worked in me, and my language now aligns with how He speaks of Himself in the Bible.
This led to the title, “Whether Your God is True or False, Your Speech Betrays You.” My college articles clearly reveal my beliefs about God; my speech betrayed me through what I did and did not say. Therefore, I will provide a few examples to illustrate how speech reveals belief, specifically what I noticed from my college days.
Some background information would prove helpful. The college I attended was part of the Restoration Movement, a Church of Christ college. They follow an Arminian belief system. The Church of Christ also believes salvation comes through faith and baptism, which is heresy. So, here it goes…. the following bold texts are taken from my college papers.
Now since the only reason that Christ means something to me hinges on what occurred at the resurrection, and this is usually stated through the Bible, there is the need to see if it can be proven apart from the Bible. This would have to be through the facts that are known outside of the Bible and that we are provided with, from those that are most widely accepted.
Here is a good example of how my speech gives insights into what I believe. I also have some background knowledge that probably allows me to read into it a little deeper than someone else would. Nevertheless, I realize that the way the words are phrased ultimately reflects where I was in my understanding of God and the Bible. If you notice where I say, “There is the need to see if it can be proven apart from the Bible,” I was at this point trying to make a case for the resurrection of Jesus Christ apart from the Bible, looking to sources outside of the Bible as more authentic than the Bible itself. I did this largely in hopes of being winsome. I would rather have done apologetics at that point in my life based off of being seeker friendly rather than standing on the Word of God, which shows the extent of my prioritization of the Bible. Finally, I would like to note that in the example, I placed the foundation for my belief in the resurrection. As I look back on this, I cannot tell you for certain whether at that time I believed intellectually in the resurrection or whether I could say with a clear conscience that my belief stemmed from the life-changing power of the resurrected Christ indwelling me.
You see, all I really had to do was believe that Christ would hold me and allow Him to do so. For the entire duration of the transition, I had been holding Him away because He had not helped me to get away from OCC. So I trusted in Him and as I now see, His plans are not always ours. While I don’t know what the future holds, I do know that He was holding me during one of the worst weeks of my life. Thankfully, in our weakness he can shine through, to bring us from the dirt that we originated to the molded piece that he desires for his glory!
This excerpt from my writing in college is particularly interesting to me because I wrote about how I believed I influenced God’s interaction with humans. My perception stemmed from the belief that God was mutable and changed as I interacted with Him. Interestingly, the most significant aspect of this paragraph is not that I believed God changed and that human free will was paramount. Rather, what surprised me was seeing God’s providential hand in how I understood Him. During this season of life, I was growing, and my heart was softening to see the truth of God more fully over time. In the text, I see my awareness of God shining through in the life of the individual, my understanding that God created us from the dirt and molded us for His glory. Yes, I recognize the contradiction within that paragraph. Two operating systems clashed within me, as I held both biblical and unbiblical beliefs.
As I looked through dozens of different papers, I compiled numerous other examples. However, for the sake of brevity, I will utilize these previous two examples and leave you, the reader, with the following one. The following example brings joy to my heart as I realize how much God has molded me over the years and the innocence I had as a child trying to understand the gospel and simply loving Jesus as He was presented to me. Despite the years between that childlike faith and unbiblical beliefs on the gospel, I can still look back and rejoice that many all-inspiring moments have been revitalized and continue to come as I grow in my love for our Savior Jesus Christ.
Grandpa made sure that I realized that Jesus was not the man on the television and He was much better. When I was little I also remember seeing him exhibit many Christ-like features. He would help other kids that were just like me at church, which at times made me jealous, but the other kids looked up to him and he was my Grandpa. This made me proud and he played a major part in showing me Christ’s love through what he did. It was very hard when he passed away but I remember the joy I felt even when I was about seven, because he was with the Lord. I was filled with mixed emotions at that time because people were upset because they missed him, but I knew he wanted to go home. I remember when Grandpa and I would watch the Gaither Vocal Band and when they would sing about heaven he would tear up and always tell me he was homesick. So when he left, he left me with a love for Christ that has now brought me to Ozark Christian College.
