One thing my wife will say she appreciated about me when we first met in college was my caution with words. She admired my not blabbing the same standard scripts we heard from classmates and so soon knew “this guy’s different.” And, indeed, I’m regularly told that—in person anyway, since you read my loquaciousness online—I don’t say much but when I do, it’s worth a listen.
Especially since writing became a serious hobby, I’ve made it a priority to say the right thing; to only say what I mean and mean exactly what I say. Words are a primary indicator of what we believe and contribute to who we are. They matter more than the most gabby of us might realize, though perhaps the chattiest Cathys grasp that even more than the Silent Scots. In any case, it’s only fitting that the first book I write is about words.
In two weeks, I’m releasing a free, downloadable eBook I’ve called “The Christian’s Dictionary: Why Christians and Non-Christians Misunderstand Each Other and What to Do About It.”
Many of my articles for ‘The Roanoke Star’ have been persuasions for healthy discourse, especially about cultural hot topics. “The Christian’s Dictionary” is not dissimilar as, in it, I explain the confusion that exists in many conversations between Christians and non-Christians as the worldviews butt heads.
Since God created the world and everything in it, it’s logical that he’s the creator of every concept that exists: sin, forgiveness, fellowship, peace, etc. And because he first authored these words, ?any word used by humanity is a loan-word from Him. Yet, to have our own way, society redefines some words. My persuasion in the eBook, specifically to the Christian, is to ensure that we use God’s definitions when we speak. Doing this aligns our understanding of the world with how God revealed ?it is which enables us to bring truth to a world insecure with confusion about what is right and wrong.
The words I parse in “The Christian’s Dictionary” are: fear, love, judgment, acceptance, affirmation, tolerance, toxic, and -phobic. Those first three I assess as explicitly biblical concepts that God defined. The last five I consider the world’s virtues and vices. Acceptance, affirmation, and tolerance are virtuous in our culture while it is a cardinal sin to be toxic or phobic—but might we have those flipped?
I’ll be emailing an advanced copy of the eBook to my website subscribers, one week early. Fill out the form on my website linked here to receive your copy of “The Christian’s Dictionary!”
– Scot Bellavia
