Grinding in the Shop

I have been at my current place of employ for almost 12 years and I have been on the Safety Committee there for nearly as long.  One Thursday morning while day-dreaming through part of a safety meeting (I sometimes do that.)  I heard the plant manager say something about the hazard potential of someone “grinding in the maintenance shop”.

Immediately I saw in my mind’s imagination station what my son and several of his friends would have seen.  In my mind I pictured someone on a skateboard pulling an Ollie onto a bench and sliding the board across the edge of the bench.  What skateboarders call “grinding”.

Now obviously this is not what the plant manager had in mind.  He meant someone working at a bench grinder.  He was talking about, by way of an example, what potential hazards could exist.  I think we were discussing PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and he was getting us to ‘brainstorm’ about where we could improve on that.

I must not have slept well the night before because instead of paying attention to him (sorry boss, I really do listen better than this) I was thinking about the words and catch phrases we believers in Christ use and how that must sound to unbelievers. 

We use so many clichés, catch phrases, obscure verses (that they can’t understand anyway), and terms to try to explain the very simple gospel message to them. 

What we say is rarely exactly what people think they hear or what they understand when we do this.  Most of the time they must leave scratching their heads or thinking that we “have a screw loose”. (to use another cliché)

We really should simplify our presentation of the wonderfully profound truth of the gospel.  The truth that we are all basically flawed (sinners), that by breaking our Creator’s moral Laws we are under penalty of death and condemnation (I know, they don’t like to hear that), but because His love is as real and as strong as His Righteous Indignation against sinners, He provided a Savior, Jesus (The sinless substitute) died for our crimes against His holiness to justify us freely, then He rose from the grave triumphantly victorious over death (the penalty for our sin).  If He had remained dead we could have no hope. 

They need to understand that all they need to do is “look to Jesus”, oops, another cliché, all they need to do is believe in, trust in, Him and they can have forgiveness of sins and eternal life rather than eternal death.

The things of God are so very clear to the believer but we need to remember that the spiritual understanding of the unbeliever is clouded, is blocked, and is blinded by the very sin that Jesus wants to save them from. 

 If you are prone to use clichés when talking to unbelievers you will have to make the extra effort to explain what you mean.

If you are not yet a believer and

someone tries to talk to you about

the salvation that Jesus offers,…

If you are interested,…

If you are “thirsty” to know more

but don’t understand completely,…

ask them to explain. 

Tell them to clarify what this or that means. 

 If they have gone out of the way to talk to you about Him

they will take the time to break it down further.

Christian reader, we have to be careful that we are not too concerned with telling them how much we know, we must be careful to tell them simply what they need to know. 

If they become a believer you will have plenty of time to answer questions and share all the wonderful insights God has given you.

“He must increase… WE must decrease!”