What Did You Say?

Have you ever miscommunicated your thoughts when trying to convey them to another? Most of us have, and then the following confusion can be very irritating, if not dangerous.

Sometimes, miscommunication can be very frustrating.

‘A man called his neighbor to help him move a couch that had become stuck in the doorway. They pushed and pulled until they were exhausted, but the couch wouldn’t budge. "Forget it," the man finally said. "We’ll never get this in."

The neighbor looked at him quizzically and said, "In?"

Then again, there are times when miscommunication leads to absolute bewilderment.

‘A husband who was not used to doing the laundry, was going to wash some of his dirty clothes but did not know which setting to set the washer on. He yelled upstairs to his wife and said, “What setting do I was my sweatshirt on?” She asked him what it said on the shirt, and he yelled back, “Ohio State”.

And then again, there times when we just do not understand at all. The problem is that we use two words interchangeably, but they mean two different things. They are ‘communicate’ and ‘information’. See, the word communicate means to ‘give out’, while the word information means to ‘get through’. Most of us are very good at ‘giving out’, but not all of us are good at ‘getting through’.

··· When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as here in the USA--with the cute baby on the label. Later they found out that in Africa companies routinely put pictures on the label of what is inside

since most people cannot read.

··· When Pepsi started marketing its products in China a few years back, they translated their slogan, "Pepsi Brings You Back to Life" pretty literally. The slogan in Chinese really meant, "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave."

··· And, then they found out why the Chevy Nova never sold well in Spanish speaking countries. "No Va" means "It Does Not Go" in Spanish....

But, sometimes, miscommunications can be downright dangerous. This notice was found in a newspaper:

··· ‘In our book, “Skydiving Made Easy”, please make the following correction: On page 12, cross out ‘ENTER ZIP CODE’ and write in ‘PULL RIP CORD’. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.’

Sometimes, we just fail to express ourselves properly, and the results are disastrous. Many times, Christians do not properly convey their message, either.

In HEBREWS 1:1-2, we read

‘In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.’

1. GOD HAS BEEN TRYING TO GET OUR ATTENTION FOR A LONG TIME

I think this is the perfect example of what I said a moment ago. See, all this time, God was ‘giving out’, but the hardness of our hearts kept Him from ‘getting through’.

From the very beginning, God wanted us to focus on Him; to love Him and be obedient to Him, but what did we do? We kept focusing on what we wanted; what we desired; and what we thought – all to the total exclusion of God Almighty.

We have hated the very same people we were supposed to love. We concentrated more on killing those same people we were supposed to be trying to bring to Christ. We have coveted from the same people we were supposed to reach out and give to.

God started out by having personal fellowship with Adam and Eve. He would come down to the garden during the coolness of the day and walk with them. Think about that for a moment. How awesome would that be? That, by the way, is something that every person here today should be desperately seeking – a very personal and intimate relationship with God, through His Son, Jesus. But what did Adam and Eve do?

They ignored what God had told them, and instead, they concentrated on what they wanted. God spent the next several thousand years trying to get everyone’s attention back on Him, but the curse had already been instilled in us. We became selfish and bitter against God. We ignored the prophets that God sent to warn us, and just went to war against one another. We chose to kill rather than listen.

What did God do next? He did not just shake His head in disgust and walk off. He then decided to take drastic steps. He sent His Son, whom He loved very much, down here to be our blood sacrifice. Could we ever love someone enough to let our children be a blood sacrifice for them? I don’t know about you, but I know that I am so weak that I would be trying to hide my son rather than have him be sacrificed for others that hated him.