"There's a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure And you know
sometimes words have two meanings In the tree by the brook there's a
songbird who sings Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven"
"Stairway to Heaven"

Every time I hear this, I think not of Led Zeppelin but of Bob Dylan. If anyone has trouble with communicating through crazy lyrics, with words that have two meanings, he would be the one!

Actually, words can have lots of meanings. If I told you that Sarah was fiery, you might think I am saying she's ornery, or loud, or tough, or feisty. You might even think I am saying that because she has red hair. Without the full context, you really don't know. And even then, many of these still may apply!

When I study here at home, often I get focused on a word. Kieran has been preaching about "worship" lately, and you probably think once you've visited what Webster's got to say about it that you know it all. However, hearing Kieran's lessons proves that there is a lot more to this seemingly simple word than you may have thought. Can you define it now? What if there was a test, and you were asked to explain it to someone else. Could you do a good job of it, or has the concept, the word itself yet escaped you?

When we are in bible class and someone uses a word like supplication, justification, atonement, or even sacrifice I wonder what they mean. When I read these kind of words in the bible, I often get excited about them. I look up all the references I can find and compare them, looking for things in common and what I can learn. When I teach bible classes, I usually have the students look up words that enhance the lesson. What is a countenance, and why did it change when the king was about to throw three men from Judah into a fiery furnace? Whoops, there's that word "fiery" again! See why some words, even ones you might overlook, often are very worthy of closer examination?

I'm constantly making word searches and crossword puzzles, too. I have had some "choice" words spoken to me about the clues I give - I still remember when we were studying Luke and I was trying to get Patti to come up with the word "excellent" for Theophilus. The clue was "Bill and Ted say this a lot." Ha ha, she just didn't seem to appreciate my comic reference.

The next time you hear or read a word that isn't all that familiar to you, or even if it is, consider it carefully. Maybe you can appreciate the point even more once you have a tighter grasp on what you're really hearing! "Ooooh, it makes me wonder..."

Randy