Evangelicals love the phrase “word of God” and when we use it, the most common meaning is the Bible. The Bible is the word of God. That’s true, but the real meaning is so much richer than a book.

Why is understanding this so important? Because many younger evangelicals are drifting away from the Old Testament as an authoritative voice in their life and are embracing Jesus teachings alone as their “word of God.” As spiritual mentors we’ll need to remind them that for roughly 3,500 years all scripture has been the word of God.

So, when Christians use that term, we mean;
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Decades ago, before Jesus upended my life with his love and called me to follow him, I lived pretty much like all our Christian friends. We all went to church, believed the same doctrines, sent our kids to Christian schools – we were Christians – cultural Christians.

But, when I pledged my highest allegiance to Jesus, the blinders came off. I immediately saw that my language, the jokes I told, how I talked about women, the gossip that I passed on so effortless – all that was sin and needed to stop. Here’s the verse that change my life.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”  2 Corinthians 5:17

If I was in fact a new creation then the “old” had to die and the “new” had to come. The actual “dying” and “coming” does come automatically. But the desire – wanting to die to sin did! The Holy Spirit created that desire in me for a new personal holiness.

As I began living that out, some of my Christian friends didn’t know what to do with me. I’d pray in my car before a golf game, “Holy Spirit, help me to get through this game without a single vulgar word, comment or joke.” And, to my shock, he did!

Some friends slowly drifted away. I don’t know if I was just obnoxious to them, or I thought I was better than them and they felt that. But one incident changed how I think about spiritual friendship.
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A few weeks ago, I met with a passionate young Christian man, on fire for God but still unsure of his salvation. He was raised Catholic but hadn’t gone to confession in years and that guilt was starting to get to him.

“How many times do I have to repent to be truly forgiven?” was near the top of his list of questions. “Once,” I told him. “But then why are we commanded to confess to God and ask forgiveness when we sin,” was his wonderful follow-up question. Here’s how I answered him;
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A man I’d never met called last month and asked for an appointment about an urgent matter. So we did.

“My son is dating a Catholic girl and my wife and I are sick about it! What should we do?”

As they say, this isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve been asked this question dozens of times over the years, so I’ve learned to ask this question;

“What kind of Catholic is she (or he)?”

Invariably the reaction is always the same. “What do you mean by that? She’s Catholic. How many kinds of Catholics are there?” Here’s how I answered.
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