Comma Sense

Understanding God's punctuation marks in our lives

Punctuation brings clarity of meaning and flow of written communication it is the “hard” form of how we speak.

Why we need to get punctuation right...

Which of the 4 sentences reveals the writers real intention?

A: He said, “Shall we eat, Mummy? “

B: He said, “Shall we eat Mummy? “

C: My interests include cooking dogs and swimming.

D: My interests include cooking, dogs and swimming.

Yes A & D - how important is the little comma!

An English teacher asks a class of men and woman to punctuate the following words.

Woman without her man is nothing

The men wrote   Woman, without her man, is nothing.

The ladies wrote Woman! Without her, man is nothing.

Spiritual application: God is constantly at work punctuating our lives subtly and overtly to bring us safely to heaven. Let's learn to read and apply God's punctuation marks.

1: Capital Letter

A capital letter has many uses but let’s focus on 3 main ones:

We use it for a personal pronoun:   what can  I say?

Or to begin a sentence or speech:    

Suddenly Mary asked, “Do you love me?”

or to mark the start of something significant: Armistice Day

Our biggest capital letter was Conversion,

God spoke Personally, Profoundly and Powerfully,

it is the most significant moment of our lives.  

Acts 9:1-9 Consider Apostle Paul's conversion we see the above 3 elements

and Saul becomes Paul with a 180 ° lifestyle turn.

Your/my conversion may or may not have been dramatic likes Saul’s but its impact was just as Personal, Profound and Powerful ,

Cleaned from sin, Claimed for the  Kingdom & Catapulted towards heaven.

God's Capitals come at all sorts of times:

Gen12:1 Out of seeming nowhere God called Abram,

Exd 3:1 Moses in a desert tending sheep

Judges 6:11 Gideon doing some farming 1 Kngs 19:19 So was Elisha

Simon & Andrew Mthw 4:18 were fishing

Acts 3:2 for the unnamed crippled beggar at gate it was not just another day it was miracle time

God’s Capital can help us (Subtly) continue with renewed vigour

or be (Overtly) be a Catalyst to a new chapter in life

Conc:  God's capitals can come anytime, any place - get ready

2: Comma,

Commas come in a sentence; they can act as a pause or help us to see structure and sense thus showing meaning in a sentence.

Example :

It was a short, simple film

the pause (comma) helps us to see the Duration

then emphasise the style and type of media - all in 6 words

The same works in our Christian lifestyle,

Psalmist uses “Selah” 73 times it is generally accepted to mean

“Pause think calmly about it”  

Engaging in quiet reflection is never wasted

Lk 10:41 Martha “busy upset about many things”,

Mary's moment of pause was the right thing despite busyness and pressure.

The word “Consider” 130 times in bible, Strong's concordance says it feeds the Latin root word for Logical or think this through

Jesus says Lk 12:24 “Consider the Ravens”  Mthw 6:28 “Flowers”

He is saying reflect and learn from these examples

Hbw 13:7 Paul says consider exemplary lifestyle of your leaders

Isiah 1:3 God says his people have NOT considered his care for them and thus live recklessly and unwisely.

In a nutshell we should Pause/Reflect

then act because we have an account to give God one day.

Comma also adds structure and sense and emphasis,

remember example of “shall we eat, Mummy?”  

We live in a society where Structure constantly shifts, where Comma /Common Sense become Nonsense, and wrong emphasis causes personal tragedy and wars.

A Christian is NOT a legalist or judgemental because he or she does not compromise on unerring truth of God’s word; it is this that helps us live a life of Structure and Sense and accurate Communication that stands out as an anchor point for a floundering society.

But it will not be welcomed by those who wish to constantly move the “Goal Posts” of values

Conclusion; God's commas are small, but highly significant

3: Exclamation Mark!

Usually indicate strong feelings, such as surprise, anger, joy and fear

Exmp:  “What a fantastic house you have! “   or Help!”

Or an interjection Oh! When are you going?”

In a nutshell there is a strong element of spontaneity about the Exclamation mark or point as our USA friends call it

Is spontaneity scriptural or is it all about pre planning (it’s both)

Mthw;4:18 “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men”

Galnt 5 Fruit of the Spirit - many moments of spontaneous expressions of Love, joy and don’t forget the gift of helps  

1 Cor 13 Gifts Spirit Tongues/Interpretation/prophecy a spontaneous response to God's nudge – worship, you don’t put it in the diary that next Sunday @ 10:45 you will raise your arms- it’s spontaneous

Psalms: Full of spontaneous cries of both worship but also DISTRESS

If you lean towards control you will struggle with spontaneity because of fear of “what happens next if I? ”  

So in the words of the prophet Disney Pixar “ Let it go”

Conclusion:  God's exclamation marks indicate both highs and lows

4: " Speech or Quotation marks "

Direct speech is always placed within speech marks when we read

Exmp: Mary turned to him and said “ Do you love me, James? ”

Or a quote  In the cambridge encyclopedia of the English language David Crystal argues that punctuation “plays a critical role in the modern writing system” we have attributed authorship, source and comment. Or the where, who and what.

3 Scriptural lifestyle applications  

1: Listen Up Hebws 1: 1-2

God spoke/communicated in various ways  including creation Psalm 19  

the pinnacle was via his Son

God is constantly and clearly speaking into our lives,

are we listening for the “Speech marks” ?

2: Quote Accurately ; Mthw 22:29 Esv  

Sadducees trick question, Jesus reply  

“You are wrong , you know neither the scripture or the power of God”  

Flawed knowledge  = Flawed application

3; Attribute authorship: Isiah 42:8  

“I will NOT yield my glory to another”

– Pay attention so called MIGHTY Men/Woman of God

Conclusion:  God's speech marks are all around us in various ways

5: Question Marks??

Example: Can be a direct question “What is your name?”  

Sometimes informally we use a question mark to turn a statement into a question

“See you at 9pm? “

Life is full of question marks, the mighty human intellect demands an answer,

Why Suffering, disease, the seeming premature death of a wonderful Christian,

is man’s free will and Gods sovereignty really worth the price?

There are a multitude of books on these subjects to a deep level.

God can cope with our challenges / questions but...

It is not a cop out to accept that  

1: You will not always get an answer, or the one you expect

2: That God does NOT OWE us an explanation  

Psalm 139:6 NLT Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!

Some of our life experiences will make sense, some will not,

but ALL will reveal Him

we must rest in this truth and in heaven it will not matter anyway.

Conc; God decides what questions get answered and how  

Be aware God may hit you with a Capital, a Comma an exclamation mark, speech mark and question, all at the same time, but thankfully, not too often  

Summary

1:  God's capitals can come anytime, anyplace, get ready

2:  God's commas are small, but highly significant

3:  God's exclamation marks indicate, both highs and lows

4:  God's speech marks are all around us in various ways

5:  God decides what questions get answered, and how