Speaking the heart language

As I have learned about missions in the church, in my Perspectives class last year, etc., I have often heard the term "heart language" along the way.  The idea is that everyone has a language that makes the most sense to them.  It communicates to them on a deeper level than just words.  It communicates deep in their heart.  I would venture to say that this goes beyond just language, though.  Perhaps we should use the term "heart culture," as that might encompass a wider range of forms of communication.  

I have always approached the subject of the heart language from the perspective of an outsider.  For example, there are people groups in this world who are considered "unreached" by the Gospel because there is no translation of the Bible in their heart language.  Therefore, it is necessary and oh so important to translate the Bible into their heart language, so that they can see Christ and receive His Good News deep in their hearts.  This is the perspective I have always had on the heart language.

Living in a culture and speaking a language that are not my own - day in and day out - have placed me in a new position.  I now long for my heart language at times.  It is harder to be truly touched at church by a message in Portuguese.  It makes my personal time with the Lord - at home with my English Bible - so much more precious, desired, and needed.  Not going to church on Sunday morning - although certainly not "doctrinely" necessary - leaves a certain void in me, a longing for "traditional worship" (an example of what I mean by "heart culture" - in Brazil it is most common to have the main church service on Sunday evening).  

I have chosen a new church to attend.  It is called the Christian Family Church.  I will continue to attend Hope's graduate church on Sunday evenings, but I will also attend and serve at the Christian Family Church.  This morning I woke up to go to the 10am Sunday service.  It was so refreshing to wake up Sunday morning and go to church.  It's part of my "heart culture."  

This is just one example of my new perspective on the heart language.  But this, and all the other instances that I long to communicate and be communicated to in my heart language, make me realize more and more the importance of the heart language.  

Lord, grant me the grace to be able to carry this with me, whether I am in Brazil, Albuquerque, Iraq, Tanzania, or wherever You may take me.  At home, at work, or in the grocery store.  Allow me, by Your mercy, to have the ability to use others' heart languages, for Your glory and for Your Kingdom.

As Paul put it...

"For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more.  To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law.  

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; 

I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.  

I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it."  

1 Corinthians 9:19-23