A Working Glossary of Frequently Used Terms

As much as I try to provide background information for the things I write about, I know there are likely terms I use or reference that may have multiple meanings or different uses than mine. Ergo, I am putting together a glossary of Katy's Frequently Used Terms According to Katy. Its a lot of Katys, I know. I will add to this list as needed. My hope is this will give clarity to the often confusing language of "church people." I also want to make crystal clear how I am using these terms and what they mean in the context of my writing. Ok, here goes:

• Andrew: Andrew was my first husband. We married in 2014, and he passed away in 2019. His death and my journey into widowhood and beyond is what started this blog. 
• Mr. M, Little Miss, and Honey: my three beautiful children. I refrain from using their given names in my writing to protect their privacy.
• S: my 2nd husband. S and I married in 2022. He formally adopted Mr. M and Little Miss in 2023. Honey is S and my biological child together. 
• Buddy Lee: my dog. Buddy Lee is my first baby; Andrew and I got him just a couple of months after we married. He is aggressively affectionate, a total bed hog, and a protector. 
• Bethel: Bethel University in Minnesota. I attended seminary at Bethel University from 2022-2025.
• God: God is the creator of all life, and everything I can see and experience. He rules the earth he created, and is omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (always present), loving, and faithful. I consider it an honor to worship the God of the Universe. 
• Jesus Christ: Jesus Christ is the son of God. He was born in human form to a woman named Mary. He was fully God and fully human. No, I don't completely understand how that works. Jesus was a Jew who lived in Palestine in the first century. He was a carpenter by trade, and began his ministry at age 30. Over the next three years, he taught about the Kingdom of God, performed miracles, healed the sick and the lame, cast out demons, calmed storms, and raised the dead. He lived an actual perfect life; he literally never did anything wrong. Jesus Christ was put to death on a cross at the behest of the religious leaders of the day. He died on the cross and was buried in a tomb. Three days later, Jesus walked out of that tomb alive. That day, Jesus Christ defeated death. Forty days after he rose from the dead, Jesus ascended into Heaven still living, and is in Heaven today, sitting at the right hand of God, his father. Literally the GOAT.
• Holy Spirit: the spiritual force that is present and at work on earth today. The Holy Spirit is the result of the unconditional love of God the Father and Jesus the Son for all humanity. The Holy Spirit takes up dwelling in the heart and soul of any person who confesses Jesus as their Lord. He also does some pretty amazing stuff on his own.
• The Trinity: This one is a bit hard to understand, but I will try. So, the Trinity is also called the Triune God. Tri is a prefix that means 3. There are three persons that make up the Trinity: God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each is a unique person, separate from the others, but they are each also God. Hang with me here. God the Father is the OG. He is supreme and above all. God's greatest desire is for his creation to be in community with him. However, sin happened (I'll talk about that next). God was not content to let the earth rot in sin, so he sent Jesus (who actually already existed in Heaven long before he put on his earthsuit) to earth with one purpose: to die. Jesus's death created a way for God and man to be reconciled.  The Holy Spirit isn't the redheaded step-child in this arrangement, though. The Holy Spirit is actually the product of the great unconditional love that God the Father and Jesus the Son have for all people. The Holy Spirit is who continues the work Jesus started here on earth; he is here to bring people to Jesus. In short (I know, I know), God exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They all have a purpose and a job. If the entire system confuses the daylights out of you, welcome to the club. 
• Sin: Oh, sin. What is sin? Who sins? Are some sins worse than others? Let's stick to the basics: God created the world perfect. Totally perfect. Mosquitoes didn't bite. There were no allergies. Childbirth wasn't painful. Cats didn't exist...ok, that's going a little far...or is it? This world was perfect for exactly 3 chapters of the first book of the Bible. Adam and Eve were the main characters in this story, and God gave them one rule to live by. Just one. There was a tree in the middle of the garden, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God said, do not eat its fruit. Seems simple, right? Anyone who has ever been a parent understands that even the most simple of instructions can become difficult under the right circumstances. So, back to the garden. Eve and Adam were in the garden, and this serpent starts to talk to them. Here's the thing: the serpent doesn't lie. He simply does mental jiu jitsu with the truth. His tactics are so clever that the woman, Eve, actually becomes convinced that God is holding out on her. She thinks she has outsmarted God. The result of her brilliance is the idea that she is capable of determining whether something is good or not. That, in a nutshell is sin. Sin is when human beings (you, me, and everyone else on this blessed sphere) decide for ourselves what is good, instead of obeying God's definition of good. Now, think about that for a second. What does 'good' even mean? It is literally the most generic, nebulous word ever. And every single person has their own definition of good. For example, one of my children has a tendency to take a shower and put their dirty clothes back on. In the mind of this child, their body is clean, therefore they are good. I disagree wholeheartedly. My nose does, also. I personally think that dogs are good. Cats are evil. Wait...that is actual truth...bad example. See what I'm saying? I sin when I make the determination of what is good for me. And I literally do this multiple times a day. And what happens in a relationship when one person repeatedly ignores the boundaries of the other? It isn't good. 
• Salvation: I have a problem with sin. I do. Every single day I rip the control button away from God and go on my merry way. As a result of this, my relationship with God is broken. God set the standard for behavior and belief. I fail to reach that standard every day. Is it because God's standards are ridiculous and unreasonable? No. I fail to reach my own standards every day, and my standards are far lower than God's. God does not want our relationship to stay broken. It literally pains him to the core. It grieves him deeply. God is holy; he cannot coexist with sin, and since I sin all the time, I cannot coexist with God through my own efforts. Judgement exists, and the Bible says that the penalty for committing sin is death. Might seem a bit harsh, but, then again, that is me deciding what is good and not good...the very definition of sin. God doesn't delight in exacting his punishment any more than I do when I have to punish one of my children. He isn't a sadist. He's a father who deeply loves his children. The only remedy to this separation problem is sacrifice. Way back in the Old Testament, when the Israelites would sin, God required them to make sacrifices in repentance. The most well-known sacrifice was a lamb. Not just any lamb, though. This lamb had to be young and perfectly white, with no blemishes. It must be healthy and strong.  The lamb had to be sacrificed (killed) and the blood of that lamb was to be sprinkled on the altar in the tabernacle as an act of repentance. This action granted forgiveness from God. Fast forward to the New Testament. Jesus Christ (literally the son of God) lived a life without sin. Not once did he decide for himself what was good. He was 100% obedient to God the Father. 100%. Imagine being Jesus's brothers and sisters. Talk about rough childhood. Like I said before, Jesus was born in a human earthsuit for one reason, and one reason only: to die. Jesus was the young, perfect lamb with zero blemishes, healthy and strong. He could have summoned the entire angelic army to avenge him and save him from death, but he didn't. That would not have been obedient to the Father. Instead, the literal son of God allowed himself to be killed. Not just killed, but killed in the most inhumane way possible. The blood of Jesus splashed on that cross was the required sacrifice for sin. Jesus's death, that one singular action, covered the penalty for every single sin that I have ever committed, or will ever commit. And that goes for everyone. There is a catch, though. I have to choose to trust that Jesus did for me what I could not do for myself...not even in a thousand lifetimes. I have to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and as the Son of God, he reigns with his father in Heaven. I have to invite Jesus to enter into my heart, my soul, and my life. I can't do this flippantly or lightly. Jesus didn't die flippantly or lightly. I have to give up control over my life; I have to surrender that control button. Jesus has to be my Lord, which means he has to be the one who directs my life and my future. I have to be willing to listen and follow his directions. I have to make that commitment every single day, because, let's be honest, I can do my own mental jiu jitsu and convince myself that I'm really not all that bad.  Because I have put my faith in Jesus, God grants me forgiveness of all my sins, and prepares a place for me in Heaven. This is salvation. Literally, the most important decision you can make.
• Christian, Christ-follower, Jesus Freak, etc.: Full transparency here: I do not identify myself as a Christian. Culture and society have taken this term for a joyride, and I want nothing to do with it. Christian used to mean one who follows Jesus Christ. Then, it morphed into meaning someone who believes there is a God, and is not Catholic. Evangelical more accurately described what I believed in those days. Evangelical is simply one who believes that Jesus is the only way to salvation and desires to share that knowledge with others. But then, the Evangelicals started doing really crappy things like protesting funerals, condemning entire groups of people, abusing their positions of power, and generally being not great human beings. I started to feel like I didn't even want to have anything to do with the Jesus these people worshipped. For the last many years, I have identified myself as a Christ-follower or follower of Jesus. For me, this term indicates that I believe Jesus Christ died for my sins and rose from the dead three days later. This means he is greater than anything in this world and on this earth, including death. I have placed my eternal future in Jesus's basket. Every day I spend time in prayer and studying the Bible to learn more about God and about Jesus. I do my very best to obey his commands. My life, my faith, my family, my career, my everything is focused on living like Jesus did, and following his path for my life. Not easy. Not simple. Really tough and humbling to watch what others do while claiming to follow Jesus. My prayer every single day is that every person I interact with, speak with, listen to, and pass along the way will be able to see a difference in me. That difference is named Jesus. 
• Pastor: a pastor is someone whose vocation (job) is ministry. Ministry is the work done by Christ-followers in the name of Jesus. Pastor is a protestant term; priest is the Catholic equivalent, but not quite equivalent. I left my 19-year career as a public school teacher to become a pastor and work in a church. Pastors can get married and have children. They hold zero spiritual authority over people and are not "special" in the eyes of God. God doesn't speak only to them or reveal himself only to them. Pastors get paid to preach, teach, lead congregations, tell people about Jesus, and run a local church. Don't worry, I won't require you to refer to me as Pastor Katy. I won't stop you, but seriously, I'm not in it for the title. 
• Body of Christ: literally the individuals who have made a decision to follow Jesus and trust him for their salvation. A local church congregation is one example of the body of Christ. The name comes from the New Testament where the members of the church are described metaphorically as parts of the body, with Jesus being the head. And for those of you who go there (you know who you are), technically, yes, that does mean that someone is the butt hole of the body of Christ. I mean, everyone poops, right?

I'm going to pause here. If there are other terms or words that I use in my writing that you would appreciate an explanation for, leave me a comment. I'm happy to add on to the glossary if it will make my writing more clear (never shorter, but more clear).