“1Pursue love,
and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts,
especially that you may prophesy.
2 For the one
who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one
understands him, but he utters mysteries in the spirit. 3
On the other hand, the
one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding
and encouragement and consolation.4 The
one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but
the one who prophesies builds up the church.”
1 Corinthians 14: 1-4
So…
some of you read this and probably thought to yourself, “Oh man,
what Kool-Aid did Joel drink this time..” Anytime you bring up a
subject like this it brings up an awkward silence in the crowd. So I
will make this first part short and sweet before I dive into what
this is about.
Here
is my opinion on this
passage:
I
believe that everything written here is everything the church can and
should still do today. I am tired of hearing some people say that this was only for a certain time in the church all because a bible college professor told them so.
Paul was a pretty straight up person, and I think he would have been
the one to say that, “this stops at this time,” because he knew
that it could get out of hand (read 26-40), but he didn’t. If you say
that these things were for a time period in the church, and God’s
Word doesn’t even say that, then you my friend are putting God in a
box. You cannot put words in God’s mouth just because you are
uncomfortable with something that you don’t understand. Francis Chan
said something in Crazy Love that I love. I don’t have the book with
me, but he basically asked this question: How can we expect to fit
something the size of the ocean into something the size of a Coke
can? He was speaking about the size of God in comparison to our
brains and how it is not possible for us to understand all that God
is. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a God I can understand
or explain. What I see churches on the “Truth” side doing in
cutting out some of the ways that God can move spiritually because
they are uncomfortable with what people may think or do. God forbid
people get scared and stop coming…there goes the tithes and
offerings.
that said, I am also tired of
seeing worship turn to chaos. One thing that makes me sick is going
to a church where it turns into a “who is holier then who”
contest. The church loses what little order it had in the first place
because glory-filled Joe Blow over here wants to talk about the angel
that came to his house last night and told him the world is going to
end. Or you have a “pastor” like Todd Bently who stands on a
stage and talks about how God told him to kick a woman in the face or
bang a cripple persons legs on the stage to heal them (YouTube it…
seriously). All in all, Michael Hindes said it best at training camp
when he said, “Truth based churches are so by the book that there
is no room for the spirit, and spirit based churches are so spiritual
that there is no room for truth.” The Bible says to worship in
SPIRIT and in TRUTH,
not to cut out the one that you don’t understand or can’t exploit. As
a church we have to come to the middle and remember that God calls
for both. If you can read the word of God and are able to pull out
truth that most people would overlook, that is amazing. Use that-God
made you that way! If you have gut feelings and discernment that most
people don’t feel, that is amazing. Use that-God made you that way!
Why do you think he made you this way and another person the other?
Because they BOTH belong. We are not supposed to break apart into
different denominations, we are supposed to be together. It is like
the way our government USED to be with checks and balances, we as the
body are suppose to keep each other in line, outside and
INSIDE the church. Instead we are living in divorce and wondering what we are missing.
