Well, I guess there are some people who don't realize this speaking in tongues thing is pretty controversial. They wear their belief on their shirt sleeves. Well, to be accurate, they wear it on their t-shirted chests. These and other tongue-inspired tees are available at HolyGhostTees.com. The tees are a steal at $37 a shirt plus $8.95 shipping and handling. I think the price says it all.
Ok, I'm going to avoid the whole spiritual gift thing. Although when I read:
"Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy." [1 Corinthians 14:1]
"When you come together everyone has a hymn or a world of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church." [1 Corinthians 14:26]
"Therefore, my brothers be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues." [1 Corinthians 14:39]
What am I suppose to think? Of course in my conservative fellowship, the argument has always been something like: Paul is speaking specifically to the Corinthians in their day. The age of miraculous gifts has passed. It ended with the laying on of hands by the Apostles.
I believe God can do anything He wants to do when He wants to do it. He can say everyone will surely die and then Enoch and Elijah don't. He can set the sun and moon in motion and then stop them.
Has the age for miracles ceased or are we a town or a time or a people that Jesus couldn't perform miracles in because of our lack of faith? [Mark 6:4-6]
But I'm not going to speak about any of this.
What I wanted to point out is the image of the first century church. The teaching and/or preaching seems to be more of a dialogue instead of our monologue. "Two or three prophets should speak and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace." [1 Corinthians 14: ]
I like that. I want to go to a service like that. Of course, with our hypersensitivity to order and control, we'd think even the above situation with multiple speakers and people rising from the audience to give a revelation would constitute disorder. We need more dialog in the church and less monolog and pronouncement. I always enjoy it when a minister gets up after a minister and lets the congregation know what a powerful service it's been. It's like the Florida Chamber of Commerce telling you it's sunny outside. Dialog. Dialog. Then elders and ministers would know exactly where the church is at instead of being content that the "core" "gets it." Maybe I should have focused on spiritual gifts instead.
Sorry. That's just my read. At any rate, when all is said and done, as today's reading of the 13th chapter points out, the only important thing is love. Surely we can agree on that.
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