Fool's Gold: Fruit of the Spirit

We have tests. We have pop-up quizzes. We have so many ways to discover what "fruit of the Spirit" we have, what we should have, and how we're going to Hell because we don't have that one particular one your church demands (*coughTonguescough*).

Daniel Emery Price of the Christ Hold Fast blog has done a far better job of demonstrating the problem than I could. Click on the link above to read one of the best articles I've read in quite a while!

Daredevil Evangelism

I have to share with you (with permission) an email my wife sent to our pastor today. First, let me set the stage a bit. My wife, Joy, underwent surgery this past Tuesday, June 28. That day & this morning she has been running a mild fever, hasn’t had much energy, has felt the pain of the incisions made, and has been constipated. (My apologies to those who just yelled, “TMI!” That detail is important.)

Let me let her describe what happened today:

Praising God that I'm doing GREAT!!!!! No more high temps praise God! I'm so excited because I had an awesome, awesome God opportunity today. This afternoon around 3:00 there was a knock at my door. I opened the door and it was two Mormon young ladies. I invited them in from the rain and the Holy Spirit took over from there. When the introductions were out of the way I began sharing my testimony of how God has grown me in my faith through trials.

As I shared with these ladies they told me they were amazed by the faith I had and the joy I showed in talking about Christ. I shared with them miracles God had done in my life also, but this was just the icebreaker. We started getting into God's Word and talking about how God knew us before we were born and how He already knew what His plans would be for us.

I shared with them Jeremiah 29:11 of how God knew the plans He had for us, of how He would prosper us and not harm us but give us a hope and a future. I went further to say as we seek Christ we will find Him. I shared how the Holy Spirit showed me how to apply this verse in my life. As I shared with these ladies I could sense in my heart that God was doing something.

We talked about Salvation how each person has a choice to accept or reject Christ's love and forgiveness that He paid by dying on the Cross. As I shared with these ladies about Hell I said it was never meant for Christians but it was for Satan, his angels and demons. Talking about Heaven I shared with them what you've been teaching on Sundays.

Before they left they asked if they could come by again I said sure. I was bold and told them I wanted to know how they came to know Christ. I also shared another important thing that you share so often it's not religion it's a relationship with Christ. I shared this several times as we talked. There so much more I could share but I'm praying for wisdom and guidance from the Holy Spirit through God's Word.

In part I’m reminded of Luke 12:11-12, where Jesus promises to provide what to say when we are in front of those who would judge us. I think more, though, of Proverbs 3:5-6.

What’s interesting here is that, under normal circumstances, Joy probably would not have been home when these two women came by. Only because she was recovering from surgery, and still had some ill side effects, was she at home.

Consider †his: You never know what circumstances God will use.

Several months ago I listened to pastor James MacDonald. I'm honestly no big fan of his style, but it was on a radio station I trust, so I listened. Besides, it was near the end of his particular segment. He mentioned in passing that he wasn’t interested in seeing someone’s stamp collection, but what that person was doing for Christ. I found him on Twitter, and asked him why he thought God couldn’t use a person’s stamp collection for His glory. The pastor’s response was that “God can use a horse’s ass,” but it’s better to use the right tools.

Apparently Pastor MacDonald doesn’t want to leave God open to using what He wishes to use.

God chose to use something that I thought was bad and undesirable for good instead.

Oh, and the TMI earlier? All of her symptoms, other than the expected tenderness of the incisions, disappeared shortly after these two ladies left.

Coincidence? Or God-incidence?

Come, Let Us Experience The Spirit of Emotional High Together

Over the past few days an interesting discussion — poured across several different places — has arisen. And it's not even about Rob Bell!

It started, most likely, with a Facebook note by Anthony Weber regarding the book, God is Not One, by Stephen Protero. The note's title is "Protestantism's Scarecrow Faith?!?!?" I learned of it via a comment made by a blog brother, Scott Smith, who further addressed it in his blog, Sarcastic Xtian, in a post titled "A Mindless Faith." Both provide excellent insights and stuff to consider.

I'm going to take a slightly different approach.

Consider †his: the Holy Spirit is not an emotional high experienced in "church."

I was surprised to discover in Google's results for "gifts of the holy spirit" a mention of Isaiah 11:1-5. I was more familiar with the ones found in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 and Romans 12:1-10. (Thanks to Robert Longham, Jr., for his page, Gifts of the Holy Spirit, which provided a quick reference as well as a balanced view of the whole thing.) Galatians 5:22-23, on the other hand, provides the fruit of the Spirit.

While I could go off on the abuses made involving the gifts & fruit, I'll leave that for another post.

This time I want to tackle the modern notion of shutting down our minds in favor of getting "pumped up" with emotions. Yes, I'm talking about preachers and other leaders who choose to lead in chaos during a worship service rather than teach the word of God!

God has much for us to learn from His Word. We are called to learn sound doctrine so we may encourage those who trust it, and rebuke or refute those teachings that go against it (Titus 1:9). That passage refers to the "trustworthy word," meaning what is now considered Scripture, as we don't have the apostles among us (apostolic succession notwithstanding). Titus was later instructed by Paul to teach that same sound doctrine (Titus 2:1).

Paul's successor in teaching, Timothy, was also instructed to hold fast to sound doctrine (1 Timothy 6:3-16, 1 Timothy 1:3-7). Later Paul warned Tim that people would give up on sound doctrine, choosing a wide variety of teachers that will affirm whatever they want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3).

Welcome to the 21st century!

We have so many "feel-good" teachers that you have no reason to feel bad. Yet so many of us do! That's because emotions aren't permanent. They run & hide at the drop of a circumstance. Emotions aren't trustworthy. Many people feel "up" when the sun is shining, and "down" when it's cloudy & "gloomy." Emotions are often merely the result of chemical changes in our body. I suffer from clinical depression, caused by the inability to create and/or use the neurotransmitter serotonin properly.

Emotions make up the majority of our remembered experiences. This is especially true of women, who are able to use both sides of their brains at once, allowing them to think and feel at the same time. Sorry, men, it makes no sense to us, because we're "brain damaged" and can't do that. Still, how much pain do we guys remember compared to learned knowledge?

God can, of course, heal our hurts, repair our remembrances, and effect emotional changes for His glory. Sometimes, though, we have to be smart … Book smart … WORD smart! We need to know what God says to us so that we can bring Him glory even when we don't feel like it, or when our past experiences "prove" that what we "feel" is "true."

Life in Christ can be a "thrill ride" at times, but that's not all it is. We need solid truth — sound doctrine — to get us through those times when we know that roller coaster of life is surely going to throw us out of our car, hurtling head-first to our destruction … precisely what our enemy, the devil, wants us to think so we won't bring God glory!

When have you "felt" God protecting you in spite of your emotions? Has the emotional high ever failed you? When has the truth you've learned from God's Word rescued you from a bad emotional experience?

I have a question about "tongues"

This time I've got a question for folks reading this. So far I haven't found any good source of information, although I haven't exhausted all possibilities.

The question is: What Biblical support is there for the "prayer language" form of "tongues?"

First, let me tell you what I've heard and don't find adequate.

The biggest support I've heard is found in 1 Corinthians 13:1: "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gone or a clanging cymbal." (emphasis mine) The phrase bridges a discourse Paul gives about spiritual gifts, specifically speaking in tongues or unknown languages, and the famous definition of love. The Corinthian church had focused all too heavily on the spiritual gifts (not to mention following the teachings of men), and not enough on Christ.

The problem I have with using this as "proof" of the gift of tongues including a private "prayer language" that does not correspond to any existing language (and, therefore, does not require an interpreter, as seen in 1 Corinthians 12) is that the notion of "tongues of angels" just pops up out of the clear blue, and really isn't supported elsewhere in context. I see this as more of a form of exaggeration, as though Paul is saying, "hey, look. I don't care what you think about speaking in languages you haven't learned. That's not important. Even if somebody were to claim to speak some language direct from Heaven, if that person doesn't have love, it's no good!"

I've also heard all the supposition about the "unknown prayer language" being a sort of "code" between your spirit and the Holy Spirit that allows communication that Satan cannot intercept or interpret. Sorry, but if Satan was one of the highest angels who still has free contact with God (as seen in the book of Job), I cannot see how this is supported by Scripture. Even if Satan does hear our prayers, God is greater and still in charge ... who cares if he hears or not?

Sometimes peole will refer to this "prayer language" as being the "groanings that cannot be uttered" mentioned in Romans 8:26. Sorry, but what I hear referred to as "prayer language" has more sounds than mere groans. Besides, prayer language is uttered, or spoken.

For the record, I do accept the notion of speaking in tongues, and the interpretation thereof. I witnessed one lady doing this, and while I could not interpret, I did recognize a grammatical structure. I also accept the story, published in Guideposts several years ago, about the woman who ministered to a German widow, all the time speaking and hearing German, even though she did not know German, nor realized she was doing it at the time. Although I've studied French, it came to me fairly quickly, and I can still hold my own, even when out of practice (although my vocabulary fails at times ... as I tell people, "je me souviens un peu des mots Français"). I do not accept the notion that one is not saved or has the Holy Spirit dwelling within them unless they "speak in tongues" of either type.

I would appreciate any references folks can supply.