[ 1 comment ] ( 3 views ) | permalink |
( 2.7 / 50 )For Those of you not in the Adelaide Uni ES small group on 12 tues this is a email i wrote for them outlining some things in 1 Corinthians 14
Hey Guys as i said i would in tuesdays bible study im pulling apart 1 Corinthians 14 (about speaking in tounges) for you. I dont have a up to date email list of you guys so if ive missed anyone feel free to forward it on to them or anyone else who you may think is intrested and if you get this and you havent been coming to the small group feel free to read and comment as you wish. Because i am a total nerd for the ease of discussion i have made a blog and put this up on it so instead of replying to this email go to http://users.on.net/~lees.jandm/blog/index.php comment there that will save a whole lot of big long confusing emails and do feel free to reply and comment im really intrested in hereing your thoughts / experiances. ill also appologise for the fact im not good with spelling and gramma and im probably worse cos im tired.
Ill start by saying that this is a "intresting" topic and i by no means intend to offend anyone or make them feel that they are a worse Christian because you dont speak in tounges or something along those lines i firmly believe john 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." which clearly contradicts the the belief that some people have that you have to be baptised in the spirit and speak in tongues to be a christian.
Seen as most of you dont know me heaps well ill give you a little background about me so you know where im coming from i have been going to Stirling Family Church since Mum started going there when i was 5 its a small church with about 100 regualr members i think its part of crc churches international which is a small pentecostal denomination that i believe was started in adelaide about 60 years ago. when i was 13 at a church youth camp i was baptised in the holy spirit and started speaking in tongues as i did this at a relitivly early age i cant really tell you the change it made in my relationship with god cos its kinda always been there.
Anyway thats enough about me ill get on with writing what i was going to write the version ive taken is the message although i am reading from both the NIV and the message as i go through and comment it.
Ill also point out that i have been taught that there is 2 different forms of speaking in tongues i beleive these have seperate names in the Hebrew and Greek but get lost in the translation to english i dont know what there technical names are if someone does feel free to let me know. I know that one refures to praying in tongues privatly as a 1 on 1 chat with god and the other is a word said out loud to a congregation simmalar to a word of prophesy but then has to be interpreted by someone else in the congregation Paul discusses both in this chapter.
1 Corinthians 14
Prayer Language
1-3Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim his truth. If you praise him in the private language of tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing intimacies just between you and him. But when you proclaim his truth in everyday speech, you're letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience his presence with you. Here Paul starts off by outlining what is essentially his common theme throughout the chapter in encouraging the Corinthians to use the private language of tongues or prayer language in personal prayer times as it builds your personal relationship with him. But he encourages them to instead use everyday speech which in the niv is also refured to as prophesies. Paul then continues on expalining in more detail and empisising more of it. 4-5The
one who prays using a private "prayer language" certainly gets a lot
out of it, but proclaiming God's truth to the church in its common
language brings the whole church into growth and strength. I want all
of you to develop intimacies with God in prayer, but please don't stop
with that. Go on and proclaim his clear truth to others. It's more
important that everyone have access to the knowledge and love of God in
language everyone understands than that you go off and cultivate God's
presence in a mysterious prayer language—unless, of course, there is
someone who can interpret what you are saying for the benefit of all. I think in this part Paul makes it clear that being
able to pray in tongues isnt neccesery for being a christian in the niv
he says "I would like every one of you to speak in tongues,
but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is
greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that
the church may be edified." here he says
that neather are compulsory although he encourages us to be able to do
both and i agree with Paul here as i know that you cant force someone
to start praying in tongues for the first time i believe that once you
have received ability to pray in tongues you can call upon it whenever
you choose although i dont believe that you should force someone to
pray in front of a group because thats not from the heart i also
believe that like any prayer it doesnt have to be prayed out aloud it
can be prayed under the breath. I beleive that prophersy is the same
ive experienced meetings where people have tryed to push other people
to prophesie and it just hasnt worked and at the same time i know there
have been situations where i have prophesied over people i know this
because there have been people ive never met before and ive realy felt
on my heart that god has something he wants to say to them often it
seems random or bizar and often personaly for me it comes in the form
of a picture but from talking to the peopel ive prophesied over after
they have told me that its exactly what they needed to here. I also
regualy go camping with a group of christian guys from all around the
place and i have seen over time that some of the stuff ive prophesied
over them has come true.
6-8Think, friends: If I come to you and all I do is pray privately to God in a way only he can understand, what are you going to get out of that? If I don't address you plainly with some insight or truth or proclamation or teaching, what help am I to you? If musical instruments—flutes, say, or harps—aren't played so that each note is distinct and in tune, how will anyone be able to catch the melody and enjoy the music? If the trumpet call can't be distinguished, will anyone show up for the battle?
9-12So if you speak in a way no one can understand, what's the point of opening your mouth? There are many languages in the world and they all mean something to someone. But if I don't understand the language, it's not going to do me much good. It's no different with you. Since you're so eager to participate in what God is doing, why don't you concentrate on doing what helps everyone in the church?
13-17So, when you pray in your private prayer language, don't hoard the experience for yourself. Pray for the insight and ability to bring others into that intimacy. If I pray in tongues, my spirit prays but my mind lies fallow, and all that intelligence is wasted. So what's the solution? The answer is simple enough. Do both. I should be spiritually free and expressive as I pray, but I should also be thoughtful and mindful as I pray. I should sing with my spirit, and sing with my mind. If you give a blessing using your private prayer language, which no one else understands, how can some outsider who has just shown up and has no idea what's going on know when to say "Amen"? Your blessing might be beautiful, but you have very effectively cut that person out of it.
18-19I'm
grateful to God for the gift of praying in tongues that he gives us for
praising him, which leads to wonderful intimacies we enjoy with him. I
enter into this as much or more than any of you. But when I'm in a
church assembled for worship, I'd rather say five words that everyone
can understand and learn from than say ten thousand that sound to
others like gibberish. Here Paul continues to
emphisise where the use of praying in tongues should be used but the
bit i want to pick up on is how Paul describes the fact that praying in
tongues leads to wonderful intimacies with god. I was wondering through
the botanic gardens the other day spending time with god as i do often
and i was thinking about this and god gave me a picture that describes
these intimacies it was that just having a relationship was god was
like just walking around on all the bitumen sealed paths you see alot
of cool stuff and all and you still have a good experiance but praying
in tongues is like also walking down the small dirt paths you see so
much more you would have otherwise missed and i believe like that
praying in tongues enables you to be in a much stronger deeper
relationship and alows you to see things you wouldnt have other wise
seen
20-25To
be perfectly frank, I'm getting exasperated with your infantile
thinking. How long before you grow up and use your head—your adult
head? It's all right to have a childlike unfamiliarity with evil; a
simple no is all that's needed there. But there's far more to saying
yes to something. Only mature and well-exercised intelligence can save
you from falling into gullibility. It's written in Scripture that God
said,
In strange tongues
and from the mouths of strangers
I will preach to this people,
but they'll neither listen nor believe.
So
where does it get you, all this speaking in tongues no one understands?
It doesn't help believers, and it only gives unbelievers something to
gawk at. Plain truth-speaking, on the other hand, goes straight to the
heart of believers and doesn't get in the way of unbelievers. If you
come together as a congregation and some unbelieving outsiders walk in
on you as you're all praying in tongues, unintelligible to each other
and to them, won't they assume you've taken leave of your senses and
get out of there as fast as they can? But if some unbelieving outsiders
walk in on a service where people are speaking out God's truth, the
plain words will bring them up against the truth and probe their
hearts. Before you know it, they're going to be on their faces before
God, recognizing that God is among you.
26-33So
here's what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of
you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a
hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight.
If prayers are offered in tongues, two or three's the limit, and then
only if someone is present who can interpret what you're saying.
Otherwise, keep it between God and yourself. And no more than two or
three speakers at a meeting, with the rest of you listening and taking
it to heart. Take your turn, no one person taking over. Then each
speaker gets a chance to say something special from God, and you all
learn from each other. If you choose to speak, you're also responsible
for how and when you speak. When we worship the right way, God doesn't
stir us up into confusion; he brings us into harmony. This goes for all
the churches—no exceptions. I like what Paul
says in the last part of this verse "God
doesnt stir up confusion, he brings harmony" I
beleive that this is such a good indication of whether god is working
in something or not. there are times in the middle of worship in our
church when a large amount of the congregation break out into tongues
and this genraly has a real peace about it so i know its from god i
think it also comes down to the 2 different types of speaking in
tongues i was talking about at the start i believe the type that Paul
is talking about in the verses above is the type is like a word of
prophesy where as the type that im talking about going on in my church
is each person individually singing a song of praise to god and this
isnt juct done in tongues often people sing songs of praise in english
as well.
34-36Wives
must not disrupt worship, talking when they should be listening, asking
questions that could more appropriately be asked of their husbands at
home. God's Book of the law guides our manners and customs here. Wives
have no license to use the time of worship for unwarranted speaking. Do
you—both women and men—imagine that you're a sacred oracle determining
what's right and wrong? Do you think everything revolves around you?
Im
gonna leave the last couple of verses other then to say i disagree with
them in both the message and NIV but i think thats a completly
different topic that i don't know enough about to comment on other then
some of the best sermons ive heard preached have been by women and the
youth pastor at our church is female so im not sure how much that has
effect i believe god can move through whoever he wants and like most
things in the new testament gender and race doesnt matter its also
intresting to note that when Paul is writing this it is the only time
in the chapter Paul refers to the books of law in the old testament
again if someone else has more knowlage in this area feel free to
comment
37-38If any one of you thinks God has something for you to say or has inspired you to do something, pay close attention to what I have written. This is the way the Master wants it. If you won't play by these rules, God can't use you. Sorry.
39-40Three things, then, to sum this up: When you speak forth God's truth, speak your heart out. Don't tell people how they should or shouldn't pray when they're praying in tongues that you don't understand. Be courteous and considerate in everything.
I think Paul sums up well in the last few
verses and i dont have much to add to that So ill just wrap it up by
again saying feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts at http://users.on.net/~lees.jandm/blog/index.php id love
to know what other people think about this area as i come from a fairly
different background to alot of you. and one other thing before i go i
may as well plug some of the other stuff ive written for those of you
who havent procrastinated enough reading this it can all be found at
http://blog.myspace.com/simonleesy
and also on the blog i just
set up for this
[ 5 comments ] ( 26 views ) | permalink |
( 3 / 57 )This is the 4th blog i wrote on myspace still at blog.myspace.com/simonleesy
Here it is:
Cos i feel like it im going to write a blog im not quite sure whats going to be in it yet but you get that. but anyway over the last few months a fair few things have been going on in my life and alot of its been quite confusing but its alright cos ive leart a fair bit from it.
im gonna start with a song thats realy challanged me over the last while The songs called the Answer Lies within by dream theater and i think the lyrics are prity challlanging and self explanitory so i put a few of them below
Look around
Where do you belong
Don't be afraid
You're not the only one
Life is short
So learn from your mistakes
And stand behind
The choices that you make
Face each day
With both eyes open wide
And try to give
Don't keep it all inside
You've got the future on your side
You're gonna be fine now
I know whatever you decide
You're gonna shine
Don't let the day go by
Don't let it end
Don't let a day go by in doubt
You're ready to begin
Don't let a day go by in doubt
The answer lies within.
one of my favorate lines is Life is short so learn from your mistakes. cos particualy as a christain i believe that here on earth is where we grow as people cos wisdom and knowlage come from experiance and many of the good times and particuly trials we go through here on earth so therell probably never be another chance to gain knowlage and wisdom from what were going through at any point in time no matter how hard it may be. so thats why we should face each day With both eyes open wide. and try to learn as much from what life throws up as possible.
Another reason that i realy like this song is that it has a very simmalar theme to my fav bible verse Ecclesiastes 9:4-11 just in the whole way that life is short so we should make the most of everyday and all it brings
4-6 Still, anyone selected out for life has hope, for, as they say, "A living dog is better than a dead lion." The living at least know something, even if it's only that they're going to die. But the dead know nothing and get nothing. They're a minus that no one remembers. Their loves, their hates, yes, even their dreams, are long gone. There's not a trace of them left in the affairs of this earth.
7-10 Seize life! Eat bread with gusto,
Drink wine with a robust heart.
Oh yes—God takes pleasure in your pleasure!
Dress festively every morning.
Don't skimp on colors and scarves.
Relish life with the spouse you love
Each and every day of your precarious life.
Each day is God's gift. It's all you get in exchange
For the hard work of staying alive.
Make the most of each one!
Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily!
This is your last and only chance at it,
For there's neither work to do nor thoughts to think
In the company of the dead, where you're most certainly headed.
11 I took another walk around the neighborhood and realized that on this earth as it is—
The race is not always to the swift,
Nor the battle to the strong,
Nor satisfaction to the wise,
Nor riches to the smart,
Nor grace to the learned.
Sooner or later bad luck hits us all.
Another thing that has challanged me is another song The best of you by the foo fighters. Cos i know in my life over the last year or so ive fallen into the habit of being realy busy and probably doing to many things and because of this theres a lot of stuff i havent been putting my absolute best effort in and ive realy been challanged that cos oftern you only get one attempt at something you should try to give it your best. But there is another side to this. Tonight i was watching a doco on Enzo Ferrari mainly cos dad was and i walked passed and thought it was intresting. He was a man with great passion for building cars but the doco is all about his life and how because he was so passionate about his cars alot of other parts of his life like his family and friendships suffered greatly. and he ended up with alot of regrets. So i just see it as a great challange to not only be passionate and give our best. but to be passionate and give our all in the areas that are going to matter most in our lives
Well i think that that is well and truly long enough and i hope if you have read this far you have got something out of it and if you enjoy it ive writen a couple of others as well.
and feel free to let me know what you think about it all
[ add comment ] ( 2 views ) | permalink | related link |
( 2.9 / 44 )The 3rd Blog From Myspace again at blog.myspace.com/simonleesy Here it is:
it seems ive been inspired again and not really feeling like studying ive decided to write another blog this time inspired by a bike ride a song and a question from a friend and some how there all going to interweave in to a compelling read for you all well maybe anyway i think ill just start with the song cos thats a good place to start Its called Ten Years Time and its by One Dollar Short im guessing most of you havent Heard of them but theres some lyrics below for you all
The dream as every dream is ours
so dont stand idle waiting.
For those that wait get left behind
washed ashore by the hands of time
what if tomorrow never came?
Today as every day is ours so make each and everyday count somehow.
Will you have played your part?
Will you have carved your mark?
Where are you at this very moment?
Where will you be this time next year?
Where will you be in 10 years time?
What if you just had one more day?
What if you were a second away?
A pinch of sand, a grain of salt,
another yesterday with no result.
Don't let time catch you with regret.
For those who wait,
get left behind washed ashore
by the hands of time.
What if tomorrow never came?
If you lose your way, just remember that
if man can reach the stars, then so can you.
Where will you be this time next year?
Where will you be in ten years time?
Do you ever wonder?
Do you ever wonder?
Where will you be this time next year?
Where will you be in ten years time?
Where will you be this time next year?
Where will you be in ten years time?
Ten years time, ten years time, ten years time...
Well i had this song stuck in my head while i was out riding the other night and i started thinking about it as you do or i do anyway. For those of you who dont know i normally go out riding with a group Tuesday nights and last year cos of uni commitments last year i kinda stopped and ive only been back out 2 or 3 times and its been fair hard cos there all really fit and im not that fit yet. I was riding up a hill thinking how nice it is to not be the last person and that kinda went on to thinking how hard i had already worked to just get that far and how much stronger i had already become cos the first couple of weeks i hadent been able to at all and how it would have been so easy to just sit at home on the couch or the computer and then i was kinda thinking how this related to life and how its so much easier just to sit around and not start anything new and if we do actually start it how easy it is to get to the first hurdle give up then stop trust me i do this all the time with maths i know how easy it is. then i started to think of the song above and how if we do spend all our time on the couch or bumming around on the computer or how ever you waste time and this is where the song comes in where are you actually going to be in a year im guessing still there having not changed or grown or achieved anything as the first verse says
The dream as every dream is ours
so dont stand idle waiting.
For those that wait get left behind
washed ashore by the hands of time
what if tomorrow never came?
if you wernt going to see tomorrow would you be satisfied with everything you had done? would you be proud of what you had done with your life? or would there have been something more you would have liked to do? cos this is our one and only chance at life once we have had it were not going to get it again were not going to be able to go back and do anymore whats been done will be done and what hasnt been done wont ever be done my favorate part of one of my favorite books that ive found through experience over the years to be so true says
4-6 Still, anyone selected out for life has hope, for, as they say, "A living dog is better than a dead lion." The living at least know something, even if it's only that they're going to die. But the dead know nothing and get nothing. They're a minus that no one remembers. Their loves, their hates, yes, even their dreams, are long gone. There's not a trace of them left in the affairs of this earth.
7-10 Seize life! Eat bread with gusto, Drink wine with a robust heart. Oh yes"God takes pleasure in your pleasure! Dress festively every morning. Don't skimp on colors and scarves. Relish life with the spouse you love Each and every day of your precarious life. Each day is God's gift. It's all you get in exchange For the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of each one! Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily! This is your last and only chance at it,
the book is of course the bible and its in Ecclesiastes 9 if any of you wanted to know but at the same time we have to be careful not to get so busy that we dont have time to enjoy life because if we do this will lead to burn out and thats so not a good thing. I was reminded of this as i rode around a corner and all of a sudden there was the most beautiful sunset out over adelaide
before i started to talk about growing stronger as you ride more and more so you can go faster and get further with less pain and effort. but before you can get to this point you have to actually get up and start taking steps i know how hard it is to get up off a couch and go do something physically but the same defiantly holds through all of life the first steps are always the hardest when you start to take on something new and slowly as you build momentum things get easier till you get to the point where its time to start a new thing again and its through doing this that we grow as people. as with all excersize you dont get any fitter or stronger by sitting on the couch you actually have to get out there and do something and while some will argue that it never really gets that much easier you do start to get fitter and stronger and the same goes with life you dont start to grow till you actually get up off the couch and start to experience stuff and its through experience that you gain strength and knowledge and grow as a person.
Then we come to the next part that revolves around a random question asked by a friend "What do you want to achieve with your life?" so what do you want to achieve what do you want to be remembered for? will you get there by just sitting on the couch or do you have to get up and do something which does kinda bring us on to the meaning of life and what are we meant to do and achieve while were here some may believe that we just have to struggle through try not to stuff to many things up and maybe do a few good things along the way. I know many of you probably have different views on this and some of you may not be entirely sure but Personally i believe there is a lot more to life then that as a Christian i believe that im here for a reason and because of that reason i can get up each day knowing my life has a purpose and it gives me something to aim to and something to celebrate as i get closer to achieving it. one way i see of putting it is as a grueling training ground to grow and develop for whats comeing a head kinda like the training you do for the army or the police force. and a couple of major points here are that its not always easy, there is a end and that your not always going to get 100% and its because of this last fact that god sent his son because for us to pass the training and get to heaven (the coolest biggest party ever) where god wants us to be we had to get 100% and be perfect but for us as humans that is impossible we all stuff up somewhere along the line so that is why god sent his son Jesus for us to make the ultimate sacrifice so that if we choose to believe this when we get to the gates in heaven and our score card gets judged instead of us being judged on our score card Jesus's score card replaces ours so that we can have a perfect score and make it in. and its because of all this my answer to that question before was "To leave a eternal difference in as many people as possible after all in the end that is all that counts"
hmm thats a long blog if you have actually got through to reading this far congratulations you deserve a medal but feel free to let me know what you thought of it id love any feedback and if that one wasnt enough for you theres another 2 there as well and im sure there will be more soon.
one final comment: speaking in terms of music it takes one note to form the basis of a chord how it sounds after that is all up to what else you put with it
[ add comment ] ( 2 views ) | permalink | related link |
( 3.1 / 45 )Here is the second Blog i wrote for the wonderful world of myspace again the origanal is at blog.myspace.com/simonleesy
Here it is:
Hey there guys due to popular demand (the fact that more then one of you read the last one and said it was good) I have been inspired and written another blog
Today my inspiration comes from a really deep and meaningful movie that I just watched on tv it was a Muppets Christmas special don't know which one. If id watched the first half I may be able to fill you all in a bit on the plot but i didn't so I cant. But the half I did watch showed a lot of important things. One of the main things was the impact that one individual can have on the world around them or more so the effect that everybody has on the part of the world that they are involved in every time you come into contact with someone you leave a effect on that person most of the time the effect is very small and it isn't noticed much but sometimes either intentionally or unintentionally this is why we have to be so carefull about what we say to other people because while we may think its not going to have much effect on people but eather it or the combination of all the things a whole lot of people say or do may. I have a awesome example of this and it was from being down at schoolies for those of you who don't know I volunteered down there this year but so many people down there left a massive impact on me infact I think it was everyone from the people that I chatted to for a while to those I talked to for a couple of minutes to all those people that I gave a doughnut to as they walked past and all the people that I saw as I was walking around they all had a huge impact on me and the way that I think about life and I learnt so much from them and probably wont forget them. And there are so many people here on myspace that have effected me so much and that's been really cool to.
But I recon that the biggest best example is god and what hes done in my life there has been so many crazy things that hes done that are so big and some so bizarre that only he could have done and I certainly wouldn't be where I am now and the person I am now without him hes picked me up when im down showed me the way when im lost and so much other stuff to.
Now taking a huge leap back in time to the start of this blog and the Muppets and the movie I was watching the other thing that came to me out of the movie was the fact that all of us at some point in life wish that we can go back and change at least one thing that we've done theres plenty of things that ive done in my life that if I had a second chance id probably change the way I did them but the reality is that we cant in the end we just have to realise that were not perfect and we will make mistakes even the bible says that no one can be perfect but because god loves us soooooo sooooo much he sent his son into the world to die and take away all of our sins so that we can be with god in the coolest place ever called heaven But the important thing is that we don't waist the rest of the life pondering on the things we could of done differently and were we could be if we did something different because this isn't going to change anything. But at the same time we shouldn't just try to forget or run from our past and try to hide it in the back of our head because that doesn't work that great eather instead we should look at our past and try and learn as much as possible from what happened in it. Because if we lived a perfect life would we ever learn anything or grow into a stronger person? Isn't it through looking at our mistakes and learning from them that we grow stronger as a person and know how to handle a similar solution if it comes up in the future.
Well that's all I can think of for the moment so have a good rest of your day/night/week what ever it may be and dont hesitate to write me a comment and tell me what you think im open to your opinions as well
[ add comment ] ( 2 views ) | permalink | related link |
( 2.8 / 36 )
Calendar
