tongues & interpretation download
So I decided to short-circuit the blog postings on tongues and go straight for the whole writeup download. In my recent study of tongues and interpretation in 1 Corinthians 12-14, I have come across a lot of very helpful material, but far too much to be presented in a single preach. So I have committed it to writing and hope that it is helpful to more people out there. I hope at some point to expand this (currently 5-page) study to cover tongues in the whole of scripture.

The current study is organized under the headings What is Tongues and Interpretation?, Who Are These Gifts For?, Tongues in Personal Prayer, Tongues and Interpretation in Public Worship, and The Benefits of Tongues/Interpretation. These are roughly the headings used in the sermon I presented a few weeks ago, but for the most part contain more detailed explanations.

Click here to download the PDF file. ~ Daniel J. Story S.D.G. comment


tongues in personal prayer
This is the first installment of some more detailed notes from my studies on the gifts of tongues and interpretation of tongues. The entire writeup will be available as a PDF download later in the week. For now, let's start out by looking again at the gift of tongues in personal prayer.

Paul makes several (exclusively) positive statements regarding the use of tongues in private prayer (as opposed to public worship) in 1 Corinthians 14:

1) It is between you and God (14:2, 28) – This may seem obvious, but it is important here to note that Paul sees this aspect as a positive use of tongues. He has emphasized the importance of the communal aspect of the gifts and particularly the concern that when in the context of a corporate gathering they be used to build up the whole body, but this does not mean that tongues as “self-edification” is not good in a personal context. On the contrary, the idea is that of a personal and intimate connection with God as the Holy Spirit enables your spirit to pray with and through Him.

2) Your spirit will pray, though your mind may not understand (14:14) – Paul also indicates that when tongues is used in personal prayer, your spirit prays though your mind does not understand. While this would be negative in public worship, it seems perfectly acceptable in private prayer and praise. It should also be noted, however, that Paul’s reference to praying with his spirit and his mind may also indicate that he desired private tongues also to lead to some level of understanding for the tongues speaker (14:15).

3) It will build you up (14:4) – Though he does not specify how, Paul is clear that personal tongues (seemingly even apart from any mental understanding) will build up the tongues speaker. While one can speculate as to what this may mean, it seems ultimately best simply to take God at His word.

4) Be thankful to God for it (14:18) – In line with the promise that we will be built up by private praying in tongues, Paul expresses his own thankfulness for his own moving in the gift and thus sets an example for us to also be thankful for this precious gift from God.

5) It’s a good thing to do often (14:18) – Paul also indicates that he prays personally in tongues very often and again sets the example for us to desire to do the same. comment


list of the fruit and the gifts
For those who would like it, the list of the fruit and gifts of the Spirit along with the New Testament passages where they can be found can be download here. Check the downloads/resource page for more resources upcoming. comment


love and the spiritual gifts
This past Sunday (7 Sept) we introduced the new preaching series entitled PNEUMA which will be looking at the fruit and the gifts of God the Holy Spirit. Over the next 8 weeks or so we will be highlighting either a gift or an aspect of the fruit of the Spirit each week in alternation. This week I look at love and the spiritual gifts based on 1 Corinthians 13. This served both as a look at the love, the king of the fruit, as well as an introduction to the whole series as the fruit of love was seen in comparison to the spiritual gifts.

The proper context, so we saw, for the spiritual gifts, and indeed the whole Christian life, is style love. This is an unconditional, other-focused, self-sacrificing love. It can be defined with words, but really finds its true meaning in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is not that agape exists on its on and God dipped into to it in a major way when He went to the cross. It is that agape owes its very existence to the nature of God. The cross is agape. It does not simply show it. All other loves and all other examples of great sacrifice in all of human history are merely echoes or parodies of the real thing.

It is this sort of love that G.K. Chesterton referred to when he wrote about proper love of a particular city (in his book Orthodoxy, which I highly recommend). To paraphrase his thought with reference to Rugby, if I despise Rugby I will either slit my throat or move somewhere else. If I love Rugby just the way it is, then it will always remain as it is. If, however, I love Rugby for no earthly reason at all and simply because God loves it and God has put me in it, then perhaps one day Rugby will become the place that God intends it to be.

So it is with all instances of agape. Through the power and example of Jesus, we love for no earthly reason at all, but merely because God first loved us and he has put us where we are.

This is the kind of love which we must have as our foundation. The example I used on Sunday was that if I went to the store to buy ingredients to make a home pizza, bought all of the best toppings, cheeses and sauce, but forgot to buy the pizza base. All the toppings, etc. are great, but they are pointless without the base. The base is what makes the pizza work. In the same way, we may move powerfully in all the spiritual gifts, but if we do not have character that exemplifies agape, everything else is useless.

So, may God bless the coming series. Please check out the sermon audio by clicking 'latest audio' above or by clicking here. comment