Humility

I think that God deserves some praise. He’s done a wonderful, amazing, crazy, fantastic work in our lives and half the time I think we forget how blessed we truly are. Specifically, I want to talk about Jesus.

I’ve been looking at Jesus’ life more closely lately, and I’m constantly blown away by him. Man, is Jesus cool! He seems like the kind of guy you want to be like- the perfect role model. After all, as Christians one of our goals is to be Christ-like. Jesus lived the perfect life, and he wasn’t afraid of what he believed in.

Something that strikes me the most was Christ’s humility. Every time someone insults me and makes me really frustrated, all I want to do is let them have a piece of my mind and tear them apart. But then I remember Jesus. Can you imagine how frustrated he was when people denied Him as the Messiah? Jesus knew that he was the chosen Messiah and he performed countless miracles- from turning water into wine to healing someone 3 towns away from him- so that people might believe. But people still denied him even when he did miracles right in front of their eyes. If I was Jesus, I would have cried from frustration; how could they be so ignorant and blind? But instead, he reacted with kindness and gentleness. He prayed.

But that’s not even the best part. After the people demanded that a murderer from prison be released and sent Jesus in instead, he was forced to carry his cross along with two other prisoners who were going to die with him. Jesus was spat on, whipped, and screamed at. The men who were doing this to him said “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!” and “He saved others but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Even one of the prisoners being crucified with him was heaping insults on him, “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

All the while, Jesus said nothing. He said nothing to defend himself when he was being accused. He remained quiet and trusted in God.

And that’s what gets me. I’m so not like Jesus in that way. I admire that so much in him. I mean, how could Jesus, the son of GOD and God himself (two in one), be so humble? He is King, yet he was the servant of everyone. The two are so opposite that it just doesn’t add up to me. Jesus sure is amazing.

I just think we all need to take some time to glorify and praise God. Thank God that Jesus is King. Thank God that he calls us his children. Thank God for Christ’s humility. Thank God that he knows the depths of our heart- that he knit us together in our mother’s wombs. I pray that we would all find the same humility that Christ had and apply it to our lives.

Mya Grace

Tongues

Something that people have asked me in the past is "How come, in the Bible, there were so many miracles and there aren't anymore? What happened?"

Well, obviously Jesus doesn't walk around anymore because he's in heaven.  But that doesn't mean there aren't miracles.  And I don't mean the smaller, everyday miracles - I mean the miracles that you can't deny or make up and the ones that people find hard to believe without a strong faith.

One of my good friends, Hannah, has had a few experiences with speaking in tongues.  She has a tremendous faith and is one of the people that I really admire. That's something that is relatively rare nowadays and I asked her to talk about it a little bit for my blog.  This is her email.

"The first thing that I want to say about tongues is that it is a gift-- similar to other spiritual gifts like prophesy, healing, hospitality, discernment (1 Corinthians 12:7-11) in that practicing and developing tongues is crucial if you want to experience the gift the way god designed it.   I would encourage anyone who wants to learn more about the gift of tongues to read 1 Corinthians 12-14.  Scripture is the best ways to find out about the things of God.  He WANTS you to know the truth (John 16:15), and WANTS to give you wisdom (James 1:5).

The gift of tongues in the bible is almost always mentioned with the Holy Spirit.  These two things relate closely.  For example in acts, 10:44-46,

“the circumcised believers who had come with peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the gentiles.  For they had heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.” 

To Peter, the fact that the people were speaking in tongues (other than their own language) was a sign that God was there.  This agrees strongly with 1 Corinthians 14:22 saying that “tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers […]”.  What is the gift of tongues then?  Romans 8 says

“In the same way, the spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through groans that words cannot express.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with god’s will.” 

Tongues are communicating with God through your spirit.  

After attending a church where I experienced the gift of tongues for the first time, I was skeptical and had to find answers for myself.  After absolutely exhausting the bible looking for information on the gift of tongues, my question changed from “Are tongues real?” to “How could god use the gift on tongues in my life?”.  If you believe that the bible is true, there is no way that you can say that tongues don’t exist.  The bible talks extensively about this gift. 

Because of 1 Corinthians 14:5 which says, “I would like everyone of you to speak in tongues,” I prayed with a pastor about receiving the gift of tongues and God blessed me with this gift.  I’ve been asked many times what this was like.  The best way to describe it is like when you were a little kid in school and you knew the answer to a question in class.  But, you had to raise your hand and wait till the teacher called on you.   Every thing in your being called for you to shout out the answer, but instead you had to sit and raise your hand.  You are reaching as high as you can and practically jumping out of your seat.  This is how it feels when god gives me something to speak in my spiritual tongue.  Yes, you must open your mouth and speak.   No, it is not uncontrollable—there’s fair warning and instruction, however,  when Paul says, “[…] do not forbid speaking in tongues.  But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way” and in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 saying, “do not put out the Spirit’s fire”(NIV) or “do not stifle the Holy Spirit”(NLT).  

As I prayed, I immediately began to speak in my own tongue.  Out loud.  God works in mysterious ways, and this I believe is one of them.  Paul explains how the gift of tongues “edifies himself” as opposed to prophecy which “edifies the church”.  He says that he would “rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue”.  This helps to let us know where the gift of tongues fits in our lives.  In no way do I believe that it is a matter of salvation, but I am completely convinced that it is from God and is real. 

There is much more I could say about the gift of tongues and this is by no means exhaustive, but I hope that this maybe sparked your curiosity about this wonderful gift from God."

 - Hannah

 Just a little thing for us to think about.  Remember what our God is capable of, because I know that sometimes I forget.  Until next blog...

 - Bradley