A few months ago my world was rocked by an amazing Professor. Bill Temple has since become a guide and mentor for me. His enormous amounts of world evangelism and travel has given him the well rounded view of a righteous walk with God. Not liberal, but not a fundamentalist.
After one of our classes we were witting around chatting about doctrinal concepts, when we began to talk about the "Essentials". What were in fact the essentials to salvation. Bill took that as a cue to pick up a marker and walk over to the dry erase board.
He drew 5 concentric circles. He labeled them from inner to outer 1. Essentials 2. Orthodoxy 3. Important 4. Unimportant 5. Speculative.
He asked by friend and I to rattle off a few Christian doctrines and to place them in their appropriate circle. For the most part we agreed, but there other we couldn't agree on. I felt that tithing was Orthodox, while my buddy felt it was important. We began to discuss the doctrine of tithing and where it should go in the chart. All the while, Bill looked on. He knew he had us right where he wanted us.
"You 2 are acting like the rest of the church! Take a look at the circles again. Notice that 95% of items you placed, you agreed on. But that pesky 5% has you all hung up over each other. Why not glory in the fact that you have a 95% agreement, instead of bickering over the other 5%?"
Why? Why do you ask? Because thats the way our forefathers did it! They argued and bickered and backbit and got all hot under the collar over the 5% and so am I!
How ridiculous does that sound? Bill was ultimately right. Jordan and I had our essentials listed exactly alike. We had all but one listed alike in the Orthodox category. Why was that 5 % so important? Well... it really isn't. Essentially what is important is that we maintain personal convictions over these matters, and that we leave them as such... PERSONAL CONVICTIONS!
I encourage you to do the same. Break out the dry erase board and draw your circles. Put your thoughts down into those categories. Not because your Pastor said that's where it belongs, but because you yourself have been convinced by the Word of God and the workings of the Holy Ghost.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Emotionalism
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Some say Pentecostalism is full of emotionalism. They contend that dancing before the Lord, exuberant worship, leaping, and just plain "gettin wit it" is all based on emotion, and not the leading of the Holy Spirit. To be quite honest, I would say they are mostly right.
Let me build a bit of a foundation.
A story is told of a wife coming down the stairs with her suitcase in hand. Her husband of almost 30 years is sitting in his Lazy-Boy watching the game. "I'm leaving you Bruce!" Bruce barely turns his head towards her. "Why's that Linda?" "Because you never tell me you love me any more!" Bruce straightened his chair to the upright position, looked toward Linda and said, "30 years ago, at our wedding, I looked at you and told you I loved you! If I had changed my mind, I'm sure I woulda let you know!"
So let me ask you; how would your wife act if you stopped telling her I love you? How would she act if the passion was dimmed, and the emotions ran dry? According to psychologists' women need to be touched 20 times a day. How would your lovely wife react if you never touched her? How would your bride respond if you decided to leave the emotions at the proverbial door?
We, as the church are also, the Bride of Christ. He surely has proven his love for us daily through the death of Christ. Daily, he allows us new breath and new opportunities. If he didn't do any of these things, I would say he deserves no reward of emotion. However, he did! He deserves us to love on him.
Do you think it was the Spirit of God possessing King David when he danced? Do you think it was the Holy Spirit taking control of him? I see no proof of that. Rather he proved himself to be exuberant in spite of his internal struggles. He understood that if you do the deed, the feelings will follow.
Luke 6:26 does not implore us to Leap because of joy, rather to leap in order to receive joy. Do the deed and the feeling will follow.
Does the Bible ask us to dance for joy, no. However, it seems to me David gave us a strong example, and when you couple that with Luke 6, we can now build upon it.
You may call me an emotionalist, and to that I say... Yep! I am so terribly emotional about what God has done, and is doing in and through me, that I can't help but leap, dance, and run. You may call me an emotionalist, but that's ok with me.
A story is told of a wife coming down the stairs with her suitcase in hand. Her husband of almost 30 years is sitting in his Lazy-Boy watching the game. "I'm leaving you Bruce!" Bruce barely turns his head towards her. "Why's that Linda?" "Because you never tell me you love me any more!" Bruce straightened his chair to the upright position, looked toward Linda and said, "30 years ago, at our wedding, I looked at you and told you I loved you! If I had changed my mind, I'm sure I woulda let you know!"
So let me ask you; how would your wife act if you stopped telling her I love you? How would she act if the passion was dimmed, and the emotions ran dry? According to psychologists' women need to be touched 20 times a day. How would your lovely wife react if you never touched her? How would your bride respond if you decided to leave the emotions at the proverbial door?
We, as the church are also, the Bride of Christ. He surely has proven his love for us daily through the death of Christ. Daily, he allows us new breath and new opportunities. If he didn't do any of these things, I would say he deserves no reward of emotion. However, he did! He deserves us to love on him.
Do you think it was the Spirit of God possessing King David when he danced? Do you think it was the Holy Spirit taking control of him? I see no proof of that. Rather he proved himself to be exuberant in spite of his internal struggles. He understood that if you do the deed, the feelings will follow.
Luke 6:26 does not implore us to Leap because of joy, rather to leap in order to receive joy. Do the deed and the feeling will follow.
Does the Bible ask us to dance for joy, no. However, it seems to me David gave us a strong example, and when you couple that with Luke 6, we can now build upon it.
You may call me an emotionalist, and to that I say... Yep! I am so terribly emotional about what God has done, and is doing in and through me, that I can't help but leap, dance, and run. You may call me an emotionalist, but that's ok with me.
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