from 5 Things To Pray For Your Heart by Rachel Jones which we gave out months ago

Father, help me to be a friend to others who is:

None of us live in a world where conflict does not exist. It is unavoidable. Since that is the case, it makes sense to face the fact that you will have conflict. Admitting this opens the door for conflict to become a redemptive opportunity to mature in Christ. Some basic perspectives can help us as we tackle the tough issues involved.

I drove away from the parking lot of the Korean Central Church building on Sunday at 10:10am just after singing the first two songs with my Grace family. As I made my way down Chisholm Trail I prayed and listened to a pastor talk about his experience of being a part of revitalizing First Baptist Church, Durham the past 20 years. It gave me hope and excitement for what I was driving towards. After 35 minutes I came over the hill on FM 1434 and saw a steeple. A steeple that has been pointing to the glory of God for decades.

When you look at a small, broken, unhealthy, body of believers, what could drive you to begin the reforming work that’s necessary? Let me suggest six motivations.

I’ve shared a bit about our family’s journey to Grace Church in a previous blog. Since that time, the Lord has continued to do amazing and unexpected things in our lives, the most recent of which I’d like to share with you all.

I’ve spent much of my life trying to look the part of being a Christian. If I just went to church every Sunday, if I just went on mission trips, if I just went to a Bible study, or didn’t drink or party, or didn’t curse, or didn’t hang around people who did, if my kids never threw tantrums, or I had a perfect marriage… THEN everyone would think I had it together, and as long as everyone thought I was ok, they wouldn’t ask questions. I wouldn’t have to let anyone in, so they wouldn’t know the real mess I was inside.

1. Devout Jewish people began worshipping Jesus as God after his resurrection. Which would have meant risking persecution and the torments of hell forever for worshipping a false god. And in this group are his two half-brothers James and Jude and his mother. James was opposed to Jesus’ claims of deity during his life but then James was transformed by seeing Jesus after his resurrection. He went on to pastor the Jerusalem church and write a book of the Bible.

I was baptized at my church in Florida when I was about 14 years old. I thought I was a Christian at the time. However, I was completely blind to my self-righteousness, legalism, and performance based habits. When I compared myself to most people, I thought I was a pretty good guy. As long as I didn’t commit any of the “bad sins”, I figured I was ok. Little did I know during that time in all my self-righteousness, I was just as guilty as the worst criminal on the planet.

The gift of tongues, or (as I prefer to call it) the gift of languages, is the most controversial of the all the spiritual gifts we find in the New Testament, and that's saying something. It attracts more extreme comments than any other gift, from both sides of the aisle. Many Pentecostals regard it as the sine qua non of Spirit baptism, and many conservatives regard those who use it (or claim to) as emotionally suggestible, unbiblical, or perhaps even demonic; damned if you do, damned if you don't. In between, a huge number of Christians—especially, it seems to me, in North America—are open to the gift of tongues in theory, but extremely cautious (or even frightened) in practice, not least because it is so often practised in sub-biblical or even downright bizarre ways. As someone who writes a lot about theology and prays in languages most days, I have a few thoughts about that.

Here are ten points that need to be borne in mind when developing a theology, and practice, of the gift of languages:

How gracious and creative is our God to make us one and also give each of us different gifts and roles and services and activities. Below is a list of definitions and explanations from Sunday’s sermon. Because the Spirit gives gifts, our prayer is that we would gain a better understanding of them and be excited to use them for the common good (1 Cor 12:7). The Spirit is empowering us to serve one another for our joint maturation. Thank you Lord!