A group of American young people on a missions trip to Africa The teenage years are referred to as the “formative years”—the development and maturing of adolescence (Latin:adolescere meaning "to grow up"). The teenage years are years of adventure, exploration, and learning. But they are also years of struggle, often torturous and painful, [...]
In a previous study on Genesis 3—which was quite a while ago—we saw how Satan locked the woman into a conversation and then delivered a series of false promises. Her conscience will later waken up to the deceit of sin, like many who find themselves tangled in a web of consequences. During the sinful spree or [...]
No other book in the Bible presents the passionate and pursuing love of Christ, as the Song of Solomon. On the other hand, no other book in the Bible presents the Christian’s love so fragile and insecure as this book. The opening scene of the Song of Solomon sets the stage for the entire book; [...]
For two millennia, the Church has tried to steer a safe passage through the dangerous waters of ecclesiastical music. History shows us that this is no easy task and in hymnody, as in other areas, the Church has failed and repeated that failure. Often, in trying to correct hymnody, the church went to the extreme [...]
In 1 Corinthians 14 the apostle transitions into the final part of his discussion on the abuse of tongues. In the first verse he summarises the previous two chapters with two imperatives, just in case we missed it—pursue love (Ch. 13), desire spiritual gifts (Ch. 12). He comes now specifically to the gift of tongues, [...]
The Scripture uses many images to help us understand the nature and ministry of the Church. It is a family, a household of children, brothers and sisters, and a heavenly Father. It is a building, a body, an army, and a temple. Agricultural imagery is also used to describe the Church; as a field, and [...]
The modern practice of tongues, which claims a higher level of spirituality, has modeled itself on the most problematic congregation in all of the New Testament. This has been said often, but it is still an astonishing fact. Another interesting observation is that what was happening in Corinth is not even hinted at in other [...]
At this point, we need to remind ourselves that 1 Corinthians 12-14 is one cohesive unit dealing with the broad subject of spiritual gifts. In Chapter 12 Paul dealt with the gifts in general and only hinted at the tongues issue (12:10). Tongues was his target, of course, and this will become clearer in chapter [...]
Floral Fantasy, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Six times in Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, he used the same phrase, sometimes translated in the AV, “now concerning” (7:1: 7:25; 12:1; 16:1), and sometimes, “as touching” (8:1, 16:12). It seems that he was addressing a series of questions that the Corinthians had asked in a previous [...]
Temple of Apollo (6th c. B.C.) in Ancient Corinth, Ancient Greece. Credit, istockphoto.com There are three tongue-speaking events recorded in the book of Acts. Pentecost (Acts 2), Caesarea (Acts 10), and Ephesus (Acts 19). While it is quite possible that there was also tongue-speaking in Samaria (Acts 8), only these three passages record [...]