Dear Student of the Word,
I got back from Africa last night and it's great to be home! I was upgraded to business class out of Amsterdam and that enabled me to work on this week's study and complete it all on the plane. I was tempted to watch a movie, but felt it was a better use of time to finish the study. Plus I wanted to put the upgrade that God provided to good use. Are you putting your time and opportunities to good use?
This week we read how Paul took great pains to explain how speaking in tongues and prophecy were to be expressed and managed in the public meetings at Corinth. About this I wrote:
v. 9 -- Paul went on to finish his analogy of a trumpet making an uncertain sound, tying it to the need for those speaking in a church seeting to use words that people can understand. Truthfully I am surprised both by how much Paul wrote about this topic and the patience he exhibited in answering the questions raised by the Corinthians. This was due to a few possible reasons:
First, this must have been an important issue either to Paul, the Corinthians or both. Perhaps speaking in tongues was more prevalent than we imagine, both in the church and in the pagan cults. Second, it seems that there were no minor issues where the life of the church was concerned. If it affected and impacted the churches he planted, then Paul took the issue seriously. Third, Paul seized every opportunity to teach and leave a set of written instructions for the church present and future. As I've stated in other studies, Paul was an excellent pastor and apostle, and provided loving and completer care for those he oversaw.
Remember that the Bible study archives of 13 other New Testament studies can be found on my website along with The Faith Files. You can unsubscribe by clicking on the link below (if you receive this through Feedblitz). You can give a gift subscription by going to the site where these studies are posted every week. And please feel free to post your own comments, insights, and questions at the same site (just click on the word at the "comments" at the bottom of this post).
Here is this week's study: Download 1_corinthians_study_12.doc
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