Preachers are not Holy Spirit robots? – 1 Thessalonians 5:20–22, Part 3

So far this week, we’ve studied what Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:20, when he says, “Do not hold prophecies in contempt.” But what do we do with the fact that the person is teaching something or prophesying about something that might be incorrect doctrine or teaching? 

Paul addresses that important concern in what he writes in verse 21, “but test them all.”

When you hear a teaching on television, on a podcast, on YouTube, or any sermon like the ones I give at Faith Church, test them.  Evaluate them. 

In our culture, when we are bombarded with content so frequently, we can get burnt out of the idea of having to evaluate what we hear.  Why can’t there be news we can trust?  Why can’t we just trust the pastor to be faithful to the word of God? 

We might actually feel iffy about evaluating the preaching of the pastor, especially when the pastor has gone to school for this, studied the bible and theology, and, thus, who are we to question him? 

Please, question me.  Evaluate my blog posts. Test your pastor’s preaching.

The Bereans in Acts 17 did this to Paul.  “As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.” (Acts 17:10–12)

This is one reason why at Faith Church, I have sermon discussion class, after the worship service.  In sermon discussion class, I invite people to examine, question, evaluate, and test the sermon.  There have been plenty of times in sermon discussion when someone asked me a question about the scripture passage or my sermon, and I had to admit that I got my interpretation wrong or I missed something important in the text.

Bible prophets, teachers, speakers, preachers, and authors are not Holy Spirit robots who are spitting out exactly what the Holy Spirit wants to say.  Some of the preachers out there are malicious, intent on trying to deceive.  Some are just misguided.  Some have heard a teaching all their lives, and they have never really examined it, so they are just keeping it alive, even though it has been debunked.  Some make interpretational mistakes.  Some don’t study enough. 

There is also the reality that we Christians have differences of opinion about how to interpret scripture.  Faith Church is a member of a denomination called the Evangelical Congregational Church, which has a history in a doctrinal viewpoint called Wesleyan-Arminianism.  Then there are the churches that we rent to.  One has a Baptist heritage.  One is Orthodox.  One is Pentecostal.  One is Seventh-Day Adventist.  All are Christian.  All agree on the major doctrines of faith, but we have many, many differences of opinion about minor doctrines.  As they saying goes, then, there is much wisdom in majoring on the majors, and minoring on the minors. 

That’s what Paul is getting at when he says in verses 21 and 22, “hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.” We Christians come together by emphasizing our unity in the good, and we reject the evil.

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The place of contempt in the life of the Christian – 1 Thessalonians 5:20–22, Part 2

My wife, Michelle, and I enjoy watching the late night show monologues. Often the hosts poke fun at politicians, exposing the hypocrisy, or sometimes sheer lunacy, of those politicians. Watching those monologues, I will at times say out loud that a politician is an idiot. Have you ever exclaimed something like that? Contempt is dripping from my mouth when I say, “What an idiot!”

What is contempt?  One scholar I read defines it this way, contempt is “to despise someone or something on the basis that it is worthless or of no value.”  (Louw & Nida).

Even though we have the normal human right and free will to hold an opinion, even if we are convinced that our opinion is correct, we Christians do not have God’s permission to despise people.  Why? Because when we despise someone, we are saying, “You are worthless, you have no value.” 

Have you ever despised someone? 

One antidote for those times when we are struggling with despising someone, when we are struggling with contempt, is to remember the powerful teaching of the Image of God. 

That teaching is on page 1 of the Bible, chapter 1.  Genesis 1:26–27,

“Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Every single person is invaluable to God, because we are made in his image.  Think of the people who have mistreated you, hurt you, even those who have abused you.  Think of those people throughout history who are considered to be the worst humans of all time.  Adolf Hitler level people. 

Every single one of them, invaluable to God.  Made in God’s image.  Therefore we hold no one in contempt.  We despise no one. 

If we disagree with a person’s ideology or teaching or behavior, that is normal.  It is okay to disagree. 

It is not okay to allow our disagreement to grow into contempt.  It is not okay to allow our disagreement to become thoughts like, “that person is worthless.” 

Michelle doesn’t like it when we are watching the news and I say that a politician is an idiot.  To her, that is disdain, contempt, and beyond the pale for a disciple of Jesus. 

Instead, we work to change our thinking about a person, we remember that they are made in God’s image, deeply loved by God.

We can be loving, kind, and gentle with those with whom we disagree.  We can actually be in close long-term friendships with people who we disagree with. 

But what do we do with the fact that the person is teaching something or prophesying about something that might be incorrect doctrine or teaching? More on that in the next post.

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Prophets, prophecies, and contempt – 1 Thessalonians 5:20–22, Part 1

In 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 20, Paul writes, “Do not treat prophecies with contempt.”

Prophecies?  What prophecies?  In this letter Paul has mentioned the second coming of Jesus numerous times.  At the end of each chapter, in fact. 

There has been a fairly influential interpretation of various biblical passages that equates the idea of prophecies with future events, and especially with the second coming of Jesus.  I’ve talked about that quite a bit over the years on the blog, including in this 1st Thessalonians series because, as I just said, Paul talks about Jesus’ second coming 1st Thessalonians.  So I’m not going to rehash that.  Suffice it to say, Jesus is coming again, we don’t know, we can’t know when, and Jesus himself said that the posture he prefers us to take is to be ready at all times. 

But I no longer believe that the vast majority of biblical prophecies are predicting future events.  I also no longer agree with what I was taught in Bible college about how to interpret the book of Revelation.  Because of that, what Paul writes here is very convicting to me.  Don’t treat prophecies with contempt.  If I’m being honest, though, I can treat prophecies with contempt.

That is why Paul’s words here in verse 20 are convicting to me.  I can think that the interpretation of prophecy from my heritage is so incorrect that I can disdain those who currently believe in it, though I myself was one of those who believed strongly in it for years.  I can treat prophecies with contempt.  Contempt is always unbecoming of Christians. 

Even if a person believes something that is obviously out of line with Scripture, even if they are acting obviously out of line with the Fruit of the Spirit, holding contempt in our hearts has no place in the life of a disciple of Jesus. 

Clearly, Paul is talking about those instances when we direct our contempt toward teaching.  Toward doctrine.  I will talk about that in a future post this week.  First, we need to understand contempt, because in those times when we have contempt for a message, we almost always also have contempt for the messenger.  What I’m getting at is that while Paul says, “Do not hold prophecies in contempt,” it is a super short leap to “Do not hold prophets in contempt.”

What is contempt? I’ll attempt to answer that question in the next post, and give a suggestion for how we can overcome contempt.

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Are there prophets in your church? (Does it matter?) – 1 Thessalonians 5:20–22, Preview

When you think of a prophet, what image comes to mind?  Old Testament luminaries with cloaks, staffs, and a mane of facial hair, standing alone atop a mountain?  I’m thinking of Moses, Samuel, and Elijah.  Or perhaps you think of the quirky seers of visions and performers of skits like Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah?  

I really enjoyed season 1 of the Amazon Prime show House of David. The show tells the story of 1 Samuel 15—17:51. In the show, the prophet Samuel is a dynamic character, accurately depicting Samuel as he is in the Bible. Samuel confronts King Saul, anoints David to be king, and is revered as a spiritual leader.

There aren’t any prophets anymore, though, right?  They were only for that bygone era, right?  Now we have the Bible, so we don’t need prophets, do we?

It might interest you to read what Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:11–13, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

Not only does Jesus give some to be prophets, we need prophets!  In those verses, notice that prophets are one of five gifts that Jesus gave to build up the church.  We tend to think that pastor is the primary role to build up churches.  According to Paul, though, there are five roles that God gave to build up the church, and prophets are specifically mentioned.

Let me say it again.  We need prophets in the life of the church.  Does your church need prophets?  Yes!

What does a prophet do?  What is the job description of a prophet?  Join me back here on Monday as we look at 1 Thessalonians 5:20–22, which talks about prophets in the church, including how we evaluate prophets.  And does your church already have prophets?  If so, who are they?  We’ll talk about it next week.

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What’s at the root of the saying, “That’s just the way I am”? – 1 Thessalonians 5:19, Part 5

Years ago someone was telling me about a conflict they were having with their boss.  They had actually had conflicts with a string of bosses.  They said it was always the bosses’ fault.  During their conflict with their most recent boss, they said, “That’s just the way I am.” 

Have you ever said that? Have you ever had someone say that to you?

What do you think is going on in the heart and mind of the person who says “That’s just the way I am”?

This week we have been studying 1 Thessalonians 5:19, where Paul writes “Do not grieve the Spirit.” If we do not want to grieve the Spirit, we need to hearts and minds that are surrendered to the Spirit.  “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks,” Jesus taught.  If we want to build people up with encouraging and formative communication, as we learned in the previous post, we need hearts that desire to communicate in that positive way.  We need self-control, especially when the situations are tense, or when we feel hurt, or threatened. 

We pray “God transform my heart, heal my heart, change my mind, so that it a self-control, kind, loving, peaceful, gentle, humble, teachable, non-manipulative, non-coercive, non-intimidating, heart and mind.” 

Some people might need advanced training to change their pattern of thinking and talking. Anger management.  Counseling.  Even medication. 

What I’m suggesting is that when it comes to discipleship to Jesus, it is not okay to simply say, “That’s just the way I am.” 

Sometimes people say, “I am who I am. Deal with it,” as a kind of pride in their personality.  They give the impression that they are standing up for themselves.  They are not going to be trampled on. 

But being trampled on is one thing, and it is wrong. Being a jerk is another thing.  We can be kind, using building-up speech, and at the same time not allow people to trample on us. 

Is there someone you need to apologize to?  Someone with whom you have allowed yourself to freely tear down?  What can you do to ask forgiveness?  What change do you need to make.

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When you get into a family argument on the way to church – 1 Thessalonians 5:19, Part 4

Think about how your mouth has gotten you in trouble in the past.   Might have been this week.  Might have been this morning.  The worst is when you get into a verbal argument with a family member as you are getting ready to come to a worship service.  You drive to church in silence.  Then you get out of the car, and come to worship and start greeting people with smiles and joy.  And yet inwardly you know that there were just a few minutes before an eruption of unwholesome talk spewing out of your mouth. 

Or maybe my family is the only one that has experienced that…

There are two kinds of talking and communication in Ephesians 4:29–32, that which tears down and that which builds up.  When we tear others down, as I mentioned in the previous post, we make God sad. That is not just a childish “Aw, you’re making God sad,” as if it is actually no big deal.  This is a big deal.  Grieving the Spirit and quenching the Spirit is a very big deal. 

All our speech, our communication with other people, friend or foe, is a big deal to God. How we talk to other people affects our relationship with God! 

Here’s what Paul teaches in Ephesians 4:29-32 about the connection between our speech affecting our relationship with God: 

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

We Christians are people who have self-control over what comes out of our mouths. 

While we talk about the mouth or the tongue, as if they are out of control, we know that there is something else controlling the mouth and the tongue.  The heart, the mind, the will.  The mouth and tongue only utter audibly to the exterior because what is on the interior flows out of the mouth. 

The real issue here is what’s on the inside.  The hidden parts of our lives.  But still very real parts of our lives.  What we think, what we believe, the self-talk that we have running through our minds is very real, and very influential in what eventually makes its way out of our mouths. 

So if we have a problem with negative, tearing-down kinds of communication, the kind that grieves the Holy Spirit, or quenches the Spirit’s fire, then the answer is not to cut out our tongue.  We can communicate quite well without a tongue.  We can grieve the Holy Spirit without saying a word.  Expressive facial moves and hand gestures say it all. Body language. Studies have shown that those varieties of body language are more truthful at telling what we really think than words. 

Want to know what a person really thinks? Observe their body language.  Facial expressions, tone of voice, hand gestures, posture, etc.  Body language is very revealing of our true thoughts. 

If what is on the inside is vital to the quality of our communication, how do we transform our inner being so that we do not quench the Spirit? I’ll talk about that in the next post.

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Dashboards, emotions, and making God sad – 1 Thessalonians 5:19, Part 3

Car dashboards have all sorts of indicators.  Speed, engine temperature, lights on/off, and turn signals have been standard for decades. In the past few years, cars are coming equipped with radar.  My two vehicles have radar and alarms that sound if we are drifting toward the sides of our lane, or if we need to brake because of a vehicle stopped or slowing down in front of us. 

At a recent extended family gathering, we were discussing car radars and alarms, and one of my nephews commented that he prefers to disable those indicators for a more authentic driving experience. I get it. Those alarms are annoying, especially for those of us who have been driving for a long time without alarms.

I do wonder if radar and alarms are making for safer driving. That is the goal of all the alarms. Those alarms remind me of what the apostle Paul is talking about in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, when he writes, “Do not quench the Spirit?”

How do we quench the Spirit’s?  Paul doesn’t clearly say in 1st Thessalonians, but he did clearly say in Ephesians 4:30, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”

Open a Bible to Ephesians 4:30, and notice what comes before and after that verse.

Here is what comes before: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Eph. 4:29)

What is Ephesians 4:29 about?  How we talk.  What comes out of our mouths. 

Now let’s look at what comes after verse 30.  Look ahead to verse 31, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.”

What is Ephesians 4:30 about? How we talk.  Bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, every form of malice.  These are terms not exclusively related to speech or what comes out of our mouths, but what is in that list of actions so often causes problems in our relationships. How we talk with other people. 

To repeat, verse 30 is about grieving the Spirit.  What does Paul say before and after verse 30?  He talks about talking.  He warns followers of Jesus about how they communicate.

Paul has a flow of thought here. His theme is this: how we talk to other people in our life affects the Holy Spirit who lives in us.  We can quench the fire of the Holy Spirit, ironically, by the fire from our tongues.  If we use our words to tear people down, we quench the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 

In Ephesians 4:30, we learn that how we talk can grieve the Spirit. What does “grieve the Spirit” mean?  It is “to cause to be sad, sorrowful, or distressed” (Louw & Nida).  You could translate this phrase “Don’t make God’s Spirit sad.” 

I think that is fascinating. God has emotions.  We can sometimes think of God, in his perfection, as a God who is emotionally impervious.  As if he feels nothing.  But that is not the picture we get of God in the Bible. God can grieve.  God can be sad.  Of course God can also be joyful. 

It is a reminder to us that emotions are not wrong.  Emotions are not bad.  Whether joy or sorrow, whether anger or peace, emotions are not bad.  Emotions are like dashboards in a car. 

On a long trip when we were driving for three plus hours, my car flashed a message on the screen asking if we needed to take a break. It even had a picture of a cup of coffee suggesting we might need to caffeinate.  That was a gentle suggestion. Others times the indicators on our dashboard are very urgent.  The BRAKE indicator will flash at times when I’m not doing anything.  When the BRAKE indicator flashes, and I feel there is no reason for it to do so, my wife says that doesn’t happen to her because she is a good driver. 

Similarly, our emotions tell us something about the state of our inner being.  We should pay attention to our emotions just as we pay attention to the indicators on our dashboards.  What information are our emotions telling us?

Because we are created in God’s image, just as God has emotions, so do we.  In this passage, we learn that we can make God sad by how we talk.  More on that in the next post.

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Christians can experience the firepower of the Holy Spirit – 1 Thessalonians 5:19, Part 2

In the previous post, I talked about Christians have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. But in the passage we are studying this week, 1 Thessalonians 5:19, Paul writes that we can quench the Spirit.

Quench?  Is that like Gatorade, “the thirst quencher”?  Yes, to quench is to stop something.  But the word that the NIV translates “quench” is not describing drinking beverages when a person is thirsty.

Instead the word Paul uses is about fire. 

“Do not put out the Spirit.”  Or “Do not extinguish the Spirit.”  We extinguish fire. 

That means the Holy Spirit is on fire!

Did you know that the Holy Spirit and fire are connected in Scripture?

John the Baptist once talked about the difference between himself and Jesus: “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Mt 3:11–12.)

Then in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit arrived and filled the first Christians, we read this: “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.”

So the Holy Spirit is on fire.  Obviously, the fire of the Spirit is not like earthly fire.  Earthly fire burns, and thus can seriously harm.  But the analogy is appropriate, because earthly fire also produces great energy in the form of heat and light. 

Every fall when we have our first fire of the season in our wood stove, I am amazed at how that fire can warm our home.  Fire is powerful. 

Just like the Spirit.  The Spirit of God is powerful.  The Spirit of God is God, and thus is all-powerful.  When the Spirit is filling us, empowering us, we can experience his power.

This is what Paul mentions in his wonderful prayer in Ephesians 3:16-19, “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

What Paul is talking about is the reality that Christians can live as people who are filled by the Spirit and experience the Spirit’s power.

In Ephesians 5:18-19, Paul writes, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.”

The early church prayed for this and experienced this. In Acts 4 Peter and John had been imprisoned, were freed, told to not talk about Jesus anymore, and what did they do?  They prayed.  In Acts 4:29, we read the end of their prayer, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

I love that. Right after they are told by the Jewish religious authorities not to talk about Jesus, they pray for boldness to preach God’s word.  What happens?  We read, “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”

We can be filled with the firepower of the Spirit, and that fire empowers us to pursue the mission of God in the ways of God. 

This is why every single week at Faith church we talk about the Fruit of the Spirit.  The Fruit of the Spirit is the way of God.  When we walk in step with the Spirit, which is another way of talking about being filled with the Spirit, Paul says that the firepower of the Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. 

Here are some selections from the Fruit of the Spirit passage.  Galatians 5:16-23, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. … But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

We have the Spirit, so we live our lives and make our choices in line with the Spirit.  But back in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, Paul said that we are not to quench the Spirit, we are not to extinguish the Spirit’s fire.  So clearly, even though God the Spirit is all-powerful, he does not force us to walk in step with him. His filling does not overpower our free will.  We can extinguish his fire in our lives.

So what is Paul talking about?  How do quench the Spirit’s fire?  Paul doesn’t clearly say in 1st Thessalonians 5:19, but he did clearly say in Ephesians 4. We’ll take a look at that passage in the next post.

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What Christians mean when they say God lives in their hearts – 1 Thessalonians 5:19, Part 1

When I was a child, I learned from my parents and Sunday School teachers that Jesus wants to live in my heart. At the time, I thought nothing was odd about that. I was told to “ask Jesus into my heart.” I eagerly did so.

I don’t remember when I stopped believing that or talking about my relationship with Jesus in those terms of “living in my heart.” Children are very literal, humorously so. Children think in very physical terms, and they have no problem with the idea of a tiny little Jesus swimming around inside your heart.

But at some point that image becomes obviously impossible. We grow up and realize that our parents and Sunday School teachers were using figurative speech. Often, in our maturing process, we swing to the other end of the spectrum and we can conceive of our relationship with God as entirely exterior.

In recent years, I’ve swung back to what I hope is more faithful view. There are passages such as Ephesians 3:14-19 that depict God’s desire to live with us. Even if we are quite materialist in our view of the human person, we recognize that humans have an interior life as well as an exterior life. Scripture teaches that God is deeply concerned about our interior life.

We read about that in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 19. 

In the New International Version, this verse is five words, “Do not quench the Spirit.”

Just five words, but packed full.

For starters, let’s talk about the Spirit.  In 1 Thessalonians 5:19, Paul is referring to the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit of God.  God, the Spirit. 

We Christians believe that God is Trinitarian. Three in one.  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.  They each have other titles and names, of course, but Father, Son, and Spirit are the most common.  This week we’re talking about God the Spirit.

This brief five-word sentence in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 assumes something very important.  “Do not quench the Spirit,” assumes that you and I can have a relationship with the Spirit.  Think with me for a moment how amazing it is that you and I can have a relationship with God the Spirit.

In ancient Israel, it was exceedingly rare that the people of God had a relationship with God the Spirit.  Only a few leaders like Moses, David, and Elijah, are described as being filled with the Spirit of God. 

But in the New Testament, we read that Spirit comes upon all Christians on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), and Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”

You yourself are temple of God.  In ancient Israel, the presence of God resided at the tabernacle and temple. Since the first day of the Christian church, however, God resides within his people. 

The Spirit of God is in you.  This is a reality now in our lives.  The Spirit lives with us, in us.  Think about that.  God the Spirit is in us.

That bring us back to the rather harsh reality of our passage, 1 Thessalonians 5:19.  Thought the Spirit of God lives with us and in us, we can quench the Spirit. We learn more about that in the next post.

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There’s a fire God does not want us to put out – 1 Thessalonians 5:19, Preview

A few weeks ago, a serious forest fire devastated 2700 acres in the Michaux State Forest here in Pennsylvania.  Close friends of ours have a property located very near to where the fires burned, and thankfully their property was spared.  Others were not so fortunate.  

The news reported that the fire was started not by lightning, but by humans.  In fact, the news went on to say that 99% of forest fires are started by humans.    

But there is another fire we humans often start.

James, the brother of Jesus wrote, “Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” (James 3:5–6)

James likely was putting his own spin on something his brother once taught, “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister, will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (Mt 5:22)

Have you ever started a fire with your tongue?  I have. Often we start those fires with the people closest to us.  We allow our tongues to spew fire, burning the people we love with our demeaning words, flippant responses, and our harmful tones. 

This week, we’re going to learn about how, while we use our tongues to start fires in our relationships, our fire-breathing puts out another fire.  It sounds counterintuitive and impossible.  You don’t use a flamethrower to put out a fire.  But in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, we will learn that the very fire we allow to flow from our mouths and damage people, will put out another fire that God does not want us to put out.  

Let me say that again.  There’s a fire God does not want us to put out.  And yet, that very important fire that God wants to keep burning we can put out by the fire that comes from our out-of-control mouths. 

Have I confused you yet?  Or perhaps you know quite well what I’m talking about!

Join me back here on Monday as we begin to talk about the fire God does not want us to put out.

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