Pentecost Sunday and Mother’s Day?

Today is both Pentecost Sunday and Mother’s Day, and I don’t think these two days have ever shared a weekend together?  Let me begin by saying how much I love my mother.  She is one tuff cookie who has agonized and regretted in life, but has raised and birthed two strong children. My sister and I are both believers and both value prayer and God’s leading because of her.  I love her dearly.

She also raised us in church and not any church a Pentecostal church(s).  When I was young we attended a Church of God in Memphis.  I remember seeing miracles as a child and thought speaking in tongues normal.  As a teenager we attended Assembly of God churches and I attended an A/G college after high school.  I credit my perspective of God to my mother’s deep faith.

At some point in everyone’s life you have to move away from your parent’s faith and into your own.  I made that transition in high school and more in college.  But it was after college that what happen on the Day of Pentecost became so much clearer.  I have a different outlook on Pentecost now.

First, let me say I believe in speaking in tongues.  I believe in the gifts of the Spirit and believe theu are for today.  No doubt.  But I don’t agree with the current state of the Pentecostal church.  I think many Pentecostal churches have taken the blessing of God and made it the object of their pursuit.  Let me use a story in 2 Kings 18 as an example of what has happened and what needs to happen.

We see in 2 Kings 18 where Israel (and now Judah too) has once again been in a cycle of obedience and disobedience to God, led by a revolving door of kings.  In 2 Kings we meet Hezekiah, a young man who seeks to use his authority to restore Israel to right relationship to God.  In order to do that, some housecleaning is in order.

In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah ^[a] daughter of Zechariah.  He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done.  He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called ^[b] Nehushtan. ^[c] )   2 Kings 18.1-4

In Isreal’s past God had instructed Moses to compose a bronze serpent and attach it to the end of his staff (Num 21.4-9).  This came in response to a plague of serpents that God sent as judgment on Israel’s rebellious complaining against God and Moses.  When they finally repent in the face of this serpentine judgment, it is the bronze serpent raised up that becomes the means of deliverance.  However, by the time of Hezekiah this bronze serpent has become more than a totem; it has become an idol that is being worshiped. So Hezekiah has it destroyed. Can you imagine destroying this symbol of God’s past salvation?  Yet his was necessary to give Israel the possibility of reengaging with God in the present, according to Hezekiah.

We are constantly faced with temptation to take the blessing of God and make it the object of our pursuit.  In the short term it is often easier to do this than to pursue the God who judges us.  But God is into reality, which makes the reason the evidence of the Holy Spirit so important.

I know all the reasons for speaking in tongues.  It’s evidence of the Holy Spirit (Act 2.4). It edifies the believers (1 Cor 14.4) and reminds us of the indwelling presence (John 14.16-17).  Speaking in tongues lines our prayers with His (Rom 8.26) and stimulates our faith (Jude 20).  But the most important reason I conclude is to empower us to be His witness (Acts 1.8).  I think this final reason, and most important, is what we should pursue as the Pentecostal church.  As leaders it’s important we balance between the “blessing” and the “mission.”