Speaking in Tongues & a Brand New Book!

Book Cover from Amazon.com

OK.  I usually do book reviews on Thursday, but I already have a Thanksgiving  post planned, so....

I just finished a book called "The Judas Gospel" by Bill Myers.  It was in the "7 day check out" section of the Library, which made me a little nervous, because even though I LOVE to read, I usually can only find the time when I'm drifting off to sleep, so sometimes it takes me forever to get through something.  Especially if it's just "meh."   This book was great!  I finished it without accruing any (more) late charges on my library card!

The premise of this story is Judas going before God and asking for a second chance to show Him what his real potential really was in growing the Church.  This happens at the beginning, then the story cuts to modern day LA where a young lady with supernatural gifts is being discovered.  Judas shows up, named Jude, as a kind of marketer to sell the Gospel through this girl's gifts.  He succeeds in making her a celebrity, while at the same time cheapening God's free gift of salvation into a business.  The author states one of his goals in writing "The Judas Gospel" (besides it being a great story) was to get Christians to think about the ways the Church has turned things into a business model.  I love that Bill Myers didn't throw out all things supernatural, though, which, in my opinion is a real tendency of Christians.  If they don't understand a Spiritual Gift, they write it off as being unnecessary or fraudulent. 

This leads me to my other topic in today's blogpost: Speaking in Tongues.  When Kirk and I were campus pastors back in the day, we were a part of the only Pentecostal group on campus.  Holding this position, I can't even remember how many conversations we had on this topic.  Instead of debating though, I feel more like taking the stance of the blind man in John 9 - basically, I don't know how YOU feel about the whole thing, but I only know what happened to me - "I was blind, but now I see."  I realize this man was talking about his supernatural experience with Jesus, NOT speaking in tongues, but the point is, no one could tell him that he shouldn't believe Jesus healed him, and honestly, no one can tell me my experience isn't real either.

Here is my story:  Even though I grew up in a Pentecostal church, I never really remember hearing much teaching on any of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but I still saw them in action.  It wasn't until my family moved temporarily to Montana where the teaching and the action were both there.  I went on a Youth Retreat, and was taught about receiving a prayer language.  My experience was similar to each instance in Acts where people were prayed for and began speaking in tongues.  I really can't embellish it and say I saw bright lights or fell down or anything like that, but I was speaking in a language that I had never learned.  What followed this experience is really what is most important. 

Prior to this weekend, I was the "new girl" at my school.  I had tried really hard to fit in, even making myself interject some cuss words into my speech amongst the "cool" kids to be more like them.  All I can say is, I returned from that weekend with a new set of eyes.  I no longer saw these popular people as people I wanted to be amongst and fit in with.  At the same time, I didn't have disgust for them, either.  I came back seeing them with Jesus' eyes - eyes that saw their need for Him.  I became so bold in my faith and so passionate about Jesus at that time.  I was only 12, but I know I challenged many of the adults at church to stoke their fire.  I have realized this experience wasn't meant to be one time experience (if it is just an "experience" and not a practice, that fire will subside like any fire), and as the Bible clearly lays out, there are specific guidelines for its use when in a corporate setting, but no where does its imply that we don't need this today!

The reason I wanted to blog about all this is I see a need for a balance.  Honestly, some of the televangelist style preaching and teaching have given the whole topic of any Spiritual gifts a bad rap.  People associate "name it and claim it" prosperity teaching with anything Pentecostal, and this is unfair.  This is one reason I really liked "The Judas Gospel."  In all branches of the Church, we have gotten this idea that Jesus needs a slick marketing campaign in order for people to come to Him.  That, I believe, actually does the opposite.  People get that enough on TV, billboards, the Internet, EVERYWHERE.   I can always go back to Kirk's testimony.  He had grown up in a Bible believing church, where I'm sure there were a lot of people who genuinely loved Jesus, but Kirk had never stepped into that love for himself.  It wasn't until he was in college and saw this small group of believers expressively singing to their God in a completely non-religious, or "slick" way, that he actually started to believe God might be real, and MAY want to know him.  Then, he had a similar experience to me at a college retreat.  He heard teaching on the Holy Spirit, accepted it (without maybe completely understanding it with his brain), and received a prayer language.  He KNEW God was real and had such incredible love for him to give him this gift!

We just need to BE the Church, living out what we believe, unashamed, and people will be drawn to Him.  If we don't have a desire for people to come to know Jesus, we need to examine that, too.  The Church needs to grow, not just "hunker down" for the hard times ahead, but we need to have genuine growth - lives changed and hearts turned toward Jesus.

Sorry for such a long, heavy post.  Like I said before, I'm not big on debating, but I would love to have a dialogue with anyone who has honest questions.
As far as the book goes, I will say I would only recommend this for adults.  Some of the characters are not Christians, and, while it's mild compared to any secular book, there are some crude and ungodly references.