I think it is not proper that they define for all what is and is not orderly. I am also surprised at their lack of openness to expressing joy. Dallas Willard (who I would guess is also not a supporter of the movement but open to physical expression of what God is doing) said;
No wonder, then, that laughter is so good for our health. It is even a symbol of redemption, for there is no greater incongruity in all creation than redemption. When deliverance comes, "we are like those who dream: our mouth filled with laughter, our tongue with shouts of joy" (Ps 126.1-2)Again, I am not trying to propagate the movement. I'm trying to say that there are times when God breaks in and we will respond with joy manifesting itself in laughter - just as there will also be times of repentance and tears. Throughout the Bible God does things that results in behavior that others find offensive.
Thus Abraham fell on the ground laughing when told by God that he, a one-hundred-year-old man, would have child by ninety-year-old Sarah (Ge 17.17). Later Sarah herself laughed at the same "joke" (18.12-15). God specified to Abraham that the child of promise would be named "Laughter". Isaac mean "Laughter." "Your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Laughter, and I will establish my covenant with him" (Ge 17.19). Was this a penalty imposed upon them because they laughed? Hardly. Rather, it was a perpetual reminder that God breaks through. What joy they had when little Laughter came into their home and as he grew to become a young man!
I would think those that are against holy laughter would find better arguments than the disorder and can't laugh angles.
Lord, let my joy be full!
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1 comment:
As someone who experienced the laughter years ago, I'm very slow to criticize. I can only judge it by the fruit, and I have been a very different person since those days. What I refuse to do is put a theological justification on it where the Bible is clearly silent!
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