Category Archives: Holy Spirit

Spreading Light

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There is an emerging radical shift in medicine.  Instead of killing diseased and dysfunctional cells, medical scientists are experimenting with transforming damaged cells into fully functional, healthy cells.  The process is amazing: A single cell is injected in the body and begins to gradually transform the non-functioning cells.  If you’ve been to a candle lighting service, imagine a cell with a candle flame, connecting with a dark cell and lighting it’s candle.  Exponentially the light spreads.  The body becomes healthy.  (There’s a cool TED talk I’ll link below.)

John began his Gospel by declaring Jesus to be God, manifested as a human being.  But, unlike every other human, Jesus was a complete, fully functional human because,

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  (John 1:4)

Jesus had the Holy Spirit we were designed to have, the Spirit lost to humanity at the Fall.  He came to bring this Spirit as light to our darkness.  He couldn’t merely flip a switch, however.

The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.  (John 1:5)

Spreading the light had to happen one soul at a time, because our darkness and lack of understanding was a personal, internal problem.  It was necessary for each of us to allow the light to come in and change us.  To accept the transformation from spiritual death to life, from spiritual darkness to light.  What did we need to do?

He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,  who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. ( John 1:11-13)

 

When a stranger knocks at your door, you either let him in or not depending upon whether or not you trust him.  Allowing him in is an act of faith.  When Adam stopped trusting God, he lost the Spirit.  When Jesus came, it was to restore the Spirit to anyone who would receive Him by trust, by faith.  And when anyone does receive Him by faith, Jesus causes the Spirit to be born in his or her soul.  He lights their candle, so to speak, bringing them to full, spiritual life and spreading His light.

Here’s the promised LINK

Life and Light

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Remember how they began “Raiders of the Lost Ark”?  The huge ball?  Bam!  Hold on to your seats, folks, this isn’t “The Sound of Music.”  John opened his book about Jesus like that.  Bam!  He said, “Jesus is God and always has been, even back at the beginning of everything.”  Before you can recover from that, he says, “Jesus created everything that exists.”  And then, having loosened us up with those wild declarations, this:

In him was life,..  (John 1:4a)

Maybe you are thinking, “Well, duh, I’m alive, too and just about everybody else I know.”  But John didn’t say Jesus was alive but that He had life in Him.  A different kind of life, but one we all were designed to have.  So, what kind of life and light is John talking about?

Jesus said:

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.   (John 6:6a)

In Him was Spiritual Life, the life of God’s Spirit.  God warned Adam, In the Garden of Eden, not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  He said, “…for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”  (Genesis 2:17b)  But when Adam and Eve ate from that tree, their bodies and minds (or souls) did not die.  What died was their intimate connection with God, the connection that is made possible through His Spirit.  Without that Spirit, mankind was spiritually dead, disconnected from God and living in darkness.

But when Jesus came, He had the Spirit; “…in Him was life…”  Which would be of no importance to us, except for what John wrote next:

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  (John 1:4)

Jesus came with the Spirit, to bring us life and light.  Without the Spirit of God, we live in darkness, a kind of spiritual blindness.

The light shines in the darkness…  (John 1:5a)

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.  (John 1:9)

Something is missing from our human existence and experience.  We sense that lack, that emptiness.  What’s missing is God’s Spirit, from Whom comes true, full life and light.  Jesus came to give us this Spirit.  But, how can we get it; how can we receive this life and light?

More on that next time.

 

Bragging Rights

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This is what the Lord says:
“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
or the strong boast of their strength
or the rich boast of their riches,
but let the one who boasts boast about this:
that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,”
declares the Lord.     (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

I have nothing to add…

The Whole Truth

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Why did so many Christian churches not speak out against the injustices of the Nazi regime?  Fear, maybe, of persecution or simply a decline in offerings?  Wanting to ride the wave of popularity and power?  Perhaps it was easier to tell people what they wanted to hear?  Who knows?  But that disgraceful failure is one of the more dangerous consequences of picking and choosing from the Bible what seems convenient to believe.

Today, the same failure is routinely practiced in churches.  It’s no mystery why churches that only preach what people want to hear are wildly popular.  But God said,

“…prophets and priests alike,
all practice deceit.
They dress the wound of my people
as though it were not serious.
“Peace, peace,” they say,
when there is no peace.”   (Jeremiah 8:10b-11)

Imagine going to the doctor with a gangrenous wound, hoping it’s not serious.   The doctor knows you are worried, so he says, “This is no big deal; we’ll just put a band-aid on it.”  Inconceivable, but precisely what has been done, far too often,  by people entrusted with the truth of God’s Word.  Paul warned Timothy not to be tempted by the strong pull of popular opinion and desire.  He said:

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  (2 Timothy 4:2-4)

If you haven’t found one yet, look for a church that delivers “the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

The Meaning of Meaninglessness

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Here’s a special treat.  In the last several posts we have chewed on Ecclesiastes, but how can we scoop its message all together?  It seems so full of contradictions – just like you!  Scholars have tried for centuries to make sense of it.  But, Ecclesiastes is about real life, real life that throws curve balls.  Recently, my son sent me a wonderful You Tube about Ecclesiastes.  These guys really get it.  I couldn’t summarize the book any better.  Check it out.  But do yourself a favor and wait for a moment when you can really watch and listen.  It begins with a short Hebrew song and then goes way deep.   Click HERE.

But wait, there’s more!  No, not steak knives…    This same group produced a beautiful song based on the teachings of Ecclesiastes.  You’ll find it HERE.

And, If you missed this short series, the first one is found HERE.

Grace and peace.

The Dumb Thing

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One of the oldest bits of wisdom in the Bible says, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  Except God didn’t say it like that.   Speaking through His prophet, Jeremiah, He said:

13 “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.  (Jeremiah 2:13)

Cisterns hold water but they can’t fill themselves.  You have to do that.  If the cistern is leaky, then you have to keep filling it, even if you haven’t used any of the water. Moreover, have you ever tasted water stored for a long time in a cistern?  Funky stuff.  So then, why would anyone exchange a continuous spring of fresh, clear water for a cistern they had to dig and fill which would give them brackish tasting water?  Be dumb, right?

And why, God asks, would anyone turn away from the continuous interaction with God, Who gives strength, peace, joy, insight, love and life itself, in order to make up his or her own god out of dead stuff?  Dead stuff like wood, stone, metal, plastic… or money.  One of most common reasons people turn away from God is to pursue more money.  But money is very much like a broken cistern.  You have to fill it yourself.  It leaks away when you aren’t looking (If you don’t believe me, check your wallet:  Not as much money in there as you thought, right?)  And money doesn’t satisfy like it promises to do.  Most of the time the aftertaste of money is brackish.

Don’t be dumb.

The How and Why of Miracles

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David Blaine blows your mind by doing things that seem impossible.  But if you knew how he did his tricks, they would not have the same effect.  When God performs a miracle, He deliberately hides how He did it, in order to preserve the full effect.  Because it’s the why that’s important with miracles, not the how.  I know people who declare, “There’s no such thing as a miracle.”  What they mean is there must be some physical explanation for how God pulled off His tricks.  Perhaps they are right.  But in getting all focused on the how, they’ve probably missed the why.  And that is a shame.

Miracles are often called “signs.”  Signs point to something.  When you see a sign for a hospital, you don’t stop there to get medical attention; you head in the direction it points to.  In the New Testament, most of the miracles, or signs, point to the validity of the identity, message and work of Jesus Christ.  They are designed to work like starter fluid for faith.  You don’t run your engine on starter fluid; you just squirt some in the intake when you are having trouble getting it started.  God uses miracles to help people get their faith started.  When you read about or experience a miracle of God, don’t get so distracted wondering about the how that you miss out on why it happened.

1 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. (Hebrews 2:1-4)

 

A Good Church?

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There’s a lot of weird churches out there.  Unhealthy, conflicted and sometimes dangerously wrong in what they teach.  Trouble is, these problems often lie hidden.  You can’t tell the condition of a church by how nice it looks, how upbeat the music is or by the size of the congregation.  Good churches come in many shapes, flavors and sizes.  So, how can you know if you’ve found a good one?  What do you look for?  Here’s a description of the first church, the initial gathering of people who knew Jesus.  I think it describes some of the most important things to look for in a church:

Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.  (Acts 9:31)

Good churches will surely have a peaceful vibe and will seem to be growing stronger and adding people.  But not necessarily always.  For example, what seems like a lack of peace may actually be a manifestation of honest willingness to address a tough problem.  And what seems to be peacefulness may be an unhealthy passivity of a congregation that is under someone’s thumb.  Same thing with temporary swings in attendance.

But central to the health of a church are the two phrases highlighted above.  A good church is very aware of the awesome and somewhat frightening presence of Almighty God.  They understand His amazing power and perfect understanding and are reverently responsive to Him in a natural way.  And a good church is mostly made up of people who, by having put their faith in Jesus, are alive with the Holy Spirit.  Instead of going through religious motions, they are engaged in an exhilarating relationship with the Spirit, being encouraged, strengthened and instructed by Him.   A church where these two are present will likely be one where you will be blessed and changed.

20-17 Vision

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Remember Y2K?  How much needless worry and panic was spilled over mostly nothing?  That’s my impression of 2016 – people got all stirred up over first one thing and then another, wasting countless hours watching “news” about what might happen and wasting a lot of energy shouting about it.  

Imagine what news channels would have done with the circumstances of Roman occupation and oppression in Jesus’ day.  Public whippings and crucifixions, unjust demands by soldiers imposed upon ordinary citizens.  And yet, Jesus largely ignored all that, focusing instead on more important aspects of reality.  Such as loving one’s neighbor.  Such as learning to see the world through His eyes, so “the truth will set your free.”  Such as learning not to worry but trusting your Heavenly Father.  What if, in 2017, we dared to follow His example?  What if we dared to stop defining reality by what the media says and instead asked God to show us what really matters?

20 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.  (1 John 5:20)

18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.  (2 Corinthians 4:18)

Grace and peace to you all this new year!

Peace on Earth 4

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The “piece of cod that surpasses all understanding,” Swedes talk about is lutefisk.  It’s an apt description, but the whole thing is a pun from this bible verse:

 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 4:7)

Three questions:

  • What is the “peace of God?”
  • How does one attain it?
  • What does “surpasses all understanding” really mean?

The “peace of God” means a peace that is given to us by God, a kind of peace that is superior in all ways to what the world thinks of as peace.  It’s not an absence of conflict but a genuine wellness of soul which gives the wherewithal to go through seasons of strife without losing it.  That’s because it “guards our hearts” from going off into unproductive second guessing and “if only.”  Instead, it keeps our hearts and minds settled in Jesus.  That’s not some emotional trick.  We make our home in Christ, in His mindset and in His care.

This peace is given to us in response to our genuine prayers:

“…The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:5b-7)

Mixing prayer requests with thanksgiving – real thankfulness – is a key to this kind of prayer and that kind of peace.  When we turn computer problems over to an expert, knowing he has the knowledge and skill to take care of it, we don’t waste time futilely trying to figure out how to fix it ourselves.  Same thing when we turn problems over to Almighty God, only so much better.

The phrase, “surpasses all understanding” probably means it is impossible to understand the peace that comes, much less to explain it logically.  But I suspect it also means the peace we receive is better than the understanding we yearn for in tough circumstances.  We cannot explain why God would allow this tragedy to have occurred but as we pray and, as He blesses our souls with peace, we discover that understanding why it has happened is not so important.  We have peace that comes from God, comes from knowing the God of sovereignty and grace, knowing He is on the case and somehow that is enough.  More than enough, it’s better.  It surpasses the mere desire to understand.