Category Archives: Holy Spirit

Peace on Earth 1

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Peace would be easy if we weren’t on earth.  It’s the stuff that happens on earth that destroys our peace.  You are settled in for a “long winter’s nap” and at 2:00 am the phone rings.  There goes peace.  You are ready to go “over the river and through the woods” and you break a timing chain.  Your boss asks you to work overtime.  Your daughter gets strep throat.  And so on.

And yet, it was “on earth” where Jesus said.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”  ( John 14:27)

He said those words about giving us peace as a gift, not being troubled or afraid, just moments before His arrest, hours before He was crucified.  He knew it was coming.  So, how did Jesus find peace in an “on earth” moment like that?  How did He have it to give?   How can we find it.  The next few things He said give us insight.  This time let’s look at what He said in verse 28:

 28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.  (John 14:28-29)

Instead of focusing on His impending pain and death, Jesus fixed His gaze on the big picture, on how His terrible suffering would be used by God to achieve His purposes.  Like a football player who eagerly runs onto the field, knowing he is about to be clobbered and possibly injured but fixes his mind on the possibility of helping his team win, Jesus suffered the cross “for the joy set before Him.”

And we can find peace through that attitude as well.  God uses our suffering to reveal the beauty and strength of having His life within us.  He does not waste any of it.  If we can consider our circumstances “on earth” from a heavenly perspective, like Jesus we can find peace in the midst of troubling events.

More, next time.

Square Bidness

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Square bidness.  Translation?  I am telling you the absolute truth.  I learned that expression from New York slum street kids back in the 60’s.  Don’t know if they still say it, but God does.  Check this out:

18 For this is what the Lord says—
he who created the heavens,
he is God;
he who fashioned and made the earth,
he founded it;
he did not create it to be empty,
but formed it to be inhabited—
he says:
“I am the Lord,
and there is no other.
19 I have not spoken in secret,
from somewhere in a land of darkness;
I have not said to Jacob’s descendants,
‘Seek me in vain.’
I, the Lord, speak the truth;
I declare what is right.  (Isaiah 45:18-19)

Sometimes I underline or highlight the main ideas in long Bible sentences, as I have done above.  That’s so I can hang on the main thrust of what is written.  In this passage, the main idea is that God, the only One Who is real, made the earth to be inhabited by us and has clearly told us in His Word how to find Him.  If we seek Him, He said, it won’t be in vain.

Think about how much effort around the world goes into the pursuit of God, most of it in vain because the method of seeking has been designed by what people have imagined would work.  But God said, “Look, if you want to truly find me you have to seek in the way I have clearly told you.  It’s not some secret knowledge but is clearly laid out in My Word.  Seek Me in that true way and it won’t be in vain.”

And Jesus added,

45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.”  (John 6:45-48)

Square bidness.

To Know Better

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We’ve known each other for years, but just the other day, over hot coffee and breakfast burritos, down at Janie’s Cafe, I got to know him better.  Mack (not his real name) is a guy I can talk naturally with – no pretense.  Breakfast at Janie’s was a rich time.

Paul writes that one of the things he strives for most is to know Jesus better.

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord... (Philippians 3:8a)

10 that I may know him…  (Philippians 3:10)

He probably knew Jesus better than most, but not well enough for his own satisfaction:

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. (Philippians 3:12)

This morning, after reading those lines, I asked Jesus to show me something about Himself that I didn’t understand well enough.  Kind of looking forward to how He answers that request…

To the Full

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Black Friday just isn’t what it used to be.  They ruined all the fun by starting it, in some cases, back at the beginning of November. Not the way the pilgrims observed it. No more standing all night in line and then smashing and pushing to get in the door.  Maybe I’ll take up roller derby.  But speaking of getting in the door, consider this, somewhat more peaceful, analogy from Jesus:

9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  (John 10:9-10)

The frenzy on Black Friday, I suspect, is largely driven by people who are desperate for life “to the full.”  If I can score that toaster oven at a ridiculously low price, then I’ll be really living.  Nothing wrong with a new toaster oven, but it is not the “gate” to a full life.

Life “to the full” comes only by having the life of the Holy Spirit in our souls.  The Spirit is given to all who, as Jesus says, “enter through Me,” by faith.  Those who find this full life, “come in and go out and find pasture.”  Their lives are not locked up in church but are lived out in the world, led by Jesus, to “pastures” for sustenance and rest.  Compare the peace of that image with the mindset of those who smash and push their way into Black Friday sales.  You can see how the “thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” the full life he falsely promises.

In Spirit and Truth

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Tucked in among all the junk mail in the box is an actual letter.  It’s rare enough these days that it warrants special treatment: another cup of tea, some jazz on the stereo and a yank on the recliner lever.  My old friend writes, “Here’s something that made me think of you…”  His words reawaken memories of our friendship. Some people stimulate the best of who you are and he was one of those.  I reread…

Jesus said God isn’t interested in regligious ritual.  He doesn’t care for mumbo jumbo.  What He wants is people who worship Him in “spirit and truth” (John 4:23).  Think of His Spirit, given to you personally, as a living letter.  When you read it, so to speak, when you pause to pay close attention to what He says to you, it reawakens your appreciation of His amazing character and personality.  And makes you really wish you could be closer. It nudges the best of who you are.

I think that’s sort of what Jesus had in mind.

Not so Immediately

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What causes people to suddenly change and follow Jesus?  Peter told Mark he did it “immediately.”

16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. (Mark 1:16-18)

Just like that?  Drop your nets and walk off to follow Jesus?  No doubt there was a lot leading up to that sudden decision.  Perhaps he and Andy had had long discussions out in the boat.  Maybe something had happened at home to make him ready.  We don’t know.  But, Jesus said, before anyone can make that jump, God “draws him” (John 6:44).  And how He draws you is personal.  He uses the things that we specifically need.  God gradually loosens our desperate grip on the illusory things we think keep us safe or satisfied.  As He does, He attracts us to Himself through Jesus.

Sometimes, as in my case, kicking and screaming.  Little by little, God got my attention and blew on the kindled flames of my restlessness.  I “just so happened” to hear an old lady speaking about the Lord’s Prayer.  My brother had “found Jesus” and began to annoy me by talking about Him all the time.  People picked me up hitchhiking and told me about their experiences with Him.  I spent a long day on a beach with “The Road Less Traveled” and a bunch of beer.  Little by little, God was loosening me up.  But then He brought out the big guns, the things I needed personally.

When you run the sound for a large event you have to listen.  This gig was a 10 day conference for a few thousand people who worked for Campus Crusade.  The guy who kicked things off every morning spoke about trusting Jesus – something everyone already understood, except me.  He was very logical in his approach – something I really needed.  Every day I came armed with new reasons to doubt what he was saying.  And, as though he was reading my mind, he addressed those objections and convincingly dismissed them.  My soul began singing that old funk tune, “Standin’ on Shaky Ground…”

Alone in the arena, I was struggling to fix a sound cable – struggling because I did not have large, channel lock pliers, needed to take the connector apart.  I looked all over for something that would work without success.  But inside, an argument was raging over what I would decide about what I had been hearing.  In frustration, on my knees, I began to weep.  I called out, “God, I don’t even know if you exist but, if You do, then I’m scared.  I don’t know if You will take care of me…”  I know, I know, that was a dumb prayer.  Embarrassing to write it down.  But, when I dried my eyes, the first thing I saw, about 2 feet in front of me, lying on a road case, was a large pair of channel lock pliers with bright orange grips.  You couldn’t miss them.  I can’t explain how they got there or why I hadn’t seen them.  But I was careful to put them back!

But later that night, on my drive back home, I “immediately” decided to follow Jesus.  Immediately, after 38 years of being drawn by God and pushing Him away.  Maybe you are not as stubborn and slow as I was.  You probably won’t need pliers.  But do pay attention when God tugs on your sleeve.  Pay attention, take time to ponder and then, follow Jesus – immediately.

With God on Our Side

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God is on our side.  Says who?  Says God.  And who, exactly, is referred to by the word, “our?”  You.  Me.  Everybody.  He’s on our side.  Chile, Vietnam, Belgium.  God’s plan is to bring peace throughout the world.  I’ll bet your first thought is, “Yeah, right; I’m sure that’s going to happen.”  But peace looked no more likely when God sent that promise (repeatedly) than it does today.  And He was serious.  Be honest: Wouldn’t you really rather have a world filled with peace?  Isn’t there a part of you that yearns for that?  God does, too; He’s on our side.  And He is already working to bring it about.  The reason it looks dubious from our vantage point is because God is not in a hurry.  He exists beyond the strictures of time.  His work is done thoroughly, not necessarily suddenly.

So, how do we know He is actually working on it?   One of His promises to bring world peace, given through Isaiah, specified that He would do it through the work of a “Chosen Servant.”  The Servant would be born to Israel in the line of David.  He would be rejected and eventually killed by being “pierced.”   Nevertheless, this “Servant” would then “see the light of life.”  His work on earth, which would look at first to have failed, would be accomplished in a quiet but relentless way.  And God promised:

he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his teaching the islands will put their hope.” Isaiah 42:3b-4

Seven hundred years later, Jesus fulfilled those prophesies of the Servant.  As unlikely as it would seem, this impoverished, homeless guy, who lived a short and relatively obscure life in a conquered land, has had His Name and teaching gradually spread across the entire globe.  Quietly and yet relentlessly.  God says His work will continue until all nations live by it.  He got the first part right; I believe He’s right about the endgame.

So what is our part in all this?  It is to recognize that God is on our side and shut up!  Except God said it in a nicer way:

He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalms 46:9-10

People used to say, “God is on our side; fight harder!”  God says, “I’m on your side, stop fighting.”  When nations understand that, peace will come.  If you truly yearn for that, join Jesus in praying, “…Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”

Reliable

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Mom stands by the curb, tearfully watching her little one board the schoolbus for the first time.  Dad swallows hard and wraps his son in a fierce embrace.  The young man will board a plane and head off to his first deployment overseas.  This is the heartbeat of God as He allowed His chosen people to be carried off to exile.  Here’s what He told them:

“Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob, all the remnant of the people of Israel, you whom I have upheld since your birth, and have carried since you were born  Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you.  I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”  (Isaiah 46:3-4)
Almost sounds like God is saying, “This will hurt Me more than it does you.”  But notice carefully God’s promise to sustain them and carry them, even in their time of banishment.  And rescue them.  That’s the heartbeat of God.  “For God so loved the world…”

That’s His heart toward you, too, even if you have wandered off into an exile of your own making.  You may have run from Him, but He loves you and will never run from you.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

(Psalm 139:7 -10)

Water of Life

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​Last year, the Atacama Desert, renowned as the driest place on earth, received an unusual amount of rain.  Seeds lying dormant in the sand for years suddenly sprang to life.  The empty landscape was transformed into a garden of astonishing beauty.

Viewed from God’s perspective, humankind is a dry desert, lacking the one essential ingredient for spiritual growth, His Holy Spirit.  But His plan, as announced through Isaiah would be to send “rain.”

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s,’ another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.”  (Isaiah 44:3 -5)

As promised by Jesus, on the day of Pentacost, those “rains” came.  They are still falling, and are available to any “dry and dormant seed” who will trust Jesus. 

Them Hypocrites

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What does Halloween have in common with hypocrisy?  Masks.  The word, hypocrite, comes from a Greek word for mask.  Halloween is better: you get candy and the masks are not as scary.

Sometimes hypocrites wear a mask with deliberate intent to deceive.  But much of the time, what looks like hypocrisy is simply someone trying to act more like a Christian.  Sadly, many churches have taught people to do that. Trouble is, people respond to hypocrisy about like they do to other dead things.  

Jesus had a better idea. Instead of trying to act like a Christian, come to Him in faith and come alive in your soul with His life.  Then, He takes care of the changes.  They flow from inside without masks.  

He said,

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.  (John 15:5)
Pay attention to that last part and put away your masks.  Make your home in Jesus and He will live in you.  But, hey, before you go, help yourself to some candy….