Can I Do New Stuff?

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Don’tcha love it when the software fairies announce that your computer operating system has just been updated?  Me? I seize up at first, thinking that they have just erased all my passwords and favorite tunes.  But then I go exploring, trying to figure out if, as a result of this new software, I can actually do new stuff.  When you trust Jesus, He gives you a new operating system – the Holy Spirit.  Question is, can you actually do new stuff?  Yes you can!  But, but, but…

At first, you may not notice any big change, because the Holy Spirit has been added to an operating system that has grown accustomed to operating without Him.  But soon enough, we start looking to see if we can do new stuff.

Think of your “self” in three parts: Body, Soul (your mind, emotion & will), and Spirit.  The Body takes orders from the Soul.  But where does the Soul get its information from?  We are designed to have the Spirit (of God) inform the Soul, so it can operate the Body correctly.  If we don’t have the Spirit, the Soul has to get all of its information from the Body (the eyes, ears and Facebook).  That is backwards.

The Bible calls a Body and Soul with no Holy Spirit, “flesh.”  Flesh is the nickname for our old operating system.  When God gives His Spirit to that person, now he has “flesh” and “Spirit.”   We have a new operating system, but we still have the habits we formed when all we had to work with was flesh.  Just like with new computer software, when you have to train yourself not to do things the old way, there is a natural conflict between our old habits (flesh) and our new operating system (Spirit).  It takes awhile to learn to operate (or “walk”) by the Spirit, instead of the flesh.  But that is how we discover the new stuff we can do.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Galatians 5:16-17 ESV)

When you first read that, you might think it’s saying you have to stop having fun.  Nope.  It’s saying “Learn to use your new operating system, so you can do new stuff.”

Yeah, But What Can I Really Expect?

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The friend I mentioned in the last post, who wanted to know what to expect from the Holy Spirit, is an engineer. He’s a practical guy, more comfortable with hand tools than he is with theology. “What’s going to happen to me with the Spirit,” he wants to know, “am I going to foam at the mouth; are my eyes going to roll around in my head? What?” He’s kind of like the guys Jesus hung out with. Some of them were fishermen. Probably had rock hard muscles, scarred and calloused hands. Jesus had just told them, “Guess what? I’m going to install my Spirit in you.” (John 14:15-21) Can you imagine saying something like that to your fishing buddies? If they didn’t just toss you into the lake, they would want you to speak plainly and tell them something they could understand.

That is the problem with the Holy Spirit. Even though we have all been designed to have Him living inside us, none of us start out that way. Trying to imagine what we can expect is kind of like a man born blind trying to imagine a sunset. So, when Jesus tried to explain what they could expect, he said it like this:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5 )

Something is lost in translation. The word “remains” means to live in, permanently. “If a man lives in Me and I in him… he will bear much fruit.”

Grapevine

Grapevine (Photo credit: Wikipedia

Jesus’ fishing buddies would all have been able to “see it” when He talked about the vine (in this picture, the part growing straight up) and the branch (in this picture, the part that is attached to the vine and grows out to the right). Because that branch has the “life” of the vine flowing through it, it has lush, green leaves. When the season is right, it produces a couple of clusters of grapes. You can imagine how different the branch would look if you cut the connection to the vine, right? When we want to know what to expect from the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, “Picture what happens to a branch when it is attached to a vine.” When we are attached to Jesus, when we surrender in faith to Him and allow Him to do so, His life will flow through us and transform our lives, producing “fruit.”

But what do we have to do? How does the grape branch manage to produce the grapes? How hard does it have to work? How much does it have to know so it will do the right thing? Nothing! The fruit emerges naturally because it has the life of the vine flowing through it. Jesus said, “When you make your life in Me (His metaphor for believing fully in Him), My life will flow through you (His metaphor for the Holy Spirit.) And, He said, “you WILL bear much fruit.” How will you do so? By doing what a branch does.

But what does this “fruit” look like? Is this the part where I become the church lady? For a branch of grapes, the fruit looks like grapes. For a branch of pumpkins it looks very different. That’s because the design of the branches is different. Your fruit probably will not look like mine. But fruit from the Holy Spirit, like fruit from a branch, tastes good, feels good and refreshes those it is given to. When the life of Jesus flows through a person who has come to live in Him, Jesus causes that person to produce good things that restore and refresh others.

That’s what you can expect. Next time we’ll go deeper on what the fruit looks like.

What Can I Expect?

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A buddy of mine asked, “I hear so much about the Holy Spirit: Who is He and what can I expect if He comes to me?” The first answer is the Holy Spirit is God. He is the form in which God lives inside humans, enabling us to know God and respond to God. That’s the second answer. It’s kind of like this: Satellites send an invisible, wave of energy to your GPS device, that enables it to be a GPS, to become more than just a dead box of hardware and software. When the GPS gets the signal, it becomes fully alive, which means it is now able to operate the way it was designed to operate. God sends His Holy Spirit to those who will receive Him, so that we can operate the way we were designed to operate.

This is not some new change of plans for God; He has always had it in mind to do this. 700 years before Jesus, He told Ezekiel about His plan:

And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. … (Ezekiel 36:28)

God’s plan is to to put His Spirit in us and make us fully alive. Religion tells us to try harder to obey the rules. God tells us, “I will put My Spirit in you and cause you to live as I have designed you to live” (my paraphrase of Ezekiel 36:27-28). When we operate as we were designed to operate, we become fully alive. In other words, God’s Spirit is our life.

Jesus once shocked and startled people by saying:

“I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. (John 6:53b)

But then He explained what He meant. He said:

“Does this offend you? … The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. (John 6:61-63 – excerpts)

The Spirit of God, living in us – guiding us, empowering us, connecting us to God in real time – is our life. With Him installed, we become fully alive. With that idea in mind, chew on these other quotes from Jesus:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10b)

“…I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. … Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:16b-20 excerpts)

Obviously, my friend needed more of an answer than those short tidbits. And we will go into it further in future posts. But, if this is new to you, chew on it. It is the essence of the fresh bread of life. Perhaps if you chew on it, one day you will be ready to swallow it.

Who Can Fix It?

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Let’s go deeper into a statement from the last post: “Religion cannot work because nothing a dead man can do will restore him to life.  The only One Who can restore “dead” humans to life,  who can restore the flow of His Spirit,  is God.”  (See: The Futility of Religion)

Just under 10 years ago, NASA sent a robotic “rover” to Mars,

English: Artist's rendering of a Mars Explorat...

English: Artist’s rendering of a Mars Exploration Rover. Français : Vue d’artiste d’un Mars Exploration Rover (litt. « rover d’exploration martienne »). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

designed to receive transmitted instructions from earth, follow them, and prowl around on the surface of the planet.  But something went wrong with the operating system of the rover.  He could not communicate properly with the transmissions from Pasadena.  Let’s suppose, in that condition, the rover could still move around on the planet.  Even though he could do stuff,  there would be no way for him to do what the engineers who designed him wanted him to do.  Because the necessary communication was cut off, he would essentially be dead.  Suppose the defect that cut off communication also prevented the rover from using its solar battery chargers.  Maybe it couldn’t point the panels in the right direction.   Soon it would not only be dead to communication but also physically dead – out of power as well.  (This is not exactly what really happened; I’m tweaking the details to make an analogy.)  

Here’s the point: The rover couldn’t fix itself.  Communication with the engineers was dead.  Power was going to eventually be dead, too.  The only party that could accomplish the fix  was the engineers.  They observed the problem, diagnosed it, and initiated the process by which it was eventually fixed.

Using that analogy to illustrate our situation with God, our communication with God (His Spirit) has been cut off.  In that condition, there is no way for us to do what we were designed and intended to do.  We can roam around the planet and do stuff, just not the right stuff.  The Bible word, sin, simply means doing the wrong stuff.  We are “spiritually dead;” our communication with the “Engineer” is down.   As a result, we will also physically die, too.   We cannot fix that.  Nothing we can do will make His Spirit connect.    That’s the bad news.  The good news is that He has observed the problem, diagnosed it, and has initiated the process by which it may be fixed.  God said He would repair our operating system:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

PS: The name of the Mars rover?  Spirit!  Stay tuned…

The Futility of Religion

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Religion doesn’t work.  By ‘religion,’ I mean man-made attempts to get close to God and earn His acceptance by performing rituals and following rules.  We humans feel “something” is missing  We are wired to go looking for it.  Most have a sense that what’s missing is our connection to God.  We sense He is “out there“ somewhere, but we can’t seem to find Him.  We know the difference between good and bad, and yet we cannot consistently be good.  Religion is our human attempt to fix that emptiness and failure.  It seeks to fill the emptiness with ritual, such as chanting, singing, saying prayers, swinging incense and the like.  It seeks to repair the failure with lists of strict “do’s and don’ts” and punishments for those who screw up.  Every religion that I am aware of is a combination of those two elements.  People who strive to connect to God and to be good by following religion are usually sincere and well-meaning, but inevitably fail.

Why is that?  Let’s take it from the top:

God knows our connection with Him is broken.  It was broken from the beginning.  The first three chapters of the Bible (Genesis 1-3) form a powerful narrative that illustrates two profound truths:  1) We were created by God to have an intimate connection and relationship with Him that depends upon trust.  2) That connection is broken when we turn away from God and trust our own ideas.  Adam and Eve had an intimate relationship with God – they could hear Him and speak to Him, and they walked with Him in the “cool of the day.”   But when they doubted God that intimate connection was broken.

God designed human beings to be connected to Him by His Spirit.  Your computer is connected to mine by the internet.  My television is connected to America’s Got Talent by means of a satellite signal.  Your cell phone is connected to your Aunt Louise by an invisible cell signal.  All of these connections are possible because of the the equipment was designed.  God designed us to connect with Him by His Holy Spirit.  When you don’t have any cell signal, you say your phone is dead.  It still lights up, it still goes “boop” when you push the buttons, but it is dead. When God disconnects us from the flow of His Spirit, we are dead.  Our bodies work, our minds still work, but we are dead.  That’s why God said to Adam:

when you eat of it [i.e. when you doubt Me and disobey Me] you will surely die. (Genesis 2:17b)

Adam’s body didn’t die, his soul (his mind) didn’t die.  His connection to God died.  Since his original act of doubt and disobedience, all people have been born  with the equipment to connect to God, but without His Spirit.  We have been born dead.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— (Romans 5:12)

Religion cannot work because nothing a dead man can do will restore him to life.  The only One Who can restore “dead” humans to life,  who can restore the flow of His Spirit,  is God.   That is why Jesus said,

…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10b)

Guess how that “life” happens?    Stay tuned…

Jesus’ Zip Line

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Yesterday, the Big Thompson River, in Colorado, was ripping away lower portions of her house as a woman stood, helplessly, watching rescue workers assemble on the far side. She was stranded. There used to be a bridge, connecting her to the highway but it was submerged, and being disassembled by the angry waters. It’s worth watching the You Tube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b43XEfPXy6c . It shows a zip line being set up across the river. When all is ready, the woman is strapped in and hangs on as they drag her over (and a bit through) the torrential flow to safety. She’s scared, she’s wet and bruised, but she’s alive.

Question: What was her part in the rescue? Accepting it and hanging on, right? There’s a picture there of what it means to say that Jesus is the “Author and Perfecter” of our faith (Hebrews 12:2a) If you haven’t read that verse, check out “Keep the Faith – Part 4“. It is important to understand that Jesus reaches out to rescue us, that He is the One to set up the “zip line,” so to speak. Our part is to accept His rescue and to hang on. The woman had to trust her rescuers to strap her in and then to hang on. But what she was hanging onto was the equipment that they brought in, that they provided. Jesus brings faith to us and says, “Trust Me; Hang on.”

He gives us the faith and it is by that faith, that we hang on! Admittedly, that is hard to understand. Religion teaches that we must provide the effort, that we must do enough to rescue ourselves. But religion does not work. Like the woman on the far side of the river, there is no way we could do enough to affect our own rescue. That is why Jesus showed up and brought us what we need.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – (Ephesians 2:8

The woman who was held by and who held on to the river zip line was ultimately given more days to live. If you trust Jesus, if you are held by and hang on to His zip line, what can you expect on the other side of the river? It is eternal life, an intimate connection to God through His Holy Spirit.

Let’s begin a closer look at the Holy Spirit. Stay tuned. And by the way, please pray for us out here in Colorado. Over a foot of rain has fallen in some places near here and the devastation from the flooding is unprecedented.

Keep the Faith – Summary

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All followers of Jesus will experience tough challenges that will tempt them to abandon what they believe.  All of us.  All followers will wonder if following Jesus is worth it, whether they have been gullible.  All of us.  Jesus promised us that following Him would be tough, painful at times and would cost some of us our lives.  The key to enduring these trials is the same thing that connected us with Jesus in the first place: Faith.   He is the Author (the Inventor and Giver) of our faith and He is the Perfecter of it.

When – not if but when – you go through these challenging times, it will serve you well to read Hebrews 11 and 12, letting the truths contained in those chapters soak into your heart and encourage you.  That is why they are there!

A friend of mine blessed my heart the other day, when he said: “Worry is the fear that God won’t get it right.  Bitterness is the belief that God got it wrong.”  Nice.  And between worry and bitterness, in the place of peace, lies faith, the faith that knows, despite circumstances that seem to deny it, that, of course God will get it right!  

Keep the Faith – Good Question

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Somebody who has been reading these posts on faith asked a good question: “What if my suffering is God punishing me?” When we are tempted to turn back from our faith, is it always because we are experiencing some kind of attack? What if God is doing it to us? Let’s sort this out.

The last post, about keeping our eye on Jesus (See “Keep the Faith – Part 5“) did not go far enough. Here’s the next line from Hebrews:

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Heb 12:3)

Much of the suffering one experiences in following Jesus, comes from opposition from sinful men. Jesus clearly said:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. (John 15:18)

But there is another Source of some of the hardship we face as followers of Jesus. Some of it comes from God. But it’s not punishment, it’s discipline. Punishment is a penalty that is due for something wrong. Jesus took the punishment for all our sins; there is no further punishment due. Discipline, on the other hand, is correction for a tendency we have formed that is wrong. Discipline shapes us and steers us in a positive direction.

And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” (Hebrews 12:5-6)

Discipline is given to encourage us because we are loved. True, he uses the word, punishes, in that quote from Proverbs, but does so with the meaning of working to produce good in us. This whole passage is well worth chewing over, but here is another quote from it that makes the same point:

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:10-11)

See the difference? Hope that helps. My sense is that this is a question we all ask ourselves from time to time and it is good to get the truth of it, stated clearly, right from Scripture.

Keep the Faith – Part 5

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Sneaking out of North Korea is so demanding and dangerous, it is only attempted by a tiny percentage of people.  After one leaves family and friends behind, the route involves perilous travel through China, avoiding detection at constant identity checks, tramping through thick jungles in Laos and then enduring 2 months of detention in Thailand before being allowed to apply for refugee status in South Korea.  There are so many potential obstacles, so many ways to get caught and sent back for torture and possible death, that the odds are stacked heavily against those who attempt it.  That is also why there are former escapees who serve as guides (sometimes, but not always for a fee) to show new escapees which routes and techniques are safe.  More than that, they serve as living evidence that the path to freedom is possible and definitely worth it!  Imagine how encouraging those guides must be to the confused and frightened souls who are on the run to freedom.

The author of Hebrews has been exhorting people of faith, teaching us ways to keep our faith in times of severe testing.  One of his teachings says:

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

Jesus went first.  He showed us the way and how it is done.  He came back and said, “Don’t be afraid; it’s really worth it!”  He did it “for the joy set before Him.”

There is no joy in being crucified.  Crucifixion remains as one of the most painful and horrific ways to die.  The “joy set before Him” was not the cross but lay on the far side of the cross.  The “joy” was in the triumph over sin that was accomplished on the cross.

Some of you are enduring the pain of chemotherapy, scorning the “shame” of losing your hair, for the joy of being cancer-free.  Some of you are enduring the financial hardship and stress of working two or three jobs for the joy of seeing your children graduate.  Jesus invites us to “pick up our cross,” figuratively speaking, and follow Him.  He invites us to follow Him despite how tough or painful, or even shameful it may seem to be, for the joy of being “raised up on the last day” to live with Him in His new and perfect “garden.”  He said:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.”  (John 14:1-4)

When they asked Him where He was going and what was the way, He said:

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  (John 14:6)

Following Jesus is nothing less than a desperate escape from the world’s system of slavery.  Don’t be surprised or confused by how tough and scary it seems.  Keep your eye on your Guide.  He’s been there, “done that” and has returned to demonstrate that following Him is really worth it.

Keep the Faith – Part 4

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Let’s make a million bucks together; we’ll split it.  I’ll provide the idea; you do the graphics.  Let’s make a T-shirt with a picture of the screen of a GPS across it.  However, instead of the street arrow pointing to the next intersection, it points to the sandaled feet of Jesus, as He walks up the road ahead of us, leading us forward.  Then, below that picture, one word: “Recalculating!”  Nice, huh?

Hebrews 12:2, continuing with coaching tips for those who are struggling to hold on to their faith (this topic starts here), says this:

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  (Heb 12:2)

This tip builds on the previous one, continuing the idea of living life as a marathon race.  When you are running a race, you keep the finish line in mind to motivate you in the tough moments.  There is a real sense in which Jesus is our finish line!  Think about it…

But this verse also says He is the “author and perfecter of our faith.”  What does that mean?

The word, Author, means He invented faith, He brought it into being.  Ever ride a Segway? – those two wheeled “balancy” things?  Imagine getting on the prototype, the day it was invented, by Dean Kamen.  You get on it and It feels like it is  going to fall over.  What do you do?  You look over at Dean and say, “Am I doing this right?”  Same thing with the “Author” or inventor of our faith.  You keep your eyes on Him.  “Am I doing this right?”

The word, Perfecter, means the One Who brings faith all the way to its complete, intended conclusion.  Again, that’s Jesus.  These challenges we face in this life are used by Jesus to prepare us for a life in which faith, perfect faith, is the norm!  Keep your eye on Him, because He won’t quit working on you until you get there, until your faith is perfect, lacking nothing, complete.

… He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6b)

There’s a reason that people have teams as they participate individually in sports of endurance .  You can run farther, faster and better when you are running with a teammate.  If you are alone in a race, it helps to fix your eyes on a better runner, letting his example “lead you on” and motivate you.  In the marathon of following Jesus, as we struggle to hang on to our faith, it makes all the difference to

“fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.”

There’s more to this – too much for today.  Stay tuned.