Tag Archives: Holy Spirit

No Doubt

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I was halfway out to my car at the end of a long day.  I thought, “Did I lock the workshop?  Better go back and check.”  I knew it was locked, but I couldn’t get past the feeling of doubt that was seeping into my mind.  I went back and shook the door; it was locked (of course…).  Turned around and went back to the car.  But something inside my head was going, “Are you sure?  Maybe it just seemed locked…”  Did you ever find yourself doubting something you knew was true?  It’s okay; you don’t have to raise your hand.  I think most of us have had moments of doubt like that.

John was a man who had walked with Jesus, saw Him die, and who spoke with Him after his resurrection.  Now, perhaps as much as 40 years later, with the wisdom and perspective that only come to the elderly, he observes some troubling changes in the body of believers.  He could have scolded them, tried to lay down the law.  But John knew that if he could solidify some of the basic truths in their hearts, help them turn away from doubting things they knew to be true, that the Holy Spirit would keep them on track.  So he writes a kind of song to the believers – to the ones newest in the faith, to those who are in their most robust years of living out their faith, and to those who have grown old in the faith.

To the newest believers, he writes:

I write to you, dear children,

because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. (1 John 2:12)

When someone says, “I forgive you,” even though it is a relief, we more or less assume that they haven’t done so completely, or that if we did the same bad thing again they would “unforgive” us.  That’s why it is so hard for new believers to truly understand that God’s forgiveness doesn’t work that way.  When God forgives our sins, they have been forgiven, all of them.  It’s over!  John knows that doubting that can undermine our understanding and experience of everything else about our life in Jesus.  John knows Satan knows that, too, and loves to tempt us to doubt.  So he nails it down for the children in the faith.  You are forgiven.

A bit later, he addresses the newest Christians again:

I write to you, dear children,

because you have known the Father.  (1 John 2:13c)

John knows how essential it is for us to understand that God – Almighty God, Creator of the Universe –  is our Father.  Jesus taught us by His example to approach God as our “Abba,” our Papa, particularly in times of great distress (Mark 14:36).

John “sings” to the new believer, reminding him (or her) that God, Who is their loving Father, has completely and irrevocably forgiven them all their sins.  He has not done so capriciously, but rather has accepted full payment on their behalf in the blood of His Son, Jesus.  “…your sins have been forgiven on account of His Name.”  

Maybe you have had some doubts about those basic truths.  Let John’s “song” sing to you.

Deep Lyrics

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How many people do you know who break into song when they are trying to teach you something?  Me either.  It’s pretty rare, I’d think.  But pretty cool, too. Hanging out with an old guy who did that would be pretty interesting.  Guy like John.   John’s been laying out all this astonishing stuff in his letter –  stuff about the Word of Life, the Holy Spirit, overcoming sin, and loving in a radical way.  Then, unexpectedly, he breaks into song!   Like most good songs, the lyrics are pretty simple on the surface but carry a mother-lode of deep meaning for the one who stops to ponder what they say.  Here it is:

     I write to you, dear children,
because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
     I write to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, dear children,
because you have known the Father.
     I write to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God lives in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.  (1 John 2:12-14)

Don’t be fooled by how apparently simple this is.  Chew on it and try to tease out what John is trying to  sing/say…

What’s Your Gift?

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When the Bible talks about a “gift of the Spirit,” it might sound all spooky and hocus pocus to you.  You might wonder if it involves flipping into a trance and exhibiting weird behavior.  But, in reality, the Bible explains what a spiritual gift is in pretty down-to-earth language:

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:7)

To put that in other words, everyone who has the Spirit living in his or her soul (i.e. everyone who has trusted Jesus) will begin to show the evidence of that Spirit, as He begins to transform their mind, emotion and will (the soul) from the inside out.  Romans 12:2 calls this process being “transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  The evidence of those changes are “the fruit of the Spirit.”

Each of us has been designed by God to show (manifest) the influence of the Holy Spirit in a particular way.  We do not all have the same “gift.”

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:4-5)

Each of these unique “gifts” do have something in common, however: they serve the common good (of the body of believers).

Paul goes on, in verses 6 through 8, to  illustrate some of the possible ways this gifting will look, such as wisdom, strong faith, leadership, etc.  This is not an exhaustive list, just examples.  However the Spirit transforms what you do in a particularly effective and helpful way is your gift.  Those gifts call attention to Him, not you.  Paul says, when you find your gift, use it!

I know someone whose gift is to provide a calming influence in meetings in which several strong opinions have been expressed.  It is amazing to watch the Holy Spirit work through that man.   I know someone else with the gift of making brownies.   If you ever tasted those brownies you wouldn’t wonder if that was really a spiritual gift.

So, what’s yours?  When you open a Christmas gift, it is fun to experience the anticipation, the surprise and the joy that follows (assuming its not a tie…).  If you keep it simple, “unwrapping” your gift from the Spirit can be a lot like that.  Enjoy!

The Holy Spirit in a Flood

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If you have wondered why these posts have been more intermittent lately, it is because our church in Lyons, Colorado, has been greatly affected by the horrendous flooding.  There is much to be done.

Here is a first-hand account from one of the women in that church, a vivid example of how it looks when the Holy Spirit lives inside us.

http://www.therivercolorado.blogspot.com/

If you would like to help with flood relief, please visit this home page for The River Church:

http://www.therivercolorado.org

Thank you.

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…

What Faith is For

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The guy that picked me up hitchhiking told me to believe in Jesus so I could get cool stuff. He said, “See them ‘tahrs?’ They’s ‘wahd’ oval ‘tahrs’.” (I’m guessing he was from Alabama)  He said, “Ah prayed to Je-us-suhs for them ‘tahrs’ and he gave them to me. You should believe in Je-us-sus…” And on and on.

I wasn’t ready to believe in Jesus that day.  But even so, I could tell there was something fishy with his theology.  I remember thinking that even if Jesus had given him the wide oval tires, this guy has probably missed the point. Them ‘tahrs’ is probably worn out by now.  Is that what having faith is for –  so we can get cool stuff, or do cool stuff?  People get that idea reading things like this:

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea ’; and it would obey you.  (Luke 17:5-6)

At first it sounds like Jesus was saying if you have pure faith, even tiny pure faith then you can get or do cool stuff.  That’s the way it  supposedly works with the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus.  But that’s not what Jesus was implying.

If you look back in Luke, you’ll see Jesus had just taught the disciples that they should be willing to forgive someone who sins against them, apologizes but then goes and does it again – seven times in one day!  Jesus was teaching His disciples to have the faith to live by His reality, His teachings, even when they seem to be ridiculous or impossible according to the world’s notion of reality.  The world says you are a sucker to be so forgiving.  Jesus says, “Trust Me on this, it’s better to forgive.”

So their response is, “How can we increase the strength of our faith ?”  And Jesus uses an outlandish exaggeration (moving a tree with faith as small as a mustard seed) to teach them that it is not the size or strength of their faith so much as it is the Source of their faith that matters.  Faith is in God; God supplies the power to accomplish His will.

Remember, faith is given to us by God, and connects us to God. (See: “The Source of Power in Faith“) By faith, His Spirit lives within us and works to conform our thoughts and motives to His ways.  Connected with God, living in harmony with God, forgiveness extended to the repeat offender not only becomes possible but also makes sense!  Same thing if God shows you He wants a tree moved or wants  you to get a new set of ‘tahrs.’

One Plus Two Equals One

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… or at least that is what we’ve been told.  God is One and God is Three.  He exists in three Persons, the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  But explanations of how three can equal one usually fall short.  People resort to tortured analogies (“It’s like three sides of a triangle…”) that don’t really help.  It’s a lot like asking a software engineer to explain what he does for a living.  Beyond answering you with “techno-speak” (“I manage the cloud-based infrastructure of network algorithms…”) your engineer friend is hard pressed to help you really understand.

The Bible explains the mystery of three in one by focusing on Jesus’ part in it.  Like this:

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being,  (Heb 1:3a)

No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only (i.e. Jesus), who is at the Father’s side, has made him known. (John 1:18 – with my added explanation)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.   (Col 1:15)

God is invisible to our limited human senses.  Even if we could somehow see Him, we would not be able to understand what we were seeing.  But Jesus, these verses say, is an exact representation of Who and What God is, given to us in a form we can understand: human form.

My favorite (and somewhat tortured) analogy begins with a desktop computer.  If you look at your computer, what you see is really just its case, not the actual computer.  You open it up and look at the circuit cards inside and you still cannot see any computing going on; you don’t have any way of knowing what it is doing.  What “it is doing” happens at a microscopic level, the invisible flow of electrons and “holes” (whatever those are…), in complex patterns, and at the speed of light.  Even if you invented special goggles that enabled you to see that flow of energy, you still couldn’t make any sense of it.  Balancing your checkbook would look very much like a game of Angry Birds.  Nevertheless, this invisible computing process is being done for you!   But there is no way for you to take advantage of it unless the process is somehow translated into a form you can see and understand.

That is why your computer has a monitor.  When you turn on your monitor, voila!, it translates the invisible and inscrutable flow of energy in the desktop unit into words and pictures that you can understand.  Assuming your desktop unit is connected correctly to your monitor, the monitor is the “exact representation of” the computer’s “being.”  The monitor has “made the computer known.”   It is the “image of the invisible” computer.  That’s why, when you talk about your computer, you are referring to all three parts of it as one thing – the processor, the monitor and the connection between them.  Like God: The Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Who is the wireless connection between the Father and Son!).

If you follow all of that, perhaps it will give greater understanding to these words of Jesus:

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. (John 14:9b-10)

Does that make it clearer?  Two plus One equals One.

Eating Jesus…

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When Jesus called Himself the Bread of Life (See, “Free Food, Free Drink”), He took it a step further.  He said you have to eat Him!

 Jesus said to them, “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.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”  (John 6:53-54)

Yuck!  Sounds disgusting,   Did Jesus really suggest He would be the main course at the cannibal feast?   We can figure out what He really meant by comparing what Jesus said just a bit before those shocking words.  This quote is almost the same as the second sentence above, except for the words, “looks to and believe.”

“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40)

See that?  “Eat my flesh…” replaces “looks to and believes…”   Therefore, we know that Jesus used “eat my flesh” as a vivid metaphor for believing. 

When you think about it, so do we.  We say “I swallowed what he told me,” to mean that we believed what he said.   When you swallow something you come to a personal moment of decision and surrender.  It is an act of faith.  You believe it will be better if you move something from outside you to inside, where it will become absorbed into your life.  That’s what Jesus meant:

 “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood (i.e. whoever believes and takes Me in) remains (makes his home) in me, and I (make My home) in him.” (John 6:56 – with my added explanations.  

The word “remains” is a Greek word for living permanently, making ones home in, or abiding.)  When Jesus makes His home in you, His life comes to life within you.  Because His life is eternal, you have (present tense) eternal life.  His, eternal life, living in you by means of the Holy Spirit, is the consequence of your personal, voluntary, decision of faith to “swallow” Jesus!

Chew on that!  

Free Food! Free Drink!

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Years ago I worked for a couple of days at a fundraising concert for the US Ski Team.  Among the perks for the workers at that event was free skiing and free gourmet food and drink, served at a large, covered pavilion, halfway down one of the ski slopes.  We would ski up to this big tent, show our passes, go in and chow down on some of the tastiest food I’ve ever eaten.  Here’s a question for you:  If you could get invited to that, would you go?  Me too!    Here’s another invitation.  This one is not hypothetical; it’s real and your name is one the card:

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy  and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on  what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.”  Isaiah 55:1-3a

Isaiah gave advance notice of that party; Jesus delivered the invitation:

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.   John 6:35

Can this be for real?  God said it again:

He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.  He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.   Revelation 21:6-7

Okay, then – how do I sign up?   Isaiah included the instructions for your RSVP:

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.  Isaiah 55:6-7