Holy

 Sometimes we struggle with the concept of the Holy Spirit and look for evidence of the things He does. As we examine this concept, we are soon met with the idea that the Holy Spirit is the holy or dedicated spirit of God. We find that since creation, the Holy Spirit has been a part of the things that God and Jesus did (Gen. 1:2). He was the one who made things happen, turned chaos into order. When Jesus came to earth, His efforts were powered by the Holy Spirit, the spirit dedicated to praising God (Acts 10:38). We this find the statement, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." (Heb. 13:8) and understand that no part of the Triune God changes over history: while we understand their actions at various times as different, Their goal has always been intact. Some people talk about God being a God of wrath in the Old Testament and a God of love and peace in the New Testament, Yet God has the same intent throughout the Bible. He has been working to create a group of people who will live with Him forever and praise Him. In the Old Testament we see God as holy and pure; He punishes those who rebel against Him. The New Testament tells us the same thing. Moreover, some of the strongest warnings regarding the narrow way and judgment in the Bible come from the lips of Jesus (Matt. 7:14). At the same time, the New Testament certainly stresses God’s continuing love and mercy. In fact, it gives us the greatest proof that God loves us: Jesus laid down His life for our salvation (1 Jn. 3:16). This is culmination of what the Old Testament also reveals repeatedly about God’s love for us: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with lovingkindness” (Jer. 31:3 NIV). The same Holy Spirit that helped with creation and empowered Jesus will do marvelous things with the person who will allow it. Jesus promised His disciples, He would not abandon them or leave them empty, but they would receive help when He went away, Jn. 14:15-17. 

Prompted

 Most of us have never heard what we would consider a direct command from the Holy Spirit, or have we? The Holy Spirit communicate with us sometimes by causing us to realize something needs to happen about an unfolding situation, and we only need the courage to follow through. A woman told a story in Bible class one morning about seeing a man standing near the edge of an overpass with a distraught and confused look on his face. She remembered several news presentations she had seen about the struggles of those who had jumped while trying to commit suicide and survived; concern for this man caused her to pull over and walk back to speak to the man. A slender woman approaching a man who was likely suicidal - perhaps not the best choice for personal safety. However, she was able to talk with him and convince him not to jump until police arrived. The police detained him and this action saved his physical life. A part of their conversation was about how to please God and he said he was a believer. Her story reminds me of a similar event thousands of years ago. "Then the Spirit said to Philip, 'Go up and join this chariot.'" - Acts 8:29 (NASB) Like this woman, Phillip could have said, "No," but he did not. The result was the Holy Spirit used Phillip to provide a greater understanding and a relationship with Jesus. So far as I know, the man on the overpass has not yet become a Christian, but he now has an opportunity to make the decision to follow Jesus. Sometimes we don't ask the Holy Spirit to lead us, other times we don't recognize His prodding, but sadly, we often say "no" to His prompting. We must desire His guidance and then have courage to follow our understanding.

Effective Love

In societies today, we use the word "love" to describe many things and many levels of feeling. When Jesus spoke, He intended "love" to indicate more than thoughts, but actions. When we reach out to help other people with the same concern as for ourselves, we mirror God's efforts for us. In Biblical Hebrew, there is another kind of love — חֶסֶד (chesed) “steadfast love”, “kindness”, “faithfulness”, and “loyalty” — that is often tied to God’s character and the divine loyalty to keeping covenant promises. He loved us so much He came to earth and suffered a cruel sacrifice for us. How should this realization affect our view of other people? "And the second command is like the first: 'You must love other people the same as you love yourself.' All of the law and the writings of the prophets take their meaning from these two commands." — Matt. 22:39-40 (ERV)

Sharing

As far back in time as Moses, God's focused servants who had the Holy Spirit, have wanted this Spirit to be distributed to more people. This would mean they could be closer to God. Those who accept Jesus' gift, possess what Moses wished for so long ago. "Moses replied, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!" Num. 11:29 (NIV)

Mental pictures

Communication, verbally or otherwise, is essentially creating a mental picture in another person’s mind similar to the mental picture in the presenter's mind. In conversations, every sound we hear, motion we see, smell we detect, or touch we feel creates some part of a picture that develops in our minds. A mental picture appears as we piece together the inputs we receive and process them based on our past training and life experiences, as well as present emotions. Individual people arrange these information fragments in distinctive ways to form unique pictures; they may arrange them differently at various times. These pictures can differ slightly or significantly. A speaker can sometimes transfer a more complete representation of the picture in his mind with additional or more specific words, as well as other means of presentation. Many pictures are most easily communicated when compared to a presently known image. People with similar backgrounds and experiences may be able to exchange mental pictures more easily and more quickly. Mental pictures may represent images, ideas, concepts, conclusions, or understandings. Students bring this endeavor to a deeper challenge when they undertake examination of the Bible. The ideas and concepts mentioned in the Bible depend on creating revelatory pictures, since so different are the topics, attitudes, events, and commitments that surround us in the present day. These mental pictures gain a greater focus when one depends upon the indwelling Holy Spirit to clarify them. We need to depend on the Holy Spirit to do just this, clarify our mental pictures of godly elements in life. This is really the foundation of the question, "What would Jesus do?" A recent post mentioned that while the mental picture of death is not really a cessation of existence, but a separation of something. While alive, we may say “I am dead to that habit,” or "I am dead to that person". Physical death separates the body from an earthly existence, however spiritual death speaks of a separation from God. The opposite of death is life. Whereas death means separation to something, life means union with something. There is physical life, meaning all the systems of a physical body are functional to some degree and there is spiritual life, which means we have a union with God. This union was made possible because of Jesus’ sacrifice and is protected via the indwelling Holy Spirit. Heaven is a description of a place focused only on God, and inhabited by beings that exist to praise and serve Him. If a person is inhabited by the Holy Spirit while in their physical life, it might be accurate to think of them as being a bit of Heaven on earth. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us display godly actions towards others and display a bit of Heaven on Earth as we travel our unique independent spiritual journey to God. 

OLD AGE AIN’T FOR SISSIES

 “And even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; and I will bear you and I will deliver you”. - Isa. 46:4 A wise man once said, “Old age sure ain’t for sissies.” From the book of Ecclesiastes, it seems as though King Solomon would agree. He wrote of how the things we take for granted when we are young may cause us to lose delight in living when we’re old. Our eyesight grows dim - we start with reading glasses and then move to bifocals. Our hearing grows weak. We’re constantly saying “Huh?” to our spouses. We have time to sleep late, but we wake up early. Our hands start to tremble. Our desire for sex diminishes. Old age isn’t for sissies. We work hard to develop talents and abilities, but they disappear over time, even with practice. Our bodies just don’t work like they used to. Aches and pains are a daily reality, and morning stiffness is our companion every day as we get out of bed. Some parts of life can all be very depressing, and without God life can become meaningless. But with God, an older person can discover different things to occupy their time and challenge their minds. If they allow it, the indwelling Holy Spirit will encourage them each day along their unique individual spiritual journey. They can have the opportunity to help others in different ways. As one grows closer to the end of their physical life, there is wisdom, strength, joy, and the hope that when the body finally gives out, Spirit inspired physical life changes into the life God intended - in heaven with God.

Respond

As Jesus' servants, it is crucial that we try to respond to the Holy Spirit's promptings. When we accepted Him as our Savior, we also accepted Him as Lord, the ultimate controller of all we do. How doe we understand what our Lord wants? Perhaps we ask others for their opinions about what He might want, and they likely have opinions. When we consider the stated or practiced opinions of others, we must remember Paul's words to the searching Corinthians,  "So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit" - 1 Cor. 12:3 (NLT)  The best way to gather opinions about what Jesus wants is to consult his own words from scripture and ask the Holy Spirit to help us understand how the words apply to us in this time. As we read scripture, our minds may quickly become overwhelmed. These first words were spoken at a times far removed from today and to a culture that seems “different’ in the ways it valued people and interpreted concepts. We must, however realize that the people of the first century also struggled to understand some of the writings. Nonetheless, they relied on the Holy Spirit to help them understand the core teachings. The concepts written in scripture from God are greater than our greatest thought and are more complex than our most insightful moment can help us comprehend. But there is a promise on which we can always rely: the Holy Spirit will never lead us to say anything untruthful or unholy about God - as Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God convicts us of the truth, gives us insight into the truth, and empowers us to declare the truth. Confessing Christ as Lord indicates a heart full of faith, a testimony to God's grace, and is a declaration of our commitment to our Lord. The Holy Spirit unlocks our minds and empowers our hearts to confess Jesus as Lord!

Presentation

A person may quote the passage from John 16:13, "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come." But what did this mean to the disciples? Just like today, there were many religious authorities trying to convince people that their understanding of God's desires were correct. The difficulty is they had grossly misinterpreted what God wanted. One of Jesus' goals was to help people understand what God truly wanted from His people. When Jesus completed the sacrifice, He returned to the Father, but left the Holy Spirit within His disciples to continue the spread the truth about what God wanted. This indwelling Holy Spirit was the Spirit of truth. Today, we have this truth revealed, whether that truth was revealed through ancient prophecy, revealed through first century inspired writers, or revealed now. The Spirit is our assurance that we can know, understand, and apply the truth about Jesus. So when we hear true testimony, when people give true witness to Jesus, then the Holy Spirit is present, supporting that message, using that message to convict people of sin and bringing comfort from that message to those in need. When we speak the truth about Jesus, the Holy Spirit is present giving power to that truth. 

Unexpected

Have you ever experienced an unexpected life changing event in your faith journey? Did you sprint to take action to remedy this interruption in your life plans? Something like this happened to Joseph, Mary's husband. “But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’” Matt. 1:20 (NIV) One key to this verse is, "after he had considered this." What had happed to him was beyond unfortunate, but Joseph did not act hastily. Why would God allow this to happen to him, a law abiding man? He had waited so long, been so faithful. How could she do this terrible thing? I trusted her; now she can’t even admit the truth, to me. As Joseph thought it over, and according to their law, putting her away was the best way to handle the sticky situation. Then, his plans were interrupted again. “But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit’” (Matt. 1:20). Hmm, this still didn't make any sense. Apparently, Joseph had not acted immediately upon his impulse, but had created time and space in his life to hear from God. Through the angel’s message, Joseph discovered things were not really as they appeared. Though others would not understand the why behind his decision, Joseph would keep moving forward and make Mary his wife. This baby growing in Mary was part of God’s miraculous plan. The Son of God was coming to save us from our sin. So despite whatever fears Joseph may have felt, he chose to trust God’s plan. Life on earth is messy and very unpredictable. Returning to the first question, have you ever experienced an unexpected life changing event in your life? Perhaps there has been a time, as a Christian, you sensed a move God wanted you to make, the Holy Spirit was prompting you. But, it didn’t make sense to others, or maybe it didn’t even make sense to you? Yet, you trusted the Holy Spirit knew what He was doing. Now you look back and see the Spirit’s faithfulness to help you as you took one right step after another. Was Mary surprised by the actions of John the Baptist’s mother? Joseph and Mary’s took tedious steps to Bethlehem. more and more people knew their plight. Did they fully understand? No, they probably didn’t understand all of God’s plan, yet they chose to go the way He had revealed so far. Later, Mary is said to treasure these things in her heart. Unlike Joseph, we may not have an angelic dream, but we can resolve to follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance regardless of the opposition.

Trust

 Trust is sometimes a difficult feeling to develop. It is a feeling and it is one that begins with something from each person’s past and grows in some direction, either greater or lesser depending on words and actions experienced by each person. Some people have an approach of trusting anyone until they do something or say something to break that feeling of trust. Others, usually due to past broken events of trust, are very cautious to allow trust to develop. A large part of developing trust is the perceived risk in some way to a person’s safety and security. When two individuals meet or come in contact, each needs to develop a sense of acceptance and expectation of the other. This is sometimes most clearly visualized in children. The ultimate example is found in Jesus. What kind of trust must He have had when, "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil," Matt. 4:1 (ESV). There is a story about a man and his dog. Through time spent together, the dog trusted his master completely. In this story, the man was in a room in which the dog had never entered. When the door was opened, the dog sprang without hesitation to his master. The presence of his master overpowered any unforeseen dangers. Another story is told about a Father attempting to get his daughter to jump into his arms while he was standing in a swimming pool. While the little girl trusted her dad, his surroundings terrified her; she was afraid of something damaging her. Undoubtedly, she had been in bathtubs before, but this water source seemed much larger and more dangerous. She had done new things her Dad had asked her to do before, but this was different somehow. Her feelings of self-preservation overpowered the trust she felt for her dad. Although she had water rings on her arms, she needed coaxing and encouragement to take the step toward trusting her dad and setting aside her sense of self-preservation. When she set them aside an trusted her Dad, everything turned out fine and she enjoyed playing the water with him. Sometimes, our trust overpowers our our sense of self preservation. These are two examples of entities depending on trust. Trust allows us to move past unknowns and insecurities into better relationships with God and the Holy Spirit. It is true, there are many things about God, the Holy Spirit we are not capable of understanding. But is we read scripture and learn to trust Him, we should not be afraid to step forward when we understand He requests it. Whether we think of the Father, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit as one greater than us, LORD, in Proverbs 3:5 applies, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding". (NLT)

See, hear, act

Sometimes one can find themselves opposed by a person or group of people whose objections make little rational sense. When these times are driven by emotional opinions and diatribes, they may be little that can be done to make one’s rebuttal. These times can display an attachment to present satisfactions with no concern about future implications. Paul once found himself in such a position with those who were attached to the Jewish law in efforts to please God. Instead of presenting a united case against what Paul was saying, they began disagreeing and arguing with one another. In such a situation, there is little more to be gained with rational discussion until calm can be gained. In this discussion, the people began to leave the discussion. Because of his concern about his ethnic brothers, Paul made a final statement to prompt them: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet: “‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”- Acts 28:25-26 (ESV) This should prompt us to realize that many times the things God says through the Holy Spirit are not easily grasped. God’s ways are not the  ways we might readily accept. While God’s ways are ultimately best; adopting them may take some time to fully integrate them into our practices. We must attempt to grasp God’s word and rely on it for our actions. We must “see” it, or realize it; we must “hear” it, or put it into practice.

Hated

 Generally, people do not like to be corrected, that is, revealing their wrongs and guiding them to better practices. This is rejection, non acceptance. Bible students can be quick to point out that in scripture, "hated" may really means "loved less."This is highlighted in God's example of Jacob and Essau (Mal. 1:3; Rom. 9:13). However, in some cases nonspiritual "hated" means more than "loved less." And with such opinions come ramifications. [Jesus said,] "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause,’" - Jn. 15:18-25 (ESV). Jesus makes a profound observation in this passage which is, if He had not come to clearly explain their sin, the people could not be held accountable. Because Jesus was rejected, his disciples will also be rejected to various extents. Today, when Jesus' disciples follow His instructions to take the faith with them “as they go” (Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 8:4), they may not face rousing welcome, but face rejection or persecution, hardship, and hatred because of their faith. They need to know that they are not alone. Heb. 12:1 speaks of believers being surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. Further, confident believers need to realize it is not them personally being rejected, but because they stand for Jesus’ principles they are rejecting these and being distanced. Jesus also faced these things as did other Christians before us have faced these things. Believers are accompanied by a God who lives inside them via His Holy Spirit and promises never to leave them or forsake them. Jesus' disciples must not take their mistreatment and persecution personally; they're not being rejected, but God, His will, and His grace are being rejected. As Jesus' disciples, we need to be faithful, and our testimony will affect other people in some way. Hopefully, because of our faithful actions, others will share the victory crown of life that awaits us!

Witnesses

 Every day our lives, we display a witness of something, whether joys or tragedies. In most cases, we can choose what that witness will be by deciding how to act, or attempt to act. When adapting our response to the things that happen around us and to us, we must remember that we have experienced God's saving work and are experiencing sanctification. We have been adopted as His children. We have the Holy Spirit living within us and can expect a mighty deliverance in the future. When we consider these blessings, how can we remain silent? Our lives will testify to our trust in His guidance. Yes, we experience daily challenges, but contemplating our present status via being indwelt by God, the Holy Spirit and our future home, should overpower feelings of discouragement, bitterness, or pessimism. We need to display our confidence in the God who raised Jesus from physical death. He is our Savior and he has set in us a deposit, promising to always love us. We should remember that besides the Holy Spirit inside us, Hebrews 12 reminds us we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses for our encouragement and 1 Peter 2 reminds us that we are here as witnesses to "declare the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light." And Isaiah also reminds us about Jesus, "I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior.  I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and I am God.” - Isa. 43:11-12 (ESV).