The Holy Spirit of God

05/01/2012

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Today in my personal time of Bible study, I was compelled to write down all of the ways that I can find that God tells us in scripture that the Holy Spirit is (or should be) active in the lives of Believers.  I tend to focus on one or two of His qualities and neglect others, but this is not the way I want to live and it is not the way I was designed to live.  The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit is God Himself, present and active, enabling believers to do whatever God asks of us.  Here is what I've uncovered so far:
 - The Holy Spirit lets us know what God's will is for us.  "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all 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."  John 16:13 NIV
 - The Holy Spirit guides us into all Truth, teaching us Truth and reminding us of Truth.  "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." John 14:26 NIV   "He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.  All that belongs to the Father is mine.  That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you." John 16:45-15 NIV
 - The Holy Spirit helps us when we pray. "In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will." Romans 8:26-28 NIV  "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.  Ephesians 6:18 NIV
 - The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God in our lives like a sword.  "Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God." Ephesians 6:17 NIV  "For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Hebrews 4:12 NIV
 - The Holy Spirit's presence in our lives is reassurance of our salvation.  "Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.  He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 NIV
 - He gives us the ability to understand spiritual things and to live counter-culturally when necessary. "We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.  This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.  The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.  The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: 'For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?' But we have the mind of Christ."  1 Corinthians 2:12-16 NIV
 - The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to say no to our natural sinful tendencies.  "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.  For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law." Galatians 5:16-18
 - The Holy Spirit produces Christ-like qualities in our lives.  "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law."  Galatians 5:22-23 NIV
I want to know God's will for my life!  
I want to know what is True and be reminded of it when I forget!  
I want help to pray when I don't know how to pray! 
I want the Word of God to make a difference in my life and help me discern my true motivations! 
I want to have assurance of my salvation! 
I want to understand spiritual things and have what it takes to live out my convictions even when it is hard!
I want to be able to reject the sinful tendencies in my life!
I want my life to be full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control!

Apparently what I really want is to embrace the reality of the Holy Spirit of God living within me!  "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." Galatians 5:25 NIV
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Offer your best, let Him decide how to use it

03/09/2012

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This is a picture of a painting by Domenico Feti, titled "Ecce Homo" (Behold the Man).  I am not an art enthusiast by any stretch of the imagination.  I can appreciate the talent, time and craftsmanship that go into creating a beautiful work of art, but I am not trained or wired in such a way to pick up on the subtle nuances that differentiate good art from great art.  I just know what I like.  I know what moves me. 

In the early 1700's a man by the name of Nicholas Zinzendorf visited an art museum in Dusseldorf, Germany and first laid eyes on Domenico Feti's painting of Jesus Christ.  Underneath the painting were the words, "All this I did for thee, what hast thou done for Me?"  The depiction of the face of Christ in this painting stayed with Zinzendorf, and Christ's love and sacrifice became the compelling force of his life.  He went on to pastor a single church that sent out more missionaries than the whole Protestant church had done in the previous 200 years!  His church had three members on the mission field for every one sitting in the congregation on a Sunday morning.  Zinzendorf also expressed his appreciation and devotion to Christ through a life of prayer, spending countless hours in prayer and seeking to lead others to commit to prayer as well.  His example led his church to begin a prayer movement called "hourly intercession" where they prayed in shifts, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the work of Christ around the world.  This went on uninterrupted for over 100 years!

When I read about this story (in Henry Blackaby's, Called and Accountable), what struck me far more than the exciting things that happened in Nicholas Zinzendorf's church, was the faithfulness of Domenico Feti to create a work of art and put it out there for the world to react to.  If Feti hadn't pursued his calling as a gifted artist, Zinzendorf's heart would not have been captured that day at the museum. Today, I am thankful for artists of every variety - painters, writers, sculptors, inventors, movie-makers, actors, musicians, illustrators, glass blowers, dancers, singers, song writers, designers, architects, and all the rest.  Your work does not have to be perfect!  If you will put it in His hands and let Him decide how to use it, you never know what impact it may have on the world.  Be true to your calling, whatever it may be and do all things with excellence, but don't let your own insecurities or perfectionism keep you from putting on display that which God has given you to give to the world.

Matthew 25:19-21, "After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.  The man who had received the five talents brought the other five.  'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents.  See, I have gained five more.' His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant!  You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.  Come and share in your master's happiness!'"


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Pale Blue Dot

01/24/2012

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It’s the twentieth anniversary of the famous “pale blue dot” photo – Earth as seen from Voyager 1 while on the edge of our solar system (approximately 3,762,136,324 miles from home). 
Carl Sagan: "Look again at that dot.  That's here.  That's home.  That's us.  On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.  The aggregate of our joy and suffering... every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds."

Carl Sagan describes this so eloquently and hits the nail on the head at how inconsequential we people and our grand ideas and notions are in comparison to the vast universe.  AND YET - Today I am reminded to think about the God who created that universe, and yet loves me "this speck upon that blue dot" so much that he knows how many hairs are on my head.  UNFATHOMABLE.  INDESCRIBABLE.  I stand in AWE.

Genesis 1:16-17 -  "God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.  God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,  and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good." 

Psalm 19:1-3 - "The heavens are telling the glory of God, their expanse declares the work of His hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech, and night after night they tell us what they know.  There is no place where there is speech where their voices are not heard." (paraphrase)

Matthew 10:30 - "And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." - Jesus of Nazareth, The Christ

This blog post was inspired by:  http://blog.jmlynch.org/2010/02/13/pale-blue-dot/ 


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LOOK CLOSER.

09/01/2009

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I took a wonderful hour and a half long walk today around my new home town.  I soaked it all in - the sights and the sounds, even the smells (when I walked past the coffe shop, anyway).  I was looking for the good... and I didn't have to look far to find it.  I took this picture when I looked up underneath a big beautiful tree that was shading the sidewalk I was on and realized that it was loaded with apples.  What a wonderful surprise!  When you look for the good in life - you can usually find it.  It isn't always obvious, sometimes you have to look up, or under, or behind, or through something else to find it, but you can be confident that it is there.  On those occasions when the good is hard to find, it is helpful to remember that... that IT IS THERE regardless of whether we happen upon it or not. 
I was reading through James again recently and I stopped in the first chapter in verse 13 which says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil and He Himself does not tempt anyone."  I looked up that word "evil" in the original Greek and was surprised to find that it means "what is worthless."  God cannot be tempted by what is worthless.  Hmmm.  Of course he can't!  He defines what is of worth, what is good. 
I think back to childhood days when an older child in our neighborhood would get a kick out of offering a penny to a younger child in exchange for his dime... the youngster would greedily look at that penny, note its unique color and how it was so much bigger than the dime, and would inevitably agree to the trade, having no clue he had just given up something ten times as valuable as what he received. 
How many times in life have I made a similar trade... not with money but by exchanging something much more valuable... time with my family or loved ones, the opportunity to share my faith with another person, time to pray or study the Word, time to serve others an dmeet their needs... I guess sometimes as humans, we fail to see the worth that God has instilled in these simple activiites... they don't look as "shiny" or "big" so we exchange them for something we think is better when all the while, we've been duped!  Let's look for the good... it is WORTH it!
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