spontaneous and set

A kind of curious thing has been going on in my thinking lately. On the one hand those of us in Jesus are led by the Spirit. As Jesus told us, we're not to think about what to say ahead of time in the event that we face an hour of persecution. The Spirit will give us words to say then. But also, of course, we have Scripture, the word of God given to us in many words.

Add to this the witness of the church. There is no faster growing segment of the church growing than the Pentecostal, charismatic side of it. There surely are some secondary factors, but I believe the primary reason is because of the power and working of the Holy Spirit. These churches are purposefully more open to the Spirit, whatever we might say about all their doctrine and theology and practice. At the same time we see a resurgence in the church for an appreciation of liturgy. The Book of Common Prayer from which I have been taking a prayer from weekly is one prime example.

I am becoming more and more convinced that we need both. We need the freedom, spontaneity and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I believe in all the gifts of the Spirit for today, though how they work out in local congregations will vary. And I believe everyone in Jesus strictly speaking is a charismatic Christian already, having the gift of the Spirit, whether or not they believe in or practice any of the gifts that are more common in Pentecostal, charismatic circles. We also need every word of Scripture to be received as God's word to us. And we need the witness of the church now and through the ages. What the church has said and written does matter, even though all must be critiqued in view of God's word. But the critique itself includes not just each one of us, but the church together, necessarily, and with the help of the Spirit. We can benefit much from written prayers and liturgy, helping us to pray, even as Jesus taught his disciples and us to learn to pray -through a set prayer.

The Spirit can work powerfully through both, and the best way for us to live in Jesus is to include both the spontaneous and the set. Of course the bottom line is learning to love God and love people through following Jesus. And sharing the gospel by living it out, as well as giving a verbal witness to it. In all of this God is at work in us through Jesus as the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

We know we woefully fall short, yet to recognize and acknowledge this can help us to look to our only Redeemer, Savior and Lord: God through Jesus by the Spirit. The work begins in us and then out from us to others.

What would you like to share about this, or any thoughts?

we together in Jesus: God's dwelling

And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Ephesians 2:22

In context this is speaking of God's inclusion of the Gentiles or all other people, with the Jews because of Jesus' atoning work, through faith. Revolutionary in its day, most of us take this for granted now. Though we don't live out its implications all that well, it seems. We would do better by demonstrating to the world on Sundays that nationality and race are beside the point; that our unity is in Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit, one new humanity in Jesus.

What about those in Jesus with whom we either disagree or have had our differences with, sometimes to the point of separation? This happens, as we all know. We know in part and we have differing perspectives. Differences are bound to come, and sometimes they seem irreconcilable at the time. And maybe are.

This verse hit me yesterday. God is at work to dwell in all of us in Jesus, as his holy temple, where he lives by his Spirit. We are being built together to that end.

Though again this is simply speaking of the new humanity being built together consisting of all peoples, Jew and Gentile, I think ramifications include working through conflicts and differences. Each of us in Jesus are part of this holy dwelling of God. We need to remember that, and proceed from there when we think about making every effort to keep the unity given to us in Jesus, by the Spirit, through the bond of peace (Ephesians 4).

What would you like to add here?

preview of study of book and keeping God's commands

Next week we begin a study of Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg's book, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith. We will take a chapter at a time each week, but may remain in a chapter more than one week, as I want to keep these posts as short as possible. We certainly can't cover every detail of the entire book.

What I like about this book is that it opens up for us a world that we little know and understand. At least a few of us have heard somewhere that there is now a scholarly consensus that the New Testament in our Bibles, including the gospels (Matthew through John), and Paul's writings along with the rest are basically and essentially Jewish to the core. The way we can best understand them is through the Jewish world they lived in, including the Jewish Scriptures (our Old Testament) that they were steeped in.

What I also like about the book is its emphasis on putting the truth we learn from this and from Jesus from our minds to our hearts and feet (lives). This can help us not only appreciate the Old Testament anew and afresh, but better enter into the world of the New Testament and see it more clearly.

In going through 1 John recently (and this is evident in James as well, which I'm in now) one of the things that struck me (and is also evident in the gospel of John) is the emphasis on God's commands, and in the importance of keeping them. In our Christian heritage I have frankly found and still find that grace means to many that we're always going to fall short of keeping God's commands. Or at least that this should not be the focus of our lives, but rather of God's forgiveness to us in Christ and our hope of complete change in the life to come. Good, but Scripture holds up more for us in this life.

This thought to me is surely at least in part a byproduct of having read and reread this book about the Jewishness of our faith. Keeping/obeying God's commands is central to our existence as God's people in this world. It's not that we're going to do so perfectly, or that we will be sinless, but by God's Spirit we will be working out this salvation we have in Jesus with fear and trembling, from God's work in us.

Certainly command keeping as part of what is important for us in the life in Jesus will keep us humble, yet pursuing and pressing on to God's highest for us individually and together in Jesus and for our witness to the world.

Do you have a copy of this book? Even if you can't get access to one, please follow along in our study. I think it will be fun as well as challenging in a way that won't leave us the same afterwards as we encounter God through his word to us in Jesus.

What thoughts would you like to add here?

news

Paying attention to the news is complex since reporting is always subjective, even when trying not to be. What is reported and left out, and how people on a given issue may differ, all these play out and are heard differently by each of us.

I agree with John R.W. Stott that Christians need to be both in God's word/Scripture, and in God's world, which includes the news. It is important that we try to get some idea of what's going on, and who is thinking what. We do well to listen well to others. But in all of this we need to be those who are in the word and prayer, so that we can have discernment. And we must be humble in all of this, because Christians of equal conviction and learning are often going to disagree on key issues. Though the ninety-nine percent we do agree on can all but get lost in the shuffle over the one percent we don't agree on.

What is crucial as we take in the news is the paradigm out of which we are evaluating it. The question we need to ask ourselves is: Just how Biblical is my paradigm? Do we see all in light of the kingdom of God come in Jesus, in terms of the gospel of God's reconciling grace in Jesus, and according to the God who is love and has sent his Son in love for the world? Or do lesser factors determine much of our thinking in regard to this? Though some such factors do have some value. We have to weigh all of that in the light of Scripture with the help of the Holy Spirit, not only by ourselves, but from others who will help us see more than we could see on our own.

We don't want to get drowned over much news. Some will want to take in more than others, of course. And we need to be those who are steady in God's word, and endeavoring to walk truer and truer in the truth as it is in Jesus. So that in Jesus by grace we can be more and more a part of God's work in this world.

What do you think of the news? Does it get you down? How do you evaluate it? Or do you simply avoid it? Is that good? Why or why not?

the human spirit

It's nothing short of remarkable just how quickly people pick up the spirit of another. They might not be able to pinpoint precisely what is going on with the other person- probably not- but they will have a sense about them which if uncovered, will likely be verified.

This is in part why it's so important for us to keep our spirits open before God, before the Spirit of God. When I say spirit, I mean something of the essence of who we are as far as what animates and moves us. And why we live; what gives us life.

Something in us as humans, made in God's image, surely directly corresponds to the Spirit of God. And it's not just about we as individuals and God. But we together with others, and God. Both.

And while the human spirit can overcome deprivations of the body, like lack of sleep (I'm too experienced in that one!), our whole human person, including our bodies, is important, even to help us in our spirits before God and others. Jesus needed his sleep while on earth, and so do we. At the same time, we can still do well when deprived of basic needs, up to a point. I remember now, Richard Wurmbrand's remarkable testimony about his deprivations while in prison for his faithfulness to Christ.

What do you find helps you in regard to your human spirit? Or what might you like to add here?

spirit

There are times in my life when all spirit seems gone, or flickering and near the end. By spirit I mean what drives us and gives us the impetus to carry on. Sometimes we may have felt like we've lost our way. Or that we've missed the way so badly in our lives, that there's little to no point in continuing.

But that's when something can kick in, something beyond me, likely in answer to someone's prayer for me. God puts something or someone in my path to awaken me to the reality that my life does have meaning, and meaning in everything.

Thank the Lord for the Spirit he gives us that gives us spirit as in life, to carry on, and hopefully complete what God has for each of us in Jesus during our lives here and now.

What might you like to add to this?

the Lord's help

It's always good to have a sense of the Lord's help. This has often happened to me before an unanticipated time when I would be asked to do something in the way of ministry, and just happened again for me.

It does leave one asking though why it is that often that sense of help beforehand is lacking. However at the end of many such times I can look back and sense that the Lord was present even if I did not know it then. Other times I just have to go on by faith, reminded often by my wife that God was indeed in it.

We don't always understand nor do we know exactly what is going on around us, though we can take by faith all that God has promised us in Jesus. We can be assured that God's good work will be completed in and even through us, as we endeavor to truly be both servants and friends of Jesus.

Simple, yet profound and powerful. Beyond us, but given to us in Jesus by the Spirit and in community for the world.

What might you like to share from your own life on this, or any thoughts?

do or die

There are certain times and places in life where one is at an either/or. Too often we would like to avoid such places, and negotiate life on our own terms. Yes, we want God's will, but we also want our own way. Of course the two don't mix.

Sometimes I'm especially weak, and "under it", "under the circumstances." But by God's mercy and grace I can come to realize that I can't afford to be "under it"- for the sake of others. No matter what I'm going through I need to rise above it, in Jesus by the Spirit, for others.

As Paul tells us in God's word in Romans 8, if we live by the flesh, or the sinful nature, we will die, but if by the Spirit we put to death the (mis)deeds of the body, we will live. By faith we either do the good works God has for us, sometimes under much duress, or we lapse into faithlessness, or a weak faith, which can hardly "take hold of God" in prayer.

I hope to be among those who after receiving God's promises, do the will of God- and then receive what God has promised! God grant us the grace and perseverance that by faith we may be counted in that number.

What might you like to add to this?

the Spirit's moving

Yesterday we had a powerful and for me convicting message from one of my very favorite chapel speakers, Doug Fagerstrom. From Acts 16 Doug shared with us how the Spirit directed Paul, stopping him twice in his tracks on the way to some special workings God was going to do. And then Doug shared with us how he and the seminary where he serves has gone through something like that, in the Lord's leading of them to help bring theological training into some needy places, in other countries and here.

I was gripped in hearing Doug speak, and intend to get the CD to relisten to it, as I think the Lord was speaking powerfully to us through his humble, seasoned servant.

It makes me wonder if I'm even much open to what God is doing and wants to do through the church we're a part of, as well as in my own day to day life. I do think there is an openness on my part at times, but I'm not enough in the stream of it.

A key word Doug brought out was that in this sequence of events, the word "we" is first penned in this part of the narrative of Paul's missionary journeys. God's work is to involve his people, working together in bringing the gospel and his love in Jesus to the world. This is how God works; he prepares someone, or something through someone somewhere, than someone else comes along from God to have something important to add. And this goes on.

So it's both a Spirit and cooperative endeavor in the work of God in Christ through God's people in this world.

What would you like to add to these thoughts?

correction concerning yesterday's post

On yesterday's post I made the mistake of stating that Jesus commanded his disciples to wash each other's feet, just as he had washed their's. Actually it is not a command, though it could be interpreted as having the force of a command. But not necessarily so. More like an "ought", that they should do that.

I picked that up from reading somewhere, as I recalled it, that Maundy Thursday was so named because Jesus commanded (maundy meaning command) his disciples to do this. Actually the command comes soon after, the command to love one another just as Christ had loved them.

washing each other's feet

I was raised in a Mennonite church in which we had communion only once a quarter, four times a year (from what I can remember). And every communion we also had foot washing. The ladies would go downstairs to do theirs, as they had to take off their stockings.

I still remember doing that, how it felt. Ceremonial, but thought to be in obedience to Jesus' command that his disciples should wash one another's feet, just as he had done to them.

This Maundy Thursday in which this command was given is a good reminder that we are to be servants of each other, in Jesus. We are to serve each other humbly in love.

This is something we are both to do, and what should be a way of life for us. This should become second nature. I doubt that Jesus was telling his disciples to have a special service maybe once a year, washing each other's feet just as he had done, to symbollize the importance of serving one another. Washing feet was something servants routinely did, but not "regular folk". So what Jesus did was powerful in that context and culture.

But we need to have that same spirit in helping each other in our day. In a way which demonstrates the love we have for each other, a love in which we lay down our lives if need be, and in spirit live that out daily. But something not forced, but lived out by the Spirit in our midst, something both given and received.

Do any of you have something you'd like to share on this?

daily manna

The Israelites were given fresh manna every morning, and a double portion to gather the morning prior to the Sabbath, for both days. Jesus tells them later that he is the true bread come down from heaven, which if a person eats will give them life forever.

I need to be in God's word daily, but of course that word comes to us in Jesus, who likewise is called the Word. In the temptation in the wilderness, Jesus told the devil that humans do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

In my experience I find that God has something fresh for me daily. But I have to get it; it normally doesn't just come to me. One has to do their part, taking what God has given and "eating" it. This involves a meditative pondering on God's word. And by faith drawing on the life I have in the Spirit through Jesus.

I am blessed to work daily among Christians who seek to live out the truth of God's word in Jesus. We fail along the way, but God's word is there for us in all things, for us in those times. I believe the connection between Spirit-Word and Community made by Amos Yong is a quite apt one. His writings are challenging, but I do get that much. We need God's Spirit to help us through God's Word- both Jesus, and Scripture- to live in Community, ultimately the Community of God found in the Trinity, and one in which we share together as God's people in Jesus and seek to live out together in and before this world.

What would you like to add to this?

bigger is not better

Yesterday, Deb and I finally played our third game of our new Super Scrabble Deluxe Edition. In the process of again rereading Scot McKnight's excellent book, The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others, specifically in the enlightening chapter, "A Society of Mustard Seeds," I mentioned to Deb that just maybe regular Scrabble, though smaller, and less explosive (as to the way you can get points) is better. Of course even a normal Scrabble game can be long, but each move is more significant than in the bigger version of the same. The verdict is still out for me on that one, as both are, one could say, different versions of the same game. And Scrabble has been "our game" over the years of our marriage.

In America it is nearly an accepted axiom that bigger is better. But not so according to Jesus. The kingdom of God does not work on or toward that basis. It's about humbly doing the little things well in loving God and loving others, in Jesus. From a parable of Jesus, a mustard seed, as Scot points out, does not become a mighty oak. Humble at its beginning, though becoming the largest of all the garden plants of Jesus' place and time. We must remember that unlike the world, God does not despise the day of small things. 

We may think our calling is small. But by grace to faithfully seek to follow Christ daily in every matter, to pray for others regularly, to do our part God gives us no matter how small it may seem, in God's eyes is highly significant. We must embrace our part and seek to grow in grace in it. God in Christ in the end by the Spirit is what counts. And we need to find our place in this great work of God. A work in which the last are first, and little is big.

What would you like to add to this?

the gentle breeze of God

After a day which I interpreted as the hand of God on me for needed discipline, a difficult day indeed, yesterday was quite the opposite. It was like a gentle breeze engulfing one and changing the atmosphere inside and out. The life-giving, life-changing, grace-filled presence of the Spirit of God.

We need the hard days at times. Sometimes we need a good glimpse at ourselves. Or we just need some discipline from the Lord's hand. Such days prepare us for better days. We are humbled and seek to be repentant and really live out a repentant life. That is all part of the work of the Spirit for us as well. God doesn't let us go by the wayside when we go off the way of Jesus. And this is not only a "me and God" thing, but involves fellowship in the community of God in Jesus.

So it was a wonderful day. Those two days contrasted side by side something for me to remember. Most days have their ups and downs. But regardless, I want to learn to live more and more in the presence of God. And just rest in that presence, while growing and continuing to meet the challenges that come before me.

Of course I won't arrive. I'll have other times when God needs to get through to me over something. In small ways perhaps daily. But I'm speaking of obvious wrongs which God brings to our attention.

The gentle breeze of God. We are thankful for "the disturbing and comforting presence of the Spirit of God." (The Holy Spirit, by F. LeRon Shults and Andrea Hollingsworth, 10)

What would you like to add to this?

come, Holy Spirit!

"I believe in the Holy Spirit." Part of the Apostles' Creed. God is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, as I understand it from Scripture is God's active Presence, Power and voice in the world. The Spirit bears witness through God's people to Jesus, as the Messiah and Lord of all, Savior of the world.

All who receive Christ, receive the Spirit, who indwells each believer individually and all believers together corporately. There is a sense in which the Spirit's greatest habitation is through God's people together. The Spirit makes us one in Jesus, part of our witness to the world.

The Spirit enables us to live a holy life. This is a reference to walking in the Spirit. We depend on the Spirit for our spiritual life breath, and for every holy desire from God through his word, Scripture. As we walk in the Spirit we live the life God has for us, the fruit of the Spirit becoming evident in our lives, especially in community. Of course that is interactive, we are not passive (not to say there are no times for passivity as in waiting on God). We depend on the Spirit, but we must walk or live out God's revealed will for us.

The Spirit "comes on" us to empower us for witness, filling us. We witness regardless, especially by our lives, but also by words, not waiting on any special feeling, while in much prayer. But there are those times when we have that sense of the Spirit on us to speak. We must speak, and we must listen to others so speaking. This is for the world of sinners, and also for God's people. The gifts of the Spirit are for each one in Jesus. The Spirit is on us to give us something quite special to do. So that it ends up being Jesus in us, and we in Jesus- doing a work. From a most humble, supposedly menial task that no one may see, to speaking before others, and many other works.

We in Jesus can grieve the Spirit and put out the Spirit's fire. And we need fresh fillings of the Spirit. I know I am empty. I need the Spirit. And we need the Spirit in our midst, as those in Jesus. The world needs the Spirit through seeing Jesus by the Spirit in us- in word and deed.

There is much to be said about the Holy Spirit. We need more of the Spirit. And we worship him, who is God. As the Spirit leads us to the Father through the Son. We worship the One Triune God forever and ever, beginning here and now.

Come, Holy Spirit!

what is this world coming to?

I grew up in a Christian setting influenced by the belief that the world would become worse and worse, then the Antichrist would come, God would judge- with the belief that the church is gone in all of this through the rapture (now I believe the church is present through that time of tribulation)- and then Jesus would return to set up the Millennial Kingdom.

I now hold to a more complicated view. The light in Jesus becomes brighter through the church, and this shows sin all the more for what it is. The Spirit of God being at work through the church, and perhaps in some way, in other ways throughout the world in reaching out to people. But God being at work in the new creation already present in Jesus, but not yet completed.

In that I see potential for the world to be better at certain times and places, maybe even overall with exceptions to that rule, but the need for final judgment against those opposed to God and God's will, as some in their quest for power continue to wreak havoc on people and on God's creation. As well, the need for both the redemption of Jesus accomplished at the cross and it fruit or result in the resurrection, to be completed in the reconciliation of all things to God and in that, the renewing, or new creation in Jesus.

This has to be worked out more in my theological thinking, but this is kind of where I'm at now, in a few as well as hurried words.

I wonder if any of you out there has any thoughts on this in reference to how you may have it worked out. Or anything to add.

joining with the others in prayer

I have noticed at certain times what I sense as a power in joining with other Christians in prayer for a certain person, issue or petition. It seems to please the Lord when we Christians join together for prayer, and the Lord gives us a sense of that pleasure or of his presence.

Of course this doesn't mean one can't pray with the help of the Spirit in power for someone or something, on their own. Nor does it mean that praying with other believers doesn't oftentimes involve struggle and feeling dry. I am thinking of occasions in which probably the Spirit has put it on the hearts of God's people to pray. Or when perhaps God is pleased because his people are uniting together in prayer for a common and good cause before him. These simple prayers of petition and of seeking to pray in the Spirit are then helped by the Spirit, and go up like an incense to God. To be answered in due season, that is, in God's time and in God's way.

This then takes us to just how the prayers are answered. There was a man at Prairie Bible Institute in Alberta, Canada, named Gordon. As I recall, he was at least a wealthy enough man, and was stricken with a rare disease which confined him, he could no longer walk. Gordon was an inspirational man to meet, and a man of prayer. He had it on his heart to pray for a mighty revival in Canada, a pouring out of the Spirit. I believe others in Canada at that time had it on their hearts to be praying in the same way.

I remember that the elders of the church there came together, surely at Gordon's request to anoint him with oil and pray over him for healing. They had unusual faith and power with God, and it just seemed certain that their prayers for Gordon's miraculous healing would be answered. But the Lord answered not long after, by taking Gordon "home" to be with the Lord. This was in the early 1980's.

The Toronto Blessing came in 1994 which I believe was a move of God, in spite of all the problems and faults among the believers in the midst of it. And the Spirit surely moved in other ways and places in Canada, including in our school, nothing new, actually, for it. I have nothing but profound respect for our (Deb and I's) old school Prairie Bible Institute, because of God's work there, a place from which many have went on to serve the Lord all over the world. I believe it's even better now than when we went.

To get in on a move of God, or what God is doing, we need to find out what God is evidently putting on the hearts of others. And even if it doesn't seem much on your heart at all, join in. I think you'll find that you're joining into something more than a human venture. Then look for God's answer, maybe not in ways asked or imagined.

What would you like to add to this?

the Spirit's teaching

From interaction with a friend and from a comment yesterday, I want to think a bit about the Spirit teaching us. Thomas gave this comment: "I think that people need to experience Jesus and The Holy Spirit. I know this is what I need. Yet it seems that there are few of us willing to lay down what we know in order to be instructed by The Holy Spirit." To which I responded: "...I think that work of the Spirit, while meant to bring to us clarity in understanding truth, will at...times prompt us in directions in which we really don't know where we're going, or we don't yet understand much to speak of, at all."

This doesn't mean that God doesn't want us to use our minds for most certainly he does. They are a gift from God and part of what makes us image bearers or Eikons of God. It does mean we must not lean (or even learn we might say- at first a typo but has truth), on our own understanding, and that involves faith. The Spirit through Jesus wants to teach us from the word (Scripture) and from and in the midst of life. This takes time, and it takes a commitment of faith on our part which is ongoing. This is especially crucial when we reach those points at where we're at a loss of what to think or what to do. Or maybe at points in which our faith is directly or indirectly being undermined, or challenged.

Do we trust God in Jesus? Do we trust the Holy Spirit? Do we believe God will help and guide us through everything, so that we can learn better to rest in him when we ordinarily would not? These, and more questions are important for us in our life in Jesus in this world. People need to see where our trust really lies: in God through Jesus. And this involves a commitment of faith in God through Jesus.

What might you like to add to these thoughts? Or, what have you learned in your own life about this?

a second wind

Yesterday I was tired as usual at work. Really haven't been getting enough sleep. Didn't get a nap like I like to when I got home, but seemed to pick up "a second wind" late in the afternoon into the evening, as Deb and I walked to the public library not far from our house to return some items and pay a fine.

This "second wind" reminds me of God's faithful working in my own life in Jesus. Often I am rather quite winded, and out of breath as far as my Christian life goes. But by the Spirit, God gives me that "second wind" to keep me carrying on, motivated to follow Jesus in this world with the community of God's people in mission. I notice that that is frequent. This wind seems to come through many ways. Sometimes a person needs more sleep. God does give his loved ones sleep. Sometimes it comes through the prayer of another. Perhaps it's just our Lord's intercessory work in prayer for us.

This is the Breath of God which not only puts us on our feet, but makes us want to do God's will no less, than helps us do it.

What thoughts would you like to add to this?