keep walking

This is a recurrent theme on my blog. It may have to do with finally settling in to a walk in God that is accepting of both where I'm at and however God is working in my life. Of course that all requires God's grace and help, as we most certainly can't do it on our own.

The Christian life is a walk with many turns and pitfalls. Of course it's likened to a race, as well. And a sojourn as strangers in the world, and as citizens of heaven. I like the metaphor of walk when thinking of the Christian life because it speaks so truly to life as it is.

God's word is called a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. And Jesus is the light of the world, in whose light we're to walk so that in Jesus we become, especially together, the light of the world. It is a walk in and through Jesus, following in the way of Jesus. In this world we are like him.

God's hand in Jesus is there to help us onto our feet when we stumble and fall. And then with a renewed dependence on God to keep on walking.

What would you like to add to this? What have you learned about this walk? Or anything you'd like to add.

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!

Pentecost Sunday

Tomorrow, or today already for many parts of the world is Pentecost Sunday. This is the day on which we remember the coming and outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the believers after Jesus' resurrection and ascension. Jesus from the Father baptizes the believers with and in the Holy Spirit. It is the birthday I take it of the Church, the Body of Christ in the world. It is the coming of the Spirit to empower God's people to be Jesus' witnesses all over the world. And to be Jesus' hands and feet, everything, Jesus' Body, present for each other, but to the goal of living as children of the light in the Lord which we are.

Of course it's personal: the Spirit is changing us who believe more and more into the resemblance of Jesus. And it's corporate: we're in this together as people of God in Jesus. We build each other up by the gifts the Spirit gives us. And it's missional: not for ourselves and our enjoyment, but to be Jesus by the Spirit, to the world, both individually and corporately as each of us prayerfully does our part in deed and word.

Pentecost Sunday. Oh how we need more of the Spirit in our lives. But let's remember also that we have the Spirit. Let's walk in the Spirit, learning to do so more and more. And be filled with the Spirit, speaking the truth as it is in Jesus, in love. This is why we're here; this is why the Spirit has come.

Be blessed in your worship tomorrow, as many of us and our churches celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit.

What does this day mean to you? What would you like to share with us on this?

walking worthy of God

Again, in hearing God's word this morning, I ran across the truth that in Jesus believers can walk worthy of the Lord in this life. What does this mean? Certainly not like any of us will arrive in this life, and never sin.

It is good to read passages that speak of living worthy in their context to see what is being spoken of. I do believe it means that by grace we can live as true followers of Jesus. Involved in that for us will be repentance, though what is evident in the passages is the new life lived out in this present existence. It is a life lived out from God's life given to us in Jesus by the Spirit. A life of the new creation, destined by God to make all things new, but beginning with us now. This is a life in the here and now that can actually honor the Lord. And is seen in some true measure in every child of God in Jesus in this life.

In our zeal to honor the message of the Reformation, that works are not a part of salvation, we can cut off the importance of works altogether. We're not declared righteous by our works in this life, but only by faith. But in the judgment to come people will be declared righteous or judged by their works, by the lives they lived. Of course such lives and works acceptable to God through Christ are possible only by faith. Our works by themselves are dead, but saving faith works through love, or else it is dead.

There is a difference in our lives in Jesus, but we must grow in this grace if we're to walk worthy of God in this life, and avoid falling into sin. It's of grace and by the Spirit. I personally am working on making as a habit of my life to consciously seek to walk by the Spirit. And then, as I do, good works through the fruit of the Spirit will follow.

Anyone out there who would like to shed some light for us in this matter? Or who may question anything I say here?

(The links are like end notes. They can be helpful, and in this case are links to passages of Scripture, which demonstrate I hope, the truth of what is being said here.)

new beginnings

There's a restaurant chain in our area called "New Beginnings". They have a large breakfast menu and I guess, emphasize breakfasts in helping people get a good start on their day.

Anyhow, I was thinking of this, this morning, just the idea of new beginnings. Each day in Jesus is a renewing. And the seasons in our lives change as well, for some who are single in getting married, for some married in losing their spouse, in other lives job changes, for others sickness. And then there are those beginnings important for us in making some breaks from what has kept us from following as closely to the Lord as we should.

In my own life I can point to some things that I think are less than good, or even sins. Sometimes we can excuse that or rationalize that which in God's eyes may not be pleasing to him. There are those times when we need to be hard on ourselves only as God helps us see what is wrong or less than helpful. We give it over to God through Christ, and let him take it, while we leave it behind and go forward in God's will for us.

This is related to my post yesterday about walking in/by the Spirit. I know I can only live this life in Jesus, and follow on, through the Spirit. I hardly know where I'm going or what's up next, or even what I'm leaving behind or the change I need. But that's not that important. What is important, I believe, is that I'm set to go, by the Spirit, in the direction God has for me. Of course toward the goal of conformity to Christ with others of Christ's Body in mission on earth, and related to that, fulfilling the work God has for me, in the love and blessing of our Lord Jesus.

I go that way, knowing it's only possible through God, in fellowship with Christ's Body to do his work in the world.

New beginnings. What might that mean for you, now?

walking by/in the Spirit

Lately I've been pondering the importance of walking by the Spirit, as we read in Paul's letter to the Galatians. Gordon Fee, an eminent New Testament scholar, says:

The first instruction [in Galatians 5:13-6:10] , "walk by the Spirit", is the basic command in Paul's ethics.

I was taught and again have noticed that the filling of the Spirit seems mostly related to speaking as in proclaiming the word of God, the wonders of God, the gospel of God. People often talk much about being filled with the Spirit, and I think that seems to me Scripturally, to be more related to the gifts, at least generally. But to walk in the Spirit concerns more the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, etc.

This is a command (an imperative), no less: present tense meaning it's ongoing for us, and active- we do it. Yet it's of the Spirit. So that we must walk or live in all of life, by the Spirit.

Fee thinks the Spirit's presence was more overwhelming or evident to the believers Paul wrote to, than to many of us today. So that Paul doesn't tell us how to walk by the Spirit. But it was certainly true then, as now that we in Jesus can grieve and quench (or, put out the fire of) the Spirit.

And Fee points out what he wrote had at least up to that time, been missed in most commentaries: how this command is community-oriented. Looking at the passage we can see this to be the case. Yes, we're individuals but individuals coming into and living in community.

This is something I want to work on for my life. So I'm realizing it must be community-oriented, and I'm a rather slow learner here, though gregarious by nature. Steeped in the tradition of individualism, but longing to know better the richness of community in Jesus and out from that, in mission for the world.

And I want to understand better in my life, what is ours in Jesus by the Spirit. Walking by the Spirit. Not by the flesh, which as Fee points out is of our old life apart from Christ, not to be in our present existence even now. And doing this in community. More on this in future posts.

What thoughts might you like to share on this?