I want God to be pleased with my life in Christ, don't you? In 1 Thess 2:12 we read "live
your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you
to share in his Kingdom and glory." Continuing on our series on the Holy Spirit's work
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
The Holy Spirit of Love
I've been writing the last month or so on the Holy Spirit, and how he works to draw us to God and to help us understand the mind of God. Today we're looking at how the Holy Spirit creates God's love in us.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Hearing the Voice of the Holy Spirit
Even though The Lovely Joanne and I live in the same house, sometimes we have trouble communicating. Then she and I have to stop and focus on
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
The Mind and Voice of the Holy Spirit
The Lovely Joanne was trying to tell me something this morning, but I was in the other room and had noise coming in the window. Guess what? She didn't get through -- but it wasn't because she didn't do her part!
Lately I've been writing about the Holy Spirit, who lives in us and who teaches us the mind of Jesus Christ because he is the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). As we see in scripture, the goal of God from before creation is to draw us into a relationship of mutual love. Despite our continual detours and sins, God has continued to pursue us, even sending the Son to be a human along with us and create the way back to him, and sending the Spirit to draw us toward the Father (even when we don't believe in him yet), creating and deepening that bond of love.
How does the Spirit draw us to God and build the relationship? Jesus said in John 16:8-9, the Spirit "will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me." So the Spirit is "the advance man" so to speak, chipping away at our refusal to believe in God. Once we believe the Spirit's message of our acceptance with the Father, we can gain a stronger bond with God by deliberately living, every day, within the Spirit's influence. Jesus said the Spirit will "guide you into all truth...tell you about the future...bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me." So when we can hear the Spirit, look how much God gives us!
This morning, in order to hear Joanne, I had to go in the other room where she was standing. So how can we hear the mind and voice of the Spirit? By getting more serious about listening. Sometimes, to hear the Spirit, we have to shut off the noise --turning off the TV or the XM satellite radio or the music or the video games, or the cellphone and text messages and Facebook. Sometimes we have to stop the continual march of food and drink into our mouths, because fasting from the physical helps us focus on the spiritual, which is the only real thing anyway. Sometimes we have to change locations, getting away from all the ordinary in order to hear God in a fresh way.
What one thing could you do today, in the routine busyness of your life, to stop and hear the Spirit better? What's stopping you from doing that? Will you make the decision to change it, so you can receive all God has for you?
Lately I've been writing about the Holy Spirit, who lives in us and who teaches us the mind of Jesus Christ because he is the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). As we see in scripture, the goal of God from before creation is to draw us into a relationship of mutual love. Despite our continual detours and sins, God has continued to pursue us, even sending the Son to be a human along with us and create the way back to him, and sending the Spirit to draw us toward the Father (even when we don't believe in him yet), creating and deepening that bond of love.
How does the Spirit draw us to God and build the relationship? Jesus said in John 16:8-9, the Spirit "will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me." So the Spirit is "the advance man" so to speak, chipping away at our refusal to believe in God. Once we believe the Spirit's message of our acceptance with the Father, we can gain a stronger bond with God by deliberately living, every day, within the Spirit's influence. Jesus said the Spirit will "guide you into all truth...tell you about the future...bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me." So when we can hear the Spirit, look how much God gives us!
This morning, in order to hear Joanne, I had to go in the other room where she was standing. So how can we hear the mind and voice of the Spirit? By getting more serious about listening. Sometimes, to hear the Spirit, we have to shut off the noise --turning off the TV or the XM satellite radio or the music or the video games, or the cellphone and text messages and Facebook. Sometimes we have to stop the continual march of food and drink into our mouths, because fasting from the physical helps us focus on the spiritual, which is the only real thing anyway. Sometimes we have to change locations, getting away from all the ordinary in order to hear God in a fresh way.
What one thing could you do today, in the routine busyness of your life, to stop and hear the Spirit better? What's stopping you from doing that? Will you make the decision to change it, so you can receive all God has for you?
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