Unsung Hero: the Holy Spirit

While much attention is placed on God as our creator and Jesus, our Savior, hidden in the corridors is the Holy Spirit.

Prior to Jesus, access to the Holy Spirit was limited, limited only on certain occasions or only by the high priest.  Jesus changed all of that by the gift of the Holy Spirit, our Comforter. And while many if not most Christians teach of the trinity, the equal status of the Holy Spirit is undermined. The Holy Spirit is not mentioned by Christians often.

The power of the Holy Spirit or the person of the Holy Spirit is one of the free gifts Jesus gave us upon His death or immediately afterward.

Jesus promised the indwelling of this spirit as his mechanism of remaining within us and always being with us in His spirit.

Okay, this post is not concerning the theology of the Holy Spirit as I think all Christians agree ‘he’ or it exists.  In fact sinning against the Holy Spirit is the one sin we cannot be forgiven for so indeed, the Holy Spirit is up there with our Lord.

And since it is up there we should be calling upon it much more frequently than probably we do.

But we can ask: do we pray to the spirit?

Yes, this is NOT a trick question.

We can ask the same…do we pray to Jesus?  Or better Yet, do we worship Him as such?  Good questions indeed.

Now this can be very sloppy and I don’t wish to get into semantics:  We do pray to our Father as Jesus taught by asking in Jesus’ name as the Holy Spirit within us pleas for and on our behalf.

Upon this I’ll probably get a ton with many quoting scriptures back and forth and I can do the same, but I don’t think it helps the situation at all.

What I am saying is that we should be calling upon the power, the force of the Holy Spirit more by first: affirming the existence and appreciating it as a gift of God as provided by Jesus after his ascension.

The Holy Spirit is a pure, holy and wonderful present.  And it is by that same spirit that makes YOU so special as well.  Whereas your ordinary self is corruptible, your Holy Spirit is not and cannot be corrupted. And it is that special spirit in you that we can love and forgive and desire fellowship with and one that transforms and heals and possesses faith and patience and kindness and is gentle—all of the wonderful attributes of God Himself. So then, yes we should speak up for our unsung Hero—the Holy Spirit and bring all of the gifts of Jesus into focus and remembrance.  Our souls depend on it forever.

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The Elements of Crime (Tell me it ain’t so)

Ask anyone:  Poverty causes crime.  Bad Childhood experiences causes crime.  Low education causes crime.  Mental illness causes crime.  Hell, even the Devil causes crime.

We see and hear all of the above excuses and even more as the true causes of crime.  If you don’t believe it, open any popular psychology or sociology book and verify these modern popular truisms. Yes, we can even blame our behavior and at times we do, on simply due to the fact that we are human.  Humans are flesh and flesh=Sin or evil (according to some).

Jesus said the desires of our heart dictate what we do.  My own experiences confirm this and then again, we have logic.

If poverty causes crime why do some rich people commit crimes?  Why don’t we see some countries with extreme poverty as crime stricken?  The Philippines come to mind here.  Some with extremely difficult childhoods achieve remarkable lives and any idiot knows mental illness does not create or cause crime.  Finally, the devil can’t make you do Jack, so what are we left with?

We are left with conscious decision.  We created crime because we choose to just as we choose to do anything else.

It is the same with sin.  Sin is NOT forced upon us.  We choose to sin which is why also we can choose not to sin.

Hence, modern theory of causality has its great failures.  Explaining sin is one of those failures.  On these lines, this is Christ’s specialty.  It would appear to me, we should agree with God and accept His reasoning for what motivates man.

When God doesn’t Know

As a teacher I’ve observed some brilliant teachers as they were exasperated with their students in their failure to understand or learn.  This is especially true with otherwise genius math teachers.  Math was so easy for them, they find it hard to understand why others don’t learn it as quickly as they did.

And so it was true with our Lord, Jesus when it came to matters of faith.  We see this in the boat during the storm, or once again, in the boat in the experience on walking on water and again and again in other circumstances.

Confounded, Jesus exclaims, “You of so little faith.”  Or “How long must I be with you…?”

We see Jesus’ great irritation with normal people and his obvious desire to exit this world and be with His Father.

I realize that it is generally taught that God knows everything and that Jesus does as well.  However, in this case, I don’t think Jesus knew all of this nor God.  In fact, I believe one of the reasons Jesus came in the flesh as God wanted to know what it was like to be human as he didn’t know.

Regardless of beliefs, we find ourselves too whereas we are impatient with those who fail to catch on as we do.  Some lessons seem clearly so easy, yet we see some who stumble over an issue over and over again.

I see it as we all have our particular weaknesses and the learning curve can be extremely steep, long and hard.

However, viewing Jesus as the example—yes, we see where it was at times ‘short’ with others for lack of faith.  Yet, he did NOT give up on them as a result.  No, he slowed down, often backtracked and explained himself.  We should follow his example and be patient with those of whom we wish and desire the very best.

What part of the Bible is it that you believe?

Some of us affirm that we believe all parts of the Bible (every word of it) equally.  And I say that we should question what parts of the Bible do we believe?

I believe we believe some parts of the bible more equally than the others.

Some pastors really believe in the tithing process.  They say that they do, but I haven’t seen any sacrifice process or priest carry it out at any of my local churches.  Not me.

Who has stoned their kid recently over them raising their hand at a parent?  Most don’t follow this anymore, but when it comes to homosexuals, we love to quote that one.

How many of us join in where Jesus tells us to forgive?  Are we straight up and down on this one, or are there some of us that are hold outs?

Sure, when it comes to groups like Isis or the Nazis we’ll forgive them alright just as soon as we kick their butts.  After all of this is over, then we’ll forgive them and write it down in our history books as such.

So where am I going with all of this?  I’m going with it in such a way that we don’t generally really believe all of the stuff that we say that we do.  No, not really.  Some love to announce this at the top of their lungs, but it doesn’t make it any more true.

I believe the real truth is that some believe parts of the bible more than others and that some equal passages are more equal than others.  And I believe this from others by what I see.  My eyes are indeed very bad, but I am not yet blind

Hide and Go Seek (Come out, come out where ever you are)

In the ancient days, it was really a major chore to find and discover God.  The problem is that no one knew where to look.

He came by route of a messenger than no one recognized.  He came via a burning bush or a rumbling cloud or through the auspices of a donkey.  God came in highly unusual forms and mechanisms. This is not the situation for today’s Christians.

Today, God arrives through Christians.  Yes, he speaks and interacts with His agents of the church to others, person-to-person.

Since our bodies are our temples, our church buildings, we can speak and interact with Christ daily visa vie other Christians. While this is the plain truth it really isn’t pushed that much among other Christians.

Rather, most would employ the notion that God and Jesus are in some ethereal atmosphere, an unseen, invisible world with vague access.

This is not what is taught in the Bible.

Jesus clearly states where two or more of us are gathered in His name, that He is there with us in the midst of us.  This should be simple enough.

Hence, I want or wish to visit with my Lord, all I really need to do is go visit my Christian brother or sister. Jesus is going to be there in the middle.  Thus, there is no need to play any shell game and wonder where Jesus is located.  He is here with us just as he promised until the end of the world.  Jesus is here with us now and forever: always.

Jesus wasn’t that much different than you or me

For those of you who follow me, you know I post some controversial posts from time to time.  This might prove to be one of those and this is only for uplifting those who are in hard times or for those struggling to come to grips with your identity with the Lord.

Now to the point:

Physically, Jesus was identical as to you or me.  He was a man; a physical man and nothing more than that on the physical level.

He was born by a slightly different method, but that is all.

And now we begin to enter some degrees of separation.  On the spiritual side, Jesus was perfect and remained perfect as he failed to sin.  This was at least partially due to the fact that he entertained an excellent relationship with Our Father in Heaven.  This spiritual aspect is a remarkable feature as it gave Him the keys over death and His full inheritance to the throne by Our Father.  Yes, it was HIS Father, but He is also OUR Father.

Back again on the physical side, we are not told that Jesus possessed a perfect memory or say, was good in art or in math or anything like that.  We are led to believe that He was normal in every way:  the same as you or me.

These facts should give us HOPE.  WE should have hope for knowing the small separation exists because of spirit and that we can gain access to that same spirit through His gift of the Holy Spirit, we can then see our future with Jesus and with our Father in Heaven.

Thus, Christ the incomprehensive of Jesus becomes comprehensive and so we gain even more hope for our fate as Christians in eventual times after death.  Yet, even here on earth, we can come to know that Jesus struggled with the identical issues we struggle—yet, with Jesus—he never failed.  And that is where we are different.

ADMITTING TO YOURSELF THAT YOU ARE STILL BITTER, BUT BETTER… — BE BLESSTIFIED!

Okay, you were hurt. BAD! Not only that, but you were hurt by someone who loves you. Someone who is close to you. Someone who instead of having your back, instead of scratching your back…stabbed you in it…talked about you behind it…didn’t watch it. But, you know what the word of God says… Matthew 18:21-22 […]

via ADMITTING TO YOURSELF THAT YOU ARE STILL BITTER, BUT BETTER… — BE BLESSTIFIED!

If I had a 5-minute talk with Jesus (I’d really tell him)

I can imagine a meeting between me and Jesus and during that meeting I had exactly 5 minutes to speak to Him one on one.

It would probably go something like this:

Me:  Jesus, it is so good to see you.

Jesus:  Speak

And then right there is when everything would come to a head.  I know at this very moment, no matter what I said, I’d sound like a complete and total idiot.  Truthfully, I’d be speechless.

Me:  I, I…I….I…..Jesus…

Jesus:  You wanted your chance to talk so speak your mind. Out with it, boy.

Me:  It’s just…I mean…I wanted to let you know….

Once again, I’d be awe-stricken with His presence.  This is another way of saying, I would have no real idea of what to say.  At this point, I’d really like to listen.

Jesus:  During all these years, you wanted to speak when you should have been listening.  Why do you want to listen now?

Me:  Because having come face to face with you, I realize how little, how small I really am.

Jesus:  He laughs:  Most say the same thing once I meet them.  At any rate, our five minutes is up.  I enjoyed our conversation.

Me:  Jesus:  (I shout)  I love you Jesus.

Jesus:  And I love you too.

And so it seems all I had to say amounted to nothing.  Whether I had 5 minutes or 5 hours, the presence of Jesus is humbling.  In those encounters, we learn that it is Him and not us that matters and if anyone should be talking, it is HIM.

 

The Pig is Going to Pay (Does anyone have an apple?)

Well, what can I really say about a pig?  A pig is nothing more than a pig and eventually, will end up on the table the same as any other food. Yes, the pig is gonna pay.

So then, we put up with the dirty animal:  we feed it reluctantly and care for it even though it lives in filthy squalor.

And we are told not to throw our pearls beneath them or else they ‘ll turn against us.

Eventually, the Pig is gonna pay.

So then, who are these swine?  These pigs of shame and abhorrent animals?

Obviously, we must use discernment:  some might be our ‘friends’ and most, I would suppose would come from our churches.  Jesus here warns us about who to give to and why.

Nonetheless, in the long and short of it:  God will have His way.  The day of the Pig will not rule forever. At some point in time, it will be over and the Pig—the pig is going to pay.

I Believe in you (So what? Who Cares?)

Sometimes we make a big deal about how we believe so much in our God.  We act like it’s a biggie.  True enough, in Old Testament Days, it was indeed a biggie to believe in the Almighty, for it seems God spent a great deal of energy trying to get that point across—that He is REAL.

However, we are much more sophisticated than those in the old days.  Why is it a big deal if you say you believe in God or not.  I’m sure you also believe in trees—that they exist.  There are a host of many things we believe in.  Most believe in Cars, in Pizzas, our jobs, or in most facets of science—almost anything.

So then, the belief that one exists is not really a big thing. We are told even the demons believe.

The Biggie then is not in our feeble belief system, but in our love and in our obedience to the words of Christ.

This is all dependent on our trust in our Lord, Jesus.  We must trust Him to manage our life and for us to serve Him—again, by observing His commandments.

Belief then is revealed within our ACTIONS.  Our actions affirm what we say with our lips.  As any fool knows, anyone can say anything, but doing and performing what we say is quite another matter.  So then, the next time someone tells you that they believe in God…Ask them HOW?  The How will explain the truth of the words. The how gives us the reasons to care what you believe.