If you have followed the exploits, thoughts, ramblings and rantings on this blog for anytime, you know that we have been on a journey. We haven't always knows where that journey was going, still don't, but it has always been toward the Father, with His Son, in the Spirit.
We have been outside of institutional forms of church for about 3-4 months. I've lost track really. I can say without equivocation that it has been the best thing we could have done. The anger over the things I've experienced, and haven't experienced in organized forms of religion has subsided. It has been replaced by a passion to know Christ more fully. Religious things just don't seem to matter in light of Bridegroom who passionately loves me. This journey has consistently become less about how I express my relationship with God and more about the relationship with God. It has become about learning to live loved instead of trying fabricate love I didn't really have. By doing that Jesus is renewing my heart, breathing fresh air into clay, and making dry bones dance. Now, please don't get me wrong. We still desire and pray for some people in our area that are like-minded to just ask God, "What do you want to do in this little town that would bless others?"....it will be in His time.... I'm willing to wait.
In further news....the Blues suck. They have officially thrown away the rest of the season. They make it hard to be a hockey fan.
Trish took a new job. She will rock it! She is smart and beautiful! The total package!
Wayne Jacobsen is coming to the St. Louis area in a couple weeks. If you are in the area don't miss time to hang out with an awesome brother! More details to come...
Monday, January 30, 2006
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Saturday, January 21, 2006
HS
I have been part of churches where the cross was focused on so heavily that there was no mention of the Spirit. And I have seen some wackiness in the name of the Spirit too. I so don't want to come off as not giving enough do to the work of Christ on the cross. But, can we talk for a moment? While I am fully aware of all of the ramifications, the story did not end there!
Act 1:4-8 And having met with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to await the promise of the Father which you heard from Me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Then, indeed, these coming together, they asked Him, saying, Lord, do You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you. And you shall be witnesses to Me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
I love this passage! Under pressure, these are the guys that ran off and denied the Lord at the crucifixion. There were barren, full of dread and doubt. Jesus has been hanging out with them for 40 days teaching them about the kingdom. Jesus is going to trust these guys with His Bride. He tells them to wait for the Spirit. Wait...I'm leaving, but you stay here and wait. They obviously didn't get it at first. Not even after 3 years of "in the flesh" teaching, plus 40 days of teaching from the Risen Lord! They were recent spiritual failures still worrying about things that weren't on God's mind. But, Jesus' promise to them stood. They would receive power when the Holy Spirit came on them. Then they would begin being the Church.
I can relate. I'm about that dense. I'm a spiritual failure. I worry about a lot of things that are not on God's mind. I've tried to live a good portion of my Christian life without truly relying on God's power. I've read books. Bought on to the latest method. Listened to preachers. Gone to conferences. Listened to tapes and CD's. . . But, I cannot say that I have experienced relying on the Spirit, in any consistent way, the way that Paul talks about in his letters.
Jesus sent something from heaven that radically transformed this rag-tag bunch of uneducated people. Something from heaven gripped them, flooded their lives, and they were changed forever. Isn't it interesting that the disciples were not really transformed by the teaching of Christ, but by experiencing a new dimension of God's Spirit.
How many times have I read a new book, received some enlightenment on a Scripture, been blessed by some teaching, but it never really "stuck." Too many to count. The real times of transformation in my life have come not when I understood what Christ has done for me, but when I experienced what Christ has done for me. God has enlightened my mind, healed my emotions, and reshaped my will when I have placed myself in positions for the Spirit to work in my life and the love of God has been poured out in my heart through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). It isn't an issue of salvation. But how salvation works in my life. And I think Paul's view is that we are being saved through our experience with the Spirit, renewing our minds, wills and emotions.
That's all I have time for now. I'll end with a quote from Jim Cymbala:
While Christ's work on the cross, the shedding of His blood, was the only way to settle the problems of guilt, sin and condemnation, the coming of the Holy Spirit was God's way of changing human beings from the inside out. The Law given to Moses had failed at this very point. It was in itself holy and just, but the problem was the sinful nature within the people. Now the Holy Spirit dwelling in the hearts of believers would conquer the age old dilemma of "I want to be different but I keep doing it anyway." This empowering of the Spirit would be the dynamic source throughout time for all who live for, and labor with Jesus.
Act 1:4-8 And having met with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to await the promise of the Father which you heard from Me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Then, indeed, these coming together, they asked Him, saying, Lord, do You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you. And you shall be witnesses to Me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
I love this passage! Under pressure, these are the guys that ran off and denied the Lord at the crucifixion. There were barren, full of dread and doubt. Jesus has been hanging out with them for 40 days teaching them about the kingdom. Jesus is going to trust these guys with His Bride. He tells them to wait for the Spirit. Wait...I'm leaving, but you stay here and wait. They obviously didn't get it at first. Not even after 3 years of "in the flesh" teaching, plus 40 days of teaching from the Risen Lord! They were recent spiritual failures still worrying about things that weren't on God's mind. But, Jesus' promise to them stood. They would receive power when the Holy Spirit came on them. Then they would begin being the Church.
I can relate. I'm about that dense. I'm a spiritual failure. I worry about a lot of things that are not on God's mind. I've tried to live a good portion of my Christian life without truly relying on God's power. I've read books. Bought on to the latest method. Listened to preachers. Gone to conferences. Listened to tapes and CD's. . . But, I cannot say that I have experienced relying on the Spirit, in any consistent way, the way that Paul talks about in his letters.
Jesus sent something from heaven that radically transformed this rag-tag bunch of uneducated people. Something from heaven gripped them, flooded their lives, and they were changed forever. Isn't it interesting that the disciples were not really transformed by the teaching of Christ, but by experiencing a new dimension of God's Spirit.
How many times have I read a new book, received some enlightenment on a Scripture, been blessed by some teaching, but it never really "stuck." Too many to count. The real times of transformation in my life have come not when I understood what Christ has done for me, but when I experienced what Christ has done for me. God has enlightened my mind, healed my emotions, and reshaped my will when I have placed myself in positions for the Spirit to work in my life and the love of God has been poured out in my heart through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). It isn't an issue of salvation. But how salvation works in my life. And I think Paul's view is that we are being saved through our experience with the Spirit, renewing our minds, wills and emotions.
That's all I have time for now. I'll end with a quote from Jim Cymbala:
While Christ's work on the cross, the shedding of His blood, was the only way to settle the problems of guilt, sin and condemnation, the coming of the Holy Spirit was God's way of changing human beings from the inside out. The Law given to Moses had failed at this very point. It was in itself holy and just, but the problem was the sinful nature within the people. Now the Holy Spirit dwelling in the hearts of believers would conquer the age old dilemma of "I want to be different but I keep doing it anyway." This empowering of the Spirit would be the dynamic source throughout time for all who live for, and labor with Jesus.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Enjoy God
Our God Who Rejoices
Zep 3:17 The LORD, your God, is in the midst of you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will rest in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.
Isa 62:5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
Our God Who is Passionate
Son 1:15 Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; you have doves' eyes.
Joh 15:9 As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you; continue in My love.
Joh 17:23 I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.
1Jo 4:16-19
And we have known and believed the love that God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. In this is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that as He is, so also we are in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment. He who fears has not been perfected in love. We love Him because He first loved us.
Rom 5:5 And hope does not make us ashamed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us.
Luk 15:10 Likewise I say to you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
Luk 15:20 And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
Our God Who Reveals Himself
Eph 3:16-19
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Col 1:27 For to them God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory,
Our God Who is Kind
Psa 36:7-8
How precious is Your loving-kindness, O God! And the sons of men take refuge under the shadow of Your wing. They shall be satisfied with the fatness of Your house; and You shall make them drink of the river of Your pleasures.
Our God Who Shares His Glory
Joh 17:22 And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one
Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed in us.
Our God Who Lifts Us Up
Eph 3:19 and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Eph 4:13 And this until we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full-grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
2Pe 1:4 through which He has given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, so that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Zep 3:17 The LORD, your God, is in the midst of you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will rest in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.
Isa 62:5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
Our God Who is Passionate
Son 1:15 Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; you have doves' eyes.
Joh 15:9 As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you; continue in My love.
Joh 17:23 I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.
1Jo 4:16-19
And we have known and believed the love that God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. In this is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that as He is, so also we are in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment. He who fears has not been perfected in love. We love Him because He first loved us.
Rom 5:5 And hope does not make us ashamed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us.
Luk 15:10 Likewise I say to you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
Luk 15:20 And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
Our God Who Reveals Himself
Eph 3:16-19
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Col 1:27 For to them God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory,
Our God Who is Kind
Psa 36:7-8
How precious is Your loving-kindness, O God! And the sons of men take refuge under the shadow of Your wing. They shall be satisfied with the fatness of Your house; and You shall make them drink of the river of Your pleasures.
Our God Who Shares His Glory
Joh 17:22 And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one
Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed in us.
Our God Who Lifts Us Up
Eph 3:19 and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Eph 4:13 And this until we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full-grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
2Pe 1:4 through which He has given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, so that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Spirit, Soul and Body
I've been giving some thought to the fact that we have a spirit, soul and body.
1Th 5:23 And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blamelessly at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I've always been told that the soul is composed of the mind, will and emotions. It is what makes us a unique person. The body is pretty self-explanatory. But the spirit....my spirit....hmmm.
1Co 6:17 But he being joined to the Lord is one spirit.
So, if Paul is saying that God has placed His uncreated Spirit in my created body it makes sense of some other motifs of Paul. My spirit is God's Spirit. The working of God in my life is an inside-out job.
Now, if all Christians have God's Spirit why are there crabby-assed, sour, sick, sin-filled Christians around who have gone to church most of their lives? I'm not trying to be judgemental, but you know the people that I'm talking about. The folks who usually sit on the church boards, run the church councils.... Why is the Spirit apparently not working in their lives? Is the Spirit weak? Can't be.
Col 1:29
For which I also labor, striving according to the working of Him who works in me in power.
Eph 3:20
Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us...
Why do most of us not experience the power that we are promised? Where is the wisdom? Where are the changed desires? Why are our minds, will and emotions still broken?
This is what I think. I need my soul saturated by God's Spirit. I need my mind, will and emotions renewed, conformed, and filled with power. You know what? It happens in the context of relationship with God. Specifcally, the fellowship of the Spirit. And I play a part in the process. More later...
2Co 13:14
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
1Th 5:23 And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blamelessly at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I've always been told that the soul is composed of the mind, will and emotions. It is what makes us a unique person. The body is pretty self-explanatory. But the spirit....my spirit....hmmm.
1Co 6:17 But he being joined to the Lord is one spirit.
So, if Paul is saying that God has placed His uncreated Spirit in my created body it makes sense of some other motifs of Paul. My spirit is God's Spirit. The working of God in my life is an inside-out job.
Now, if all Christians have God's Spirit why are there crabby-assed, sour, sick, sin-filled Christians around who have gone to church most of their lives? I'm not trying to be judgemental, but you know the people that I'm talking about. The folks who usually sit on the church boards, run the church councils.... Why is the Spirit apparently not working in their lives? Is the Spirit weak? Can't be.
Col 1:29
For which I also labor, striving according to the working of Him who works in me in power.
Eph 3:20
Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us...
Why do most of us not experience the power that we are promised? Where is the wisdom? Where are the changed desires? Why are our minds, will and emotions still broken?
This is what I think. I need my soul saturated by God's Spirit. I need my mind, will and emotions renewed, conformed, and filled with power. You know what? It happens in the context of relationship with God. Specifcally, the fellowship of the Spirit. And I play a part in the process. More later...
2Co 13:14
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
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