Tag: salvation

Posted in Different Scriptures

Pentecost as Revival of Relationship

Posted on by Wick

            When have you wanted the Holy Spirit to do something powerful in your life? Perhaps you wanted the healing power of the Holy Spirit, or the miraculous ability to translate foreign tongues. Maybe you wanted the power of God for understanding the future, or a prophetic Word that would speak precisely what God’s heart desires for a given moment or season.
          All of this to say – I think we often approach the Holy Spirit, and even passages like Acts 2:1-21, considering all the Holy Spirit enables the people of God to do. But what if we chose to focus specifically on the person of the Holy Spirit, as we read some of these passages?
         We regularly state that we believe in a Triune God. This is a mysterious Truth from how God has revealed God’s self throughout scripture. In the Nicene creed, after mentioning God the Father, and God the Son, we confess “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.”
         Jesus mentions in Acts 1:8 that we will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes, to be His witnesses. Our world builds so much on power – on seeking it, keeping it, and protecting it. So often we hear about the power here, and become so focused on empowerment, we miss out on the person. Focusing only on the power of the Holy Spirit over the Person of the Trinity, causes us to seek a temporary tool instead of an eternal relationship. In scripture, the acts of power are always as a sign of a relationship now available.

            As we read passages like this, what if we held in mind – not “empowerment” as if these followers are all “leveling up” in some cosmic video game – gaining new abilities…but what if we listened to the description as God’s people are entering into relationship with the Holy Spirit as a person, one person of the fullness of God?
In these moments, God is revealing what has changed as we are brought to New Life by the arrival and indwelling of the person of the Holy Spirit.
             In John 14:16-18, Jesus says “I will ask the Father, and he will send another Companion (comforter/advocate), who will be with you forever. This Companion is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can’t receive because it neither sees him nor recognizes him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be in you.”

        Our God wants us to know Him intimately, as He already knows us intimately. Here are some things I believe we learn about the person of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:1-21:

  1. The Holy Spirit comes from heaven.   Verse 2 – “from heaven there came a sound..” Heaven is where God is, and here is the source of what arrives. Luke 24:49 tells us the Holy Spirit is sent by Jesus and promised by the Father.
    Are we being attentive for God to respond from His presence, or are we waiting for His help and response to arrive from the sources/systems of this world?
  2. The Holy Spirit is revealed as uncontrollable wind and yet also purposeful fire. 
    The wind arrives, and fills the entire place. The Spirit is all-encompassing, arriving in ways that fill every corner of our being and our space.  The fire arrives, but doesn’t fill the entire place. Instead, it divided so that it rested on each of them. The purifying Spirit of God is purposeful and personal.  How are you in need of the Holy Spirit to arrive in your life today?
  3. The Holy Spirit enables living according to His reality. The breath of God always brings New Life. This IS Holiness: abiding in the Love of and living in the ways of God. In the presence of God, all are united as one. Language is not a barrier. This was obviously unexpected by those observing what was happening, as Luke describes them as being bewildered, amazed, and astonished.
    Filled and being used by God for His purposes – they are being made Holy. This is His desire for our lives as well – that we would experience being so filled with His Love and Spirit, that our purposes and hearts are refined to fully reflect His own.  In what ways could the realities of God arrive as unexpected in your life?
  4. The Holy Spirit makes right what humanity has made wrong.
    There’s confusion and bewilderment here, as languages unexpectedly come together. The same confusion happened in Genesis 11:7 in the opposite direction, when God scattered the people into different languages due to their prideful ways at Babel.  In order to humble them enough that they might reach out to God (remain in relationship), God had scattered them.  Here, as relationship is restored – there is a safe place for global healing.
  5. The Holy Spirit brings glory to God – not the individual.
    They were used to prophets, priests, and kings – individuals who represented God’s Reign and Rule. Even when Jesus was with them, there were arguments about which of them would be recognized as closest to Him.
    Here they were all speaking about the mighty acts of God.
    Now the promise of Jeremiah was being fulfilled: “..this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my Instructions within them and engrave them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. They will no longer need to teach each other to say, “Know the Lord!” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord; for I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sins.” (Jeremiah 31:33-34)
  6. The Holy Spirit brings fulfillment of God’s promises.
    Peter quotes the prophet Joel, reminding them of the words they were now seeing fulfilled.  In Joel chapter 2, he calls on a people who are experiencing the judgment of God to repent. To humble themselves, turning away from their own desires and toward God. He prophecies that God will respond with rescue and redemption, and then these words that His Spirit will be poured out on all people – yes even people precisely like YOU – in ways that ripple out to impact all of creation.  Scripture proclaims no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3b).  John Wesley wrote, “Every true Christian now “receives the Holy Ghost,” as the Paraclete or Comforter promised by our Lord.” (Wesley, “A Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion”)  We understand that we are included in those Joel talks about as able to receive the Spirit of God. We include all those we would normally overlook as those with potential to be those who speak for God…even the self we see in the mirror.

To what end? The final verse – Acts 2:21 reveals to us the most important way that we “expect the unexpected”.  Who might experience salvation?

The expectations of our world says things like:
Everyone who is born into the right circumstances..
Everyone who makes good decisions..
Everyone who achieves enough in Jesus’ name..
Everyone who lives a really really good life..
Everyone who _______ (other reasons we think God will accept us)..

Instead – “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

This is an invitation into relationship…the one in need of salvation knowing and being known by the one saving. There are no requirements of proving any sort of ability in order to come and receive.

Do you desire the Holy Spirit – who is our living invitation into the power of relationship here and now with the Triune God? This IS Salvation. Come and receive. Come and be received by the power of the Holy Spirit, into right relationship with God.

Posted in Different Scriptures, Uncategorized

submitting to Freedom

Posted on by Wick

In reading of Paul and Silas in jail recently (from Acts 16), I was drawn to pay attention to part of the story happening in the background. The narrative we often celebrate are Paul and Silas, in chains and imprisoned right after being stripped/beaten/flogged. In the midst of singing hymns to God (v. 25), a violent earthquake shakes the foundations so that all the doors are opened and chains unfastened. What a miracle! The jailer enters the scene assuming the worst, and is thankful to discover Paul and Silas and the others are all still there! He’s drawn to Jesus, becomes a believer, and his entire family is baptized as they enter this new community of “The Way”. The story continues forward after that.

Mamertine Prison, Rome – Just one of the places Paul spent time imprisoned

But looking back over those moments there’s a story within, we often overlook. There in that prison were other prisoners, even though we’re not sure their number or the crimes they committed. We can assume there are some in the prison who deserve to be there. Yet when the earthquake happens and the chains and doors are unfastened – everyone remains. Why might that be?

For that answer, we look back to verse 25, “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”

I remember sitting in the waiting area of a doctor’s office on our honeymoon (we both had tonsillitis, yuck). As I waited for Sarah, I met an older man and we began to talk. He had served the country in combat, and was telling me a story of his escape from a POW camp in Germany. I didn’t know him that well, but I was riveted. I would have listened for hours.

I imagine the fellow prisoners surrounding Paul and Silas, seeing them beaten and suffering. I imagine their countenance as they entered the prison – genuinely thankful for new witnesses to share the good news with. The compassion they may have looked upon the other inmates with, even through swollen eyes. The whispers of “Have you heard??…” as rumors swirled about all the things these followers of Jesus had seen and experienced. Stories were shared, no doubt: Paul’s vision of Jesus, and work with so many churches. Silas’ prophetic words for those in the prison. The conversion of the local woman, Lydia. The other prisoners would have been transformed in hearing about Jesus, and in listening to the worship being offered in such a low place of pain and suffering. It’s a testimony to the the Holy Spirit we believe is active in these moments.

I believe the other prisoners were transformed by the witness of Paul and Silas, in ways that made them so aware of freedom in Christ, the chains and doors being unfastened seemed to make little difference to their present condition. They had already been set free in Jesus.

We’re reminded by all of these things – to be those who are willing to share our stories of God working in our lives. Speak of the hope and the peace you have, even as one who is looking honestly at our world; as one who has wounds from being hurt by it. Those around you today may have chains of bondage you’re completely unaware of, and you are able to offer freedom simply by sharing the living presence and Love of Jesus in Your words.

We’re also reminded – the story of who becomes transformed by our words may never be shared. Our world often celebrates the most compelling (or most profitable) narratives, but leaves many to be known only by those who live them. That doesn’t make such stories less important to the Kingdom. Every one of those prisoners who came to know Jesus is just as precious to God as the jailer, or Paul and Silas themselves. In fact, in the stories written down or passed on to their families and loved ones – the fact that they remained in prison that night instead of escaping -offered powerful testimony that revealed the absolute freedom Jesus offers.

Maybe that’s the message you need today also – even more than other aspects of the story. You need reminded of the Freedom we have when we come and submit all of our identity, our story, our shame, our hurts, and our joys to Jesus. It’s a freedom that transcends the momentary/temporal experiences we face. The peace of full submission to His Loving Freedom is so much more powerful than the temptation to run when we see an open door.

May we be challenged by all of this today in healthy ways. In a world that counts pageviews, book deals, and followers/subscribers, may we humbly and gladly submit our stories to being “His” story, revealing and responding to Love wherever and however we can. May we relate to all others today understanding that in life there are no “major/minor characters”, as all have become part of His redemptive narrative of Love.

Posted in Spoken Word

A Pause (selah)

Posted on by Wick

https://youtu.be/dJ-y0CXVWHo

Turning off the screen, we pause,
For we’ve seen far too much obscene for one life to handle
One more event where God’s beloved scramble

Away from danger, crying out and wondering if they’re heard
All while conversations remain in the realm of the absurd
So oft’ distracted by the rights of the many as if they negate the plight
Of those underfoot, under feet planted firmly
Proclaiming solid ground – because it’s easier than hearing the sound

Of lament
Of our discontent
Of lives spent wondering if there’s room for them at the table
Wondering if they’ll ever be able to face another day
Wondering what they might say to children looking for answers
Because for some cancers there are no cures, only treatment
And mistreatment is all they’ve so far known
A world that’s shown them more shadow than anyone deserves
Throwing curves every time they step up to the plate
Or simply telling them to wait

Wait until it’s your turn
Wait to get what you have earned
Wait until the resources you needed have been burned
to fuel the fires – meeting the desires of those who were heard first
But there is hope for those who thirst

And the heavens burst with the glory of One who has revealed
An existence healed of all that once has bound
A resounding call for Freedom and reconciliation
But to hear, we may need to change the station

Because we’ve been arguing with straw men for far too long
Assuming the strong voices and the ones who offer the choices
spoke with authority, assuming those with seniority
have always done it right, siding with those who win the fight.

But there is a redemption arriving, a New Life thriving
That embraces every color
Protects every student seeking to discover
Embraces every adjective we might uncover
And covers all with “BE LOVED”.
Whether you’ve been shoved, or your arms are extended
The old ways of living have ended, as God has befriended humanity
When we couldn’t be doing worse
Breaking the curse

Offering Life Anew
Not just to wait here in the Pew, forgiven to get out there and do
To proclaim that me and you, we’re New Creation
Salvation in Jesus is not just something that happens in our hearts
It happens between them as well. Not just heaven and hell
But living Word for worlds in pain. For those moments you can’t explain
Where suffering pours like rain on soggy ground
We declare that peace can still abound.

This is not by a cheap grace found in false pretending
Not by sending hallmark sentiments while remaining on our own
Jesus. left. His. throne.
We don’t respond alone, but united in His mission
No more wishing things would change
No more living estranged, but joining Jesus as He goes
Nurturing as He sows for harvests already begun
Laying down guns for gloves and spade
Seeking to bring light where there is shade

In a world of those fighting to win,
While some are waiting for it to be rid of sin
We hear Jesus inviting us to begin

Listen to the hurt, see the unseen,
Suffer with those in pain
Love others beyond learning name
And in all of this – proclaim…
Jesus.