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Holy Spirit

Being On Fire Can Make Us Bold

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What Is It That Lights Your Fire?

Stepping out into the unknown can be scary. Whether it’s starting a new job, speaking in front of a crowd, or sharing our faith. Pastor Lisa’s message over the past several weeks has focused on Pentecost. This is when Jesus shared the Holy Spirit with His followers to give them direction and courage to share His message with the world.

When the Spirit came to them it showed up as flames of fire.

Peter was always pretty bold, but became bolder in his ministry after this fiery experience. His message to the Galatians in chapter 5 verses 13-17 told them that they need to quit using their following of Jesus to be an excuse to do anything they wanted. He told them that the Spirit and their desires were enemies.  

The Spirit would give them the power to avoid those desires.

Fire is purifying. It is used to separate good metal from bad. We need to expose ourselves to the fire of the Holy Spirit so that we might be better than we are without it (Psalm 12:6).

Living our lives in the Spirit is not a list of dos and don’ts. It is changing who we are. It is a new and purified way of living.

Living a life on fire with the Spirit gives us the boldness to be who God intended.

It gives us the strength and courage we need because we don’t have to do it alone.

What is it that lights your fire?

Is it the world or the Holy Spirit? Choose wisely.

Being Born Again is a Clean Start

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The First Step on a Journey

This past week we observed Independence Day here in America. This is the celebration of our freedom from being ruled over by a tyrannical king. This new start came at a cost and wasn’t easy to achieve. It took time to get there.

Our spiritual freedom is the same.

Being born again is a common saying among Christians but can be hard for those who aren’t Christian to understand. Like the example of Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a Jewish leader, in John 3:1-8. He came to Jesus and asked Him about who He was.

Jesus told him, “I tell you for certain that you must be born from above before you can see God’s kingdom!”

Nicodemus asked, “How can a grown man ever be born a second time?”

Jesus answered, “I tell you for certain that before you can get into God’s kingdom, you must be born not only by water, but by the Spirit.” 

This put Nicodemus in a tough spot because most Jewish leaders didn’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah. If Nicodemus believed, it put him at risk of being tortured or killed. Based on later Scriptures it is believed by most that Nicodemus chose to follow Jesus and be “born again”.

We have this same decision to make. We can choose to follow Jesus or follow the world. Following Jesus can put us at odds with the worldly perspectives. But if we follow Jesus, we have the Spirit on our side.

Choosing a clean start is up to us.

Pastor Lisa asked the question whether our spiritual transition was a big all-at-once-aha-moment or a slow, gradual transition over time.

For me it has been a slow process over many years. Looking back, I don’t have any grand transitional experience. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t feel that the Holy Spirit wasn’t a part of my life. This doesn’t mean that there weren’t parts of the journey that weren’t hard … there were.

I used to struggle with this when I would meet people who had had one of those life-altering stories about their “born again” experiences.

I now see that both of these paths lead to the same goal.

The Holy Spirit is working everywhere, all around everyone, all the time.

The journey starts with us taking the first step.

The Battle of the Voices

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Which One Will You Listen To?

There are two voices competing for our attention. Right and wrong, good and bad, Holy Spirit and the world. This is like the cartoons with an angel sitting on one shoulder and the Devil sitting on the other. Both are talking to us, trying to convince us we should do what they suggest.

It’s up to us to decide which one we’re going to listen to.

The voice of the world is sneaky. The voice of the world is loud. The voice of the world is everywhere. It makes suggestions that sound like it isn’t anything really bad. It’s just the way things are if you want to get ahead, be popular, have money, be successful, etc.

In John 16:7-11 Jesus tells His followers…

“But I tell you I am going to do what is best for you. This is why I am going away. The Holy Spirit cannot come to help you until I leave. But after I am gone, I will send the Spirit to you.

The Spirit will come and show the people of this world the truth about sin and God’s justice and the judgment. The Spirit will show them that they are wrong about sin, because they didn’t have faith in me. They are wrong about God’s justice, because I am going to the Father, and you won’t see me again. And they are wrong about the judgment, because God has already judged the ruler of this world.”

The Holy Spirit is the voice that tells us the truth about sin, justice, and judgement.

When Eve took a bite of the fruit, sin entered the world. Our relationship then changed. Sin is choosing to not believe and to not follow Jesus. Jesus left us the Holy Spirit to guide us, if we will just listen.

God’s justice is Jesus paying the price for our sin. He paid the price with His life. This justice is the truth about God. But we must listen to His voice and believe if we want to receive this gift.

The voice of the world will be judged and punished. Our judgement comes if we choose to listen to the wrong voice.

The Holy Spirit is Jesus’ voice in us.

We all have a sense of right and wrong. But we are weak and need the strength of the Holy Spirit to help us make the right decisions. We need to listen to the right Voice.

When we’re faced with voices telling us different things, we can discern the right one from the wrong one with a few simple tests.

First test is the Bible. Does this voice align with Scripture? This doesn’t mean a few select verses, it means the Bible as a whole.

The second test is selfishness. Is this a voice that says you’re all that matters? Every man for himself. No one is looking out for you. This doesn’t sound like the right voice to me.

The last test is: does it sound like Satan’s voice? A manipulation of the truth. Like when he spoke to Eve in the Garden. A questioning, “Are you sure that’s what God meant? What will it hurt if you eat the fruit?”

Being aware of the voices and understanding them is critical to following the right one. Then it comes down to deciding which one to listen to. If we listen to the wrong one there will be an eternal price to pay.

If we hold on to the world, we’ll go down with a sinking ship.

How Do We Explain What We Don’t See?

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Some Things Are Just Hard to Explain

Life is full of things that are hard to explain. Things that happen without any clear understanding or tangible concrete evidence. I can’t explain how this computer that I’m writing this post on works, but it does. It’s amazing how this happens.

Pastor Lisa started a sermon series on Pentecost this past Sunday. Pentecost is a Christian holiday that happens 50 days after Easter. It commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus while they were together in Jerusalem.

“Suddenly there was a noise from heaven like the sound of a mighty wind! It filled the house where they were meeting. Then they saw what looked like fiery tongues moving in all directions, and a tongue came and settled on each person there. The Holy Spirit took control of everyone…”

Air is something that we can’t see or touch, yet we are surrounded by it. We know it’s there. We can feel it when it blows. When it blows hard we can see the results.

We can’t live without air.

This is how the Holy Spirit is described in Acts 2:1-4: A noise from heaven like a mighty wind filled the house where they were meeting.

God is one of those things that we can’t see. This can make it hard to explain. Like air, we can see and feel the results after He has blown through our lives.

Then they saw what looked like fire settling on each person. This was the visible presence of the Holy Spirt. We might say the followers of Jesus were on fire.

We hear the phrase “being on fire” used to describe someone or something that is performing exceptionally well. Someone who was full of energy and passion. This usage became popularized in sports where commentators would use it to describe athletes who were performing at their best. From there, it spread into other areas such as business and entertainment.

We need to be on fire for Jesus.

It can be hard for some people to accept that God is real because they can’t see Him. This requires faith and trust. These things can be hard without tangible proof. Yet we accept that the sun is going to come up each morning and that we will have air to breathe.

The evidence of the unseen shouldn’t be overlooked.

True North 

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Trusting Jesus in a Wild World 

This past week was Vacation Bible School at church. This meant that the kids gave us a firsthand example of what they learned. The theme of the week was True North. It’s amazing and encouraging to see these young people living out their Christian faith. 

A compass points north by using an ever-changing magnetic north. It’s always close to the True North Pole, but not the one and only True North on the planet. It’s the point where the earth rotates on its axis.  

This VBS program takes kids on an Alaskan adventure where northern lights glow over majestic mountains, racing rivers, and glistening glaciers. As they trek through the tundra, they explore how easy it is to lose sight of what’s true in our wild world today. Pointing them toward Jesus, showing them that He is a faithful friend we can always trust.  

Jesus is our True North. 

One of the things the kids showed us was how what’s impossible for us alone is possible with the help of others. They were asked to reach from one side of the sanctuary to the other. Of course, it was impossible for them to reach thirty feet by themselves. But when they got together in a line and held hands, they could then touch both walls. 

What’s impossible alone is possible with the help of others. 

This past Sunday was also Pentecost. This commemorates the descending of the Holy Spirit on Jesus’s followers. They were gathered together when they heard a noise from Heaven that sounded like a mighty wind. And the Holy Spirit took control of them.  

The Holy Spirit can be a little harder to understand than God and Jesus. Think of it this way. People we know have physical bodies, but they are more than that. They act in certain ways. They do and say things that are a part of who they are. When thinking about people who have died, we remember them in spirit more than their physical being. Their spirit is who they are. The Holy Spirit is who God is. 

In Matthew 28:16-20, Jesus tells His followers to go to the people of all nations and making disciples. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to do the things that He has told them. And He will always be with you. 

The Holy Spirit is how He is with us. 

Back to the kids working together to reach across the sanctuary, we all need help as we traverse this wild world every day. The Holy Spirit will help us on the journey to the True North in this wild world. 

The Power of the Wind is Amazing

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You Can Only See It Through Its Results

We can’t see the wind. The only way to know if there is any, is when we see things being moved around. Wind can be a gentle cool refreshing breeze, or it can be a strong storm like fury.

We’ve all heard of the amazing stories of things like wheat straw being driven into highline poles and animals and people being blown several hundred yards from where they started and living through it. I witness things like jewelry and important heirlooms remaining on open surfaces in homes that were destroyed by tornados. The wind can refresh us or move us to where it wants us to go.

If we will work with the wind rather than fighting against it, we can accomplish amazing things.

In 1848 when trying to figure out how to get the first cable across the Niagara River it was determined that a kite contest might be the answer.

“There was a tremendous turn out for the kite contest that was held in January of 1848. The kites began appearing on the Canadian side of the gorge, taking advantage of prevailing winds from West to East. The first to succeed in spanning the gorge with his kite, named the ‘Union’, was fifteen-year-old American, Homan Walsh. Homan crossed to the Canadian side of the gorge by ferry just below Niagara Falls, and walked the two miles along the top of the cliff to the location that the bridge was to be built. Homan had to wait a day for the wind to cooperate; it was a kite contest after all! However, on the second day, the winds were perfect and Homan’s kite went right up and flew high above the gorge.” The Kite that Bridged a River, by M. Robinson.

In last week’s post Give Light to the World by Spreading “The Fire”, I referred to the Holy Spirit as fire. In that same Scripture, Acts 2:2-4, the Holy Spirit is also referred to as wind.

That Holy Spirt can breathe life into dead bones and dead people, Ezekiel 37:4-6, 11-14. We are dry and dead like the bones in Ezekiel. We need His breath breathed into us.

We need the Holy Spirit to blow us to do the right things, to love our neighbors and to be the hands and feet of God.

When the wind of God blows, amazing things happen!

 [ct1]Against it

How Can I Be the Best Witness?

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Remember It’s Not About Me

Often the words disciple and apostle are used interchangeably. There isn’t a huge difference and most times these words refer to the twelve direct followers of Jesus. A disciple is a follower or student of a teacher. An apostle is one who is sent out to convey a message and to teach.

How amazing would it have been, learning from Jesus in person? In Acts 1:1-14 Luke wrote about the experience. He tells us that Jesus gave them instruction to go and witness to people everywhere. After everything they had been through, I don’t think they would have felt much like going out into the unknown and teaching. It would have been much more comfortable to just stay in and keep it to themselves.

Too many people spend their whole life “going to school” and never put what they learned to use.

Ray Edwards used the word “educrastination” in one of his podcasts. He said, “This is the act of spending too much time learning and not enough time doing.” I can identify with this. I love to learn new things and continue to build a better me. It’s much easier to learn than it is to put those lessons into action. If we don’t put what we learn to use, we’re no better off than we were before we learned it.

Not using and sharing what we learn is an act of selfishness.

Jesus couldn’t physically connect with everyone. In the scripture above, Luke tells us this is why God sent the Holy Spirit…because it could. We have access to this same Holy Spirit today. This is God’s way of equipping and impowering us to do the work He has called us to do.

Luke and the other disciples witnessed Jesus’ miracles firsthand. As apostles with the help of the Holy Spirit they taught others. This teaching and witnessing continues today. I can be a witness for Christ or against Him. Our actions are evidence of our witness.

What is my witness?

Cartoon man looking up at large question mark