Tag Archives: Spirit of God

Spirit of God

Lent

March 5, 2023

Scripture Reading: John 3:1-17
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Who is this teacher, this Jesus, that performs miraculous signs? These signs are real and often related to healing human bodies, but he speaks in terms of Spiritual things we cannot see or touch but are somehow real. The Spirit of God was not a new concept to Nicodemus; it appears 14 times in the Hebrew Bible.

 Shakespeare, in his play Hamlet, may have said it best. In Act 1 Scene 5, Hamlet tells his friend: “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

Jesus is explaining the unexplainable, which is the beginning of faith. Hebrews 11:1 says it this way; Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

God’s love comes to us in many ways, but none more meaningful than the life, death, and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for the wonderous gift of your Spirit. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Living with the Spirit Now

Eastertide

May 27, 2022

Scripture Reading: Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

‘It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.’

The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’
And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

The one who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. Revelation 22:16-17, 20-21

The Spirit of God is present with us every moment of every day even when we have turned away from the Spirit, either not recognizing the presence or by choice. We are the bride of Christ called to extend his ministry throughout the world. We may cringe at the language Paul uses in Ephesians 5:22-33 using the roles of the first-century husband and wife to illustrate our relationship with the Spirit of God, but we are, indeed, called to be partners in Christ’s service in whatever way the roles of men and women have evolved or time and changes in culture.

I must confess, having been raised on a farm, where everyone worked and did their part based more on their age and capabilities, I am perplexed at times by the gender role interpretation that grew out of Paul’s writings. My guess is that first-century Christian women had their hands full working as hard as my mom, sister, and I did every day. I am reading the book After Jesus Before Christianity and learned the hierarchy in the roles of women and men has always existed with women usually being deemed less than. All I have to say about that is no man would have ever existed had it not been for a woman. Everyone has the right to become fully the person God created them to be. The world is more productive when the best person for a job fills the job.

I write this because our world invests more time in distractions than in fulfilling our call to usher in the Kingdom of God. We fight over which toilet one can use, who can decide what health care an individual needs, and whether mass shootings could be curbed by placing limitations on what guns can be sold and to whom. We rarely hear about already existing positive ways of addressing all these issues—like making all toilets private for everyone or providing quality accessible, affordable health care for everyone coupled with life education, or recognizing the proof from previous experience that outlawing assault rifles reduced deaths from mass shootings.

Prayer: Lord, help us turn toward the Spirit rather than away from you so that we might serve you more nearly. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

God with Us

Eastertide

April 26, 2019

Scripture Reading: Revelation 1:4-8

Look! He is coming with the clouds;
   every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
   and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.
So it is to be. Amen.

 ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. –Revelation 1:7-8

Is God here with us right now or not? When I hear people talk about the second coming, this question comes to my mind. There are even some that seem to think they can hasten God’s arrival by causing a war in the Middle East. Some seem to forget that the gift of the Holy Spirit was given whether as John reports (John 20:22) immediately or as Acts 2 describes during Pentecost or perhaps both. I tend to lean toward both. I stood with my mother in the hospital waiting room when the doctor came to report that my dad had had a massive heart attack severely injuring his heart. If he survived the heart attack, he would be an invalid. He had the second heart attack one week later and died. My mother does not remember being in the meeting with the doctor after the first attack. Shock and grief play strange games on all of us. A later dramatic reminder of the promise of the gift of the Spirit as described in Acts is fitting in dealing with the human state.

My, perhaps fanciful interpretation, of Christ’s return in a cloud is that he will rejoin us as the Omega when and if we ever become the people of love and peace, he taught us to be and do. Not war but shalom will usher in the returning Christ who through the Spirit guides us in the direction of love and peace, if we allow it.

Prayer:
Spirit, Spirit of gentleness,
blow through the wilderness calling and free,
Spirit, Spirit of restlessness,
stir me from placidness,
wind, wind on the sea.

You call from tomorrow,
you break ancient schemes.
From the bondage of sorrow
all the captives dream dreams;
our women see visions,
our men clear their eyes.
With bold new decisions
your people arise*. Amen.

*Chorus and Fourth verse of Spirit by James K. Manley https://digitalsongsandhymns.com/songs/3373

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

The Tenacious Spirit

Lent
March 31, 2017

Scripture Reading: Romans 8:6-11

But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. –Romans 8:9-11

The Spirit is tenacious. I once had a tenacious dog.  I got him when he was barely six weeks old. He fit in the palm of my hand when he first came to live with me, and only weighed eight pounds when fully grown. He was the runt of the litter and his other siblings were picking on him. He had places chewed off his little ear from their mischief. I soon found he had epilepsy and was allergic to flee bites. Starting with several strikes against him, he became one of the sweetest dogs I ever knew, smartest too. He never met a stranger, loved everyone. He stayed in the kitchen during the day and had for a bed an old electric blanket that had outlived its usefulness. It was queen-sized and still had the metal elements for transmitting heat. Thus, it was very heavy. One evening, he disappeared from my side. I heard a strange noise and discovered him trying to pull the blanket with his tiny body and tinier teeth.  He would not give it up so I just left him to wear himself out and returned to the living room. Sometime later he rounded the end of my sofa with blanket in tow pulling it up next to my chair. Turning around on it a couple of times, he laid down and went to sleep. He had pulled the blanket some 40 feet because he is by nature a creature of community, wanted his own bed but longed for the presence of others. Much like we long for God and a community of faith.

The Spirit continuously works to be in us and work through us. We only need open the door and welcome the Spirit. And yes, from the day of the blanket pull, my little guy used my lap for napping and his bed was moved to my bedroom for the night.

All scriptures are quoted from the new Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.