The Promise of the Spirit

Greetings All!

 This week's "thought" comes to you from a superb yet not-so-well-known book by William Barclay.  It is entitled: "The Promise of the Spirit."  Barclay is known mostly for his popular "Daily Study Bible Series" covering the entire New Testament. Yet the "Barclay Prayer Book" and this volume about the work of the Spirit, are also good resources to have around on your shelf.
     Today's selection has to do with the power and work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. It focuses on His moving in both extraordinary and everyday ways. I trust his words might challenge and encourage you.  And for those who may be put off by the exclusively "male" language, please remember it was written in a time (1959) when no one really gave it much thought, and the terms "man" and "men" had a more generic "person" or "people" connotation.  Enjoy!

Men of the Spirit

     "No man who asks for, and receives, the guidance of the Spirit can ever be an irrelevant teacher or preacher. The Spirit of God is always looking for men who will be messengers to their day and generation. There is no moment without its message from God, there is no crisis without its word -- if a man can be found by the Spirit to bring that message and that word...  It is the conviction of the Old Testament that no man can prophecy without the Spirit. No man can teach others unless he himself is taught. The Spirit is God's witness in any human situation.  It is through the Spirit that with the need there always comes the power. And it is the Spirit who gives the prophet the strength and courage to bring to men the message of God, whether that message be consolation or condemnation.

        Great as the work of the Spirit is in creation in the Old Testament, still greater is the power of the Spirit in the lives of individual men. The great leaders of the Old Testament are all men who possess the Spirit, have been possessed by the Spirit, and in whom the Spirit dwells... When God has some great task to give a man, He gives it to a man whose equipment for the task is the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. The conviction of the Old Testament is that no man can do the work of God without the Spirit of God, and that no man can lead his fellow men unless he himself is led by the Spirit of God...

        In general the work of the Spirit is connected with the extraordinary and the abnormal. The work of the Spirit is not so much a daily power and presence as it is an abnormal phenomenon and manifestation.... It is not everyday life with which the Spirit is connected, but with the unrepeatable moments.  Even in the case of prophecy, the prophecy in early times tends to be ecstatic and abnormal... The manifestations of the Spirit are wonderful and miraculous. [Dreams, interpretation of dreams, visions, prophecies, miracles, tremendous feats of strength, victory over enemies, etc.  Such things begin to happen when, or after, it is said: "The Spirit of the Lord came upon him..."  Gen. 41:38  / Numbers 11:16-17 / Numbers 27:18 / Judges 3:10 / Judges 6:34 / Judges 11:29 / I Sam. 11:6 / I Sam. 16:13 / Isaiah 42:1...]

     Yet, as we shall see, it is not always so... It is possible to over-stress the element of abnormality in the idea of the working of the Spirit in the Old Testament, for the Spirit also stands for the universal presence of God. The Spirit stands for the fact that it is neither possible to lose God in trouble, nor escape God in sin (Psalm 139)...  In Exodus 31:1-3, God told Moses to set Bezaleel aside for the work of building the tabernacle, because, “I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in sliver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.”

     Here is something new.  Craftsmanship is the gift of the Spirit.  Here is something which in an illuminating flash transfers the Spirit from the realm of theology to the realm of life, from the stillness of the Church to crash of the hammer and the buzz of the saw and the noise of the chisel on the stone in the workshop.  Here the Spirit is indeed in the midst of life and living.  We do well to remember that, whatever gift a man has, of mind or heart, of brain or eye or hand, that gift is the gift of the Spirit.  It is not only the theologian in his study, the priest in his church, the prophet with his message, who is working in the power of the Spirit.  The man at the bench and at the machine, the man in whose hands wood and metal become obedient, the mechanic, the engineer, the carpenter, the fitter, the mason, are all men of the Spirit, and can, and must, serve God in the Spirit."

     Anyone who has been in ministry for any amount of time knows that apart for the power, presence and unction of the Holy Spirit attending our words and efforts, there is little or no lasting (and definitely no eternal) transformational result. As Spurgeon once said in all earnestness in regard to the task of preaching: “We might preach till our tongues rotted, till we should exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless there were a mysterious power going with it—the Holy Ghost changing the will of man.  Oh Sirs!  We might as well preach to stone walls as preach to humanity unless the Holy Ghost be with the word, to give it power to convert the soul.”  To believe otherwise is to miss the point of divine grace and the indispensability of Spirit's work in the hearts of people.

      As Barclay states in his introduction of this book: "It is my prayer that those who read this book will by their own study come more and more to know the Holy Spirit, not as a doctrine, but as a Person, and that they will thereby experience more of His power in their own lives."  That is my prayer as well.

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Christmas Thoughts

Greetings All,

     Since we're so close to Christmas (and I know I won't have time to send a thought next Tuesday) I decided to send some of my favorite collected 'thoughts' regarding Christmas.

     I do want to wish you all the best for the holiday season and pray that a midst the busyness and preparations and gift buying and wrapping you'll be able to keep your heart centered on that which is most important -- the miracle of the incarnation we celebrate, or the miracle that is Jesus. As the well-known Christmas carol admonishes us, "Come let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord." Enjoy.

     "...God descends to re-ascend... He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity. Down to the very roots and sea-bed of the nature He has created. But He goes down to come up again, and bring the ruined world up with Him. One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower, to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. He must stoop in order to lift, He must almost disappear under the load before He incredibly straightens his back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on His shoulders."    C. S. Lewis

     "Let this Christmas season be a renewing of the mind of Christ in our thinking, and a cleansing of our lives by His pure presence. Let His joy come to our weary world through us."  Gerald Kennedy

     "The fact of Jesus' coming is the final and unanswerable proof that God cares."  William Barclay

     "It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas, that the most profound unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie. God became man;... the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as this truth of the incarnation."  J. I. Packer 

     "Christmas can be a difficult time for those who carry the burden of hard work, stressful family situations, and personal loss. But we should remember that Christ came into our world to lift up all who are bowed down... 'To proclaim that captives will be released...' (Luke 4:18).  Jesus came to lift our burdens so we can raise our eyes to welcome Him at Christmas."  David McCasland

     "The purpose and cause of the incarnation was that He might illuminate the world with His wisdom and excite it to the love of Himself."   Peter Abelard

     "The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God."  C. S. Lewis

"Take Christ out of Christmas, and December becomes the bleakest and most colorless month of the year."  A. F. Wells

     "This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols, but the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift, the Christ."  Frank McKibben

     "This Advent we look to the wise men to teach us where to focus our attention.  We set our sights on things above, where God is.  We draw closer to Jesus... [And] When our journey ends and we reach the place where Jesus resides in Bethlehem, may we, like the Wise Men, fall on our knees and adore Him as our true and only King."  Mark Zimmermann

     "For the great and powerful of this world, there are only two places in which their courage fails them, of which they are afraid deep down in their souls, from which they shy away. These are the manger and the cross of Jesus Christ. No powerful person dares approach the manger, and this even includes King Herod.  For this is where thrones shake, the mighty fall, the prominent perish, because God is with the lowly.  Here the rich come to nothing, because God is with the poor and the hungry, but the rich and the satisfied He sends away empty. Before Mary, the maid, before the manger of Christ, before God in lowliness, the powerful come to naught; they have no right, no hope, they are judged."  Dietrich Bonhoeffer 

     "The hinge of history is on the door of a Bethlehem stable."   Ralph W. Sockman

     Many advocate dropping the name "Christmas" and instead using the phrase "The Holiday Season." But such a tactic still fails to bring about its intended end.  For the word "holiday" is a compound word that comes from the two words,  "holy" and "day."

     So that's fine with me. It is a "holy day."  A day dedicated to God and set apart for a sacred purpose.  It gives me an even better opportunity to share, and opens the door for me to explain what makes it holy.  I plan to take advantage of each one!   I trust you will too.

With warmest regards and earnest prayers that you may enjoy a Christ-centered, Christ-filled and thus joyous celebration of the day, Pastor Jeff

Prayer

Greetings to all and a Happy New Year as well!  

 

     As we begin the new year, I wanted to share a prayer I came across in my reading for today. It's by William Barclay and is found in "A Barclay Prayer Book."  Though it was not written with the New Year in mind, it struck me as the one I wanted to pray for myself as this year begins. I thought I might offer it to you as well, since he so beautifully expresses many of the ongoing desires of a Christian's heart.  Enjoy.

 

      "Give us this night, O God, as we worship you:

                Your truth to tell us what we ought to believe and what we ought to do, Your strength to make us able to face the things which by ourselves we cannot do; Your love that we may love you as you have first loved us, and may love our fellow men and women as you love them.  

                Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

        Lord Jesus, you were tempted; help us when we are tempted. 

       When we are tempted, help us:

              Always to remember those who love us and trust us and believe in us, and whose hearts would be broken if we brought disgrace upon ourselves; Never to do anything which would bring us regret, remorse and shame to follow it; Never to do anything which we would have to hide, and about which we should be ashamed if others should know; Never to do anything which would injure anyone else; Always to remember that whatever we say or do, you hear and see it.

       Save us from ever being carried away by the heat, or the impulse, or the passion of the moment, and so forgetting the consequences of the things we do. 

       Help us never to disobey our conscience and never to do anything which would take away our self-respect. 

       Help us to make:

               Our pleasure such that we would never wish to hide it; Our work such that we never need to be ashamed of it; Our conduct to others such that we will never regret it.

      At all times keep:

              Our thoughts pure and our words true; Our actions honorable and our bodies clean.

      Help us so to live that we can take everything in life and show it to you.

      O heavenly Father, in whom we live and move and have our being, we humbly pray Thee so to govern and guide us by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our daily life we may never forget you, but remember that we are ever walking in your sight:  through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

      From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, of Your goodness give us your love to inspire us, your Spirit to guide us, and your power to protect us.  And in Your mercy receive us, now and ever.  Amen." 

 

      May His richest blessings be upon you as you enter this new year. And may all the above be true of you. 

                         In His Service, Pastor Jeff