Just ordinary dudes

Today Jesus left his disciples. But before he left, they recieved the Holy Spirit for the first time. Now I came to Christ when I was too little to really know/remember the difference, and I can't imagine NOT having the Holy Spirit. Check out how radical it was here in Acts:

Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome both Jews and converts to Judaism Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"
Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

" 'In the last days, God says,

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your young men will see visions,

your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women,

I will pour out my Spirit in those days,

and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above

and signs on the earth below,

blood and fire and billows of smoke.

The sun will be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood

before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.

And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' "

I can't imagine how amazing that would be and how many nights I would be not able to sleep just thinking of all this meant to the world from there on out.

Doncha love when God works these things out?

This morning I read the part in Ezekiel where Ezekiel is getting a tour of the temple by the angel who is measuring everything. Twas quite long and I couldn't get a point out of it for the life of me. But before I could think/pray about it further, it was time for church.

Went to Eastside Baptist. Great worship! Then when it was sermon time, the main passages of what the message was on showed up on the screen. Whoa! Ezekial 47! Maybe somebody knows what this is all about!!! Before we go any further, here is the passage in question:

The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was flowing from the south side.
As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. He asked me, "Son of man, do you see this?"

Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, "This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Sea. When it empties into the Sea, the water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Great Sea. But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing."

Now you all may be more spiritually minded than me, but I was saying, "Wha......???" The pastor gave us the example of his three-year-old in a kiddie pool. It's really fun and great while she's 3, but when she's 16 it won't be the same. He said that the water in the passage was the water of the Holy Spirit - the living water. First it was ankle deep, then knee deep, then waist deep, and soon Ezekiel was swimming in the water. I wondered how deep I was in my spiritual growth. Does living water flow through you onto a dead world, making all live?

So my questions of this morning were all cleared up today perfectly. God gave me the passage, I didn't understand it, so he set up an explanation to the parable in the same day. Oh so thoughtful...

The Spirit Descends!

Jesus has just ascended into heaven and the disciples are left behind. The Spirit descended upon them like flames. Can you imagine receiving the Spirit like that? First you're sitting around and then BANG there's fire on your clothes and in your heart! I love reading the first part of Acts - it says the disciples "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

Can you imagine that? They had everything in common - no fighting about whether they should sing the old songs or the new ones or arguing about choir robes. They were together praising God - how much better can it get? Not only that, they were favorable in the eyes of everyone, and people came to join them because they wanted to be of their number. Now Christians are definitely NOT in favor of the world - too often we're holier-than-thou and nobody wants what we have because of the way we act. We all know what happens later - persecution. But the disciples didn't care, they kept sharing anyway!

May we be like the early Christians!

Random Instructions

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil."

I like these staccato bursts of information! Let's look at them!

"Be joyful always"

This one is self-explanatory! ALWAYS - not just when things are the way you like.

"pray continually"

Don't stop praying while you're flitting about daily life! And if you need to remember to pray right now, it's Jared M, Jordan B, and Eliza S's birthday today! Hence, it's their pray-day on my calendar:)

"give thanks in all circumstances"

We don't like to remember THAT one, do we?

"Do not put out the Spirit's fire"

Whoa. Do not put it out? How would we put it out? This one made me think - how often do you feel like the Spirit's fire is just not in you? Are you the one that put it out? Don't discourage or grieve the Spirit!

"Do not treat prophecies with contempt"

They've all come true so far! Sometimes I despair that Jesus will ever come back for us - I mean, if not now WHEN???

"Test everything"

Don't assume anything is prolly right because it sounds good - weigh it against the Bible!

"Hold on to the good"

Even when things or people circumstances are bad, think about the good of it. It makes things feel better too.

"Avoid every kind of evil"

But it's ok to dabble in a LITTLE bit right? If you see something that you're doing that leads to evil, stop doing it. And there's no "just a little bit bad" - it's evil or it's not.

These little paragraphs are fun to dissect! Think about them today and pray happy birthdays!:P

By His Spirit

Saturday Night Service. Is it just me, or are those three little words riddled in uncertainty, worries, and excitement? I may have mentioned that we are starting this up at my church, and we have a small team that is working to head this thing up. There are a lot of unknowns and a lot of things that we need that we don't have.

But in yesterday's morning service, our pastor talked about projects that we start and don't finish. Everybody has them. Sometimes they are dropped for good reasons, but most of the time we don't finish them because we are intimidated, discouraged, in need of the resources, we lose interest, etc even if we are excited to begin with. The passage was in Zechariah (curious huh?) in which Zechariah and Zerubbabel (nice name) are building the temple of the LORD. Zechariah had a strange vision in chapter 4 that I'm not going to put down here right now, but you can go look it up. The point and interpretation of the vision was thus:

"This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.
"What are you, O mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of 'God bless it! God bless it!' "
Then the word of the LORD came to me: "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you.

That means that no matter how hard we try to finish and accomplish something, it is nothing if the Spirit of the LORD is not in it. And no obstacle can stand in the way if the Spirit wills you to finish through Him! This was great to hear. God, bless the Saturday Night Service and give it success. I'll miss our church being tiny, but I'm sure I'll love it large as well:)

Oh, and we started worship with a video that really set the tone for the rest of worship time. Pastor Les pulled a couple of fast ones on us and we got brave and sang MIGHTY TO SAVE without practicing first! Church went long, but nobody cared. We were all in the Spirit.

But now what on earth will next Sunday's sermon be about??? We're done with the Spirit series, so nobody will know what to do with themselves!:P

The Armor of God

I am here commentating on Ephesians 6:10-18 in red.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Imagine if you tried to fight a duel on your own and without any armor! For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. I just wrote a story about this - there is a guy who is living a normal life, but doesn't know that the demons and God are in a great battle for him. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Readiness that comes from peace - it makes sense doesn't it? If you're peaceful about a situation in Christ, you're not going to freak out and say the wrong things. You're ready with Christ! In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The word of God is like a sword! Do you have it ready? We should work on memorizing more scripture and have it on all the time, just in case. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Praying for the saints... do you do it? I don't as much as I should. But why not? I haven't figured that part out yet. I'd certainly like to be prayed for to stay strong in my faith, so why don't I do it for other people?

The Spirit

"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."

Our pastor is doing a series on the Holy Spirit. It has proved most thought provoking - fairly simple, yet complicated too. Today in my daily Bible reading I ran across this passage and I thought of the sermon yesterday. There was an illustration that likened us to a runner. You're running as fast as you can, and your body says, "You should really slow down. I'm tired - STOP ALREADY!!!!" But your competitive nature says, "No, lookit that guy's ahead! Get him! Get him! Catch him!"

It's the same way with our flesh and the Spirit. "the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature." They are at battle! I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. BUT the sinful nature has been crucified! If we belong to Christ, it no longer has any control over us! Let us keep in step with the Spirit!

If God doesn't go with us

Yesterday in church, my pastor showed us a quote that went something like:

"If the Holy Spirit somehow suddenly disappeared from the earth, most of the Church's work would continue unabated."

Wha? Heheh. Chew on THAT one for a few minutes and figure if that's correct in your church or, more importantly - your life. If the Holy Spirit somehow left, would you know for certain that something was wrong?

This morning I read about the Israelites after the golden calf and all these other things that showed their bull-headedness. God was angry, and said:

"Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way."

"God will not go with us???" Everyone said. They started to mourn and cry. They did not want to go without God. Since God was still pleased with Moses, he changed his mind and went with them.

But that's not the point, it's just to give it a happy ending. The point is, what if God WEREN'T going with us in what we did? Would we notice? Do we take advantage of the fact that he is with us in all that we do?