It’s a Dance link
Was happily excited this morning to see that Glen Reynolds of Instapundit has mentioned my book. Not a big mention, mind you, but I really, really appreciate the note.
He noted a couple of things. One that the cover letter made reference to his book, An Army of Davids, and the second that the book is about the topic of the Holy Spirit in a pub.
Of course, as friendly emaily Todd let me know, this wee bit of attention came when the book site happened to be down. I’m taking care of that right now and in the meantime have forwarded links to my personal site here. While that site has a bit more info, I want to include a bit more here, for those who are new to It’s a Dance.
Glen’s book, and his efforts online, have emphasized how an “army of Davids” can bring radical change to all kinds of fields. This is no less true for religion, and my book touches on two very important aspects of this in Christianity. The first is the topic of the book itself: the Holy Spirit. What Glen Reynolds has emphasized as the many banding together to bring challenge and renewal to human systems is an inherent part of Christian theology. That is the work, we say, of the Holy Spirit. However, discussions of the Holy Spirit have consistently been relegated to the back of the theological line. Reasons for this are many but one big one is that a thorough theology of the Holy Spirit undermines hierarchical patterns and empowers all Christians to take a vital role in shaping both local and global Christianity. In pushing for a renewed examination of the Holy Spirit theologians and ministers are opening the door for what can really be called ‘open source’ Christianity. Those interested in how this affects broader culture might find chapter five especially interesting as it deals with a critique of the religious right and how a thorough understanding of the Spirit leads Christians towards different expression of public interaction and personal understanding.
The other aspect is the particular form of church that I have chosen to highlight in my book. Called the ‘emerging church’ it is a renewal movement that has taken off in the last ten years. There is a de-emphasis of buildings and structure and settled form emphasizing instead characteristics that seek to best reflect the mission of Jesus in bringing hope and renewal. The leaders of this movement have utilized technology in all its forms from the beginning, with blogs, podcasts, and other internet tools helping to bring many from around the world into a shared conversation. It is, in effect, the Christian expression of what Glen has emphasized in other fields.
This is a source for both the setting and the approach. While it is a theology book, it’s not a dry one. Rather, it’s a conversation set up between a reporter, a pastor, and some others, taking place in a pub. Essentially, as I was writing it I had my own questions and objections that came to mind. Instead of ignoring these I made them part of the whole. And thus made it an open, and hopefully continuing, conversation.
Thanks for having a look at it. And thanks again to Instapundit for highlighting it.
Wise Teaching
The last few years Wheaton College has started a great custom. It sends various professors out and about, throughout the year, to give lectures at alumni club meetings. These are not just a good way to touch base with other alumni, from all generations, but also a chance to remember why Wheaton was such a great place for learning.
They’ve posted recordings of these lectures online. Well worth having a listen.
Here’s the lectures from this year:
Dr. Lon Allison, Director of the Billy Graham Center
Discovering Your Faith-Sharing Style
How do you share your Christian faith with others? Dr. Lon Allison will discuss how you can discover your God-given style of faith-sharing with those around you. He will present eight styles with practical ways to apply them to your everyday life.
Dr. Ken Chase, Associate Professor of Communication
Digital Delusions and the Future of Christian Witness
The Internet Age provides wonderfully new opportunities for communicating the Gospel to a global audience. However, it can also seduce Christians away from the communication techniques most needed in our culture. We mistakenly look to digital answers to overcome the deep divisions within our society. Dr. Chase will discuss how we must look, instead, to the enduring power of Christian witness to communicate the Gospel.
Dr. Christine Gardner, Assistant Professor of Communication
The Rhetoric of AIDS
Dr. Gardner explores how the power of words shapes our understanding of a disease that continues to claim the lives of nearly 8,000 each day. Drawing on experiences in the field and in the classroom, Dr. Gardner focuses on different spheres of rhetoric—from political to entertainment to religious—and the impact of our words on the Church’s witness.
Dr. P.J. Hill, George F. Bennett Professor of Economics
Capitalism and Christianity: Friends, Foes, or Uneasy Partners?
During the 20th century, market capitalism was found to be the most successful way of ensuring increases in material well-being in a society. This raises an important question for the Christian: What is there in our understanding of human nature that provides insight into the success of a system based on private property and markets? The material success of capitalism also raises important issues about other aspects of human flourishing. What are the moral and ethical implications of a market economy?
Dr. Kristen Page, Associate Professor of Biology
Loving Neighbors: Christian Responsibility in the Created World
We live in a world of much suffering. Patterns of human land-use and resource consumption result in fragmented ecosystems, pollution, climate change, loss of biodiversity, and ultimately emerging diseases. In her lecture, Dr. Page discusses how we, as Christians in the developed world, must recognize our contribution to the suffering of our neighbors. We are called to image Christ, to live in family, and to respond in love to those around us. Since care for creation is love for our neighbors, we must live with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and love toward all creation. By acting as agents of reconciliation, we can truly love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves.
Dr. Jerry Root, Assistant Professor of Evangelism/Associate Director of the Institute of Strategic Evangelism, Billy Graham Center
C.S. Lewis’ Prince Caspian: A Showcase for Lewis’ Big Ideas
Every time C.S. Lewis put his pen to paper his aim was to set forth a vision of life. This is not merely true in his work in Christian apologetics, but also in his fiction. Dr. Root explores the background, main ideas, and rhetorical intention Lewis articulated in Prince Caspian. His presentation coincides with the recent release of the new Narnian Film, “Prince Caspian.”
Dr. John Walford, Professor of Art History
Photographic Explorations: An Art Historian’s Sideways Glance
Over the past few years, Dr. Walford has extended his activities from teaching and writing about art history to exploring the medium of digital photography as a further means of artistic expression. In this illustrated presentation, Dr. Walford describes how this new endeavor—which has led to a recent exhibition in Italy, and a forthcoming book of his photographs—has enabled him to combine his art historical training and visual sensibilities and led to engaging fresh audiences through the medium of the Internet, as well as revitalizing his classroom teaching. Dr. Walford’s presentation includes a slideshow of images. View this image gallery as you listen to the lecture.
Jay Wood Dr. Jay Wood, Professor of Philosophy
Virtuous Transformation
Thinking about moral virtues and vices has been a major concern of philosophers since the days of Plato and Aristotle. In fact, philosophical interest in the ways virtues and vices form our character is enjoying a resurgence of popularity at present. Christians, too, have always had an interest in virtues and vices as they bear on Christian character. This lecture will be an exercise in faith-learning integration, as we explore how virtues and vices contribute to our transformation in Christ.
I’ve noted before the fact the Wheaton has its chapel presentations online going back to 2003, and scattered selections before that (one or two even reaching the edges of my own long ago attendance).
A Persistent Peace. An Autohagriography
Throughout Christian history there has been quite an interest in men and women who did great things, whether in this world or within their soul. These men and women weren’t seeking self-satisfaction. Rather, they were truly seeking God and his work in them and in this world. The interest in such people often insisted they be viewed as saints, objects of devotion if not worship. Biographies written were often filled with stories of great victories, moral pronouncements, heroic stands. Little was said that would suggest these people had real personal histories or daily struggles or lived in complex times.
Glossing over the negatives, and thus the whole truth, these biographies were meant more as inspiration than history–inspiration for those already walking in their footsteps, devoted to the cause and method.
A Persistent Peace: One Man’s Struggle for a Nonviolent World
I was disappointed, however. A Persistent Peace is a history of the icon, John Dear S.J, and even more the story of the names and places involved in the Peace movement since Reagan.
But we never really get to know the man, John Dear. The gift of an autobiography is that we can see not only the events, but also the internal perspective, wrestling, frustrations, development of the subject. John Dear seems to open up, but often only in ways that bolster the sense of his superiority. People around him don’t understand him. They are bored or angry or confused. Dialogue is pontifications of his teaching to the ignorant, even hateful, opponents or less ignorant friends. This is coupled with a hero worship of sorts, in which Dear seems to reveal himself most by talking about the people he wants to be like. But, all throughout it seems a lot of the real John Dear remains hidden, hidden because it seems he is still unwilling to be truly transparent about who he is and where he came from.
In the foreword, Martin Sheen writes, “I suspect that much of John’s character was formed, as it is for all of us, during adolescence, that critical period when every level of physical, emotional, physiological, sexual, and spiritual development begins to emerge.”
I suspect this too. Only A Persistent Peace gives nothing of this. We begin with John in college at Duke. We are given only the barest glimpse of his family life, which is decidedly upper class and filled with powerful influences. Indeed, he mentions his father and mother only in passing again and again, often as sources of introductions for people he proceeded to lecture about peace issues.
So, we don’t really ever get to see the man, only the image of the peace activist seeking the way of Jesus in this world as he sees it, fighting against the benighted masses who disagree, not only with the goal but also the method–public protest and nuisance. This is not a review to argue such tactics, however, I can’t help but think that being empowered because of arrests for public behavior is entirely different than the martyrs arrested for their message. Speaking the message is perfectly fine and accepted, a fact I think grates against those who seek to find identity within a pampered martyrdom.
Because of this I was disappointed with the book. We are left with more of a polemic than a story, again and again told rather than shown. Which places me outside of the target audience, to be sure, which is almost certainly the choir of people who already celebrate the message, goals, and tactics of John Dear as being the true expression of a “faith that does justice”.
Giving this a star rating was difficult even still, because I realize for many this is precisely what they want and need. Hagiographies were popular, and still are, because people need heroes presented in a certain light and need the empowerment that comes from seeing their causes as black and white, good versus evil. I give it three stars because I do not share the initial assumptions and was seeking a history of the man rather than a story of places, and celebrities, and events that make up the Peace movement. I wanted to learn about the man, not the symbol.
Here is a quote that I think would best help readers to determine the worth of this book. John Dear upon arriving at the Pentagon says, “it was the center of death for the whole planet, its prime purpose to organize the empire’s killing sprees at the behest of the multinational corporations and their politicians.”
If you agree with this, then you will see this as a five star book, speaking truth to power, and modeling heroic activism. If you disagree, you will find this book likely confirming what you like least about the Peace movement, even if you happen to agree with many of their ideals.
This is not particularly an interesting or insightful autobiography. It compares poorly as such to the recent works by Jurgen Moltmann about his life in theology, A Broad Place: An Autobiography
This is a book for the choir. If you’re wearing the robes then have at it, enjoy it, for it is certainly written with passion. It is also a good history of the last decades of the Peace movement. In fact, I wish Dear had not styled this a story of one man’s struggle and instead more honestly made this a book of many people’s participation.
As such, I’m left thinking Dear is trying to impose himself as a major figure, seeking the identity of his heroes Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby Kennedy, but falling flat despite his many arrests and popularity within a certain segment of particular activists. He wants to be seen and applauded and affirmed.
Which makes me wonder what his life was like before Duke and with his family. Which makes me also wonder if maybe he really should have become a Franciscan after all.
Wisdom for every day
In various monastic writings we find two verses emphasized as being among the most spiritually effective prayers. Psalm 71:1-2 (NIV)–
In you, LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness, rescue me and save me.
It is emphasized because it is the prayer of desperation, encapsulating a heart’s cry, pointing it efficiently towards God. The spiritually wise suggested repeating this regularly, throughout the day. Not only for those who are encountering crises. For everyone. Because while it is the prayer of the oppressed, pleading for God’s salvation, it is also a prayer of grounding. Those who deal with pride, or arrogance, or easy living are reminded of their status and their goal. This establishes the relationship, a pledge of allegiance of sorts. We are all in need of God’s salvation, and asking for it reminds us of those places that we might like to hide from or ignore–or do not see in the moments of bounty.
Worth looking at other translations.
New Living Translation:
O Lord, I have come to you for protection;
don’t let me be disgraced.
Save me and rescue me,
for you do what is right.
Turn your ear to listen to me,
and set me free.
New King James:
In You, O LORD, I put my trust;
Let me never be put to shame.
Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape;
Incline Your ear to me, and save me.
NRSV:
In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me.
Along with the Jesus prayer–”Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”–these verses are a way to center and re-center, orienting us right in the midst of our busy lives. Easy and profound expressions of deep theology and deep faith.
As I’m writing today I’m hit with another passage that serves much the same purpose. Rather than being prayer towards God, however, this one is a reminder from God to us.
Exodus 14:13-14
Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
Here we have an antecedent to Ephesians 6 and Isaiah 31.
The Israelites have been freed from Egypt, but they are not yet free. They stand at the edge of the Red Sea, blocked. Pharaoh realizes he made a mistake. Who is this God of Israel that could take away his slaves? He gathers his army. He pursues the newly emancipated.
Exodus tells us:
They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”
Life became overwhelming. They were terrified, broken, emptied of hope. They saw what was following them and they despaired.
“Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the LORD will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”
The Egyptians throughout Scripture represent ‘the world’–its terrors, its promises, its enslavements, or its companionship. Sometimes it is a place of God given safety. More often it is the feared oppressor or the false security. We run from Egypt because of its power. We embrace Egypt because it promises protection.
We see the Egyptians about us. In our struggles and in our temptations. We fear. We lose hope. We stumble in the strain. We go crazy, act angry, no longer reflections of Christ.
And God reminds us.
“Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the LORD will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”
Being Missional: Practicing the Presence of the Holy Spirit
It’s all the rage in this postmodern age to be missional. In fact, the words ‘missional’ and ‘postmodern’ go together quite nicely. Not just because one reflects the other, and vice versa. Also because they are the sorts of words people use without really knowing what they mean. Oh sure, people generally use those words with a meaning in mind, but oftentimes it’s a vague sort of meaning, riding the zeitgeist of the paradigm shift, so to speak.
It might be nice to just toss out the term–let it be adopted by church planters and the major presses as being a synonym for what’s new–but that doesn’t satisfy me. It is an important word and a descriptive word that gets to the heart of what we need to do.
In fact, I think this is such a big term that I don’t want to devote just one post to it. But for now I will, because I’m joining in on a big ol’ synchro-blog where a bunch of us are asking “What is missional?“
I’ve read my Newbiggin, and have some interesting quotes from the 17th century Baptist Roger Williams on the evils of Christendom. But there are better folks to lay out those things. I’m going to focus on my particular interest. And with that particular interest I’m going to go ahead and throw out my definition.
Missional means practicing the presence of the Holy Spirit.
For some that might bring to mind images of dancing around to lively music, speaking curious phrases that most no one can understand, and other attributes of Pentecostalism. But that’s not what I’m talking about. Pentecostals are fine, don’t get me wrong, and their global explosion over the last century certainly suggests an empowered mission far beyond most other representatives of Christ. Yet, being missional is a lot more than empowered worship. Because the Holy Spirit is about a lot more than putting on a show for us. Being missional means participation in the mission of God, and the missionary of God to us now, to all of us in the church and outside the church, is the Spirit.
What happens in Acts 2? They are in a room praying. The Spirit comes. Tongues of fire appear over their heads and tongues of men are spoken aloud. That’s where too many people stop reading. However, the chapter continues. The church doesn’t stay in the upper room. They go out, out into the streets where people from all the nations are gathered. Peter preaches, and the church grows. They go out, people come in, a continuing rhythm of transformational growth.
A great chapter. But for this post I want to emphasize two other passages in Acts that even better get at what practicing the presence of the Holy Spirit means.
Acts 8:26-40 and Acts 10.
Have a go at reading these passages. I’ll wait until you’ve read them. It’s quite important, you see, that we not only come up with a meaning for missional but that we let Scripture show us what it’s like.
Done?
Back at it. Don’t get distracted by the visions or the dreams or the curious popping hither and thither. Look at the heart of these passages. That is what it means to be missional. That is the practice of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Where is the Holy Spirit in these passages? Out and about. The Holy Spirit is working in the life of a Roman Centurion. The Holy Spirit is working in the life of an Ethiopian Eunuch.
The Spirit tells Philip to walk towards the Ethiopian. He runs. He not only runs. When he gets there he can immediately understand the passage the Ethiopian is reading and immediately respond to it, with Scripture and teaching. This isn’t a stock script telling the Ethiopian what his questions are. This is having the wisdom and training to respond to exactly where the Ethiopian is at.
Here is the first point of practicing the presence of the Holy Spirit. It insists on a flexibility that is deep enough to respond to any context. Evangelism in the past has catered to the shallow. This is true recently and in history. “Just go to church”. “Here are the five laws of salvation”. Theology and a mastery of Scripture was left to the professionals and almost seen as suspect.
Colossions 4:5-6
Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.
Conduct yourself wisely towards outsiders. Making the most of the time. Be gracious. Be seasoned. Know how to answer everyone. Wisdom. Efficiency. Grace. Challenge. Understanding. This can sound a lot more daunting than just memorizing scattered verses in Romans. But it is the way of the Spirit, because the Spirit has been and is working in the life of people, preparing the way, inspiring others to plant seeds. Being missional is being like Philip, going and responding, built up in our own depth so that we can respond to the depths of others, where they are at, with what they are dealing with. It is a practice of the presence of the Holy Spirit because in doing this we are looking for how the Spirit has already been working in the life of others. We just fill in the blanks and put words to yearnings and answers to sometimes hard questions.
1 Peter 3:13-16:
Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared. Be gentle and respectful. Be holy.
These are key works of the Holy Spirit in our lives, as I talk about in my book. Philip practiced the presence of the Holy Spirit and was able to participate with the Spirit’s work in the Ethiopian’s life, a work that is credited for the very ancient Ethiopian church. Philip didn’t need to go to Ethiopia. He needed to go to that Ethiopian. And the Spirit continued to work because Philip was prepared internally in his wisdom and character and externally in his fluidity and flexibility.
With Peter we see the same example. He responded to the Spirit, to go and be where the Spirit was already working, and when he arrived he was able to respond to what the Spirit had prepared. Added to this is another key aspect of practicing the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in charge. Being missional isn’t about bringing our culture, or our customs, or our habits or preferences. There are some aspects of a life with Christ which are demanded, but very few of these are the emphases that people think of when they think of evangelism or missionary work.
Our goal is not to make people be like us. Our goal is to help people become who they were always meant to be. We aren’t in the business of taking people’s identity. We are to help them see how their identity becomes alive in the power of Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the battery that brings machinery to life, the enlivening presence of God himself. We become alive, really alive, with the Spirit’s work. And so here we see Peter being told to let go of the cultural boundaries, to trust in God’s work that all has been made clean. He is supposed to minister to who they are, where they are, and lead them towards their own fulfillment in God’s work. It is not up to Peter to say whether or not they fit, or to conform them to his own perceptions. It is Peter’s job to go and to confirm what God is already doing.
Being missional means discovering God’s mission in every context. It is not just a telling it is also a listening, and a seeing, and a hearing. By being missional we ourselves become missionized by the Spirit as we learn and grow in understanding God’s work. It is never one-sided. We have our part to share but we always have parts to discover about the Spirit’s pervasive work.
When we are practicing the presence of the Holy Spirit we become dancers. The music is God’s mission in this world, which goes beyond simple salvation and extends into eternal relationship. God is working. Working in places we might never go, with people we might never meet, and in ways we might often not understand. In the dance with the Spirit we become attuned to his movements and as we increasingly dance better with God we dance better with others, teaching and learning, including and discovering in holiness, and outreach, and community.
In other words, when we practice the presence of the Holy Spirit we become truly free and are able to help free others where they are at.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Cor. 3:17)
Being missional means participating with this Spirit; the Spirit of hope, and life, and wholeness.
Being missional means practicing the presence of the Holy Spirit so that we become freedom fighters.
Listed below are those who will be participating in this global synchroblog.
Alan Hirsch
Alan Knox
Andrew Jones
Barb Peters
Bill Kinnon
Brad Brisco
Brad Grinnen
Brad Sargent
Brother Maynard
Bryan Riley
Chad Brooks
Chris Wignall
Cobus Van Wyngaard
Dave DeVries
David Best
David Fitch
David Wierzbicki
DoSi
Doug Jones
Duncan McFadzean
Erika Haub
Grace
Jamie Arpin-Ricci
Jeff McQuilkin
John Smulo
Jonathan Brink
JR Rozko
Kathy Escobar
Len Hjalmarson
Makeesha Fisher
Malcolm Lanham
Mark Berry
Mark Petersen
Mark Priddy
Michael Crane
Michael Stewart
Nick Loyd
Patrick Oden
Peggy Brown
Phil Wyman
Richard Pool
Rick Meigs
Rob Robinson
Ron Cole
Scott Marshall
Sonja Andrews
Stephen Shields
Steve Hayes
Tim Thompson
Thom Turner
N.T. Wright
N.T. Wright, one of my favorite writers, was on the Colbert Report last night talking about heaven. Quite interesting… both the topic and how he did in that setting. It’s a hard topic to get across in such a short amount of time and with the jokes flying back and forth but I think he did a good job. Then again, I spend a lot of my time trying to sort out those kinds of things so maybe I’m not the best judge of how well he communicated. The fact he was on, however, is really interesting and might be among the nicest ‘theology in popular culture’ events I’ve seen in a long while. Hopefully, there will be more of that. Bringing theology directly to the people is a very needed task.
Here’s the clip (scroll down–I can’t embed it here for some reason and can’t link directly to the exact clip).
Holiness and the Spirit: A discussion on Romans 8
In the post below I mentioned my conversation with Rob Classen at Two Rivers Church a couple weeks ago. Conversation with him and the congregation. They have been spending a long while going through Romans 8, one of the more interesting chapters on the Holy Spirit in the NT. So, this was a nice overview and a chance for broad response to both my thoughts and to the sermons of the past week (which you can hear here). He gave me some basic questions to help spark the talk, and I wrote out some verse references and basic comments to make sure I didn’t sit there staring blankly, with only a little drool coming out my mouth.
When I say basic comments, that’s it. Just a few phrases jotted down. Those who were there so ran with the conversation I didn’t even need most of my basic thoughts. Unfortunately, I don’t have a recording of that.
So, I’m going to post the basic questions and basic answers.
I’ve never started a meme before. But I’d love to maybe start one with this, to keep this conversation going and see who we draw in. If you have a blog post some of your own answers to all or some of the following, and then let me know in the comments you have a post. If you don’t have a blog, just add to the comments here.
So here we go:
- Why do most people not seem to care so much about the Holy Spirit?
- Why do you think Romans 8 is such a key passage to teach us about the Holy Spirit?
- In It’s a Dance: Moving with the Holy Spirit we read, “Now I realize the Spirit is the only way to move past sin” (p. 114). Can you elaborate on that?
- Some more quotes to consider and discuss:
- “Holiness is about the Spirit” (p. 115)
- “Keep your eyes on the prize and holiness happens” (p. 115)
- In Romans 8:26 we read, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express”. We are told the HS is our intercessor, our translator, and that he prays for us when we can’t. Do you agree that this an important part of the HS’s role in our lives? How do you think this all works in us?
Here’s what I wrote down as brief responses:
Why do most people not seem to care so much about the Holy Spirit?
Don’t know that much. A lack of church teaching. Don’t want to let go and let the Spirit work. The Spirit is elusive to understand and is hard to categorize and put into a handy box.
Why do you think Romans 8 is such a key passage to teach us about the Holy Spirit? In your book you say, “Now I realize the Spirit is the only way to move past sin.” Can you elaborate on this?
The law tells us what sin is but doesn’t empower us to do anything about it (Romans 7). Focusing on sin, whether by sinning or by focusing on not sin or other people’s sins, leaves us trapped in the Law. The Spirit comes to us. And God leads us to what we can do.
Some verses:
Romans 8:12-17
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
1 Peter 1:13-16
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Romans 8:28-30
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, whohave been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
”Holiness is about the Spirit” What does this mean to you?
Ephesians 4:17-24
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Romans 8 says this is the work of the Spirit to make us new.
1 Thessalonians 3:12-13
May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
Romans 8 tells us this is the work of the Spirit.
”Keep your eye on the prize and holiness happens” Can you elaborate on this?
First we ask what the prize is.
Colossian 3:1-4
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
I think of an analogy with running [on my sheet I just wrote 'running analogy', but I'll fill it out a bit more here]. When running up a hill I look ahead, at a spot at the top or at a marker far away. If I’m exhausted and feel like I can’t run anymore I keep my eye on what is ahead, and then say I’ll just go to there. When I get there I find another marker ahead and get to there. Always keeping my focus on some point in front instead of each wearied step.
Philippians 3:12-14
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
The path is walking with God, following the Spirit in our gifts and fruit. 1 Corinthians 12. As we focus on our calling, our hopes, our positive contributions, on Father and Son and Spirit, on the Kingdom, we increasingly have our very instincts and drives changed by the Spirit we’re working with.
Romans 8:5-11
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
Last Sunday we talked about Romans 8:26 –the Holy Spirit being our intercessor, our translator, and that he prays for us when we can’t. Do you agree that this is an important part of the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives? How do you think this all works in us?
We don’t know God. And we don’t even really know ourselves. We don’t know language to speak or to hear. The Spirit knows us fully, and knows God fully, so we can learn the language of our reality in asking and hearing.
Psalm 42:7-8
Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
The Spirit is the counselor. Teaching us about ourselves and about God. Leads us to all truth.
John 15:26-27
”When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. 27And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”
John 16:5-15
”Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.”
This is participation with God, with others, with ourselves in an increasingly holy way. Or rather, leading us to be wholly who God has made us to be.
God is the whole God, and holistically leads us to true wholeness.
So that’s what I wrote down. Play along if you will. I tag everyone reading this. Here’s the quick questions again:
- Why do most people not seem to care so much about the Holy Spirit?
- Why do you think Romans 8 is such a key passage to teach us about the Holy Spirit?
- In It’s a Dance: Moving with the Holy Spirit we read, “Now I realize the Spirit is the only way to move past sin” (p. 114). Can you elaborate on that?
- Some more quotes to consider and discuss:
- “Holiness is about the Spirit” (p. 115)
- “Keep your eyes on the prize and holiness happens” (p. 115)
- In Romans 8:26 we read, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express”. We are told the HS is our intercessor, our translator, and that he prays for us when we can’t. Do you agree that this an important part of the HS’s role in our lives? How do you think this all works in us?
on religion
I’ve increasingly come to the conclusion that what traditionally marks religion isn’t devotion to God, but rather a strong belief that God doesn’t really know what he is doing.
First a little theology and background:
In antiquity religion denoted the cultic veneration of God. Cicero defined it as the cultus deorum. Religio could sometimes be used of the relation to other people to the degree that a comparable veneration was owed or paid to them. Cicero distinguished religio as moral duty from the taboo-fear of superstitio. This distinction differentiated the Latin term from the Greek threskeia, which embraces all forms of cultic veneration, even those that are excessive or erroneous, and which occurs also in the NT in this sense. Closer to Cicero’s religio is theosebei, which is not closely tied to the cultus. In Cicero pietas is an attitude of soul which in relation to the gods finds expression in cultic acts. Yet Cicero does not equate piety and religion. He relates the latter term much more to rites and their observance. Nor does he call the knowledge of God religio. In his work on laws he describes this knowledge as the mar of differentiation between human beings and animals, but he does not call it religion. Nevertheless, he regards a knowledge of the matter of the gods as necessary to bridle the expression of cultic veneration.
Unlike Cicero, August in his De vera religione (c. 390) stresses that the knowledge of God and the worship of God are inseparable in religion. For him, then, there is a close relation between religion and philosophy. Doctrine and worship belong together. In this regard he appeals to Plato, but he finds the supreme example of the connection of doctrine and cultus in the church. The true religion is to be found where the soul does not worship creaturely things but the one eternal and unchangeable God. IN his own time this perfect religion was identical with the Christian religion whose teachings Almighty God himself had set forth. These consist of the prophetic intimation and historical recording of the saving provisions of divine providence for the renewal of the human race.
By tying together worship of God and knowledge of God Augustine sought to do something very honorable which was to essential combine thought and practice. However, the problem comes in the perversion of this that happens because we really, at our cores, don’t think God knows what he is doing. We invert this order, making our worship of God become a source of knowledge about God, thus making how we want to serve God become the criteria for what we think God wants.
In other words, we tell God what we will give him and then expect him to applaud our service.
Or we think that God has really left a lot out, forgetting maybe what he wants, and that we need to fill in the blanks, and make others follow our lead in doing that.
This is true from the earliest days and is at the heart of alienating religion. That’s why I think Cicero was right to separate the two. If we truly know God we will likely respond to him as we should. But, far too often we want to serve him without really knowing or trusting him. We create forms of worship he never mandated, and then make this worship the criteria of inclusion among his proclaimed people.
Sometimes God does tell us how he wants to be worshipped. He told Moses the clear guidelines. And he laid out who was to be included, how they were to be included, what they were supposed to do and not do on what days. God can be quite specific when he wants to be.
When he’s not specific we can’t be specific for him. Because it’s showing that we don’t know, like, or trust what God has done when he has freed us from those specific forms and giving the Holy Spirit to be the true marker of who is and who is not part of the people of God.
Worship becomes then not only separated from the knowledge of God, it becomes a barrier to the knowledge of God, creating a false knowledge, and false attributes, always enforcing the forms of worship rather than the fruit of the Spirit and the reflection of Christ.
It’s easy to not trust the Holy Spirit’s work in people. Peter could have rejected Cornelius because Cornelius did not match the liturgical patterns of Jewish Christianity (the true Apostolic form). In fact there was a movement in the early church to do just that, something that was addressed in Acts 15. However, Peter would not have been part of the church any longer himself had he done so. The Spirit forms the church, and Peter followed.
So too today. Which is why I have such trouble with so many forms of leadership which mistake form for knowledge and enforce non-Scriptural patterns as being somehow authoritative for God’s demands. That’s why I have trouble with contemporary emphasis on leadership development that emphasizes roles and organizational structure far beyond what Scripture indicates. It creates a cult of personality and emphasize non-Spirit charisma over and above spiritual gifting and Spirit leading.
Religion that doesn’t trust God is found in both the newest and the oldest forms of the Christian faith, and we see this even in the New Testament letters. Paul is writing to churches who don’t trust God and so created their own misshaped patterns that had to be rebuked or adjusted.
God tells us what we need to know and sent the Spirit to teach us all things. That’s not always answering the questions we might have, however, even as we are taught what is necessary. We can in response either trust God and be free in the freedom he has brought, free in diversity and free in expression, worshiping in manifold ways out of the particular knowledge and gifts the Spirit has bestowed. Or we can betray God, enforcing rules not his own that we attribute to him, thinking that our contrived worship is in fact knowledge rather than whim and habit.
Crying Wolf
CHICAGO, May 15.—The Rev. W.W. Reynolds, pastor of the Brightwood Methodist Church of Indianapolis, recently wrote to Capt. Luke Colleran, Chief of the Chicago Detective Department, inquiring if the use of the bicycle among women had affected their morality in any perceptible manner. Although not offering statistics, Capt. Colleran’s reply deals with the subject in a positive manner.
He writes:
“I am not an advocate of the use of the bicycle among women, when viewing it from a morality phase. Women of refinement and exquisite moral training addicted to the use of the bicycle are not infrequently thrown among the uncultivated and de¬generate element of both sexes, whose coarse, boisterous, and immoral gestures are heard and seen while speeding along our streets and boulevards. Many doubtless es¬cape the contamination, although the contagion be ever present.“A large number of our female bicyclists wear shorter dresses than the laws of morality and decency permit, thereby inviting the improper conversations and remarks of the depraved and immoral. I most certainly consider the adoption of the bicycle by women as detrimental to the advancement of morality—nay, even its stability. I have always entertained deep sympathy for the hosts of noble and honorable ladies, who while riding their wheels are frequently associated with women whose morality will not stand investigation and whose conversation is invariably coarse and undignified.”
On being asked for an expression of opinion, Mrs. Charles Henrotin said:
“This Indianapolis minister must be very hard up for subjects. Perhaps he considers that he has conquered the devil in his own dominions and must go forth to conquer him in new fields. Why should cycling be restricted to men. I don’t see that they have any superior rights in the matter. It is an exercise conducive to good health and good spirits, and certainly there is nothing-improper in it.”
Morality these days? Where’s it going to go next?
Of course, this article was in the New York Times on May 15, 1899. Turn of the century concern.
I make note of it because it so illustrates something that has been on my mind of late and I might want to explore here more, now that I’m back to posting a little.
What matters?
Not only what matters but what should particularly matter to us. The Rev. W.W. Reynolds thought that women riding bikes mattered. It was a gateway hobby, you know. First they get on the bike, then the skirts slip up a little, and then one time upstanding, moral, young women will start associating with all kinds of ne’er-do-wells. Who wouldn’t oppose that?
Well, now that seems a little silly. We have perspective and all that. It’s a great hobby and bike riding is the least of our moral concerns.
I live in California. I know about the pressing moral concerns of our era.
But that’s what gets me to think about what really matters and why it matters. Because this article above is so much a reason why we are in the moral confusion we’re in these days. Christianity became about culture, and morals, and respectable living. It wasn’t as much about Jesus, and serving others, and letting go our demands, and living with love. Morality replaced spirituality.
There’s no real power in morality, however. There’s only power in the Spirit who leads us to morality.
So what should we focus on?
What does Paul emphasize? What did Jesus emphasize?
I think there’s something in that worth considering more.
proof of God
On a Christian forum recently I asked, “What is your proof of God?” Awhile back, sitting in a friend’s living room before a party, I was asked a similar question. “What is the best proof for God?” I’ve never really been all that into apologetics so I’m not entirely solid on all the popular historic proofs. But, I think a reason for that is they are not personally all that convincing or helpful, to me or to others. The proof of God that matters is the proof that God gives us. And that’s what I answered in that living room before the party. The best proof is God’s Spirit in our lives. It’s the Spirit who proves God to us. Everything else is just commentary.
But the Spirit works in different ways in each of our lives. Not always in ways that would be proof to other people, but are certainly at the root of our own faith and commitment. Having this proof, this personal proof, is I think important. Because when the fire comes, all the rest is often burned away.
Here’s my answer to “What is your proof of God?” It’s my personal answer. Very personal.
I grew up in a Christian home. I remember Easter 1979 (or ‘78) as the day I sat on the lawn of my Wesleyan church and repeated the words of the minister asking Jesus into my heart. I was about 4.
I don’t remember being particularly religious but I was a pretty good church kid.
We moved away from that town and to another one far away when I was in 4th grade. I spent a lot of time alone and that seemed to have awakened something deeper. I remember being about 11 or so and saying to my mom I felt called to be a pastor. I remember speaking in tongues at my pentecostal church and otherwise feeling this deep, deep move of God in my life.
So, I suppose God was always poking at me.
But it’s in college that I found what I consider my personal ‘proof’. And it came in two directions, in two forms, at opposite experiences of life.
The first was my sophomore year. A variety of ups and downs had pushed me into a constant state of prayer and seeking God. This began to open up new experiences. I remember October of 1994 during a 4 day holiday where the campus was almost entirely empty. I read Paradise Lost while sitting int the cool fall weather out on the big lawn of the campus. Something about that awakened me. God visited me, sat with me, enlightened me. I would finish reading and get up to go to lunch or finish for the day and I would be awakened to reality. It was a weekend of epiphanies, in which I felt heaven, felt so much peace and hope and love. I think its why I’ve never been attracted to drugs or drunkenness. Those pale in comparison to the fullness of life I felt during that time with God. I felt him, and all his work, in this amazingly profound way. Again and again through my sophomore year I had these kinds of experiences. God showed me himself and gave me a view into his view. I can’t prove it to someone else, but neither can I deny it to myself. It was profound. And even still, when I don’t have that kind of epiphanies, those moments speak to my heart and say that God is more real than what we think is real. Deeper and farther and more whole and more still and so much everything.
My junior year I returned to the school. But the season had changed. Rather than feeling this immense awareness of God’s presence I experienced the opposite. A debilitating dark night of the soul where God went utterly silent, where no matter what I did I couldn’t feel his presence. My heart and soul emptied. Every spiritual feeling was gone. I was utterly alone–which happened to coincide with a breakdown of my friendships at the time.
The feeling, the awareness, all the mystical or spiritual stuff was gone. I felt totally lost and abandoned. My prayers went to nothingness and returned empty. My soul became emaciated, just when I was pressing way forward in spiritual disciplines. My efforts to reach God returned blank.
I was stuck. How do I have faith when there is nothing there? The emotions and spirituality was utterly empty. I faced a dilemma. God was nowhere.
How do I live?
My whole faith was dismantled. I feel like my sophomore year was the pinnacle of my first faith. I advanced through emotion and spirituality and came into the presence of God. Then he retreated. I was left isolated. Piece by piece everything my religious life depended on was taken apart. The fire came and burned it all away.
I was left with nothing. I couldn’t pray. I couldn’t hope. I couldn’t stand.
So burned away that it exposed the foundation. And, in fact there was a foundation.
That’s my second proof. I realized I absolutely, utterly believed that Jesus walked out of that tomb on Easter morning.
This wasn’t just a faith answer. I had no faith, see. I had studied the Bible and history. I was absolutely convinced that Jesus walked out of that tomb because of how history resonated with that action. I studied the New Testament and studied early church history and saw how much these men and woman lived in a way that reflected a true historic event. There’s not enough room to give the details of why I think this, but there are a lot of details there.
On that foundation, me answering the most basic of Christian questions, I began to rebuild. Because if Jesus walked out of that tomb, then what was taught, what he taught and Scripture taught was real too. That resurrection was the evidence of a greater reality. So instead of rejecting the rest, that I no longer felt, I began to walk a long road back to understanding how to find the answers for my persistent questions. Answers that I knew were there, because Jesus loved me, this I know.
And that ‘proof’ has taken me on a long and winding path, that has changed an immense amount of what I ‘knew’ during my first faith during my first 20 years. But this ’second’ faith, this rebuilt spirituality, is so much more at peace and has so much more real hope and real confidence and real joy, even if I really do miss those epiphanies of my sophomore year. I suspect that there will be a season again of that as I go onward in this rebuilt faith.
Higher up and farther in.
