The Holy Spirit.
I once heard a famous evangelist say, “you can’t fully know God and not have the Holy Spirit.”
That was the most accurate thing I had heard in a long time.
Many Christians of different denominations will accept God the Father and God the Son (Jesus) but shrink from the Holy Spirit, denying Him completely.
God is three in one. Not two.
You need the Holy Spirit to understand God’s word. We need Him to help us walk in line with God.
John 14:15-18, 25-26 NIV
[15] “If you love me, keep my commands. [16] And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— [17] the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. [18] I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
[25] “All this I have spoken while still with you. [26] But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
The Holy Spirit is our gift. He is our helper. Jesus sent Him to us after He ascended so we would not be alone.
Some want to say that the Holy Spirit was for a time but is gone. Those same people want to claim that people do not speak in tongues but that those who do are pretending. They say that because they have never opened themselves up to the Holy Spirit and have never been able to speak in the language of Heaven, because they can’t they say no one really can. These same people claim that God no longer does miracle healing and no longer speaks to people. This is not true! I’m not very old and I have seen the Holy Spirit descend on a building. I have seen miracle healings. I have heard God speak. If you are open to Him and His presence you will see this happen too.
Some say, “I have sought God and wished to speak through the Holy Spirit but it never happened to me.”
This makes me think of Nikki Cruz. In his book he covers the time when he wanted to speak in tongues for the first time because He wanted that closeness, that sweetness of the Holy Spirit. He knelt at the alter day after day until the chapel closed and nothing happened. Eventually he decided that God didn’t want Him and that was why the Holy Spirit did not descend. He was going to give up school, give up trying to become a minister, go home to the slums in New York. But every time he tried to leave something got in the way and made it so he couldn’t. Very physical things. He couldn’t get the money for bus fare. He made up lies so that people would try and help him get back to the city but in the end they turned around and started benefiting the things he was lying about. For instance he said that he desperately needed to go home because a relative was ill and needed money and he needed to go to work. But instead of sending him the money he needed to get home the people he wrote to send the money they thought is relative needed to the relative. Just odd things like that making it so he couldn’t leave. Then finally he decided he was just going to hitchhike. So he got all his gear ready and was going to sneak out the window and off the campus in the middle of the night. But then one of his friends who was speaking at a nearby Church came and invited him to go to the service with him. Nikki was annoyed because the friend wouldn’t take no for an answer. That night there was an altar call for the receiving of the Holy Spirit. That night the Holy Spirit descended on Nikki and 2 hours later Nikki was still there on his knees at the altar. When his friend came to get him to go home Nikki said no just leave me here this is perfect this is all I want. The friend had to take him home though because the church building was closing and locking up for the night. But Nikki was so filled with the spirit that he went to his dorm room he opened up all his windows and he praised God until people threw pillows at him and told him to go to sleep. God wanted Nikki to seek him hard before he would answer. Some of us need that that throwing away of ourselves to find Jesus. Sometimes a simple service isn’t enough sometimes God wants us to seek after him everyday begging for the same thing because he needs us to be broken before him so he can pour into us and that is so scary and so wonderful all at the same time.
Acts 2:38 NIV
[38] Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Even if God has not given you a language yet, you still have the Holy Spirit near to you and accessible
Category: encouragement
God always keeps His promises
God always keeps His promises.
Genesis 8:6-12 NIV
[6] After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark [7] and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. [8] Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. [9] But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. [10] He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. [11] When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. [12] He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
I love ravens. I love ravens because of my friend ravens who live in our yard and I love them because of the raven on the ark. No one ever remembers the raven. We all like to smile and think of the dove. The dove is lovely and soft and small. The dove brought back the branch to Noah. Everyone remembers the dove.
But what about the raven? Ravens are big and black and people call them omens of bad luck and accuse them of making terrible screeching. But really, ravens are blue and black and purple. They don’t mean bad or good luck. They make many sounds, some are very beautiful, and they will talk with you if you speak to them. They follow people the like. And as Phallen (my dog) found out, they will chase those they don’t appreciate. Most importantly, a raven was the first bird sent out from the ark. But because it was not time yet, it did not find anything. Due to that, it is forgotten. (Also recalling that the dove took several tries before it found land)
When we have been waiting a really long time for something amazing to happen, something God has promised and it keeps not happening, we lose hope. We eventually give up and move on and leave our dream behind us. We forget the raven. We chase doves that fly around with answers in their beaks and never remember the raven again. Until one day. The raven found nothing to bring back because it wasn’t time. But eventually he too got to fly over green fields and feed on olive trees. God will bring us to shore. If He has promised it, then it will come to pass. We just have to wait on His timing. The dove’s time came sooner than the raven’s, but the raven’s time was on its way. He just had to be patient. So do we.
Trusting God is hard. Especially when all you see around you is water, but His promises are true. And then, a rainbow.
Genesis 9:13, 15-16 NIV
[13] I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
[15] I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. [16] Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
The rainbow has lost it’s meaning in society. But you will often find a rainbow in the church. On a wall in the Sunday school usually. Why? Because the story of Noah is amazing and a favorite for many. More importantly it’s because the rainbow was and is the sign of God’s judgement followed by His grace. He destroyed the earth because of its sin. But He would not destroy it completely because He still had one man who served Him with all His heart. Rainbows in the skies show God’s promises are true.
They always have been.
So when things are dark. Turn on your headlamp and follow Jesus.
When the answers seem impossible, keep marching and blow your horn!
When the water swells around you and the raven is still flying back and forth finding nothing, wait for your ark to hit land.
When you doubt because of the storm, look for the Rainbows because God keeps His promises. Trust Him.
His LOVE is mightier than the waves
Psalms 93:4
Even mightier than the waves of the sea is His love for you.
Have you ever been there? Seen it? A winter ocean storm. Not to be confused with a summer storm which is nothing compared with winter, not where we go in BC at least.
Growing up I loved winter. Winter meant Christmas, snow, sledding, skating, and best of all, big wave season.
I would have on a full dry suit with gloves and hood and I looked like a little purple, red, blue stripes on black back drop navy seal. I would take my board and be in that water until I couldn’t feel the sand when I returned because I was too cold. That was wonderful, but better still were the storms. Bundled by a fire in the all season gazebo, hot chocolate in hand, honey cake close by and just watch as the ocean showed its wild side. It would grab full trees and yank them into it. It would score and scar the sand and destroy rocks. Hail was nothing compared to being pelted by spray off of the waves during a winter ocean storm. Your skin would have red dots from the barage of tiny H2O bullets even from a fair distance away. In those moments watching the ocean rage I truly thought no element on earth could ever match its power.
Yet here in Psalms David is saying that God’s (not wrath) love is mightier than the ocean.
An ocean that can decimate a city, rush rock, sink big ships, drag trees into its depth, my God loves me in such a powerful love that it is greater than that. Maybe the artist who said God’s love is like hurricane and I am a tree wasn’t so far off base as we tend to think.
Even in the darkness, He is more than enough
Psalms 23:4 NIV
[4] Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Has anyone here ever been caving?
Caving is so much fun! If you are not afraid of the dark.
We imagine caving as we see it in movies. Big open spaces with luminescent moss and rocks. It’s usually not like that though. Every time I have been caving except one the caves were small and tight and there were the longest insects you have ever seen in your life on the ceiling, and it was dark, very dark.
I was in one cave once that was so small you could not turn around. Once you started you had to continue until the end or else stay there forever.
Life is like a cave. Once you are born there is no going back. In the beginning you often have more good days then dark days, you’re a child in a child’s world, every pony was once a unicorn, every speck of dust a faery, then you begin to grow up and the cave gets darker. You start to see bits of this world that you would rather not. It can seem like the older you get the more dark you see. Bad times and hard days come and you wonder if it’s possible to turn around. But it’s not.
The most important thing you carry when caving is your flashlight. Or headlamp in most cases.
You know where this is going.
Jesus is our headlamp. When the doctor wants you for more tests. When the news seems like it can’t get bleaker. When you lose your job. Your family is hurting. You feel lost. Don’t forget your headlamp.
Those without Jesus will fall and get going down the wrong tunnel because they have no light. Those with Jesus will find their way to the end. You have to remember to turn on your headlamp.
Sometimes you are going through a bad time and you know you are going to have to fight, and you call out to God and He tells you to March and sing. One loop around a wall and then blow a trumpet and you think, ‘this is nuts.’ But you do it. And nothing happens. Then the next day God calls you to do it again. So you do it again. You do it for six days! Then day seven comes.
Lose your life to save it? Isn’t that backwards?
Luke 17:33 NIV
[33] Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.
Often what Jesus said feels backwards. Death is gain, to lose your life will save it. It all sounds backwards. But that’s because Jesus spoke from the lense of Heaven, where we see everything through this world. It’s funny to think of other cultures sometimes. There are so many things our culture does that a different cultures wouldn’t understand and vise versa. It makes me think of when I was in school and one of my friends was from a different country. When I was kid, giving your friend a friendly pat on the arm was a form affection. If you weren’t friends it wasn’t, but I was used to a friend walking up and giving me a pat on the shoulder or arm, it was just a thing you did. Replaced rather soon by the high five and then the fist bump.
I recall a day when I gave my friend a gentle pat on the shoulder when I said ‘hi’ and passed her in the hall. In no time at all I found myself face to face with a teacher and my friend who was crying. I was very confused. My teacher got mad at me for hitting her. I was horrified and couldn’t figure out why my friend had made up this lie. Then it came around to that morning when I had patted her on the shoulder as I walked past and said good morning. It was not something they did where she was from. It was culturally inappropriate in her original country and seen as an act of violence.
I repeat. We all did this. It was a friendly gesture. But not in her country. She was new to our land. She didn’t understand our ways. And if I’m being honest, this particular friend never did understand our ways and we all who spent time with her had to walk on eggs shells so we didn’t accidentally do something that was not okay where she was from. That made life a bit complicated. She very soon only had myself and one other who would still be with her at lunch because she would run to the teacher about everything and anything we did. I consider that it wasn’t simply cultural but perhaps just her personality, but I’m getting off topic.
We see everything through the lense of this world, this place we live and been raised in. But God sees everything through His world. Heaven. He also sees this world the way it was supposed to be and the way it is now thanks to our sinful ways. Because God speaks in a way that is different from the way we expect things to be, we easily get confused or angry. Many rear up at the Mark 8:[35] For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. Statement. Why? Because to our culture it makes no sense. We are a self love, self serve society, being told to do anything for anyone else is heresy to us. Then we become offended and run to the teacher saying we’ve been hurt. But God is speaking from right perspective. His. If we die to ourselves and lose our lives to serve Him better to push His word further forward, then we are living correctly. Because if we live only for Jesus we will find ourselves more satisfied then if we live to serve us. It seems backwards. But that’s because we are still learning how to live as citizens of Heaven and not of thos world any longer.
In the hospital zone
In the hospital zone
It makes me laugh when people complain that they have been hurt by people in church or offended by people in church. It makes me laugh because most of the people in church are broken, hurting people who need Jesus. People go to church and assume they’re going to meet a bunch of perfect, put together Saints. And then when they don’t and they meet bad mouth, rude, aggressive, sometimes very offensive people. They are shocked. But Church isn’t a health club. It’s a hospital. And it’s not even a big hospital with all the proper equipment, it’s more like a hospital in the trenches in Afghanistan. You ever seen Mash think of church as a Mash unit. It’s the place where those who have been wounded, where those who are sick, where those who nobody else wants, go. Because church is the place where they can be healed and loved by the few there who are there as representations of Jesus. By the few who have already been healed. I remember seeing recently a little comic strip with a little dinosaur. And the dinosaur was saying to his friend, I feel really sad today. And the friend said well why don’t you try yoga. So the little dinosaur went to try yoga but there was a big sign on the door that said no bad vibes welcome here. So in discouragement the little dinosaur went away. And I wanted to shout to him come to church. Bring your sadness and your hurt, we want all of that. Bring your disease your pain your need. Come to church where you can be healed. Jesus is the only one who can fix you. I was standing there going like “bring it in here for the real thing little brother.” Have you ever been to yoga Club? It’s not a place you go to be fixed or healed from your pain or your illness. And now I’m not talking physical at this moment. There are few more put together people then you will find at a yoga Club. Not because yoga has helped them heal from their trauma. Because they were already pretty good to go and a few deep breaths just made it even better.
Church is where you need to be to be fixed. No I’m not slamming yoga for physical stretching and toning. I do yoga myself for toning and stretching. I was simply using it as an example. Church is where you go, not to be amongst a bunch of perfect people who can show you how to be perfect, but to be around a bunch of unperfect people who show you the love of Jesus. Once you know Jesus, once you’ve come to know him, then even death will not scare you anymore. Because once you’ve given your life to him, once you have chosen which side you will stand on, the sides of the world or the side of Jesus, then you will have someone who will be with you even past death. Heaven is reserved for those who love the savior. And not just those who know him or know of him or trying to be good people, but those who have given their lives to him those who have prayed and said please Jesus Take me out of this life I’m living and change me so I can live like you. We’re all on a ladder trying to climb rung by rung through this life. But are you on the ladder that will eventually lead you into Paradise or are you on a ladder that will lead you nowhere. Christians know which ladder we are on. And even better some of us helped put runs into the ladders on either side of us to help those around us reach Jesus. You need to remember that Jesus loves you too because until you know Jesus you’re not going to get very far. This world and this life is a poor substitute for heaven and Eternity.
Majesty of God-part 4
.John 20:15-16 NIV
[15] He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” [16] Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
He said to her, “Mary.” Jesus called her by name. Why is this so important? Because Mary had lost her name. She had had her name taken by the evil that was in her. Jesus drove seven evil spirits out of Mary and restored to her her sanity, her dignity and her name. Even in fables if your true name is taken you are lost to the one who stole it. In this true account a woman had lost her name and her life to demons, the Prince of Peace and savior came to her and saved her and restored her name. The fact is, Jesus isn’t just the savior of the world, He’s the savior of you. You specifically. He knows your name. He knows your hurt and where you have come from. He knows there will be times you stumble and run back to the evil that held you captive, and He will always be there ready to forgive you again when you run to Him.
Imagine being in the garden, looking for Jesus and hearing His voice call your name. Relief, joy, happy tears, laughter and sobbing, it would all come to the surface as you ran to Him calling, “Teacher!”
He knows your name and loves you.
Majesty of God- part 3
.Ephesians 2:6-9 NIV
[6] And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, [7] in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. [8] For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— [9] not by works, so that no one can boast.
So, after the last section I am sure there were many who went, ‘you’re preaching that I have to live a pure and flawless life. You’re saying I must not sin ever, you are saying that my mistakes are condemning me.’
No.
I’m preaching that we need Jesus! We are saved by His grace alone. Yet, we still need to do our best everyday to live as Jesus did.
If you have given your life to Jesus, then you will want to live differently because you love Him.
No person can get to Heaven through her or his own goodness. We are sinful by nature. We are not naturally good. Some are more prone to goodness then others but we aren’t going to get into psychology today. God made it so that only His grace could save. Anyone who boasts about how amazing or spiritual they are has missed the point. If we were saved by being super spiritual and awesome then only those who had given up everything and gone to live on a mountain to reach a closer knowledge of God would be the ones getting into Heaven. Thank God He makes it so that His grace is all sufficient!
We are saved by grace, but once we know and love Jesus we will want to change to serve Him better, because your works as a reflection of Christ play a part too.
Majesty of God part 1
1. Majesty of God
.Hebrews 1:3-4 ESV
[3] He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, [4] having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
He is the exact imprint of His nature. Its nice to almost imagine the though they are three separate beings, if God and the Holy Spirit had physical forms, they and Jesus would all have same finger print. Though that is totally unbiblical and simply imagery. However, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are three separate parts of one being. Think of them like a plant. A plant has leaves, roots, and stock, all have a different function, yet all are part of the same plant. I know the Trinity is confusing and part of the reason people want to down play parts of it and up play other parts, but you cannot have Jesus without God, or God without The Holy Spirit, or vise versa on all accounts. I say this, because we miss the fact that Jesus sat down at God’s right hand. That HE upholds the universe. That HE is greater than the angels, because Jesus is God and God is Jesus. I know it sounds like too much to understand. But a god you can fully understand is not God. If you can understand all about Him then He isn’t greater than your understanding. And if He isn’t greater than your understanding then why do you need Him?
That’s why people who say they won’t believe in Jesus because of the things about Him they don’t understand drive me nuts.
Simply put. If you went to university and knew everything your professor said without him needing to teach you and help you, then why would you be there at all? Please don’t say because you need the piece of paper that says you graduated.
If you know all your teacher knows then his isn’t fit to he your teacher. If you understand all about God and all He is and all He knows, then you can’t rely on Him. God is infinite However, we will never out learn Him. We can never fully understand Him, because He is greater than us. That’s the whole point.
People have always craved knowledge. Look at the garden. Eve went for the tree of knowledge, and learned nothing but shame and suffering, because you can’t know all God knows and understand all He understands, so the bit you can grasp will become tainted if The Holy Spirit does not guide you. See, three parts, equal power, all needed.
If Jesus was not equal with God them His death could not have saved us. If He was just man then we are still guilty of all our sins. But He is God and because of that, of we accept Him as our savior, then we are saved.
The body – part 6
Luke 24:3 NIV
[3] but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
This. This right here. They entered the tomb but did not find the body of Jesus. Why? Because He had risen. Jesus rose as He said He would.
Have you ever lost something? You know you put it right there. Yet when you go back it’s gone.
The deciples knew they had left Jesus’s body in that tomb. They knew that it took a good four, strong men to roll the stone away. Yet, there the stone was, and there Jesus was not.
It must have taken a long time for the deciples to wrap their heads around that one. He was there. Now He wasn’t. The ladies had told them that there was an angel (mistaken for a gardener) who told them that Jesus had risen as He said He would and to go tell the others, but to accept that. To look and go. Huh, he really isn’t here. You know where you left Him, He was in a safe place right? No way He could go missing. But now He’s gone.
I know I’m making this a little funny. But I can just see the perplexed looks on the faces of Peter and John. I can see them stare at the tomb, then each other, then back at the tomb.
The crucifixion was so horrible that they were still raw. Nothing could cleanse that pain. And then Jesus’s body dissappears. They saw Him dead. They mourned Him. They were still mourning. Now. How do they recall Christ’s words and joy in His return? First. They must have been so very confused.
Then Jesus comes and shows Himself. We have the upper room, we have the road to Damascus, we have several places Jesus appeared to show, “Yes I am alive.”
Then just as the deciples got their feet under them, Jesus ascends to Heaven. Never again in this world would they touch Him or laugh with Him. But God.
Jesus sent His Holy Spirit do the deciples and now we, can know Him better and serve Him through His own Spirit.
The body is gone guys. I know people still search for it, wanting to find it, wanting to prove that it’s still there. But as the angel said, “He is not here, He has risen. Just. As. He. Said. He. Would.”
As we end this series I want us to remember the journey. Because we followed part of Jesus’s journey. We are always walking slowly on a path following the cross. Because, of we aim for the cross, if we aim for Jesus. We get all we have ever dreamed of, simply by having Him.
Carried in the cross 