The Holy Spirit

"Every time we say, 'I believe in the Holy Spirit,' we mean that we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it." ~J.B. Philips

I'm so glad we have the Holy Spirit. My personality is in great need of renovation.

Done!

I just finished my last college final today. Graduation is on Saturday, but for all intent and purpose, I'm done with college! It's a strange mixture of excitement, sadness, eagerness, and fear. Excitement that I'm finally done with academics (for the time being), sadness that I'm leaving behind lots of good friends, eagerness to move on to the next stage of life (marriage!), and fear about jobs and stuff like that.

This is the place where fear and faith collides. Pray for me.

An Innocent Ministry

Today was my last day serving as Assistant to the Pastor at Center Presbyterian Church, a position that I've been blessed to minister in for the last two years.  In addition to my role as Assistant to the Pastor, I've also been helping to lead the middle- and high-school youth group there for three years.  My time working with the youth group has been a stretching experience for me, as I've struggled to help them make connections between the staggering glory of the Gospel and the everyday challenges of adolescence, and to see their desperate need for the saving grace of God.

Since I started working with the youth group, my vision for youth ministry has been encapsulated in Acts 20:18-26.  In this passage, Paul addresses the leaders of the Ephesian church where he has ministered and preached for three years.  Here are selections from the passage in question:

"You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears... how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance towards God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ... Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God."

My deep desire for the past three years has been to be able to read this passage to the kids today and, because of the way I have lived and taught them, to be taken seriously.  I want to be able to say earnestly and truthfully to them and to God, "I am innocent of the blood of all of you.  You know that what I've been talking about for the last three years is a life-and-death matter, and I have proclaimed the gospel to you over and over again.  I have not shrunk from declaring to you the whole counsel of God; therefore, dear young people, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of your blood.  What you do with this is between you and God, but you have heard the truth from me.  I am innocent of your blood."

The Old Testament background on which Paul is drawing in making his claim to the Ephesian church is Ezekiel 3:17-19.  In this passage, God commissions Ezekiel to preach a message of repentance to Israel.

"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel.  Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them a warning from me.  If I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.  But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul."

I tremble when I read that passage.  Every minister and pastor and preacher and teacher of God's Word should tremble at that passage.  If we do not fulfill God's call to warn a wicked generation of the just consequences of their rebellion, they will die for their sins, but their blood will be laid at our feet.  I think of this text every time I am preparing a sermon and every time I'm working on a youth group message.  By desperate reliance on the Holy Spirit, I want to lead an innocent ministry, innocent of their blood, not shrinking from declaring the whole counsel of God which is able to save their souls.

Is your ministry innocent of blood?  I pray, by God's power, that it would be.

Alleluia, Sing To Jesus

We sang "Alleluia, Sing To Jesus" in chapel yesterday, and the third verse was exactly what I needed to hear:

Alleluia!  Bread of angels, Thou on earth, our food, our stay
Alleluia!  Here the sinful flee to Thee from day to day
Intercessor, Friend of sinners, earth's Redeemer, plead for me
Where the songs of all the sinless sweep across the crystal sea

He is a Rewarder

I'm translating the book of Hebrews for my 3rd year Greek class, and I started chapter 11-- the "hall of faith"-- today.  Verse 6 blew me out of the water.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, for it is necessary for the one who comes to God to believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder to the ones who seek Him.  ~Hebrews 11:6, my translation

The ESV translates the last phrase, "and that He rewards those who seek Him."  The meaning is the same, but a more literal translation brings out this staggering wonder: "rewarder" is a noun.  A noun!  God doesn't just reward; He IS a rewarder.  He is defined as one who rewards.  In the same way that 1 John's statement that "God is love" rings more powerfully than the simple "God loves," a literal translation of Hebrews 11:6 highlights the amazing truth that God is characterized by rewarding.

Those of us who are seeking God are not just seeking somebody who happens to reward people; we are caught up in the hedonistic pursuit of the Great Rewarder.

Wow.

True Romance

I'm getting married in about 2 1/2 months, and so naturally I've been thinking a lot about love and commitment and faithfulness. Yesterday I was talking to a friend about love and marriage, and about how many girls on this campus are looking for a storybook romance, when the real thing is a little different. After 4 1/2 years in a relationship, I have realized this:


True romance looks a lot less like Prince Charming and happily ever after, and a lot more like a bloodied cross.


Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. ~Ephesians 5:25

In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ~1 John 4:10-11

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." ~John 15:12-13

Keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. ~1 Peter 4:8

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." ~Mark 8:34

Breathtaking and Breathgiving

My thought for the day:

Lord, May every breath You give me be taken away by the sight of your unparalleled mercy.