Do We Trust the Holy Spirit?
Sometimes I wonder why we don’t trust the Holy Spirit. At the very least it seems like we believe that this powerful part of our Triune God needs our assistance.
I wonder what would happen if we kept the most important things, the most important. If we shared the good news that because of a Crucified Carpenter, Heaven can be ours. That there is a God who longs to have us spend eternity with Him and that He wants eternity to start now. If we allow the Spirit to direct our interactions with others, we introduce this God to them with our lives – His Spirit living in us. Then through intercessory prayer we allow the Holy Spirit to lead the transformation process in whatever order His wisdom knows is best for each person.
I know the Holy Spirit works and leads the honest and sincere to the important truths. Ron’s great grandmother lived in a small community in upstate New York in the early 1900’s. She had been reading her Bible and keeping Sabbath already when she heard about our church. No one had told her she should do this – she was led by the Spirit. I believe the Spirit is the safest guide and that the Spirit will convict and empower at the same time.
When we try to tell people what is right or wrong, guilt becomes the motivation. Part of the problem is that we try to tell others that THEY should be doing or not doing the same things WE are doing or are not doing! What is it in us that believes that because we were convicted of something that it is what others should do, too? We are like little kids – we don’t want it to be O.K. for someone else to do something that God has showed us we should not have in our lives. After all – it isn’t fair.
I am afraid that our fears and need for control preclude the Spirit from our lives and our church. What will the Spirit ask us to do? What will our church look like if we don’t insist upon certain beliefs and behavior before people are welcomed officially or through baptism? Do we start out handing people the box and saying this is it – this is what you have to do and believe. What if we started out helping them experience the power of God in their lives teaching them to read and listen to God speak to them through His Word and allow God to lead them in the order that He has planned for them. When we begin a trust relationship with God and His Spirit, we are no longer in control. Becoming ‘good’ or conforming to beliefs by focusing on lifestyle – not Heart style is the wrong focus. When we focus on lifestyle we do it by our power – not needing the Spirit. After all, lifestyle can be controlled to a certain extent – it takes God’s Spirit to change heart style.
I have been spending time each day with various Holy Spirit texts from the Bible, allowing God to speak to me the truth I need to know. What I notice is that the Spirit is not controllable! Strange things happen when the Spirit is at work. Life as it had been changed. I wonder if when we read about the Spirit in the Bible it scares us. We cannot control the Spirit or dictate our terms. But by letting the Spirit be in control, God’s power is unleashed in amazing ways in our lives and by extension, into the lives of those around us. Sounds like Pentecost, huh?!
God is Unfair
I got a call from a lady in another state a couple of days ago. Her life had fallen apart. It really couldn’t have gotten worse unless she had gotten deathly sick and as I listened to her I realized that she might actually welcome that. She had lost almost everything – her husband, her money, her oldest son had died after a long illness, her other children were suffering in different ways. She was left alone struggling financially while her ex- husband had a new, young wealthy wife who had money to burn. She told me through her tears that she had just had a car accident and now was without transportation. She wanted to give up and I couldn’t blame her. Her story was daunting. I listened, I heard pain, betrayal, anger and hurt. It wasn’t fair. No one in their right mind would say she had been dealt a fair hand. She hadn’t. She felt abandoned by God. Why wasn’t He doing something to help her? I could understand her confusion. I didn’t know how I could help her understand that he WAS with her; that because of her circumstances she just couldn’t feel His presence. Her pain was blocking Him from her sight. I wasn’t able to see the big picture and explain to her the purpose. I didn’t understand why she was going through so much suffering even to me it seemed that her life wasn’t fair. It reminded me of a quote I have written in my Bible (source unknown): “We may not always understand God’s way, but because He is Holy we can trust Him.” But how does someone in pain wrap their mind around that belief? I hear similar stories every day, stories of immense pain and evil — stories that have evil people prospering and good people suffering.
It also reminded me of the irony of something that happened on January 15. You remember U.S. Air flight 1549 that landed in the Hudson River on January 14? Well, the next evening, Mic Thurber, Sr. pastor at the Keene SDA Church on the campus of Southwestern Adventist University, and a dear friend of ours, stood in the pulpit at Loma Linda University’s Week of Devotion and held up the USA Today with the picture of all those people standing on the wings of the plane, safe and unharmed. The irony of that experience was that directly behind us sat David and Janet Wilkins, parents of our dear friends, Yvette and Darren Wilkins. David and Janet’s son Monte had died in the Swiss Air Flight 111 that went down over the waters off the coast of Peggy’s Cove on September 2, 1998. In my mind flashed pictures of the flowers I had put on Monte’s grave when we went to Nova Scotia for a camp meeting. Why had God saved every person on the Hudson River flight while all 229 on Flight 111 had lost their earthly life? It wasn’t fair. Also in the audience that night were the parents of a girl who had died from injuries received in a car accident from which both of Mic’s children walked unharmed. His kids came through with hardly a scratch but the other parent’s child had been killed. It wasn’t fair. Life here on this sinful earth is not fair.
Then Mic went on and what he said touched my heart. I can’t say it nearly as eloquently as he did, but the essence of his message was that because of sin, life isn’t fair. People suffer and die and it feels like God isn’t there. But God says to the devil, “If you aren’t going to play fair then neither am I. I’m going to offer salvation to these humans who don’t deserve it. It will be completely free.” And so God made a plan to trump Satan’s unfairness. It is because of God’s unfairness that we who deserve to die in our sins are offered salvation. My friend Mic closed his sermon that evening paraphrasing Ephesians 2:4-9. I’m sure my paraphrase isn’t exactly like Mic’s was but this was the general idea. “But because of His great love for us, God, who is unfair allowed us to live with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by God’s unfairness that you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his unfairness, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by His unfairness that you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
We all have different reactions to suffering. They mostly fall into four general categories. Some avoid God, feeling that they can’t trust Him. They often turn to addictions or things to numb their pain. Some go between anger or rage at God and the belief that they deserve what has happened to them. They may try unsuccessfully to find healing in various relationships. Some view life’s losses as a continuation of the abuse that has been theirs throughout life, believing that God is abusive just like others in their early life were. Then there are those who, when they experience tragedy, are aware of their all-powerful, loving God. When pain presses in, they press closer to God and grow through it, living in His presence. The good news in all of this is that God understands where you come from. He knows your pain. His desire is for you to allow Him to be completely unfair in your life by giving you a future life without pain or loss, full of love and glory. . . These present sufferings….
Of Splinters and Beams
When I was working on my Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy we were taught to notice what bothered us in others, and then look at ourselves. That was the precursor to learning to catch the dissonance in our client’s stories. We could then gently point out and confront what we Christians call ‘hypocrisy’. I see it all the time now, even when I’m not trying. I’m not sure what happens inside of us, but as soon as I come down on someone about something, as soon as I make a judgment, or criticize – in almost my next move I find myself doing the very thing I was criticizing! It is almost a given. It will probably have a different plot. The masks that are worn might not look the same. But the character remains a constant – me. I think that Jesus knew we would do this when he told us to “judge not lest ye be judged.” And then He gave His illustration about the splinter and the beam in eyes.
Just a quick example of how God reinforced this truth. A couple of Christmases ago when we lived in Washington D.C. my daughter, Stephanie and I were talking about criticism and how it hurts us more than the one we are criticizing. This conversation took place just as we were entering a Kohls. We quickly found what we needed and were standing in a forever line at the check out. Now unless you have been in a large city on the 23rd of December you won’t come near understanding how long we were going to be in that line. I was pretty sure I’d celebrate my March birthday before we were able to leave that store. We watched the line impatiently at first and Steph noticed the cashiers kept yelling at the “next in line,” repeatedly, because “the next in line” weren’t paying attention. She said, “You would think after waiting all this time they would be paying attention and not have to get called two or three times.” Well, an hour and a half later when we finally got to the front of the line we were deep in a conversation and we didn’t notice the cashier trying to get our attention. As she repeatedly yelled at us, we looked at each other and laughed. This little lesson was reinforced again as we were driving home from Kohls in Silver Spring to Takoma Park on Colesville. We were at a light and it turned green. The person in the car in front of us just sat there. Steph tapped on the horn and commented about people needing to pay attention when they are driving. A couple of lights later we were at the front of the line at a red light and found ourselves exclaiming over a new mansion they had just built on the left side of the road. You guessed it. Our light turned green and we sat there. Horns were honking and we looked at each other guiltily as we talked about the two ways God had gently taught us about criticizing and judging.
I haven’t completely learned that lesson. I forget it more often when I am the one criticizing or judging than when someone points out one of my many flaws. That’s when I remember that lesson most easily. I just kind of smile when I get comments from my husband about losing my keys, (see about Buffy) because I know it will just be a matter of time……..I stop mid-smile and pray that when it does happen I will be more than gracious.
