two i can do but all three?
I have had a lot going through my head the last couple of weeks and I only wish I could have been better about writing some of it down because now as I sit here I can’t remember much.
Here is one thing. Our church has starting going through the book of Acts and although we are only a couple weeks in I have been struck by the character of the Holy Spirit and His central role in the history of the early church. I have been trained well and fully believe in the Trinity but as I have been reading Acts I have realized that my theology and way that I live are not congruent. I spend a significant amount of time talking, thinking and writing about the Father and the Son but if I am honest I don’t really pay much attention to the Holy Spirit.
I think it goes back to my evangelical roots that feared being too charismatic and since those crazy out there Christians were so into the Spirit then we would talk about it more in whispers or in passing. I should say that in all fairness I don’t think my church community growing up actually believed that nor do I think those more charismatic then me are of a strain of Christendom that strange or somehow worse. It is just that I somehow came to a place where the Holy Spirit was left out.
And to be honest I feel I am at the very beginning of having any sort of understanding of how the Spirit fits into my faith in a practical day to day way. But I know He should and from my understanding of scripture it is a good thing He is here and in fact it is better then if Jesus was here in person.
Also and maybe this should be another whole blog but I love the picture of Jesus followers in Acts 2 who are acting in obedience and the Spirit is doing crazy cool things in their midst. The challenging take away I believe is that we should obey God with that sort of abandonment but not necessarily expect the same results. Rather we should obey and then with excited and open expectations see what the Spirit does.
I have always wanted revival or wild transformation but what if instead we had the change to be part of a community that wanted to be obedient and somehow found joy in whatever resulted from that obedience whether it was wild growth, persecution or nearly unperceivable change?
Here is one thing. Our church has starting going through the book of Acts and although we are only a couple weeks in I have been struck by the character of the Holy Spirit and His central role in the history of the early church. I have been trained well and fully believe in the Trinity but as I have been reading Acts I have realized that my theology and way that I live are not congruent. I spend a significant amount of time talking, thinking and writing about the Father and the Son but if I am honest I don’t really pay much attention to the Holy Spirit.
I think it goes back to my evangelical roots that feared being too charismatic and since those crazy out there Christians were so into the Spirit then we would talk about it more in whispers or in passing. I should say that in all fairness I don’t think my church community growing up actually believed that nor do I think those more charismatic then me are of a strain of Christendom that strange or somehow worse. It is just that I somehow came to a place where the Holy Spirit was left out.
And to be honest I feel I am at the very beginning of having any sort of understanding of how the Spirit fits into my faith in a practical day to day way. But I know He should and from my understanding of scripture it is a good thing He is here and in fact it is better then if Jesus was here in person.
Also and maybe this should be another whole blog but I love the picture of Jesus followers in Acts 2 who are acting in obedience and the Spirit is doing crazy cool things in their midst. The challenging take away I believe is that we should obey God with that sort of abandonment but not necessarily expect the same results. Rather we should obey and then with excited and open expectations see what the Spirit does.
I have always wanted revival or wild transformation but what if instead we had the change to be part of a community that wanted to be obedient and somehow found joy in whatever resulted from that obedience whether it was wild growth, persecution or nearly unperceivable change?
posted by Jon at
9:04 PM
4 Comments:
great thoughts jon. when i think about how difficult change (radical or imperceptible) actually is, i think the Holy Spirit is our only hope. word.
jon - i'm sure the holy spirit isn't a he... :)
i agree though. I often forget about the holy spirit as a seperate being. good reminder.
I agree with the previous comment, that the Holy Spirit could accurately be considered a female. The Hebrew word for spirit, ruah, is a female word.
-Matt
In some sense I agree with you matt and anonymous. My philosophical understanding of the divine is that God has no gender. God can be understood to have both stereotypical female and male characteristics but God is neither a male nor a female.
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