From Fear To Trust

I woke up really early last week which for those of you who know me know this is a highly rare occurrence.  After making sure I wasn't having a heart attack or was awake for some other medical emergency--and after trying unsuccessfully to get back to sleep I spent the time thinking and praying a bit.  I've been admittedly anxious lately over a few things and as that was likely the cause of my restlessness I went about trying to address some of the causes of my anxiety.

My mind drifted to this fear that was gnawing away at me.  Here's what I know:

- It's really really negative
- It makes me feel physically unwell
- It causes me to doubt myself
- It tells me to withdraw from my community
- It shortens my perspective
- It presents bad choices as the only choices
- It directs my thoughts away from my faith and on to myself

After some thought I found myself making the declaration that instead of fear I choose to trust.  Here's what I know about trust:

- For me the first question is who or what am I trusting in.  As a Christian I immediately go to the comfort I find in the knowledge that there's a loving and personal God that I've decided to throw my lot in with and who in return propmises me that He won't allow me to go through more than I can handle.

- Trust by it's nature is very positive and reassuring
- It is life giving
- It inspires self-confidence -
- I long to connect with others and hear their story when I trust
- My perspective is as wide and as large as I want it to be when I trust. There are no limits.
- Quickly all the bad choices fade away and are replaced by good ones. Often these choices are ones that are creative, dynamic, and ones that I could never have forseen.

This became one of those transcendent moments where as soon as I said the words in my mind I felt the pressure of the fear lift. Once I decided to trust and not fear, I was once again ready to face my challenges head on.

So what are you doing this Christmas?

Here's what my parents are up to...

Dear Friends and Partners in Ministry,

I’m up with the sun (4:30!) to get ready for two of the busiest days of our year. At 9:30, we take Christmas gifts to all the children and adults at our Noviane community. The kids will begin with some singing they’ve prepared and one of the girls will read the Christmas story from Luke 2 in Portuguese. Most of their gifts are actually clothes and practical things they need anyway, but they’ve all been very excited in anticipation of this special occasion. We have four new kids living with us there who have arrived fairly recently. Three are from very poor backgrounds and the fourth from a background of violent abuse. For the poor ones, receiving gifts and receiving something new will be firsts. They don’t even have a grid for anticipating this experience. It humbles me when I think about their lives—and the lives of so many others trapped in the depths of poverty—in our world of such abundance.

Then at 1:30 we go to Mieze to give gift bags to all the Mieze kids. I’ll miss being at the children’s evangelistic program there this morning (in order to be at Noviane), but I’ve already taken hundreds of small bags of chips and suckers and other candy out for distribution to the 3-400 kids who will come to hear about the birth of Jesus...and to receive a plate of beans and rice. Several of these kids were telling me yesterday they were hungry and there was no food at home. I was able to give some money to some. We’re doing what we can to help and thankfully they’re no longer starving. Tomorrow, I’ll be speaking in the Mieze church. Then, after church we’ll feed a full chicken dinner to over a thousand. That will be the Father’s Christmas gift to his faithful church.

We’ll finish today with Iris’ traditional candlelight service for our Pemba kids. However, it’s not exactly “Silent Night, Holy Night” as it quickly degenerates into a candle-fight service. The object becomes to blow out others’ candles while protecting your own. Teams form spontaneously as they try to keep at least one candle burning to re-light the others’ while they attack other teams’ candles. Don’t try this at home!

Tomorrow, after church the Pemba Base will also feed a Christmas chicken meal to 4,000 while we’re feeding a thousand or more in Mieze. Then, if we have any energy left, there’ll be an informal Christmas party for missionaries in the evening.

This out-pouring of love and goodness to the least of these in Jesus’ name is only possible because you care. Thank you for all your prayers and generosity throughout 2011 which are bringing hundreds, young and old, into the Kingdom Jesus came to reveal (Luke 4:43).

With our love and appreciation,

Don and Elizabeth

It's Christmas in Carleton Place

We made it through the entire Carleton Place Christmas Parade last night mostly due to strategically placing ourselves at the beginning rather than the end of the route as we had in years past.  One thing I noticed right away (and much to the delight of my kids) was that there's way more candy available and the people handing it out are way more eager to offer it.  The evidence proves it as we got a pretty decent bag full of goodies this year as opposed to other years where we were lucky to get a candy cane.



There were the usual assortment of small-town charm(y) floats...The mayor being pulled in a carriage by a very skittish horse.  I'm assuming she made it unscathed as I haven't heard anything about a carriage wreck or an emergency election being called.  There were also live cows, the prerequisite dance schools with their uber-cheerful troupe of girls (plus the one token guy) doing their Christmas routines, and the float from the Ploughman's Association which inexplicably led my friend who was standing beside me to start giggling like a school girl.


Now having grown up in a small town and finding myself living in just a slightly larger one I have had a long appreciation for the writings of Garrison Keillor and his beloved Lake Woebegone (shout out to Mr. Duplissea for introducing these books to me way back in High School).  I love Keillor because I feel like I know what he's talking about when he writes about his small prairie town in Minnesota.  This float last night was my Lake Woebegone moment.

And that's the news from Carleton Place...

Sunday Sermon - Don't Just be Good, Be Great!

This is the transcript of the message I gave at OVV this morning.  You'll see I've used powerpoint which I'm happy to e-mail to anyone who really wants it. sorry for the weird formatting thing too down towards the end.  I'm not sure what happened and how to fix it.

A few weeks ago I was sharing a meal with someone who knows me fairly well.  This is someone who I respect for his insight and his ability to speak into people’s lives so when he took the time to share some observations of what he was seeing going on with me, I had this inner nudge you could call it that I rather than follow my basic instinct (slide 1)  that I should shut up and listen.  He touched on a few different things—all true but if I could sum up a large part of the message he was trying to get across to me it was that I was almost always content at being good (slide 2)...a good person, a good worker, a good friend, etc...but I rarely strove to be great in anything that I did.  Why was that?  What was it that was keeping me from pushing through from being ok to being amazing (slide 3)?  Admittedly I didn’t have an answer for him at that point as I was kind of reeling from the truth of the statement and the questions he was asking.  I mumbled and fumbled and we talked a bit more about some general barriers that might be holding me back but it was clear I think that I had just come up against something that I needed time to process and gracefully we changed the subject.

This conversation hasn’t left me though.  In the quiet times I’ve gone back to it and tried to sort through the why’s a bit more.  One thing that was clear right away is that there is both a practical and a spiritual component to this answer which is one reason why I’m talking about it today.  For those of us who acknowledge the reality of the spiritual and in this context, the belief that all we are and all we do are founded in our faith in Jesus Christ we know that we can take all the practical steps possible to change or correct our situation but unless they are rooted in the truth and will of God, they will eventually fall flat.  Unless the our spiritual foundation is solid then whatever we build will set in sand and subject to the waves that come against it until again it eventually collapses and is washed away (slide 4). So for me here’s how I saw the process happening...I needed to figure out what the spiritual principles are that take me from being good to being great.  Before I can do that though I need to know what barriers are there that are getting in my way.  What issues of faith or wrong belief are keeping me from that journey of being great?  Even before that though I think there’s two fundamental questions that I need to ask and I want to explore this morning...Does God actually wants us to be great?  If so, what does He mean by that?  Spiritually speaking, what does it mean for us to be great?

Does God Want Us To Be Great?  I think the simple answer here is absolutely (slide 5).  Time and time again in the scriptures we see evidence of God calling people and nations to a higher standard of belief and of behaviour.  That’s the easy question to answer.  The answer that’s a little more detailed is what does kind of great does God want us to be? What’s God’s definition of great?  First of all we need to remember that the reason we should want to be great is often quite different from what our basic human nature requires from us.  Much of the reasons for us to be great in a practical or worldly context revolves I think around a conscious or unconscious need for increased personal return or sense of satisfaction which we find in both the people we consider great and for those actions and beliefs we take on ourselves.  In fact I would suggest that this applies for even the greatest philanthropists or selfless acts just as much as the normal every day person.  We’re all motivated to some extent by our selfish nature and either we can’t help admire the great people of the world and stand in awe of them to some extent...but in the end of course they’re human and full of holes just like the rest of us.  (slide 6 and 7)  or we attempt to be great ourselves through action or belief in some way that validates our reasons for being.  All of this only gets us so far and in the end is very, very temporary.

The reason we want to be great as believers is completely different of course.  While the actions are still practical and often world-changing, our motivation is completely different...at least it should be.  Instead of personal return or satisfaction (which can still exist) our motivation is found in the eternal both for us and for those we encounter.  It’s that Kingdom of God thing that Ahren’s been talking about over the last few weeks.  (Slide 8) By being great we can not only change people’s lives now but also their futures.   Our future is secure and so can it be for others too...and we’ve got the means to do it.  What other reason do we need to be great but that?

So we know God calls us to be great and we know why this is important...but the question still remains what does it mean to be great?  What’s the definition of great from God’s perspective? I think perhaps the most comprehensive definition of what it means to be great may be found in Matthew chapter 5.  Here we have Jesus entering into the main part of his ministry on earth where having just crossed the sea of Galilee he encounters a large crowd waiting for him.  He positions himself high up on a hill where everyone can hear him, he calls his disciples to him and begins his Sermon on the Mount with what we know as the Beatitudes.  (Read passage from slide 9). 

One thing that is worth pointing out first is Jesus using the term blessed here.  Commentaries tell us that rather than thinking of it here as a direct action such as a priestly blessing (slide 10) it is more meant to, “...introduce someone who is to be congratulated, someone whose place in life is an enviable one. (Tyndale New Testament Commentary)  It denotes happiness as their prime state of mind.”  This suggests to us then that the beatitudes are more than just a prescription to live right but a definition of what God thinks great is.  If we follow these instructions we are told that we will be blessed...or be transformed to a place of contentment where the Kingdom of God will live in us and work through us.  Thinking back to the idea of why be great, the Tyndale Commentary again tells us that the beatitudes are presented as, “...the best way of life, not only in its intrinsic goodness but in its results.”

Now we don’t have time this morning to look at all 8 teachings but let’s highlight three and look at them in the context of how it defines God’s definition of great.  Blessed are the poor in spirit (slide 11).  What we know right away is that this doesn’t refer at all to material poverty.  Rather as Charles Finney puts it being poor in spirit refers to having, “To having a realizing sense of our spiritual state. In this it is implied that we understand our own guilt and helplessness, and realize as a practical fact our own utter emptiness by nature of everything good, and of any tendency to that which is good. It is one thing to hold this in theory, and another thing to be heartily sensible of the humbling fact. Most professing Christians admit in words that they are in themselves wholly helpless and destitute, but to know and feel as an abiding practical conviction that this is their true spiritual condition how few are able!”  What makes us great then if we are poor in spirit is our realization that we are completely and utterly dependent on the blessing and provision of God to sustain us.  It doesn’t mean we don’t work or cease existing in some way rather we do so in a continual position of humility and acknowledgement that what we have and what we do is not our own God’s.  There’s a freedom that comes from this position of poverty if you will because as Finney again says we’ve now learned, “... how blessed it is to trust Christ. They see such fullness in Christ, they do not wish any strength of their own. Their wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption are in Christ, and they need and wish for none of their own. Christ is all they need, and they need nothing in themselves. They have them all in Christ, and they are willing and glad to have them in him.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied (slide 12).  Greatness in God’s eyes is defined by a hunger and thirst for righteousness...what does that mean?  The word itself here is not thought to mean spiritual justice in this context rather something deeper and more intimately connected to God himself.  The Tyndale commentary writes that, “...the meaning here will be that their one desire will be for a relationship of trust and obedience with God.  It is thus a personal aspiration, not a desire for social justice...it’s a whole orientation of life towards God and his will”  How many times have we looked at this passage I wonder and thought of this as an aggressive pursuit...a dangerous quest like the knights of old looking to slay the dragon and get their reward from the King (slide 13).  The reality of course is that this couldn’t be farther from the truth that Jesus was talking about at least in this context.  Our quest for righteousness is found in the depth of our pursuit of our relationship with God himself.  (Slide 14)  We all know this verse don’t we?  So what makes us great is the strength and depth of our relationship with God.  That makes sense doesn’t it?  As Matthew Henry writes in his commentary, “Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are happy. Righteousness is here put for all spiritual blessings. These are purchased for us by the righteousness of Christ, confirmed by the faithfulness of God. Our desires of spiritual blessings must be earnest. Though all desires for grace are not grace, yet such a desire as this is a desire of God's own rising, and he will not forsake the work of his own hands.”

Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy (Slide 15).  Simply put how mercy makes us great is that it turns our focus off of ourselves onto those around us  The difference here though is that we show mercy because we have been shown mercy first and foremost from God himself.  Shakespeare himself said in The Merchant of Venice (slide 16) “The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:  'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself” The greatness of mercy though isn’t just in the action of casual sympathy for someone else’s pain or plight.  That’s not what Jesus is talking about here.  The Greek word for mercy can be traced back to a Hebrew work that Barclay’s commentary describes as the following, “It does not mean only to sympathize with a person in the popular sense of the term; it does not mean simply to feel sorry for someone ill trouble...mercy, means the ability to get right inside the other person's skin until we can see things with his eyes, think things with his mind, and feel things with his feelings.”  So to be great we need to show a deep and meaningful mercy to those around us—something far more than a deep wave of pity.  We need to intimately connect with what people are feeling and act from that place...that is an advanced and very committed action isn’t?  Are we ready for that?  Are we capable of that?  I don’t think so—not without God’s help.  That is why mercy itself is reciprocal in its nature.  We can be merciful because we have received mercy from God himself.  Nicky Gumble, the creator of the Alpha series writes that, “Jesus stressed time and again, as he does here, that it is those who show mercy who will receive mercy. It is not that we can earn God's mercy. Rather, the fact that we forgive is evidence that we have been forgiven by God. It is not a bargain with God, but a virtuous circle. When we see how much God has forgiven us we cannot fail to have mercy on others.”

All right so we should stop here for today but this is just the first step in my journey of learning how to be great.  I wonder though if there’s more than just me that resonates with the struggle to first come to grips with what it means and secondly to figure out how to get there (slide 17).  This morning we at least have an understanding that God wants us to be great but that the meaning of the word is much different than what we would expect it to be.  Most of it is rooted in our relationship and our reliance on him to provide.  There will likely be a lot more stops on the road to figure things out and choose what direction is next but like all of us as long as we’re still on it, that’s what counts. (Slide 18)

Let’s pray...

Don't be good--be great!

Finally I have some time to stop and write...I should take the train more often.  

So what's on my mind?  A while back someone I highly respect pointed out about how I tend to hedge my bets a lot in order to protect myself from disappointment or failure.  I will default to the half measure or to the safe thing.  I’m content to be good not great...  

It was one of those passing moments of truth where you immediately know any argument you may attempt just comes off as foolish.  I’ve thought about this often over the last while and am trying to both in my words and actions present myself not only with more confidence but push through the moments of uncertainty where I would often default to the safe and comfortable path.   This has been a harder task than I’d thought it would be at times as I wrestle with the unease of the unknown and its effect on my confidence. 

It’s also very much a spiritual pursuit as it’s directly connected to my level of trust that God actually wants me to be successful and to figure out what that means.  Somewhere there still exists a poverty mentality inside of me that’s manifesting itself in my reluctance to invest myself if I sense impending failure or disappointment. 

One thing I’ve come to understand is that there’s a difference between being rich and being successful.  Rich just implies money at least in my mind and I don’t think that is what God desires for us.  Success on the other hand implies a level of achievement which can be all-encompassing.  One can be successful financially, spiritually, be a successful father, be a successful leader, etc.  It also is a subjective measurement which demands continual improvement...this is a good thing as it battles complacency.

And the journey continues...but it is a good one and one that I’m glad to be on.  

Sunday Sermon - The Rhythm of our Inner Life

Restoring the Rhythm of our Inner Life

So as I’ve been thinking and praying about what to speak on this week I’ve had this phrase bouncing around my head, “The Inner Life.”  Strangely enough this does happen to me a lot where I get a shred of an idea and have to decide on what to do with it from there.  That thought then developed into this idea of The Rhythm of our Inner Life and I thought hey...there’s my sermon for this week.

Then I remembered Ahren’s talk last week...actually I had to go back and listen to it again on podcast...apparently I wasn’t paying attention.

If you remember last week as Ahren talked to us for the last time before his sabbatical he referenced the idea of Spiritual Rhythms.   He talked a little bit of the seasons as representing various rhythms in our spiritual lives and what we’ve been through together as a community.  As we move into summer now he talked about it as a time of rest, healing, and peace.  The pace slows down and for whatever reason; in the summer most of us find time to breathe a little bit easier.

If you know me of course this was an analogy that appealed to me greatly because the one instrument I actually learned how to play was the drums and then later on, percussion.  Rhythm is actually something I know a little bit about so I figure this must have stuck with me subconsciously or something because I honestly hadn’t made the connection with Ahren’s sermon until I started looking around to reference something just a few days ago. 

So I am going to stick with this idea though but don’t worry I’m not going to repeat what Ahren talked about...not really at least.  Instead using the idea of rhythm, I want to take the warning that Ahren gave us toward the end of his talk last week about not getting spiritually dehydrated over this summer season and spend some time identifying the elements that I think might make up what I’m calling the rhythm of our inner life as believers.  I think it stands to reason doesn’t it that in order for us to maintain a healthy inner life, that we have to know...or at least have a basic understanding of what that might be.

Before we get to that, let’s start with a basic drum lesson.  Move to the drum set.  There are three parts to a basic rock drum beat which represent the foundation on which all other beats are formed.  If you can master this beat, you at least have a hope of growing into a decent drummer over time with the right amount of practice and discipline.  Figuring out this beat really isn’t hard.  You start with the bass drum or “the kick” if you’re in the know.  It’s 4/4 timing and all you have to do is this.  Play basic rock beat with kick.  Simple enough right?  Now to add some layers you move on to the snare drum.  It contrasts to the bass drum with a higher and sharper tone.  Add snare to kick.  Lastly the third part of this beat to add in is the high hat which adds a higher tone yet again at a faster tempo than the other two layers.  Add high hat to bass and snare.  

There you go...the three parts of what’s considered the basic foundational beat of most rock drumming.

I want run with this for this rest of my talk this morning and use these three elements as an analogy of what I think are the key elements that make up the rhythm of our inner life as believers.  First of all what do you think of when you hear the bass drum?  To me I hear a heartbeat.  It’s a deep and steady rhythm that anchors everything else that’s going on.  Take it away; you’ve got no foundation...no bottom layer on which anything else can be built on.  Our inner life as a believer needs that same foundation or heartbeat in order to survive.  We need something to anchor us and to give us life.  So where do we find this heartbeat?  I think we’re all aware enough to know that our heart alone isn’t enough to sustain a successful inner life as a believer.  Instead I think we find the heartbeat when we join our hearts with God’s at the moment we become a believer.  Ours becomes his and there we have the source of strength to sustain us.  Psalm 73:25-26 speaks of this as we read, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” 

So the first element of our inner life as a believer is connecting with the heartbeat of God.  But what comes after that?  I think that’s when we move on to the snare which represents to me the idea of consistency.  Snap, snap, snap....in that basic beat I was talking about.  Pulling that into the analogy of the rhythm of our inner life as a believer I think the consistent beat of the snare drum can represent the means we have to reach the heartbeat of God that is present in our lives.  Consistency is important as the more we strive to reach that heartbeat the more our inner lives are sustained as the rhythm remains strong and consistent.  John 15:7 says, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” 

The question of course is how do we make that connection and maintain it?  I think the obvious answer is through developing a consistent prayer life.  Now this is a sermon series in itself I realize about what an effective prayer life might look like but for the sake of time I think what Richard Foster said in an interview might sum it up well.  This is a little long but bear with me as I think it paints a good picture of what we might want our prayer lives to look like.  “Pray as you can, not as you can't. There are many ways to pray. Of course, what I end up saying is, "Pray 24 hours a day." That is, we learn a way of living in which prayer simply pervades everything. One of the old writers said of the prayerful life, "It takes none of our time, but it occupies all of our time." I would encourage people to find ways in which prayer fits naturally into their lives.

There are lots of ways of praying. One writer talks about "flash prayers." You just give a flash prayer as you're on the elevator going to the next appointment. You might pray about your work. You might pray about your children. These are important prayers that you give before God.

The people who speak of an hour a day are probably referring to a time when you might have the Bible in front of you. That's a very important thing to do. But, maybe once a day is a difficult thing. How about just once a week in a little more extended way and see what you learn from that. How about an afternoon once a week in which you simply give this time to God and learn, and prayerfully go through the Bible. Or maybe you want to pray with God as you take a walk in a park, and that can be a prayer walk. If you miss a day, God isn't going to zap you. That isn't how God works.

Just don't turn it into a system, a legalism. Prayer is a living relationship. And so the idea of one hour a day is just a way of saying, you know, get acquainted. You spend time with your spouse because you love your spouse, because you want to be with your husband or wife, and that's the same way with God. We spend time because that is part of the love relationship.

We must never be discouraged by our lack of prayer. Even in our prayerlessness we can hunger for God. If so, the hunger itself is prayer. One writer said, "The desire for prayer is prayer, the prayer of desire." In time, the desire will lead to practice, and practice will increase the desire. When we cannot pray, we let God be our prayer. Nor should we be frightened by our hardness of heart; prayer will soften it. We give even our lack of prayer to God.”

 Let’s leave this section with a good word of caution from Matthew 26:41.  “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

The last element of that fundamental drum beat of course is then the high hat.  Now I’ll admit I’m likely stretching the limits of this metaphor but I liken adding the high hat to the mix being like adding the element of mystery to our inner life as a believer.  Bear with me here.  Without the high hat, the beat that I showed you earlier is plodding, boring and quite frankly uninteresting (demonstrate quickly).  When you add in the high hat though something changes—the beat goes from plodding and uninteresting to something with depth and even an element of texture.  Why?  It’s hard to explain really...it’s a bit of a mystery.  All we’re doing is adding another element with a different beat and tone but the difference is there.  It makes the rhythm complete. 

Moving this idea over to the idea of the rhythm of our inner life as a believer, the idea of mystery I think is crucial because takes that rhythm from being potentially mundane to one that can be full of beauty, depth, and texture.  You know Scripture does actually refer to there being an element of mystery to our faith on several occasions.  In talking about the qualifications of a Deacon, Paul writes to Timothy that they must, “...hold(ing) the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience.” (1 Tim 3:9 NKJV).  Later on in the same chapter he writes in verse 16, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.”

Again realizing this is a topic in itself; let’s simply acknowledge the possibility of mystery being the final element to the rhythm of our inner life as a believer.  I think Brennan Manning completes this thought well when he writes in his book, The Furious Longing of God that, "The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand-new creation. Not to make people with better morals but to create a community of prophets and professional lovers, men and women who would surrender to the mystery of the fire of the Spirit that burns within, who would live in ever greater fidelity to the omnipresent Word of God, who would enter into the center of it all, the very heart and mystery of Christ, into the center of the flame that consumes, purifies, and sets everything aglow with peace, joy, boldness, and extravagant, furious love. This, my friend, is what it really means to be a Christian." 

To finish this up there’s a couple of things to consider about the basic rock rhythm that we need to mention that also completes this analogy of our inner life as believers.  First of all is that for the beat to work it has to be done together.  All the elements are interconnected...each one working in conjunction with the other.  This is the same for the rhythm of our inner life as a believer.  For it to be in balance, those elements have to be in unison.  This is where the caution from Ahren last week to not let ourselves get spiritually dehydrated during this season is so important.  While we may be connected to the heartbeat of God as a believer, without a consistent connection to Him, and an embracing of the mysterious truths of our faith, our rhythm will eventually fall apart.

The second thing to consider is that what makes all this work is the Holy Spirit that lives inside each one of us.  He is the connector between the elements of the rhythm of our inner life.  He connects us to the heartbeat of God, He walks with us to inspire the consistency of the prayer life we need, and He is the one that reveals us to the mysteries of our faith.  He is the one that gives us our sense of timing and puts the elements together so they form the rhythm that will sustain us.  Let’s finish today with a final scripture that ties this all together.  Thinking of the role of the Holy Spirit here 1Corinthian 2:6-14 reads, “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

Let’s pray...

Adopt vs Adapt

Once again Seth Godin shares a truism with many applications.  See the post here.