By My Spirit

In Zechariah 4:6 we read, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord.”  The work that God does in saving souls is not accomplished by things or people who seem powerful to the world,  The work of God, saving people, is done by the Spirit of God.  It begins with a believer praying to God through Jesus Christ for a lost person.  The Holy Spirit does His work of convicting the lost person of sin, righteousness and judgment.  When the unsaved person feels guilty enough, someone speaks the Word of the gospel of Jesus Christ to them.  Someone tells the lost person that Jesus died for our sins and rose again from the dead.  When the unsaved person believes this, they are saved.  Jesus Christ comes into their life and gives them eternal life, a home in Heaven when they die and love, joy an peace now in this life.  Salvation is a work of God.  He  plants the seed and gives it life.  We are just midwives in the birthing process.   Salvation is by grace through faith and that not of ourselves.  It is the gift of God, not of works. lest any man should boast.   Think about it!!!   

Why Did Jesus Choose Judas?

Jesus prayed all night and then chose the twelve apostles from the disciples.  But why did he choose Judas?  Judas was a devil.  Judas was a traitor.  Judas was a thief.  Judas was a suicide.  Why Judas?  Perhaps you can guess.  I would guess that the Father chose Judas to give to Jesus as an apostle so we could be sure that Jesus knows what we experience when we are betrayed by those whom we love.  The betrayal of adult children, divorcing spouses, adulterous spouses and cheating business partners is understood in a very deep way by Jesus.  He was called upon by His Father to invest heavily in the life of a man who would turn on Him and sell him out for thirty pieces of silver.  Have you been betrayed by someone you loved?  Have they hurt you deeply?  Jesus understands and cares.  He can be touched by the feelings of our weaknesses.  Why has God surrounded you with the people who are in your life?  Could it be that He is developing a merciful, gracious heart in you as He teaches you by His Holy Spirit?  Are you learning to bless those who curse you?  Are you learning to pray for those who despitefully use you?  If so, you are becoming like Jesus.  Think about it!!!    

Marijuana and the Christian

Many people are smoking weed these days for various reasons.  They defend this by saying that it doesn’t cause motor vehicle crashes like alcohol, is not addictive like tobacco and makes them calm, mellow and happy.  What about it?  If it became legal here as it has become in many places, would it be OK for Christians to smoke some sometime?  I believe that the answer for disciples of Jesus Christ is found in Ephesians 5:18: “And do not be drunk with wine, wherein is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking so one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in  the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.”  Marijuana is the “Devil’s candy”.  It opens the door to drugs even more dangerous and destructive.  0God’s way for believers is to confess all known sins, yield to God and be filled with the Spirit.  The result of this filling of the Spirit is happy music in our heart and on our lips.  it will produce a grateful heart and a sweet submission to one another.  That is the ultimate stress reliever!  Think about it!! 

God, My Wonderful Counselor

 Psalm 16:7 “I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel;”  Where do you go for good advice?  Why not go to God Himself?  How do you hear the voice of God?  God has spoken in His Word, the Bible.  It is His LOGOS – the objective spoken words of God Himself.  “But I need advice about my particular problem today”.  That is where the Holy Spirit comes into the picture.  He will give you a RHEMA – individually applied truth.  The Holy Spirit lives inside every believer in Christ.  He will bring just the right verse of Scripture to your mind as you read, study, memorize and meditate on the verses of the Bible.  “But that sounds like a lot of work!”  It is!  But it is so worth it.  When we allow God’s Word to abide in us and we abide in it, our lives become fruitful for God’s glory.  We are then led by the Spirit, empowered and encouraged by the Spirit.  Then we live out our sonship in the experiences of our lives.  God has written the “script” of your life in His Word.  The Holy Spirit is the one who takes that basic script and applies it to your situation right now.  Don’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly.  Instead, get your counsel from the “WONDEFUL COUNSELOR”.  Think about it and do it!    

Mowing Grass and the Christian Life

I was mowing my shaggy looking grass today.  Now it looks neat and tidy.  What does mowing my grass contribute to my spiritual life?  Well, first of all there is what theologians call the “cultural mandate” in Genesis 2:28 … fill the earth and subdue it.”  My wife has the job of filling our backyard with children, grandchildren, flowers and birds.  She does a great job of it.  My job is to subdue the grass.  With my walk-behind mower and electric weed wacker I cut the grass down to right size.  Then there is the fact that our life must back up our verbal witness.  My friend Wali Ahmad once said, “Christians say they want to spend eternity in a beautiful paradise called Heaven, but their backyard looks like hell.”  Why not work to make our homes a little more like heaven?  Love, joy, peace, order, neatness and beauty all have their place in being a witness for Christ.  Think about it!

God’ Angels

My lovely wife and I were driving through North Carolina yesterday. We saw a sign for Lumberton and it reminded me of the Summer I sold Bibles door to door in Lumberton and Laurinburg, North Carolina. We passed through Charlotte where I burned out the valves on my first real motorcycle on the day that man stepped on the Moon, but that is another story. The story I want to tell is how I arrived with two other college students fresh from sales school in Nashville without any money and no place to stay. It was raining hard as it did every afternoon as I sat under the overhang of a little hamburger joint there in Laurenburg. I was praying and reading my Bible seeking God’s help and direction. The two other guys had discovered a boarding house, but I was out of money. A middle aged lady approached me, handed me a twenty dollar bill (big money in 1969) and told me that God told her to give it to me. I was overwhelmed with God’s love. As the summer progressed, her family invited me to their house for delicious suppers whenever I was in their area. When I needed a car to deliver the Bibles at the end of the Summer her husband popped a motor in one of their Volkswagon Beetles and let me use it. God has his “angels unawares”). I want to be one of the “angels” today, being led by the Spirit of God to say the right word at the right time, do a kind deed that is just what is needed or give a gift that shows someone that God is alive. Think about it!

Standards and the Spirit

Do you hold to certain standards or do you just follow the Spirit?  John the Baptist did both.  He held to a standard of not drinking alcohol and he was filled with the Spirit from the time he was in his mother’s womb.  The angel prophesied, “For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink.  He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.” (Luke 1:15)  Notice the connection between being free from the influence of alcohol and being filled with the Holy Spirit.  Paul makes the same connection in Ephesians 5:1: “And be not drunk with wine in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,”  Many unsaved people are dependent on alcohol for relaxation and fun.  Saved people rely on the filling of the Holy Spirit for joy, peace and love.  Which one are you?  If you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit you must give up relying on alcohol.  Follow the example of John the Baptist.  Do not drink wine or strong drink.  Be filled with the Spirit and you will be full of joy, peace and love.  Standards and the Spirit.  Be great for God!  Think about it!      

The Holy Spirit is our Engagement Ring

Ephesians 1:13-14 says, “having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”  The word “guarantee” is ARRABON in Greek.  In modern Greek this word means “engagement ring”.  We are engaged to Christ.  The proof that He will marry us is that we now have the Holy Spirit in us.  How do we know we are saved?  The Holy Spirit convicts us, leads us, instructs us in the Scriptures, gives us love for other believers and creates a concern for lost people in us.  If you have the Holy Spirit, you have salvation in Christ.  Every time a lady looks down at her finger she is reminded that her man loves her.  He sacrificed to pay for that diamond and he will carry through on his promise to marry her.  We have a Savior who has paid for our salvation with His blood and has given us the Holy Spirit as the guarantee that He will give us all the rest that He has promised: a home in Heaven, a new body and a new earth.  Think about it!

Spirits or the Spirit?

People ask me, “Do you drink?”  I usually reply, “No, I’m crazy enough without it.”  But actually I am filled with the Spirit so I don’t need to use alcohol to release me from my inhibitions.  “Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.”  Being filled with the Holy Spirit means that I am full of joy, music, gratefulness and consideration of the feelings of others.  The Holy Spirit controls me in a way similar to how alcohol controls a person who gets drunk.  If I didn’t have the Lord in my life, I probably would need to anesthetize myself somehow with something because I have been through some deep hurts.  But with the Lord I can face my trials with joy.  And there is no hangover!     

And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ submitting to one another in the fear of God. (Ephesians 5:18-21 NKJV)