I always chuckle a bit when I hear people, particularly clergy, speak of the ‘new ways’ the Spirit is moving and what new trends we need to adhere to, if we are to be relevant to the culture.  I can remember being a young minister and almost succumbing to the hype – the constant pressure to create something innovative, to keep the Gospel fresh,  to make sure that our faith ‘looks cool’ to the young people and to those on the fringes of commitment to Christ.

As I’ve gotten older as both a minister and a tech professional, I’ve come to realize that everything that is new becomes old and while advances in technology do occur, much of what is new is the result of someone reconsidering some old principle or practice and then tweaking it a little bit…  It’s a remix – nothing really new under the sun, huh?

Remember when cell phones got super small and that was the thing? See how now all of us are walking around with flat screen televisions pressed to our faces?  In many ways we have the same basic functionality the either way, but the presentation has changed… Same stuff, repackaged, rebranded, but no less the same!  

At this point, I probably sound like a grumpy old man, so let me get to the point.  

When it comes to the work of the Holy Spirit and the relevance of the Gospel, we need to tread lightly.  When you go to chasing trends and fads, we would do well to take care, because while we like to imagine that God is ‘doing a new thing,’  the ’new thing’ that the prophet was speaking of is Jesus!

I am about to do a new thing;

    now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

    and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43:19

So, then, be careful of listening to those who claim that God ‘told them to tell you…’  or that ‘God is doing a new thing…’ We must not be enamored by innovation,  this is a means to an end,  but in these times we need inspiration and revelation from God’s word declared and rightly divided by the power of the Holy Spirit!

Good Morning, I love you all!

Ihs,

just adam

How do we both neglect, misrepresent someone at the same time?

The most obvious answer is to fail to listen intently and the second reason is an extension of the former – we don’t really know them.

The Holy Spirit is the most neglected and misrepresented person of the Godhead.  Separated from God the Father and Jesus the Son, things have been attributed to the Spirit that often contradict the character of God.

So, how do we discern when the Spirit is at work? For Christians, the Bible is normative.  But understanding scripture does not always come easy.  

Studying requires more than just reading – it requires grasping context, culture, history, and genre! It requires understanding literary devices and rhetoric.  It requires one to identify presuppositions and assumptions that may influence one’s interpretation, and it requires sitting under the words we dare to stand over and declare to others. 

Because the  Bible is a spiritual document written for spiritual purposes for spiritual people, it requires devotion before one attempts declaration or demonstration. 

But this studying is absolutely worth it.  It provides a basis for an intimacy that allows us to recognize the voice of the Spirit amid the myriad other voices (even our own) that may be  shaping our views and guiding our actions.

So, if your desire is to understand the work of the Spirit and discern the direction we must go, we must not neglect our need for regular and intentional study.

We know better what God is saying when we acquaint ourselves with what God has already said.  There is no substitute, no Cliff’s Notes, no shortcuts to true understanding.  Get it?

Make time for studying.  Get a good study Bible (if you don’t have one, let me know), stay active in Bible study or small groups, pray, and then watch God’s will become clear to you!  

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 

2 Timothy 2:15

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

Change is inevitable and adversity is unavoidable. But, we possess agency – that is the ability to choose how we respond to these things.  While we are certainly all shaped by our circumstances, we needn’t allow these things to define us.  We are all more than the sum of our experiences.  We are more than what we’ve been through.  We are more than our trials and challenges.  This is God’s grace to us.

We grow, we learn, and we are changed by what we go through, but God’s grace is also at work and able to transform our experiences so that what is apparently destructive may become mysteriously constructive.  God is able, when we yield to grace, to not only grow us but to get the glory out of everything that we endure and encounter.  This means that no matter what stage we are at on the journey, or what chapter we are on in our story, we are not at the end, and God can turn things around.  God can take even what people intend as evil and make it work out for our good and for the good of others! (Genesis 50:20)

Don’t take my word for it, though.  Ask Joseph, or Hannah, ask Paul or Silas, ask Jesus!  

Choose today to trust God.  While circumstances may have wearied you, don’t you dare doubt that God is yet at work, and God’s grace, living and active, is sufficient for you!  (2 Cor. 12:9)

Hang in there.  Lean on those who love you.  This is not your end.  This is not your destination.  God is not finished.  This too shall pass.  This is God’s grace for you! God’s grace is enough! 

Do you believe this?

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Romans 8:28-30

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam 

As Christians we have become part of something that is bigger than ourselves.  God is over, within, and working through each of us.

There is no big ‘I’ and little ‘You.’  We are members individually, of one body.  We are not in competition; we both need and complement one another.  We are fit together by the grace of God as we receive the invitation to enjoy and share in God’s redemptive work.

We are members individually of one body in Christ.  We cannot and must not attempt to go alone, because to do so is to rob ourselves of the fullness and richness of the grace that sustains us. 

Yes we are unique, but our distinctness is never a cause for division but rather a unique opportunity for us to encounter the creative grace that weaves us together into a durable and lush fabric that not only honors God but also allows us to experience the beauty of our humanity.

We are a masterpiece.  We are a poem.  We are God’s workmanship. But we will never realize this beauty so long as we continue to create enclaves and establish borders based on our own inclinations and preferences while ignoring God’s purposes. Our isolation will leave us incomplete.

But we are all recipients of grace according to the magnitude of Christ’s gift!  If I cannot see this in others, it is impossible that I receive it for myself. 

Remember, we are God’s idea, and not our own! There is…

⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. ⁷ But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 

Ephesians 4:6–7

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

When Christ died and was raised on Resurrection morning, the first witnesses were afraid and confused.  They didn’t know what to make of it.  And in some ways, I think many of us continue to struggle with the significance of what occurred.

Since Christ died and was raised again, what does it mean? 

We hear the preacher say, ‘death lost its sting, and the grave lost its power!’ But what does this mean?

If death is our greatest fear, we no longer need to fear it.  It is no longer our end. We have a new, abundant, and everlasting life through Jesus Christ!   But what does this mean?

I think it means we can go on, not just courageously in the face of death, but we can live fearlessly as God’s children. Since we are God’s children, we live as confident heirs to His promises – even His provisions, protection, peace, presence, and patience!

God loves us and owns us as His dear children, so we no longer worry about being abandoned or disowned.  We never have to fear lack.  We are no longer gripped by anxieties and insecurities about the future.  God cares for His children and will not leave us begging for bread!  (Psalm 37:25)

Like the hymn says:

No guilt in life, no fear in death

This is the power of Christ in me

From life’s first cry to final breath

Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell, no scheme of man

Can ever pluck me from His hand

Till He returns or calls me home

Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

‘From life’s first Christ to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny!’   We have nothing at all to fear!  

But don’t take my word for it!

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 

Romans 8:15

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

In the United States, food, clean air and water, affordable housing, a livable wage, medical care, education, protection against violence, the possibility of progress, and the potential to flourish – these are well within the purview of the opportunities that our government should be providing for its citizens.

These are not radical ideas.  This is why we pay taxes.  Are there other things that we may include? Perhaps, but these are the basics. I contend that at least every Christian who pays taxes should insist that these basics be provided for as many as possible.  This is just and fair.  This is compassion.

Some say that charity is the Church’s responsibility.  I say, two things can be true at the same time!  And I further contend that if our goal is justice, then true justice and equity will make charity, in the narrowest sense, less necessary.  Do you follow? 

Caring for the poor, advocating for the least, protecting the marginalized, providing for the sick, these are all part of the Christian mission, but in our type of government this demands collaboration with the government that taxes us.  Which means that the political choices we make must be consistent with the foundations of our professed faith!  Our votes and our lobbying must be to this end or we contradict ourselves!

True Christians should desire and thus demand these basics for everyone or else admit that command to love one’s neighbors is not essential to our faith.  But this, in the end, is decidedly un-Christian.   When we allow the Golden Rule to become nothing more than a suggestion, we cannot be who we say we are!  We become the self-justifying hypocrite who smugly asks, ‘Who is my neighbor?’

³⁶ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” ³⁷ He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”  

Luke 10:36–37

“You go, and do likewise…” Jesus says.

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

When our faith becomes a tool that we employ for our personal gains and glory, it ceases to serve its intended purpose. 

When our victories incite arrogance, and someone else’s losses inspire schadenfreude, we need to take care.  We are in a precarious predicament. High places are slippery! 

When our prayers for God’s blessings upon us, do not include prayers for God’s blessings on others – we need to examine our hearts.

While our economy is rooted in the idea of scarcity – the myth that there aren’t enough resources for everyone – the false notion that if God blesses one, God cannot bless us all – the whole idea that there must be winners and losers- the haves and the have nots – this is not according to who God is!  This is capitalism not Christianity.

God is loving and compassionate. God’s grace flows from God’s rich, abundant, and loving character. One’s success and another’s failure are not contingent.  In fact true success for one means blessings for another.

We are blessed to be a blessing.  How is it that so many of us professed Christians are so out of step with God’s Spirit?

There are at least two possibilities. Either we knew God and turned away, or we never knew God at all!  

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’  

Matthew 7:21–23

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam