The Holy Spirit - the breath of life

There are many people who will only believe in and of that which they are able to see, to touch, to taste, to feel, to smell.  Yet they live in a world where the single most important  element to their existence remains unseen, they know it is there yet they can not see it, they can not taste it, they can not touch it, or smell it (okay they maybe you can  in Los Angles, Beijing,  Mexico City).  It can demolish a landscape, or ravage city in a matter of minutes when pushed by a hurricane or tornado.  Yet when harnessed it can lift airplanes (which is a good thing as I live in Hawaii and the only way anywhere is an airplane),  stop a train or a speeding truck in a matter of feet, break concrete, loosen the lug nuts of the wheels of your car, or lift an acre of granite ten inches thick ten feet in the air as easily as I lift a piece of paper.  It keeps you alive every moment of your life; we can not live without it.  It is an amazing, and powerful thing - this that we can not see, but can not live without – Air.   

Never think that because you can not see something that it does not exist or that it is weak.  The Bible talks a great deal about it, the breath of life, the Holy Spirit.  Much of what I write about is impossible for us to do on our own.  Jesus knows this, God knows this, that is why Jesus had to go away (in life, He could only be in one place at one time), so that the Holy Spirit could come and dwell among and in all of us. Where Jesus came in the visible form, the Holy Spirit comes in the invisible, for no faith is required to believe in that which you see.  But can you imagine the hell that this earth would be if the invisible Spirit of God were suddenly removed.  

I do not have to moralize to those who are immoral, they know they are immoral; I do not have to tell unbelievers that they lack faith, they know they are faithless, I do not have to do this because that is what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit does not merely accuse men of sin he brings them an inescapable sense of guilt.  For some it is that guilt that brings us to God, for most they do everything in their power to hide from that guilt; and hide beneath a layer of alcohol, drugs, career, good works, or church. 

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.  “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”  John 16:7-15

The Holy Spirit is available and desires to be with us all, but not all desire Him, because to desire Him means to turn from your own desires and follow Him. Many want some of Him but not all of Him; they want to reap the benefits of the Holy Spirit without giving up their own desires.  The Holy Spirit will not force Himself into your life, you must seek Him, you must truly ask Him to dwell in you, if you truly do desire Him, truly desire to repent from your sins He will come to you.

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you...”  John 14:15-18

Imagine what it means to have the presence of the living God within you. Pause and ponder this, the third member of the Godhead, the invisible, yet all-powerful representation of deity, is actually living inside your being.  His limitless capabilities are resident within you, since He indwells you.

Just before Jesus’s ascension back into heaven, He met with a group of His followers. To give us good news, Jesus’ last words to us was the crucial news regarding the Spirit who would soon come to take His place. 

“Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”  And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.  But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:6-8

You think you can’t handle what life throws at you? You think you can’t stand firm or, when necessary, stand alone in your life?  You think you can’t handle the lure of life’s temptations?  You are right, you certainly could not if you were all alone.  You—alone—can’t do that anymore than I can fly from Hawaii to South America alone.  But with the right kind of power put into operation, the very power and presence of God, you can handle it.  You can do it.  As a matter of fact, all the pressure will be shifted and the weight transferred from you to Him.  It’s a radically different way to live, and because He is God, He can handle it.

The Holy Spirit will either empower you or convict you.  He leaves the choice up to you, but every single day of your life you move closer to your own personal day of judgement.  The reason I write, the reason I do what I do is to encourage you to cross the bridge to His side of eternity.

Christian Divorce - The Biblical view

“The Christian’s love for the person for whom he has committed himself is called on to remain faithful even when rejected; and to pursue relentlessly, powerfully, sweetly, even when its object flees it – as men did God’s”  Gordon Fee

So you call yourself a Christian.  However you are planning on divorcing your spouse.  Hmmm… Just in case you have somehow missed what the Bible (that would be God’s word) has to say about it, I have listed both the Old Testament and New Testament verses that address divorce and adultery.  Because adultery is what you commit when you remarry, and God is very clear about the fate of adulterers. 

Now some will tell you that you can do whatever you like and you will be forgiven because you are a Christian, and you may like hearing that, but it is not the truth, and there is not one verse in the bible that supports such a claim.  Others, perhaps more reasoned will tell you that divorce is a sin, but you can be forgiven for it if you repent; I tend to fall into that viewpoint, however there is one huge question to that answer - and it is a pretty sticky one, ‘How do you repent from divorcing the one God joined you together with?’

“You shall not commit adultery”  Exodus 20:14     The 7th of the Ten Commandments

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”  Exodus 20:17     The 10th of the Ten Commandments

If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die—the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel.  Deuteronomy 22:22

‘The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death.  Leviticus 20:10

And this is the second thing you do: You cover the altar of the LORD with tears, With weeping and crying; So He does not regard the offering anymore, Nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.  Yet you say, “For what reason?”  Because the LORD has been witness Between you and the wife of your youth, With whom you have dealt treacherously; Yet she is your companion And your wife by covenant.  But did He not make them one, Having a remnant of the Spirit?  And why one?  He seeks godly offspring.  Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.  “ For the LORD God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For it covers one’s garment with violence,” Says the LORD of hosts.  “ Therefore take heed to your spirit, That you do not deal treacherously.”  You have wearied the LORD with your words; Yet you say, In what way have we wearied Him?”  In that you say, “ Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, And He delights in them,” Or, “Where is the God of justice?”  Malachi 2:13-17

Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?  For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives.  But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.  So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.   Romans 7:1-3

Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband.  But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband.  And a husband is not to divorce his wife.  1Corinthians 7:10-11

The Pharisees came and asked Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” testing Him.  And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?”  They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her.”  And Jesus answered and said to them, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.  But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’  ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”  In the house His disciples also asked Him again about the same matter.  So He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.  And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”  Mark 10:2-12

“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.  Luke 16:18

“Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’  But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery”.   Matthew 5:31-32  (part of the Sermon on the Mount, do not miss Jesus' warning at the end of it)

And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, even for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”  Matthew 19:9

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived.  Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.  1 Corinthians 6:9-10

And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:  and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.  “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”  Matthew 7:23-27 (Jesus’ warning at the end of the Sermon on the Mount)

Your legacy is about to be written, it is either about you, or about God, time for you to choose.  If you choose your will over His will, let me know how that repenting from divorcing the one God joined you together with works.  Share with us how repenting from all the destruction, hurt, broken dreams, pain and suffering you caused to your spouse, children, friends, family and society works.  

As I have said before - You are either a fan of Christ or a Christian, however ask any football fan, being a fan is not the same as being on the team. You can not divorce your spouse and call yourself a Christian, the two are mutually exclusive. 

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Is God primarily concerned with my personal happiness?

The dawn of the new year is often times seen as a opportunity to start fresh, to begin anew, and for some reason this year it has reminded me of an old story that I heard years ago growing up on the northern plains of America.  A story of two wolves, told by an old weather-beaten Cherokee to his grandson…

TWO WOLVES

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.  He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

"One is Evil -  It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, selfishness and ego.

"The other is Good - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Yesterday was the beginning of the New Year and like many of you I spent it visiting with friends.  The greeting that everyone extended to everyone else that day was as is always the greeting on New Year’s Day and New Year’s Eve “Happy New Year”.  Which got me thinking, is that how God would greet us?   

Think about that for a moment, before you answer the question.  

Is God primarily concerned with my own personal happiness? 

I know that many, if not most of those in the churches spread across America today would answer yes ‘God - wants me to be happy’.  The problem with that answer is… what happens when you do something that while it may make you happy – hurts or injures another person either physically, mentally, financially, emotionally, or spiritually? 

Your belief that God just wants you to be happy, elevates you and your desires above everyone else, including God.  It is the root of evil in its purest form.   From this one seed, anger, jealousy, greed, lust, resentment, pride, lies, and ego all sprout and grow to consume the individual; happy but not joyful.  

God is concerned with your holiness, a holiness that grows and develops and as it does so, you discover that as a side benefit to pursuing His holiness you find joyfulness.  Which is not be confused with happiness, anymore then worldly regret is the same as Godly sorrow.  In the end, just as the Old Cherokee warned his grandson, you will feed either your pursuit of your personal happiness or holiness.

I wish you a Holy New Year.