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Tag: holy spirit

Seeing the Invisible Spirit
How does the LORD use the Bible? How do we use the Bible to show others the Lord Jesus?

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

– 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV

Peter’s powerful sermon of Pentecost is perhaps among the best preaching in the Bible after Jesus is raised from the grave. Yet if you or I had been in Peter’s sandals and new position of leadership, what would we have to say?

Let’s take a look at the context and application of events confronting this ‘preacher’ and ask of our situation, ‘What do I do with this?’

Acts 2:

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. ²And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. ⁴And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

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Let’s be clear of the place and condition of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the LORD GOD, promised by Christ Jesus, Son of the Living God:  “they were all together in one place.” Peter and the Apostles were worshiping.

Peter and the Apostles were worshiping in Jerusalem where Christ Jesus had been crucified on the Cross outside the gates for our sins; in Jerusalem where Christ Jesus our Lord had risen from the grave to appear to Peter, the Twelve and many (and in many places for fifty days) Pentecost is a celebration of worship, like the Passover, which brought many of the faithful to the city of Jerusalem to worship the LORD.

⁵Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. ⁶And at this sound the multitude came together…

The sound of Almighty God draws worshipers to the place where worshipers dwell. Inexplicable, all-powerful Spirit of the Living God, here-present; NOT in the Temple of God (re-built by Herod), nor before only a High Priest behind a veil which separates the Holiness of the LORD from the sinners of God’s choosing. NO! The Holy Spirit of the Living God fell on the Apostles of Jesus and the Twelve began to preach with the Power of the Living GOD.

“Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?

Some things only God can do. Perhaps a High Priest might witness the Holy Presence of the LORD.

Centuries before the great silence of God in defeated Israel and defeated Judah, on occasion the Voice of God would be heard out of the mouth of the LORD’s Prophet. It is one of these great Prophets this uneducated Galilean fisherman taught from and rebuked the unbelieving people who had witnessed the Crucifixion less than two months ago. It is a fisherman speaking in languages of gentiles and of Jews who all amazingly understand the Apostles. It is the Spirit of the LORD instructing Jews and gentiles through faithful worshipers, rather than by educated Pharisees like a Saul of Tarsus, who would later witness the risen Christ.

What was it the Apostle Peter reiterates in Jerusalem of Judea from the Prophet Joel of 800 years before Christ?

[Joel (meaning “one to whom Jehovah is God,” that is, worshiper of Jehovah) seems to have belonged to Judah. – Commentary by A. R. Faussett ]

What had worshipers in Jerusalem forgotten in the short weeks since a dramatic blood moon at the Crucifixion of Jesus and the tearing of the veil of the Temple?

What have some of us forgotten since the worshipful festival of Easter just a few Sundays ago?

Joel 1:

1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel: 2 Hear this, O elders, And listen, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days Or in your fathers’ days?…

⁸Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.

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Was Israel not the Chosen Bride of the Living God?

Was the Bridegroom not crucified by those rejecting God’s promised grace of Perfect forgiveness?

The Spirit of the LORD poured forth from Peter and the Apostles. Worshipers of GOD were drawn to the Invisible Word spoken through these servants of Christ Jesus.

Acts 2:

¹⁷“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
    and your young men shall see visions,
    and your old men shall dream dreams;
¹⁸even on my male servants and female servants
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
¹⁹And I will show wonders in the heavens above
    and signs on the earth below,
    blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
²⁰the sun shall be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood,
    before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
²¹And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

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Peter is not reading from a scroll in the Temple. This uneducated fisherman is reminding Jerusalem of not only infrequently heard words of the Prophet Joel, but of the dramatic events of just two months earlier when the sun turned to darkness and the Bridegroom of Righteousness cried out from a cross, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

Peter now preaches by the Spirit of what Joel had foretold of these very last days, begun on a Cross just weeks before.

²²“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— ²³this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. ²⁴God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

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The bold fisherman of Galilee again quotes scripture from the hymnal of the Jews, the words of Psalm 16 :

²⁵For David says concerning him,

“‘I saw the Lord always before me,
    for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
²⁶therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
    my flesh also will dwell in hope.
²⁷For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
    or let your Holy One see corruption.
²⁸You have made known to me the paths of life;
    you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

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The Spirit then gives Peter not only more scripture to speak to the souls before him, but application to their salvation. Speaking of King David, a man after God’s own heart, Peters says:

³¹he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

Speaking of what some in the crowd surely had witnessed in Jerusalem at the previous feast of Pentecost, Peter proclaims:

³²This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.

³³Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,

he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

God’s chosen worshipers are once again witnessing the invisible and inexplicable signs and wonders in the Apostles, signs and wonders not unlike those many had also witnessed personally in Christ Jesus of Nazareth.

The Spirit and Peter confront their souls with the evidence of the Messiah, sacrificed and risen. Jesus is not a King like David; Jesus is more than a King of the Jews and of Jerusalem.

³⁴For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
³⁵    until I make your enemies your footstool.”’

³⁶Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Peter, by the power of the Spirit and the convicting words of scripture has applied the Word of God to the very moment of salvation for those with ears to hear.

The Bridegroom of the church speaks by the Spirit to those with ears to hear:
- Will you hear the conviction of the Savior you crucified in the words of Peter?
- Will you turn from your sinful ways to take up your cross and follow Christ Jesus?
- Has Jesus’s love drawn your soul to the wedding feast which will come on the clouds of these last days?
- Will this Spirit-filled sermon make any difference in your days?
- Will the Lord Jesus be your Lord?
God IS in Person, Christ Jesus!

The Spirit of the I AM, the LORD, calls out to you.
- What must you do?
Acts 2:37-47
May 31, 2015
Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross

Roger is born again in the Holy Spirit!

I owned a business just across the parking lot and cemetery next to the church where we worshiped each Sunday. It is the church where our daughter was baptized and where I read scripture and ministered communion to shut-ins.

I made the short pilgrimage down the sidewalk to the Good Friday Stations of the Cross service at noon. We are well familiar with the scriptures read each Holy Week in most every church. I chose to worship during my regular lunchtime.

I’m not certain if today’s text is the same or just similar. (I have linked it to its source above & only offer it here in part.) May I recommend your prayerful consideration of the entire text.

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As part of their acts of devotion, early Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem retraced the route of Jesus as he carried his cross to his death. Early pilgrimages varied considerably with different starting places and different routes. As the practice developed in the medieval period, the starting point for this journey through the streets of Jerusalem began in the ruins of the Fortress of Antonia that originally housed Pilate’s Judgment Hall, now incorporated into the Ecce Homo Convent. It concluded at the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulcher that marks the traditional site of Golgotha and the tomb of Jesus. By the sixteenth century, the route this pilgrimage took through Jerusalem came to be called the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Sorrow. Along the Way, certain points on the journey (stations) were associated with specific events recounted (or implied) in the Gospel accounts.

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1. Christ condemned to death;
2. the cross is laid upon him;
3. His first fall;
4. He meets His Blessed Mother;
5. Simon of Cyrene is made to bear the cross;
6. Christ’s face is wiped by Veronica;
7. His second fall;
8. He meets the women of Jerusalem;
9. His third fall;
10. He is stripped of His garments;
11. His crucifixion;
12. His death on the cross;
13. His body is taken down from the cross; and
14. He is laid in the tomb.

IF you have never truly considered the pathos and suffering which led up to Christ Jesus’ final crucifixion for our sins, Good Friday is a most appropriate time to consider your sin and repent in all thankfulness and grace.

Station 1: Pilate Condemns Jesus to Die

(Matt 27:11-14, 24, 26b)

Speaker: Jesus, I wish you would speak! I wish you would proclaim who you are. I wish you would confront the disbelief of the crowds and the arrogant cowardice of the powers that be. Surely someone will speak up for you! Where are the lepers who were healed? Where are the blind who can now see? Where are all the people who ate the bread and fish on the hillside? Where are those who followed you so easily when they thought you would become King of the Jews? Yet no one speaks. No voice in the crowd comes to your defense. You stand alone…

I have been alone. I have been falsely accused, and no one has spoken for me. I have been treated unfairly by those who could have used their power for better purposes. I can understand some of your feelings as you stand silently before Pilate and watch him proclaim his own innocence as he condemns an innocent man…

Station 2: Jesus Accepts His Cross

(Matthew 27:27-31)

Carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. (John 19:17)

Speaker: Jesus, I cringe at the pain of the thorns. But I am wounded far more deeply at the humiliation and degradation you suffer, that the very thing you came to offer us as a gift becomes a source of ridicule. The crowds thought of a King in terms of power. But you came to be the kind of King who shepherds his people, who takes responsibility for their well being, whose principles are faithfulness, justice, and righteousness. And yet, the people are not ready for that kind of King.

I would like to think that I am ready to follow you who offer a Kingdom of peace and love for one another. But am I? Am I willing to yield my ideas of what the Kingdom should look like for the role of a servant? Am I really so willing to give up my human preoccupation with power and control and accept a different kind of crown than I was expecting? …

Station 3:  Simon Helps Carry the Cross

They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. (Mark 15:21)

Jesus, I can only imagine the awful weight of that cross you carry. It is not just the weight of beams of wood that presses down on you. It is also the weight of the burden you carry for those whom you have loved. You came to offer them life, and yet they return only death.

So I see you fall from the crushing weight of pain and grief. I don’t know how many times you have fallen. But I know that your physical strength is failing. The soldiers must recognize this as well, because they force a man from the crowd to help you carry the cross the rest of the way to the place where you will be crucified. Perhaps they are afraid that you will die before you make it to the top of the hill. The man of Cyrene was just a bystander passing through on his way into town from the countryside. And yet he bears the weight of the cross to save your strength.

I would like to think that if I had been there I would have rushed from the crowd and volunteered to carry that cross for you. But would I have had the courage to face the Roman soldiers and risk being forced to join you on a cross? Would I have really been so eager to share your cross if it meant that I might have to die on one as well? Would I have been willing to risk everything to ease your suffering for a few moments by letting you know that you were not alone?

Besides, I have my own crosses already. I have as much as I can bear without taking on the added burdens of others. And what would people think of me if I were seen consorting with criminals and enemies of Rome in such a public spectacle? So instead of offering to help, I tried to become invisible in the crowd…

Station 4:  Jesus Speaks to the Women

(Luke 23:27-31)

Jesus, as you struggle along the road toward that awful place of death, you see a group of women among the crowd following you, already grieving at your impending death. You have heard this wailing many times before at funerals and tragic events. But now, they mourn for you.

You have always shown equal compassion to women you have encountered across the years. You have always seemed to understand the unique burdens that women bear in a world and a culture that pushes them to the margins of society. So here, as you bear the most unimaginable pain of body and heart, you stop to speak to them. You are about to die, and yet you are more concerned with others than with your own suffering and death.

But your words are strange and seem out of place on this road of sorrow. They have a prophetic ring to them as if you were still trying to tell people something important that they cannot quite grasp, or that perhaps they do not really want to hear. You speak of even darker days, of far worse things to come upon the people. Yet, how can things get worse? …

Station 5:  Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments

(John 19:23-25a)

Jesus, I want to follow you on this journey. But I cannot watch this. I must turn away as you are humiliated.

You came into this world amid celebration and anticipation…

They wanted to make you king! Just a few days ago the crowds followed you in the streets of Jerusalem singing praises to God: “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! ”

Yet now, you are forced to suffer the worst of human indignity. You stand alone as the soldiers strip from you the last thing that you possess, and play games to see who will claim it…

Are you still trying to teach us something about what it means to serve others? Is your surrender to such degradation a model for how we are to live in the world as your followers?

I don’t like such an idea. I would rather walk with you into Jerusalem with the praise of the people ringing in my ears than to risk such humiliation. I want to follow you! But is this really what it means to be a follower, that I must lay aside everything and risk this kind of degradation?

And yet, that is exactly what you are doing…

Station 6:  Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross

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Our small group of worshipers had now stood at each of the stations along the right side of our small church. We had prayed and considered each as the group slowly processed to Station 6 near the front of the sanctuary. At the words of the following scripture the Holy Spirit pressed me to my knees. I could no longer stand.

Now I am not a weak man or prone to fainting; yet in this moment of weakness beneath the Cross of Christ, I would have fallen to the floor had I not grabbed hold of the pew beside me and then sunk into the humility of worship.

I could not walk further after this station, either, until near the end of the worship. I testify as God is my witness of a powerful moving of the Holy Spirit through our church in weeks to come which slayed many in the Spirit and also attracted false worshipers before the Spirit moved on to other believers in places known only to the Lord.

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And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it. And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take. It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.”

And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also taunted him. (Mark 15:23-32)

Jesus, I do not want to see this. Yet I force myself to watch.

I hear the sharp crack of hammer against nail and shudder.

It sounds so final. Is it over? Did all those wonderful lessons you taught by the seaside mean anything? You spoke of being a light to the world, but it seems that darkness is winning…

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From my knees in a pew behind those standing I wept for Jesus and for my sins.

Lord forgive us.

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Station 7:  Jesus Cares for His Mother

(John 19:25b-27)

Station 8:  Jesus Dies on the Cross

(Mark 15:33-39)

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Link to original complete post: http://www.crivoice.org/stations.html#top

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Jesus once asked a man,

“Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” – Mark 10:18 & Luke 18:19

I had never understood this. I thought I had always been a pretty good Christian.

Beloved friend, that is NOT good enough. You and I can never be anything but sinners!

Only then, humbled by the cross, did I lose my burden of sin by the love and grace of the sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ our Lord on the Cross of our Redemption. Only in that moment was I born not only in the water of baptism, but also born again in the Spirit of the Holy and Living God!

Praise to our Lord Jesus Christ!

O beloved, will you not consider how great the Sacrifice for your daily sin?

Dear friend, will you humble your soul He does love (as do I) in the great hope of the resurrection we have only in Christ Jesus?

For Jesus Christ was also nailed to the Cross for you.

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April 3, 2015
Prayer: Begin with God

To begin, let us get over how selfish we are, even by our prayers for loved ones.

He IS God! and I am not.

What is prayer, anyway? (Think about it. What is a prayer? Why would you even bother to pray?)

Prayer is many things. Most of our mind and flesh would relegate prayer to a single context (a selfish context, I might add) called petition. We have a prayer request or petition to bring before God.

However at its most basic level, prayer is a communication between a mere mortal and the Immortal Almighty God.

Do you believe in God? Do you believe that God IS, has been before time as we know it and will be forever beyond our timeline to the infinite?

God is NOT finite. God is NOT in everything.

God cannot be defined or placed into a box of definition or a time observable in the laboratory of life.

“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” – John 4:24

“I who speak to you am he.” – John 4:26b

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. – John 15:26

And we do not require any mediator between sinful man and a Holy God other than Christ Jesus! He IS the Very Living Person of the Trinity of Almighty God, sent as Perfect Adam and Perfect Sacrifice for our sins.

WHO are you and I praying to? IS God a man (or woman) like us? Certainly not! Is any mediator or example required of any man (or woman) other than Christ Jesus?

NO!

No holy mother, no living lama, no prophet, no priest, no ancestor, no spirit, no angel, no law. Yet as servants of our Master, Christ Jesus, we must obey the scripture, as our Lord has spoken and commanded.

No intercessor other than Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit is required! Christ our Lord who warned: “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.” – Matthew 24:11 KJV

Worship only God; because the ransom paid for our sin on the Cross by our Savior and Redeemer, Christ Jesus, Who IS and was and will return on the clouds as King to rule in His righteous love: over all mankind, all angels and all creation – the Perfect price of your soul you cannot afford; no ransom for the dead will bring resurrection to the darkness of a soul buried in sin.

So I ask you again of your prayer: Do you believe in God?

Do you believe that Jesus Christ IS the resurrected and living Son of God, Who lived and died for our sins as a son of man (technically, Mary)? And do you believe all Jesus said, including His promise of the Holy Spirit to intervene with God our Father (a more loving Image than that of God the Judge of all righteousness)?

Do you think of God as a Person?

Then as Jesus instructed, let us first bow down humbly to Him as our Lord. Let us worship the Lord first, before all of our selfish petitions and requests.

And he said unto them, When ye pray, say,

Our Father which art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done,

as in heaven, so in earth.

Luke 11:2 KJV

Should our pattern for prayer not resemble the outline of scripture?

Even the Commandments begin with four concerning God, followed by six for the actions of man. And did Christ our Lord not give a ‘greatest commandment,’ even prior to our oft’ repeated golden rule, as prerequisite prelude of worship of the Lord our God?

Matthew 22: 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.

Therefore let us worship the Lord our God, before we presumptuously approach the Throne of Glory with our lowly petitions and requests for our daily wants and needs, which our All-knowing and loving God does know.

Let us tell the Lord His worth: even before we ask, even as we ask, even as He does not answer, God – our loving God who sacrificed His only Son Christ Jesus on the Cross for our sin – our loving Father for this prodigal of the flesh: He hears our prayers.

He would have us ask, once we bow down to His Will and His ways, which are Higher and more knowing than our own sinful ways.

Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Pray, and the Lord will listen; for His heart is kind and gentle for those who love Him.

Christ Jesus IS Lord.

Ask Him and ask me; for I will also pray for you, as you pray to God for your own needs.

Pray also for me. (And next time we will talk about our petitions of prayer.)

To be continued…

January 30, 2015