The promise fulfilled (Ezekiel 11:19)

Today’s Readings: Ezekiel 11-13

I will give them a new will — an undivided heart — and plant a new spirit within them; I will remove their cold, stony heart and replace it with a warm heart of flesh. Then they will follow My commands and uphold My laws and actually do as I say. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

Now that’s a promise we can enjoy! I think about what people must have felt in Ezekiel’s day compared to ours. They depended on their annual sacrifices and sin offerings to find forgiveness for their wrongs. Priests acted as intermediaries for them, performing much of the physical rituals of slaughtering the animals, arranging parts on the altar, and offering prayers on behalf of the penitent.

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Individuals put their hope in God’s acceptance of the sacrifice. But as we’ve seen in many passages of scripture, He wanted their obedience and love much more than He wanted their lambs and bulls. We heard it from Samuel as Saul offered sacrifices after his battle with the Amalekites. We read it in the Psalms. We hear it from Jesus. God wants us to follow Him, not just blindly perform rituals.

Hope in Ezekiel’s day probably felt a little thin. Even the faithful always wondered if their obedience was good enough. Especially knowing how difficult it is to keep God’s laws. When we look at the heart of God’s word and the temptations into which Satan tries to draw us, we find ourselves weak against his ploys. We falter and fail. . .often, if we depend on our abilities to live right.

And then comes Pentecost! God’s promise fulfilled! His Spirit comes to live in us, not just with us. He comes to transform us. To remove our stony heart and replace it with a heart of flesh. He comes to reside within us and guide us. He enables us to live the life He desires we live. His Spirit gives assurance. We no longer hope, but we know we have His forgiveness. We no longer need the priests as mediator or animal sacrifices to approach God. He invites us to enter His presence when we invite Him to live in us.

We can also push Him to the side and not listen to His voice. When we do, the if clauses of His promises come into play. If we fulfill our side of the covenant, He fulfills His. He will live in us and empower us to fulfill our part when we let Him in, but He still expects us to live our part of the covenant between us. Since Pentecost, we can live the life He expects because of His Spirit in us.

What are you waiting for? Invite Him into your life and give Him control!

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard

 

The Promise Is for You (Acts 2:39)

Today’s Readings: Jeremiah 18-20; Acts 2:14-47

Peter:  Reconsider your lives; change your direction. Participate in the ceremonial washing of baptism[d] in the name of Jesus God’s Anointed, the Liberating King. Then your sins will be forgiven, and the gift of the Holy Spirit will be yours.  For the promise of the Spirit is for you, for your children, for all people—even those considered outsiders and outcasts—the Lord our God invites everyone to come to Him. (The Voice)

How would you like to lead a church that adds 3,000 to its roles the first day? Quite a feat, huh? Peter knew it wasn’t his doing, though. It was the message and the moving of God’s Spirit on those who heard it. Jesus told them the Spirit would give them the words to say and here was the evidence. Peter just made himself available and look what happened. As we will see, this is just the first of many miraculous events in which Peter becomes the instrument of God’s hand.

The scripture yesterday pointed out the initial outpouring of God’s Spirit in a way that could never be forgotten. God hasn’t changed. He still used fully committed people as His instrument to do miraculous things. I think our problem today is we fail to commit ourselves fully to Him. We think we can do things better. We think we have all the answers and don’t need God. We think we can explain things away instead of trusting Him. We think we can work our way out of the mess we’ve made ourselves. We think we must be weak if we have to use God as a “crutch” in our life.

The truth is, if allow any of those lies to keep us from leaning on God and His wisdom, we really are fools. Satan loves nothing more than for us to trust our own wisdom and understanding. He is, after all, the father of lies and will trap us into believing those lies as quickly as he can. But God’s promises are true. His promise to send His Spirit, the Comforter, the Helper, the Advocate happened on that first Pentecost, but He comes again into the life of every person who invites Him – even those considered outsiders and outcasts.

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard

What Does It Mean? (Acts 2:12)

Today’s Readings: Jeremiah 15-17; Acts 1:15-2:13

Sounds, flames, different languages, bold preaching from uneducated men. What does this mean? It’s Pentecost! Pilgrims from all across the Roman Empire gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate this important day, the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai to Moses. Something extraordinary happens in the room where Jesus’ disciples gathered to pray. They obeyed His command to stay until they “received power from above.” They didn’t understand how it would come. They didn’t know what it would be. They didn’t really know what it meant. But when it came, there was no mistaking it.

The sound of a mighty, rushing wind…with no wind blowing. A flame pouring into the room then splitting apart and resting on each person’s head. And each person speaking a language they didn’t know, but languages others would understand as they left the room and share the message of Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection to the crowd in the street. Luke lists at least thirteen different languages in his narrative. Thirteen languages these uneducated fishermen, tax collectors, farmers, shopkeepers, and everyday men and women should not know. Yet as they spoke, those who heard them understood every word.

Does this kind of miracle still happen today? I think it does…if we allow God to use us as He wants. He hasn’t changed since the beginning of time. I think what has changed is our willingness to really commit everything to Him in full obedience to His will. We say the right words. We use the right language and dress up nice, but do we really give ourselves to Him lock, stock, and barrel? Too often, the answer is no. Too often, we say a little prayer, cry a few tears, then pick up where we left off and go about our lives as if nothing happened.

The disciples, 120 of them, spent ten days together in intense prayer and fasting. Luke says they came together “in one accord.” I think that means they got over themselves. They ironed out every disagreement between them. All the trivial junk that seems to plague our relationships, they figured out just that, trivial junk and they put it all behind them. They got down to business with God and decided that whatever He wanted, they were willing to give up everything for Him…everything.

Only then did the Holy Spirit come on the scene in such a miraculous way. Yes He came in a way that could never be forgotten partly as a celebration of this new era, this new dispensation…the birth of the church. The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Advocate would now live in us as Jesus promised. But that empowerment, that extraordinary presence, that ability to do things like we read in Acts, is it still around today? Yep, I think so. But are we willing to pay the price? Are we, like the apostles and those early disciples, willing to give everything to God and say yes to Him in every circumstance? That’s what it means!

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard

Merry Pentecost and Beyond (Romans 8:9-10)

Today’s Readings: Numbers 30-31; Romans 8:1-17

“You, however, are not controlled by the sinful nature but are in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.” Romans 8:9-10 (TNIV)

I love these verses, set in the middle of Paul’s discourse on the state of sinful man. They tell us of who we can be because of what Jesus has done for us. Talk about a reason to celebrate this time of year! Had Christ not come, He would not have lived a sinless life and become the perfect sacrifice. Had He not been a perfect sacrifice, He could not have atoned for our sins on the cross. Had He not atoned for our sins on the cross, He could not intercede for us now at the right hand of the Father. Were He not at the right hand of the Father, He could not with the triune Godhead be present in the form of the Holy Spirit in us when we give ourselves fully to Him.

But when we give ourselves to Him and make Him the Lord of our lives, the Spirit gives us life as He gave Jesus life. We become children of God. We are no longer controlled by the sinful nature but by the Spirit of God. We are freed from the power of sin and death and the grave! What a reason to sing Christmas carols!

Think about Easter and Pentecost as you go about the motions of Christmas. Jesus’ birth happened, but it was for Good Friday and Easter and Pentecost that He came. Interestingly enough, we celebrate Christmas on December 25th, but scholars are pretty sure Jesus was born in the lambing season. Most agree he wasn’t born in December. Most also agree He wasn’t born in the year 0 A.D.. But almost all can tell you the right day for Easter and Pentecost. Jesus was born an insignificant baby in an insignificant town, to an insignificant couple married under suspicious circumstances. But Easter changed the history of the world! If He stayed in the grave, we would hear nothing of this Jesus. The manger story, the healings, the preaching on the hillside. Everything would pass into oblivion. But He rose. He left His Spirit with us. And He makes it possible for us to die to self and live because of His Spirit living in us when we choose to let Him.

These three chapters 6, 7, and 8 are the crux of Paul’s theology. We are lifted from the pit Adam’s sin put us in because of the sacrificial gift Jesus gives.

Join me next time, won’t you?

Richard