I am not trying to be overly dramatic. Throughout these three articles on the Holy Spirit (check out Part I and Part II), I have voiced my conviction that we are at a critical point. I would even describe it as a life and death point…in our church and in our nation. However, the overarching conviction is that the Holy Spirit can be, must be our daily guide. 

If we will allow, the Holy Spirit will teach us. How? Primarily through God’s word. If we will stay with it, the Holy Spirit will teach us what God is saying.

If we immerse ourselves in Scripture, and discipline ourselves in prayer – if we tune our souls through worship, we can live in the Spirit. The Spirit will be our daily counselor, teaching and keeping us sensitive to the Mind of Christ.

The final work of the Holy Spirit we will consider is that of convincer and convictor. In his last conversation with his disciples, Jesus made it clear:

And when he comes, he will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. (John 16:8-11)

The New English Bible and Barclay use enlightening words in this translation: convict of sin, and convince of righteousness and judgment. The Holy Spirit does that work within us – convicting us of our sin and convincing us of righteousness and judgment.

Jesus is talking about the work he will do on the cross. Here the sin of man is exposed before the sheer righteousness of God in the gift of His Son for our salvation. And here, in the Cross, sin is condemned, judged and defeated. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and convinces us that only Christ can save us.

I have shared about some of the sinful forces tearing us apart as families, as friends, as communities, as a nation. Yes, we should desire good government, but we are not excused to be bad neighbors because of bad policy.  The Holy Spirit convicts us of the sins of racism, xenophobia, greed, etc. while also convincing us of Jesus’ words to love our neighbor. Will we be obedient?

 A closing story will challenge us. 

A small  girl and her mother were out together one day and saw a poor needy man on the street. “Oh, Moma,” she said, “let’s help him.” The mother answered, “Come on, dear. It isn’t any of our business.”

That night, when the little girl had said her, “Now I Lay me down to sleep,” she added, “O God, bless that old man on the street corner.” And then, remembering her mother’s words that day, she added, “But really, it isn’t our business, is it, Lord?”

Unfortunately, too many of us are living that tragic lie, whatever the social ill plaguing our communities. Still the Holy Spirit calls to us each in a personal way. It is our business because it is Jesus’ business. So I close by rehearsing our major thoughts.

The Holy Spirit is the one who takes the place of Jesus as Companion, Comforter, Counselor, Convictor and Convincer. One word must be added – the word of Jesus himself speaks, “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:14 RSV)

Everything the Spirit does in our lives is to bring us to Christ and glorify him. Christ is central always and evermore.

Will you allow that truth to dominate the responses you make to the divisions arising in your nation, your community…your church?

In my previous article I began a conversation about the Holy Spirit as someone to take the  place of Jesus. Knowing the cross was coming, in one of his last conversations with his disciples, Jesus made the promise, “And I will  pray to the Father, and He will give you another comforter, that He may abide with you  forever.” (John 14:16 KJV)

Acknowledging the limitation of our thinking of comfort in relation to sorrow and sadness, I suggested Phillips’ translation as more appropriate: “I shall ask the Father to give you someone else to stand by you, to be with you  always.” The Greek word is parakletos, and it means, “someone who is called to help, to be with us always.”

It’s difficult to find words to describe our feelings of need for such a companion. Studies show we are lonelier than ever before.  We are confounded, puzzled, taken aback, baffled. The word that fits my feelings these days is “swamped.” As I share with people, that seems to be where we are. We feel swamped, and we are not sure what is swamping us.

How desperately we need to claim the truth: we need never be alone. God has given us the  Holy Spirit to be our companion.

In our trouble and distress, our doubt and bewilderment, our being swamped, we have someone to call for help. And that brings us to a second word used to describe the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said a counselor would come. “But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. They hated me without a cause. But when the counselor is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.” (John 15:25-26)

In present day legal terms, when we go to court, we retain a lawyer, a counselor, who speaks on our behalf. The Holy Spirit who comes to take the place of Jesus, is not to speak on our behalf, but on behalf of Jesus.

It is clear. Jesus is, and must always be our focus. Nothing is more relevant in terms of where we are in our world today. In John 14, Jesus’ word, preceding his promise of the Spirit, was this, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” To our gospel writer, John, there is only one test of love, and that test is obedience. It was by his obedience that Jesus showed his love of God; and it is by our obedience that we must show our love to Jesus.

The violence in our streets, unrest abroad, resistance to immigration, and blatant expressions of hatred has put the issue of love in dramatic full focus. Racial division, call it human division if you like … but don’t do so to evade the truth: no division is as pronounced in our culture, no division is as painfully impacting all of us, as our racism and racial division.  

I plead with you. Let’s not allow the misuse of protest movements, and the violence that too often accompany them, to divert us from the racial division that is breaking God’s heart. Don’t be diverted from the love that is being called for, and the desperately needed healing of racial division, by taking issue with the language and demonstrations of different movements lamenting their pain. 

Friends, the evidence is clear. People in our country and abroad unjustly suffer and are denied privileges. Some for the color of their skin, some for their birthplace, some for the debts of the generations before them, some for their beliefs. These remain critical issues for the hearts of those in the church around the world.

Issues are not always clear cut and are too often politically motivated and used. Innocent persons are hurt, demonstrations become violent, people who are demanding aren’t held accountable and too often don’t take responsibility. It’s a mess and we want to throw up our hands and remove ourselves as far from it as possible. But that’s a costly decision, and it is certainly not a Christian one.  We are swamped but still called to love.

My experience is that most of us feel frightened and helpless. Jesus speaks to us here:

I will not leave you to struggle with this alone; I will not abandon you to your own strengths and skills to love in the way you are called to love. I will give you a helper, the parakletos, the one who will stand by you.

Be humble and honest. Allow the Holy Spirit to stand with you, comforting you, whispering into your soul the counsel of Jesus.

There is a familiar story line I sometimes see in movies or books that goes something like this. Someone is facing a crisis and wants to overcome the current situation. The hero of the story goes to a wise master for guidance. The master gives the new student a series of tasks to do to train for the work ahead. However, the tasks seem to make no sense at all, they seem to be unrelated to the ultimate goal the student wishes to accomplish. Yet, through the patient teaching of the master, the student learns that the tasks were, in fact, preparing the student all along. 

Maybe you feel that way about your encounters with God at times. There are occasions when God calls us to do things that just don’t seem to make sense. The account of Philip and the official from Ethiopia is but one example of such a call. I encourage you to take a minute to read about their encounter in Acts 8:26-40, but I’ll give you a quick recap. Philip is called to leave Samaria and Jerusalem to go down an out-of-the-way Wilderness Road. There he encounters an Ethiopian official, a eunuch. Philip shares the Good News of Jesus and the Ethiopian is baptized in his new faith in Christ. It sounds simple, yet it is a remarkable story. The truth of which has all sorts of meaning for anyone who wants to be used by God to share faith in Jesus.

To get a better appreciation of the radical call on Philip’s ministry that led to the encounter with the man from Ethiopia we need to go to the earlier part of the chapter. Acts 8 opens with the record of the young church being persecuted by Saul, before his conversion and renaming to Paul. The apostles’ response is enthusiastic and fervent preaching of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Philip is one of Jesus’ twelve disciples. John’s Gospel tells us that he was close to Jesus. We know he was from Bethsaida, the same town as Andrew and Peter. He is among those preaching in chapter 8.

Philip is called to preach in Samaria. It would be hard to overstate the deep divide between Jews and Samaritans at this time. The ethnic divide is so deep, in fact, that Jews are told to not even take any dirt from the Samaritan towns on the soles of their shoes. No, they are told to shake that dust off and leave it at the edge of town rather than take it with them. 

Yet, the response to the Message of Jesus is strong. Signs, wonders, and healings are taking place. So much so that verse 8 tells us that the whole city was filled with joy. Miracles are happening. Lives are being changed. Numbers are growing. By all earthly measures, Philip’s ministry is exactly where it should be. Which leads us to an important lesson: Don’t fall into the trap of measuring your life with God in earthly metrics. It is tempting to measure our lives with God by things like our financial “net worth” (I loathe that term), our parents’ status in the community, our children’s success, membership in the right groups, or some other such thing. However, what God asks from us is faithfulness. He will produce every other success we need.

In the middle of all these wonderful things going on, God calls Philip back to Jerusalem. Maybe even that is seen as a bonus—you know, sort of like getting a promotion to the big city to take a big assignment. However, verse 26 tells us that God has something else in mind. An angel appears to him and tells Philip to leave his successful ministry. He is to go south (where very few people live). He’s to take the wilderness road to Gaza (which few people use). In addition, he’s to go in the middle of the day, according to the Greek (when few people travel). Everything points to a “reduced assignment”, we might say. Philip’s response is to go when and where he’s told.

There he encounters the Ethiopian official, headed back home after worshiping at the Temple. The fact that he’s riding in a chariot tells us that he’s particularly wealthy and powerful. Verse 29 shows us that Philip is listening to the Holy Spirit, and he’s told to go run alongside the chariot to talk with him. Which leads us to a second lesson: When God calls you to do something, it may not fit your sensibilities. See if you can capture the absurdity of the moment: Here’s Philip, a poor itinerant preacher. A fisherman by trade, now out in the deserted wilderness. He runs alongside the chariot to strike up a conversation as he overhears the official reading from Isaiah. Picture that for a second. 

We know that the official has questions. Lots of them. God leads Philip to answer them to the point where this one person is converted and baptized in a pool of water that they encounter along the way. Immediately after this, Philip is taken away, some 20 miles north. (We don’t know exactly how, but wouldn’t you love to see that instant replay?!) Third lesson: When God calls you, He’s already wherever you’re going. Look at what’s happened here: Philip is called to leave a ministry where the enemies of Israel are being converted in droves. Miracles are happening. Instead, he’s called to go in the middle of nowhere to talk to one person. Why did he ask Philip to talk to this one, nameless-to-us, person? Well, we will only find that answer on the other side of this life. However, there are a few things we can say. Christianity is not first a western thing, nor European thing. We know that it spreads to northern Africa. During the first five centuries of the church, this region of the world produced some of the greatest Christian thinkers of all time who still influence us today. They include Tertullian, Athanasius, St. Augustine, Aurelius, Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian, and Origen. These are directly influential (though centuries later) on Western thinkers like John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Wesley, and others.

According to the accounts of Acts, the Ethiopian official is the first convert outside of Jewish lineage. While we can’t be sure, it is reasonable to think that this person would have had some piece in spreading the Message of Jesus to the parts where it grew so strongly, and has influenced us so.

This is a reminder that even when things don’t make sense, pay attention to what God is doing. Philip’s call from God was clearly within his gifts. Yet, he was called to a time, a place, and a person that was clearly beyond what “normal” expectations might be. The result was far beyond what any of us could have imagined. That result began with one person faithfully following the Master’s instruction, even when they didn’t seem to make sense. Even when things aren’t the way we think they could and should be, remember that God wastes no person, no place, no thing. May we be faithful and obedient upon whatever wilderness road falls beneath our feet.

I’ve written two previous articles on this general theme, saying yes to forgiveness. If you have not seen those articles, you can see them here and here.

I make this claim now: saying yes to forgiveness is our clearest witness to the fact that we are Christian.

Here is a powerful witness. It was 1921 in the South of Poland, following the devastation of another war. A Quaker woman had driven herself in selfless service as a nurse to that war-torn land. She spent herself in tireless love, and she died — having literally given her life away.

A question arose: Where would she be buried? It was Roman Catholic territory and church law forbade any but baptized Roman Catholics be buried in the consecrated ground of a Catholic cemetery – and that was the only cemetery around. Yet the Quaker nurse was deeply loved by all. It was a far more serious question than we modern Protestants can grasp. Where would she be buried?

Finally it was settled. The decision was made that she was to be buried just outside the cemetery fence. So it was done.

During the night, however, after the funeral, Polish peasants, faithful Roman Catholics, moved the fence so that it would include the grave of their beloved nurse inside the sacred ground.

That’s what Christ does, and that’s the task of Christians – to move fences, to tear down walls. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Cor. 5:18-19)  

One of my heroes is Clarence Jordan. He comes to mind because he paraphrased this text about God being in Christ, “Putting his arms around the world and hugging it to himself.” Clarence was not a casual quoter of Scripture. He was a New Testament Greek Scholar.

His witness is more highly charged for me because he took his paraphrase personally. He founded Koinonia Farm, in southwest Georgia, as a primary witness for reconciliation in the context of rigid racial segregation and conflict. 

From an early age, Jordan was troubled by the racial and economic injustice he perceived in his community. Hoping to improve the lot of sharecroppers through scientific farming techniques, he earned a degree in agriculture from the University of Georgia. During his college years he became convinced that the roots of poverty were spiritual as well as economic, and became a Christian minister.

It thrills me to ponder how God used this person, his gifts and his training. He titled his paraphrase of Scripture the Cotton Patch Paraphrase of the New Testament. He was also instrumental in the founding of Habitat for Humanity. I quote him often. “God was in Christ. Putting his arms around the world and hugging it to himself.”

Saying yes to forgiveness is our clearest witness to the fact that we are Christian.

This post is part III in Maxie’s series on Saying Yes to Forgiveness.  Join us next week as we learn more about how we Forgive Others as We Forgive Ourselves

Occasionally, a friend or family member will send me a piece they’ve found in the media about the “decline” of the Church. These articles, videos, podcasts, books, etc. talk about the increase in the notion of the irrelevance of the church in the lives of many in the United States and/or Europe. Usually, this is accompanied by some degree of anxiety from the one who shared it. We should, no doubt, pay attention to the trends in which people seem to be turning their backs on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Numbers shown in such statistics are not merely benign figures. They represent real people whose lives matter to God.

The changing demographics in many parts of the world will cause, and are causing, some significant challenges for churches. This comes not only in the financial realm (fewer participants means less money in the offerings, presumably), but also in terms of ministries offered, lives impacted, and resources available. Things are changing and will continue to change. This changing landscape provides us with the opportunity, and responsibility, to rethink and restructure our approaches to evangelism. 

We need to admit that we are not the first generation to face challenges in our efforts to bear witness in the public arena to the great things that Jesus has done and to do so in a way that is faithful to the gospel. This is not the first time that the church has lost the privileged voice. Today’s Christians are living on the margins, just as many have done in the past. Yet, the Church continues in her mission throughout time and through the world. This gives us hope that we are not responsible for inventing something new to solve the problem. Rather, we look to the witness of the Scriptures and the saints who have gone before. We do, after all, stand on the shoulders of giants of the faith today. Standing on such a witness, let’s looks at some at some opportunities and responsibilities that the shifts in our culture might bring for evangelism:

• We cannot assume that the “public good” will assist us in making disciples of Jesus Christ. In the past, we could rely on the general culture to be conversant in the principles of the Christians message and, by and large, embrace them. At least this was the way the prevailing winds were blowing.
• With this in mind, it’s important to point out that the answer is not a full-frontal attack in the culture wars. That has been tried and found wanting. Rather, it’s going to need to begin with humility and repentance. It’s okay to admit past mistakes. It’s okay to admit that you may have questions too. These make the message even more welcoming.
• That doesn’t mean compromising the Message or seeking to do some sort of acrobatics to make it more “relevant.” The gospel is always relevant. Open the message of Jesus to others in a way that shows love and compassion. God will fill in the gaps. 
• The world is increasingly complex and changing at an even faster pace each day, it seems. 

This means that, as those living on the margins, we need to learn from those who are shaping the culture. Learn how to speak the language. Learn what questions the culture is asking. The gospel has the answers to those questions. But you will never know how to answer them if you don’t know what the questions are in the first place.

• At the same time, don’t get sucked into selling a bill of goods to the culture who only wants to measure usefulness in terms of individual gain, national prosperity, or economic advantage. The gospel does not fit into those frameworks. Rather, Jesus challenged all of those “advantages” and declared them all to be worth nothing compared to what He was offering.
• It means that we need to take time to get to know our neighbors. I mean, really get to know them. They are not just another “soul to be saved.” Rather, they are people who have hopes, dreams, wants, and longings. The gospel is the only thing that will fulfill those in a meaningful way. Others will be open to hearing the gospel when they know that you actually care about them for who they are, not just an accomplishment in your evangelistic mission.
• We must increase our practical ministries. We can learn well from the early Celtic Christian movement who embraced serving their pagan neighbors while sharing the Good News with them. They were hometown missionaries before we even had the term.
• We must be open to the Holy Spirit leading. We need to admit that there is no single method of evangelism that works everywhere for everyone. Don’t be too quick to criticize others for how God has called them to serve. 
• Evangelism must expect the ongoing discipleship of those who accept Jesus’ offer of Life and Life abundantly. Be prepared to take the long journey with others who express a desire to grow in their faith.

And above all else: what’s more important than HOW we evangelize is the character of the Christians who share their faith. Holiness matters. People not only need to hear that God is alive, but they need to see His followers live in such a way that they demonstrate the love of our Living God. This is a good place to recall John Wesley’s words about the Methodist movement in the West, its expanse in his lifetime:

“I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.” (Thoughts on Methodism)

 We need not fear for the future of the Church. The Kingdom will Come and God’s Will shall be done. If we fail to fulfill our role, God will raise up another. However, remembering that Palm Sunday admonition, I don’t want a rock to take my place in crying out – or in showing and sharing the love of Jesus as He commanded us to do. If we must do that from the margins, so be it.

Over and over, in his journal, Wesley confirmed personal testimony of salvation working in the lives of believers. One of his classic illustrations was the story of the barber who shaved him.  The fellow’s experience was so vital and life-changing that he could not resist sharing with the man who introduced the change.

The barber who shaved me said, “Sir, I praise God on your behalf. When you were at Bolton last, I was one of the most eminent drunkards in all the town; but I came to listen at the window, and God struck me to the heart. I then earnestly prayed for the power against drinking; and God gave me more than I asked: He took away the very desire of it. Yet I felt myself worse and worse, till, on the 5th of April last, I could hold out no longer. I knew I must drop into hell that moment unless God appeared to save me. And He did appear. I knew He loved me and felt sweet peace. Yet I did not dare to say I had faith, till yesterday was twelve-month, God gave me faith; and His love has ever since filled my heart.”

Wesley would say the barber’s witness was his experience of the beginning of salvation. There was more, much more.

I believe [the new birth] to be an inward thing; a change from inward wickedness to inward goodness; an entire change of our inmost nature from the image of the devil (wherein we are born) to the image of God; a change from the love of the creature to the love of the Creator; from earthly and sensual to heavenly and holy affections, in a word, a change from the tempers of the spirit of darkness to those of the angels of God in heaven!

Change is a key word in that dramatic claim: a change from the tempers of the spirit of darkness to those of the angels of God in heaven! Justification is the starting point of sanctification. Change, “going on to salvation,” is the overarching dynamic.

Whereas in his early struggles to be Christian, Wesley practiced discipline in order to become a Christian, going on to salvation he experienced joy in being Christian by practicing disciplines that once had been drudgery.

In our going on to full salvation, struggle is normal and discipline is essential, I will discuss this more in my next article.