I started reading another devotional by Max Lucado today. He is such a good communicator. He draws word pictures that bring aspects of God's grace sharply into focus. Today I read a selection about the disciples asking Jesus who was to blame for a man's blindness. Lucado focused on the aspect of the blind man being within earshot of the disciples as they asked their question. Max was exploring how we as Christians size up and label people and then deal with them or dismiss them according to the label we've given them. I confessed and asked God's forgiveness for that. Also I asked to be led by the Holy Spirit to not label people, but to see them with eyes of compassion. Compassion is a commodity that is in short supply in this world. I would like to be a vessel of that commodity. However, as with Paul, I find myself doing the opposite of what I desire. I desire to be compassionate, but too often find myself dismissing with labels. Lord God help me to see as you see.
My daughter who is on the mission field is doing better this week. She is seeing God move on those they are officially and unofficially ministering to. We prayed for her language skills and got almost immediate feedback that the Holy Spirit is giving her utterance in a known language. One that she has studied extensively and used in this country and another where it is spoken, but the new opportunity is in a country where it has developed quite differently. At any rate, God is blessing and moving her to greater usefulness as she depends on Him.
I am following with some interest the Southern Baptist Convention this week in San Antonio through Wade Burleson's blog. Interesting reading that. It seems that there's a battle going on for the soul of the SBC seminaries. I recall several years ago the battlefield was the same, against a very liberal drift in the seminaries. That battle was won, but now the pendulum has swung to the opposite pole and there is a very restrictive type of conservatism which to my mind has more to do with some private interpretations of doctrine by cessasionist theologians. Of course cessasionists believe that the work and power of the Holy Spirit ceased after the first century AD. The problem in the SBC is that a few are trying to cram this one narrow view down the throats of the entire SBC. One major problem is that the Holy Spirit didn't catch a shuttle off the planet in AD100. The Almighty Third Person of the Trinity has never left nor forsaken us, although many have left and forsaken Him. I am afraid that cessasionists are those who don't want the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, because they can't control Him, they fear and reject Him ( Acts 7:51 "You stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you."). The Holy Spirit can be resisted. In my previous post on "The Holy Spirit Moses Knew." I have shown that the Holy Spirit has been present from the very creation on the planet, went through the wilderness with the Children of Israel. Thus it was He who gave the Law to Moses and later it was He who sent Christ into the wilderness to pass the tests that the first children failed. Christ said it was better that He go away so that the Holy Spirit would come to us. Are we suddenly so much more spiritual than even the apostles, that we don't need the ministry and presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives? How can even one sinner be convinced to repent and turn to Christ without the Holy Spirit. How can the Church thrive without the edification of the Holy Spirit through the Ministries and Gifts that He gives to the Church? Why would anyone who is teaching students at a professional level be afraid of unknown tongues? It can only be that they are afraid themselves to submit to the Lordship of Christ and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Has that which is perfect come? Then why is the Church such a mess? Pray for the SBC; it is a wonderful evangelical organization with such potential to reach much of the world for Jesus. Pray that the leadership will cooperate with, not resist, the Holy Spirit.
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