Tag Archives: spirit

Natural Doesn’t Equal Good

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file6871239401075Not everything that is natural is good. We see that in natural remedies and natural food. And we especially see it in humans.

The Bible refers to natural human tendencies as carnal tendencies. Human nature is often called “the flesh” (except in a few translations which try to explain what “flesh” means) Following the flesh leads to death; following the Spirit of God leads to life.

There are lots of natural things in all of us that we recognize as bad: anger, jealousy, lust, pride. Galatians 5 has a nice list of them. Then it lists things that are produced by the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22–23)

To say “that’s just the way I am” is not a good excuse; it’s merely an admission that you need to be transformed by God’s Spirit!

Rather than putting a stamp of approval on natural, let’s call ourselves and others to a higher goal: Spiritual.

photo courtesy of MorgueFile.com

Spiritual realities and the true church

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In my travels, I often run across literature with titles like “The marks of a true church” or “How to recognize a New Testament church.” I won’t claim to have read all of them, but the ones I’ve seen fail to do what they claim to do. That is, they don’t focus on the things the Bible says about what makes a church a true church.

Yesterday we talked about online behavior and spiritual realities, how our behavior on the Internet affects us spiritually. That doesn’t just go for what we do on the computer; I think we need to see that how we treat others affects who we are, as well as making a statement about who we are.

The big “mark” to look for, of course, is love. That can sound trite, yet the Bible repeatedly identifies that as the most important thing. If what we’re doing doesn’t lead us to love, doesn’t produce love, doesn’t reflect love, then what we’re doing isn’t godly. It’s that simple. Again, I know that Jesus got angry and Paul wrote some harsh things, but none of that gives us license to proceed in a way that doesn’t reflect God’s nature. God is love.

We also need to be looking for the rest of the fruit of the Spirit. A Spirit-led life will produce the things listed in Galatians 5:22-23. And we will pursue those things, as a church, or we will be a carnal, worldly church.

None of that impedes our obeying God and seeking to do His will. But if in that pursuit of God pleasing we quit following the Spirit, we will never achieve our goal. You can’t “do the right things” without the fruit of the Spirit.

That’s why we need the big picture. That’s why we need theology. Focusing merely on behaviors won’t get us there. We need to look at the spiritual realities behind the behaviors.

Online spirituality, online carnality

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I want to revisit the discussion about spiritual realities from last week. As I read the comments and thought more about this issue, I realized that one obvious application of all of this is right here. The Internet. Our cyberdiscussions.

Thinking about how the spiritual world surrounds all that we do, I think we need to take a hard look at our online interactions. What do they say about us? Do we see love and generosity, grace and peace? Do we see the bonds of the Spirit uniting us, even as we disagree? Or is there anger and judgmentalness, grudges and bitterness? Is it truth or is it falsehood?

“I have a right to get angry. Look at what he said.” That’s one of my favorite lines to tell myself. “Even Jesus got angry.” Yes he did, but I’m not sure that everything I feel can be titled righteous indignation. “We have to expose error.” Error is best exposed by shining truth on it, not by trying to bury it under criticism and ridicule.

When I give in to my carnal nature in online discussions, I’m ignoring the Spirit’s lead. When I use the ways of the world, I become more a part of the world and less a part of the Kingdom.

It all adds up. It’s a weakness of mine. Maybe by writing all of this, I can remind myself to do better. Better yet, I can remind myself to let God lead, not my pride.

Temples of God: Receiving the Spirit

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cloudsOK, I didn’t forget that I was going to get back to the subject of the Spirit. I don’t promise anything earth-shaking nor definitive, but I’ll share some of what I’ve come to see in the Bible.

I believe that when we are baptized (Acts 2:38; 5:32) Christ/the Spirit/the Spirit of God/the Spirit of Christ/the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:9-11) comes to live in us (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Colossians 1:27; 2 Timothy 1:14).

For reasons that I don’t fully understand, some have tried to explain away this reality, either saying that the Spirit only works through the Word and doesn’t indwell or by saying that the Spirit only indwells us through the Word (and no, I don’t fully see the difference in those two arguments). I believe that Jesus Christ comes to live in us through the Spirit, helping us to live the way God desires us to live. Let us give thanks to God that he saw fit to make us his temples, leading us to be ever holier, day by day.