The Spirit

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,

      maker of heaven and earth,

      and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

      born of the Virgin Mary,

      suffered under Pontius Pilate,

      was crucified, died, and was buried: He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven,

      and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.

From there He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

      the holy catholic* church,

      the communion of saints,

      the forgiveness of sins,

      the resurrection of the body,

      and the life everlasting.

Amen

Have you ever had a moment when something takes ahold of your soul? Its as if a hand, invisible yet strong, has reached within you to pull at the very base of who you are. This happens to me from time to time. Sometimes I know the cause, a death, the struggles of a friend, or even just the weight of the worlds sin. But there are other times, when I am not sure of the reason. I like to think this is the Spirit, dragging me by the very strings of me heart, calling my being to prayer. Perhaps this is strange thinking of a physical push from the Spirit. Yet I am certain of times in my life where the Spirit has pushed me or guided me. 

My junior year I had the chance to study acting in Ireland at the Gaiety School of Acting for a month. Patrick Sutton, the Schools Director, asked us a question very early in our time studying with him. "Where is your soul?" Some of the class pointed to our heads and some our hearts. Patrick shook his head and pointed to his stomach. "This is your center, the center of your being." he said.

It is strange but I still think of my soul as the center of my being, resting next to my ever hungry stomach. My head is where my mind and thought rest. It is the place that my reason sometimes takes me on dangerous paths. My heart is where my emotions rest and often, to often, are the dragged around. But my stomach is the center balance wise. Its also where I feed the bases part of my physical nature (the need to eat). The Spirit speaks not just to my head and my heart, but also to that center. 

I often wonder what it would be like to invite God into the very center of my being. Not just into my intelligence or into my emotions, but into the deepest part of me. The Spirit of God comes in like a rush of fire on Pentecost. It is the power of Christ, living in us poor flesh here below. When we speak of being born again, we mean that we are being born in the Spirit (John 3:6-8), that we are no longer just flesh and blood, but Children of God as well. That we have invited God to live within us. 

C.S. Lewis in his Space Trilogy, writes about Eldil, beings made of light. The Eldil can come to a planet but they are really beings who belong to space. Thus they are not bound by gravity. They look to be off kilter to those who's center is a world, because they're center is something else (God). When I think about inviting the Spirit into the center of my being, I am talking about asking God to be my center of gravity. I'm asking God to be the thing that drives me, rather then the needs of my flesh, my emotional heart, or my mind. This doesn't mean that I will no longer eat or cry or think. Rather all I do will be alined to God's will. My life path becomes diverted to his. 

I believe in the Spirit, because he is what realigns me towards God. This is the part of God that gets inside of me and guides me. And hopefully, with the Spirit's help, will ever draw me towards the face of God. 

He Arose

I apologies for the long spell of silence on my end. I am forever getting caught up in the bustle of the world and pulled in a million directions. Recently I finished a couple of short devotional for my church's advent devotional. I'll share those one the whole thing has been published. For now I'll continue with the Apostle's creed...

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,

      maker of heaven and earth,

      and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

      born of the Virgin Mary,

      suffered under Pontius Pilate,

      was crucified, died, and was buried: He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven,

      and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.

From there He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

      the holy catholic* church,

      the communion of saints,

      the forgiveness of sins,

      the resurrection of the body,

      and the life everlasting.

Amen

What makes Christianity so different? So special? C. S. Lewis wrote: "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." So if true why is it of infinite importance? That on 'The third day He arose again from the dead.' 

So many people look at Christ and see a Good man. One who's speech of love and mercy give warmth and little else. Christ's life and death mean little by themselves. All live and all die. But to rise from teh dead is abnormal, if not impossible. And it is this impossiblity or miracle, that takes Christ from a man to God. Having suffered the death of our sin and true separation from God. Christ goes to hell and returns with the keys to the gate. 

Every Good Friday my parent's home church sings a hymn which always chills me to the bone. 'Were you there when they Crucified my Lord? Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? Were you there when they laid him in the Tomb?' The questions always cut across my realization that I take part in the death of Christ. That it is my sin that kept him on the cross, not the nails. 'Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.' But the hymn doesn't end with Christ being left in the tomb. There will be no worms in his flesh, no maggots. No the hymn ends with another question: 'Were you there when God raised him from the tomb?' 

This is what rests at the center of my belief and understanding of God. That he is not just another victim of this world's darkness, but rather a victor over death itself. 'Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.' 

The Day is Coming

Malachi 4 'Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evil doer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire.' Says the Lord Almighty. 'Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like caves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things,' Says the Lord Almight. 'Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.'

The first part of this short chapter reminds me of C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce. Lewis writes of a land which is held in constant twilight and a heaven which is waiting for the dawn. The people of the twilight world come to heaven like empty glass containers, ghosts, who have no way to impact the perfection of heaven. Ghosts who find pain in merely walking of the realness of what the world was meant to be. Those who choose the twilight world (and it is a choice) fear the coming sun (judgement). The people of heaven wait in waiting for the time when God will do what he has promised. Its a beautiful view of how the day of the Lord is both a furnace burning away the arrogant and evil doers, and a full sunrise under which the righteous will be healed and dance with joy. God promises destruction for evil and restoration for the good.

Too often I hear people say that they believe in heaven, but not hell. Heaven is after all the nicer of those two places. A place where peace and love reigns. The idea that there is an ultimate judgement, that there is a distinct line between right and wrong is too much to comprehend. However, when we remove hell, the reason for heaven is lost. If there is not a place where all evil is held and punished, there is no reason for a heaven at which that evil is forgotten and healed. If we refuse God his place in judgement, we have no right to his redemption and renewal.

Moreover, we assume that heaven and hell are places that are only have power after we die. Too often I have lived my life as if the things of this world, money and self, are the most important things. I live as earth is a separate world from those of hell and heaven. The truth is that heaven and hell are behind every turn. Too many people that I know, even Christians, believe that the things of this earth are the goals of life. Even good things, like feeding the homeless or giving money to the church, become things that make us better at life on earth. Check boxes to be checked and little more. But we are warned else where in the bible that the things of this world will not be taken with us. They will be destroyed.

Thus we are already in hell, if we are not willing to claim our citizenship in heaven. If we give into the pull of the earth and its broken crumbling destruction, we will never see the renewal promised. The coming of the sun will be the worse thing that could possible be imagined. Because with the coming of the Lord's day, comes the destruction of all the things that we cling to the most. Nothing of this earth will be allowed to stay unchanged. We must allow ourselves to be refined. I can't think of anything more terrifying then knowing that the evil in me will be allowed to stay. That like Malachi writes in chapter 3 'for he will be like a refiner's fire...'

Yet, if we claim our citizenship of heaven. If we seek out the refiner of our souls. We are promised treasure beyond comprehension. We will be called daughters and sons. Will be heirs not just to the wonders of heaven, but to the glories of the restored earth. If we are willing to give up our hold on the things that keep us tied to the earth, it follows that we will see them restored. But we can not keep them in their fallen state. The day is coming, will we be burned with the arrogant or leap like the calves?