Sawyer loved playing the grand piano at Pawpa's during Thanksgiving!
During the Development Program this week we studied the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. What powerful stuff! I (Dusty) often forget that the Holy Spirit is a person of the Trinity just as the Father and the Son are. To me, God the Father and God the Son are much more tangible - we see the Father moving throughout the Old Testament, even showing up on the scene in various forms, and we clearly see God the Son in Jesus's ministry on Earth in the New Testament. I forget to take note of God the Holy Spirit. But as our speaker told us through the message Wednesday, the Holy Spirit is the Person of our time. The Old Testament had The Father, the New Testament had Jesus, and presently we have the Holy Spirit. We have Him because of Jesus's work here on Earth. When His work was done, He told us it is to our advantage for Him to go so that we would have the Holy Spirit. How could it be better for Him to go? He was God in flesh walking amongst us.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. John 16:7
So if it was to our advantage for Him to go, then man, the Holy Spirit is pretty incredible. I mean, He is God, but do we remember that? Do I remember that? Is my day marked by what the Holy Spirit is doing in my life? Because guess what: The SAME spirit that raised Jesus from the dead (THE DEAD) is living inside of me, is guiding me, interceding for me, loving me, fighting for me.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:11
I know that this can be a weighty topic, and Sam and I would love to sit down and talk to whoever has any questions or comments. It's hard sometimes to write blogs because a topic cannot fully be covered on paper. However, I wanted to share what we learned this week. And I wanted to share a practical application of remembering the Holy Spirit that we talked about in our discussion group: When thinking about our day, whether throughout or at the end, we can ask ourselves, "Was my day filled with the fruit of Spirit?"
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
Galatians 5:22-23
During my day, is this fruit evident? Am I patient when the kids spill food on the floor for the hundredth time after I told them a million times to sit on their bottoms? Am I loving when someone says something that hurts my feelings? Am I showing kindness to strangers I cross in the grocery store? Every action of our day should be overflowing with these things. Granted, we are going to fail; we are not perfect. But if we know Jesus Christ and believe in the work He did in His ministry and in His death, then we have the Holy Spirit. And if we have the Holy Spirit, then He will help us when we are weak, when we want to be angry instead of peaceful, when we want to indulge instead of being self-controlled. My prayer is that this Fruit be evident in my life. Like I joked with my discussion group, I may need to tattoo these verses on my arm as a reminder.
- Dusty
