Category Archives: Faith

Faith, General

The Only Ghost That’s Real

Growing up, whenever kids would gather together to tell ghost stories, there was always this girl that would say, “The only ghost that’s real is the Holy Ghost. And it’s okay because he’s good.”

I don’t know if ghosts are real or not, but she was right, the Holy Ghost is good. He is good because he is our connection to the Father. Most people don’t understand what role in the Trinity he actually plays, let alone what significance he holds for their faith walk. But, the truth is that he means everything to our faith walk.

Jesus described the Holy Spirit as an Advocate, a Counselor, and a Guide. He said that it was for our good that he ascended to heaven so that the Spirit could come to us. This is the very Spirit of God dwelling inside of us; here to help by advocating, counseling, guiding, and growing us. Without the Holy Spirit, our faith walk would meander. We’d get lost among the bracken and the brambles. We’d be without a spiritual light in the world, left in the dark to stumble over things we cannot see.

The Holy Spirit is God within us, our own divine spark to light our paths. Sometimes we don’t give the Holy Spirit credit for the light we see or we ignore the light that is there. More often than not though, we just get frustrated with the amount of light we are given. We want a big spotlight that illuminates the whole pathway so we know what to expect rather than the quarter-mile or so that we are able to see.  But, that’s not how a guide operates.

A guide is supposed to accompany you on a journey, not give you a map and wish you luck. A guide points out both wonderful things to see and dangers to avoid. He tells you what is coming up in the immediate future, but doesn’t bog you down with all the steps between your present location and your eventual destination. If you were given all the steps at once (if you had that big spotlight), you would either become intimidated by what’s coming or find a shortcut and bypass the preparatory experiences that make you ready for the final destination. The Holy Spirit is your guide. How are you at trusting him as such?

I know that it can be tricky to follow a Ghost, but when you look for him you will find him. He is right there inside of you. He wants to guide you into all truth, to guide you to the Father. He wants to show you how to live life to the fullest; pointing out all the good things that life has to offer. Just be ready for the preparatory steps required to get to those good things. Keep trusting your Ghost-guide. This is one Ghost that will not disappear on you and will never steer you wrong because this Ghost is good.

Faith

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

The revolution about which I speak, the revolution about which I advocate, and the revolution in which I live deeply entrenched was started by a carpenter, turned rabbi, charged criminal from Nazareth from a couple millennium ago. His life, his death, his resurrection changed everything. Utterly. Completely. Without equal.

And that change is still reverberating through history. It is still calling us to choose sides. Will we side with the man that died on the cross and then rose again after 3 days in the tomb? Or will we side with those that rejected him, humiliated him, and crucified him? To quote Joshua 24:15, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” We have chosen our side. We are deeply committed to Jesus.

Everything that Jesus did was revolutionary. God come to Earth in the form of a baby – revolutionary. God living the life of a carpenter in Nazareth, a podunk town from back in the day – revolutionary. A Jew from Galilee teaching with authority, going among tax collectors (aka traitors) and prostitutes, speaking to Samaritan women who have been outcast by her own people, touching lepers, and performing miracles – revolutionary. God allowing himself to be falsely accused, mocked and ridiculed, tortured and abused, sacrificed and killed for the very people perpetrating these vile acts against him – revolutionary. A dead man rising back to life after 3 days proving true every crazy thing he ever said and fulfilling a mind-boggling amount of prophesy before rising up to heaven fully corporeal – revolutionary. God giving his Spirit to live inside and thereby transform those that choose him – revolutionary.

And this revolution was passed on to us – his people, his followers, his believers. We are to follow his example and live by his Spirit. We are to be transformed in our being and our doing. Our faith is revolutionary because we have God living in us. We have a direct connection to our God. Abiding in Christ and living by the Spirit changes everything. It changes how we do marriage. It changes how we raise our kids. It rearranges our priorities and then molds our lives around those priorities. It gives us a different calling and way of living than the rest of the world. That’s what makes it a revolution. It turns everything on its head.

So, now’s the time that you must make your choice. Are you with us or against us? There is no middle ground in this revolution. The two worlds are incompatible. The revolutionary puts others before himself. The revolutionary loves his enemies. The revolutionary gains strength through humility. The revolutionary finds power by surrendering everything to God’s will. The revolutionary seeks rewards that are eternal and often unseen to humanity. The revolutionary has a forever mindset in his faith, in his marriage, and in his parenting.

Sounds crazy, I know. But so did Jesus. It’s why he was crucified by his own people. You may very well be crucified by your own people too; branded a crazy person for joining this revolution. It’s not an easy road. But it’s worth it. This revolution is worth everything – the very price that was paid to start it. The door is open now. The cover charge has been paid. Are you ready to walk through it? Are you ready to join the revolution?

Faith, Family

Finding the Real Sunday School

My husband and I used to teach Sunday School to 3 year olds. We really enjoyed getting to know the kids and playing with them each Sunday morning. However, I quickly realized that for the vast majority of them, I was their only source of Bible teaching. I would ask the kids who Jesus was and only one or two would be able to say anything about him. I spoke with other volunteers who taught other grades and it was a consensus that the vast majority of kids coming to our church on Sunday mornings were only hearing about God and Jesus while they were at church. This shocked me because I considered some of the parents of these kids to be really strong Christians and even leaders within our church.

What I came to realize is that although these parents have a relationship with Christ, they felt completely inadequate to pass any of that onto their kids. They brought their kids to church so that the Bible teachers and pastors could distill a faith in Jesus to their children. I believe it is part of the institutionalization that has been taking place for the past few generations. If your kids are sick, take them to the doctor. If your kids need to learn how to read and write, take them to school. If your kids need to learn about Jesus, take them to church. The problem with this thinking is that it is ultimately the least efficient method for caring for the needs of our children.

Our kids are most influenced by us, their parents. It is our calling and our responsibility as stewards of these young souls to bring them up to be Jesus-loving, responsible adults. We can’t shuck that responsibility onto institutions, no matter how prestigious they may seem to be. These resources are there to support our work as parents, not circumvent it. We need to pick up the mantle that we accepted when we brought our children into the world. We need to be responsible for their overall well-being: mind, heart, body, soul.

Besides, if we are truly Christians, meaning Christ-followers, shouldn’t our faith permeate everything in our lives, including our parenting? More is caught than is taught when it comes to just about everything, so our kids will learn more about who Jesus is and how to have a relationship with Him by observing us in our prayers, Bible reading, meditation, worship, praise, service, and so on and so forth. If the only Jesus that your child gets is the one hour a week in church (and that’s if you go every week), then that is the funkiest hour of their week. We do not want Jesus to be the funky hour of their week. We want the Jesus-less hours to be the funky hours of their week.

To get down to brass tacks, how confident are you in the efficacy of anything that only has exposure 1/168 of the time? Add to that the fact that they are being taught by strangers or people they hardly know. The strength of that influence dwindles even more. God made you the parent. God entrusted you with the young soul that is in your care. He has asked you to bring your child up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:4). Just imagine the faith that your child could develop if their life was immersed in Jesus and modeled after the most influential person in their life – you.

Faith, Marriage

The Greater Good

This afternoon my sons were watching the movie ‘The Incredibles’. My favorite scene is when one of the retired superheroes asks his wife where to find his super suit. She responds evasively leading him to a final exasperated appeal, “We’re talking about the greater good!” I love her answer: “Greater good? I am your wife! I am the greatest good you are ever going to get!” I realized today that my love for this scene goes beyond it being a very humorously performed scene. The reason I love it is because of her point. He is planning on ditching their evening together to serve the community without consulting her at all. Despite the urgency and the clear gravity of the situation (I mean, come on, a killer robot is destroying the city), he is losing perspective of what is really important. His community may need him and leaving his family to serve them may be ‘the greater good’, but his wife is, in fact, ‘the greatest good’ he will ever get. Being her husband is his highest calling after loving God, and everything else must take lower priorities-even when duty calls.

The reverse is true as well. Actually, I was pondering all of this as another scene from the movie came up that caught my attention. It is when the main characters, Mr. Incredible and Elasti-Girl, arrive to fight the killer robot and he attempts to leave her behind in order to keep her safe. Her response is “You are my husband and I go with you.” I love it. She is choosing him in that moment. She is supporting his efforts for ‘the greater good’ rather than feeling passed over because she is part of the process.

In real life, we aren’t superheroes fighting killer robots for the greater good, but we are still choosing other things that we have deemed important over our spouses way more often than is good for our marriages. The things that we are choosing are usually really good things: work, children, church, family. The things that we are choosing are sometimes things that can’t be done with our spouse. The point isn’t whether your spouse is there with you as you do these things. The choosing comes in your manner of thinking.

When you consider accepting a request, taking on another obligation, or signing up for a project, do you first think about the people asking or about yourself or about your family or about your spouse? In my humble opinion, I say that it should be your spouse. It goes without saying that I will think about myself, at least as far as my availability and interest in the situation, but if I am ‘one’ with my husband then he should be right there in that consideration. I will be thinking in terms of ‘we’ instead of just in ‘me’. It doesn’t matter the significance of the request, even if it would be in service of the ‘the greater good’, I need to remember that my spouse is ‘the greatest good’ I am ever going to get and choose him above anything else.