Sage Words

Where He Leads Me

Where He leads me I will follow,
Where He leads me I will follow,
Where He leads me I will follow,
I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way.

I can hear my Savior calling,
I can hear my Savior calling,
I can hear my Savior calling,
“Take thy cross and follow, follow Me.”

“I’ll go with Him thro’ the garden,
I’ll go with Him through the garden,
I’ll go with Him thro’ the garden,
I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way.

I’ll go with Him thro’ the judgment,
I’ll go with Him thro’ the judgment,
I’ll go with Him thro’ the judgment,
I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way.

He will give me grace and glory,
He will give me grace and glory,
He will give me grace and glory,
And go with me, with me all the way.

E. W. Blandly, 1890
Read Luke 9:57-62

(The call to follow Christ is no small thing. It should never be taken lightly. Christ Himself cautions us to consider the cost. He doesn’t sugarcoat how things will be, nor does the hymnwriter. I will go with Him through crushing agony and sacrifice. I’ll go with Him through searing judgment. Sobering commitments, indeed. But we must not overlook the promise in the fourth stanza which reflects Christ’s promises to us. Grace and glory. Focus on those. Focus on the Savior who calls. And follow wherever He leads.)

Jesus Is the Light of the World

By Paula Wiseman Leave a Comment

Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

The world has no light of its own.
Only what Jesus brings.

No hope, only despair.
No holiness, only sinfulness.
No joy, only sorrow.

No truth, only lies.
No wisdom, only ignorance.
No victory, only defeat.

No salvation, only condemnation.
No life, only death.

But the people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light (Isaiah 9:2)

We can have hope, and holiness and joy.
Truth, wisdom and victory.
Salvation and everlasting life.

But not apart from Jesus Christ
The Light of the World.

The Spirit Helps in Our Walk

By Paula Wiseman Leave a Comment

The Holy Spirit plays an active role in the lives of believers from salvation to glorification. Sometimes, it’s not always evident or clear what that role is. We are taking a closer look at what He does, how He helps us and why Jesus said it was to our advantage that He go away and the Holy Spirit comes (John 15:7). This week we’ll look at how the Holy Spirit helps in our walk.

Our walk is kind of shorthand for saying the way we conduct ourselves on a regular basis. For instance, I study pretty much every day as part of my regular routine. I run as a regular part of my routine. Those kinds of things make up part of your walk. The other part is your character. So your walk is who you are and what you do on the regular. How does the Spirit help in our walk?

Here’s the summary: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).

So if we want to walk in a way that pleases God, that imitates Christ, that fulfills our purpose, we must follow the Spirit’s guidance and direction and not our own. Paul makes it very plain for the Galatians. We walk either following the Spirit or following ourselves. There is no overlap. But walking by the Spirit gives some distinct advantages.

The Spirit strengthens us.

Paul prays for his friends in Ephesus “that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit,” (Ephesians 3:16).
That strengthened inner being stands in contrast to the discouragement Paul mentions in v.13. So if we are walking more in discouragement and frustration rather than peace and power we may be following the flesh and not the Spirit.

The Spirit gifts us.

Take a look at 1 Corinthians 12. “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; … To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. … All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills” (1 Corinthians 12:4, 7, 11). While an in-depth study of spiritual gifts is way more than we can take on in one blog post, notice a few highlights.

To each. Everyone. Every single believer is given an obvious evidence of the Holy Spirit working in them.

For the common good. Not to make ourselves look good or to amass power and influence but to build up the body of Christ

Empowered and apportioned as HE wills. The Spirit determines what is best.
So if we want to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh, we need to use the gifts the Spirit has given us to accomplish what we can for the kingdom. If we fail to use them or if we use them for the wrong reasons, we are walking by the flesh.

The Spirit fills us.

Here’s more from Paul. “And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). If you have too much to drink and the police pull you over, they will likely charge you with DUI, driving under the influence. All your decisions, judgments and reactions are influenced by the alcohol in your bloodstream. Rather instructs us to live under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Live so that our decisions, our judgment and our reactions are all driven by the Spirit who lives in us. When we do the results are visible.

The Spirit bears fruit in us.

Galatians 5:22-23 gives us a familiar list of traits that are obvious in the life of someone living under the Spirit’s control. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). As our regular routine centers more and more on doing the things the Spirit wants us to do, acting more and more like the Spirit directs us to, we will see more and more love, joy, peace and the others in our lives. We’ll be known for our kindness and patience. We’ll respond more often with gentleness and self-control. Our faith and commitment will deepen.

Why? How?

“Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24-25). Every day, as believers we have to decide whether we are going to live the way the Spirit directs us to or do what we want. We have crucified the flesh. It has no power beyond what we give it. So the Spirit helps in our walk by giving us direction, strength, and gifts to live a life that bears fruit for the kingdom.

Keep in step with the Spirit. March to the beat of His drum. Dance to His rhythm. Rely on His strength. Utilize the gifts He gave you.

Next week we’ll see how He helps our witness.

My Jesus I Love Thee

By Paula Wiseman Leave a Comment

My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign.
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou:
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me
And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree.
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow:
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,
And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath.
And say, when the death dew lies cold on my brow,
“If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.”

In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I’ll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright.
And singing Thy praises, before Thee I’ll bow,
“If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.”

William R. Featherston, 1862
Read 1 Peter 1:1-9

(One of the more famous romantic poems is Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee?” This hymn reminds me of the poem. While we have Scripture and the sacrifice of Christ and the gift of the Spirit as testimonies of God’s love for us, we cannot proclaim our love for Him to much or too often. In fact, take some time today to record how and why you love Jesus.)

Jesus Is the Lamb of God

By Paula Wiseman Leave a Comment

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29

There can be no forgiveness without sacrifice.
Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.
Leviticus and Hebrews tell us so.

The Law prescribed that a lamb be offered every morning and every evening
To atone for, to cover, the sins of the people.
The lamb was a stand-in for the sinner.

God, in mercy and grace, established
Substitutionary atonement.
The shed blood of the stand-in covers our sins.

But then God went a step beyond.
Jesus Christ, the lamb of God
TAKES AWAY the sin of the world.

Not just covered.
Removed.
The penalty of sin.
The power of sin.
The presence of sin.

Accomplished as only the Lamb of God could.

The Spirit Helps in Our Understanding

By Paula Wiseman Leave a Comment

The Spirit Helps our understanding title graphic

The Holy Spirit plays an active role in the lives of believers from salvation to glorification. Sometimes, it’s not always evident or clear what that role is. Over the next few weeks we’ll take a closer look at what He does, how He helps us and why Jesus said it was to our advantage that He go away and the Holy Spirit comes (John 15:7). This week we’ll look at how the Holy Spirit helps in our understanding.

If you know anything at all about God and His word, it’s because the Spirit helped you understand it. It’s that simple. Paul explains:

Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. … But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually (1 Corinthians 2:12, 14).

God wants us to know as much as we can about this great salvation Christ has made possible (and we learned last week that the Spirit helps accomplish). Paul’s words also help us see why things that are obvious to us just don’t click with unbelievers. They don’t have the Spirit.

How does the Spirit accomplish this? Let’s look at some specific ways mentioned in Scripture.

The Spirit teaches and reminds us.

In the Upper Room, Jesus explained to His disciples, But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you (John 14:26).

Jesus knew He was dropping a ton of new information of incredible theological significance on His guys, and He knew the trauma of His death would devastate them– and make it hard to remember any of the good stuff. His words in John 14:26 were intended to reassure them that they didn’t have to get it all that night. The Holy Spirit would help them recall not just the Upper Room revelations, but all of Jesus’s words. Not only that, He expands on what Jesus told them. You see this in the New Testament letters as Paul and Peter and John and others fill out and apply Jesus’s teachings.

The Spirit searches and reveals to us.

Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:10-11).

God is infinite and cannot be known by finite beings such as ourselves unless He chooses to reveal Himself. The Spirit does that for us. He determines what we need to know, what we can handle, and then He makes that clear to us.

Now in our postmodern and post-postmodern thinking, meaning is assigned by the individual. In other words, I cannot know what a painter or an author meant in his work so I ascribe whatever meaning I find which aligns with my experience and my truth. That’s not how God or His truth works. We need the Holy Spirit to help us understand, or else we’ll come up with some very wrong ideas about God.

The Spirit inspires and interprets Scripture for us.

Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21).

God’s word is not like any other collected writings. The very words were superintended by the Holy Spirit, so God’s thoughts, His promises, His commands were properly communicated to us. Then God goes one step further and ensures the Holy Spirit interprets those words for us as well.

In fact, Hebrews 3:7-16 gives an example of how that works. The writer takes some Old Testament verses from Psalm 95, rightly attributes the authorship to the Holy Spirit and then interprets and applies them for the readers. The Holy Spirit repeats that process for us when we read Scripture. Sometimes that happens instantaneously. Sometimes it takes more prayer, study, and patience. But it’s always the Spirit’s work.

Now you know what you know is all because of the Holy Spirit helps our understanding!

Next week we’ll see how the Spirit helps our walk.

Where He Leads Me

Jesus Is the Light of the World

The Spirit Helps in Our Walk

The Spirit strengthens us.

The Spirit gifts us.

The Spirit fills us.

The Spirit bears fruit in us.

Why? How?

My Jesus I Love Thee

Jesus Is the Lamb of God

The Spirit Helps in Our Understanding

The Spirit teaches and reminds us.

The Spirit searches and reveals to us.

The Spirit inspires and interprets Scripture for us.

Encounters Series

Covenant of Trust Series

Foundations Series