Posts that reference the Gospel of John

Do We Treat the Holy Spirit Worse than a Houseguest?

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Romans 8:14

It doesn’t seem so long ago that we entered that tricky phase of parenting older (adult, even) children, which includes navigating relationships. One Christmas break a few years back, that meant my daughter spent a few days with her boyfriend’s family, and then he spent a few days with us before they both headed back to college for the term. Now, her boyfriend was kind-hearted and gracious, seamlessly fitting into our family, and we enjoyed having him here. On top of that, his family is a thousand or so miles away, and we were glad to offer him a break from the campus.

But what if we invited Curtis to our home but then totally ignored him?
What if we never included him in a conversation?
Or set a plate of food in front of him?
What if we headed out to the movies and left him at home?

He might have questions of his own.
Were they kidding when they invited me?
Was Lauren insincere when she expressed her feelings for me?
Am I in an episode of The Twilight Zone?

Of course, we would never do that, and I’m certain you would never ignore a guest in your home. We just wouldn’t.

On His last night with His disciples, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit. He said, “You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:17.) Throughout Romans 8, Paul emphasizes the Holy Spirit lives inside believers. He is far more than just a houseguest. He is the seal of our salvation. He is the one empowering, reminding, directing, interceding for, convicting, and teaching us. And more.

While we would never be rude and obnoxious to an invited visitor in our home, I wonder if we might, at times, behave that way to the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

Are there moments we refuse His instruction?
Do we ignore His warnings?
Could we crowd Him out?
Do we fail to even consider Him or acknowledge His presence?

I suspect the answer is yes.

If we offended or mistreated a houseguest, an apology would be in order, perhaps even followed by making it up to our guest somehow.

With the Holy Spirit, that means confession and repentance.

4 Keys to Joy

By Paula Wiseman

We’ve been looking at keys to some important aspects of living a Christian life. We started with keys to prayer and faith. Last week, we delved into experiencing peace through trust in God, prayer, Scripture, and gratitude. This week, let’s focus on joy—a deep, abiding sense of contentment that transcends our circumstances. Here are four keys to unlocking and maintaining joy, rooted in our faith and relationship with God.

Rejoice in the Lord Always

Joy is a choice and an act of will to focus on God rather than our circumstances. Philippians 4:4 instructs, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

Paul wrote these words from a prison cell. He exemplified joy that isn’t dependent on external conditions. His joy stemmed from his relationship with Christ. No matter what we face, we can choose to rejoice in the Lord’s goodness, faithfulness, and love.

Start each day by thanking God for His blessings and expressing your joy in Him. Let rejoicing be your first response in any situation.

Abide in Christ

Jesus taught that true joy comes from remaining in Him. John 15:10-11 says, “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

Abiding in Christ means living in a close relationship with Him, following His teachings, and drawing strength from His presence. This connection is the source of complete and enduring joy.

Spend time daily in prayer and reading Scripture to deepen your relationship with Christ. Reflect on His love and commands, and let His joy fill your heart.

Serve Others

Serving others shifts our focus from ourselves to those around us, bringing a sense of fulfillment and joy. Acts 20:35 reminds us of Jesus’ words: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Jesus lived a life of service, and His joy came from doing the Father’s will and serving others. When we serve, we follow His example and experience the joy that comes from selflessness and love.

Look for opportunities to serve others in your daily life. Whether it’s through volunteering, offering a helping hand, or simply being kind, let your actions reflect Christ’s love.

Cultivate Gratitude

Gratitude fosters joy by reminding us of God’s goodness and the blessings in our lives. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

When we practice gratitude, we focus on the positives and recognize God’s hand in every situation. This perspective brings joy as we see how God is working in and through us.

In your quiet time, note daily blessings and reasons for thankfulness. You can even write them in your planner or a journal. Reflect on these regularly to maintain a joyful heart.

Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, cultivated by our relationship with God and our actions. By choosing to rejoice, abiding in Christ, serving others, and practicing gratitude, we can experience a joy that endures through all of life’s ups and downs.

Secrets

By Paula

He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, And light dwells with Him. Daniel 2:22

According to a study published in 2017, the average person is holding on to at least thirteen secrets, five of which they’ve never told another living soul. These aren’t what-I-got-you-for-Christmas kind of secrets, either. They are heavy, burdensome secrets like lies told, trusts violated, marriage vows broken, and crimes committed ranging from theft to assault. Thirteen of them.

We expend tremendous mental energy to keep them hidden, only to have the memory and regret assault us in our quietest, private moments. The guilt and shame associated with the secrets come out as anger and irritability. Secret-keepers can become bullies or manipulators, protecting the secret at all costs. Sometimes, the cost is loss of relationships. Sometimes, it’s loss of health. Occasionally, tragically, secret-keepers have taken their own lives rather than face exposure.

We have lived in fear of exposure of our secrets and our sins since Eden. But we don’t have to.

We are invited and encouraged to bring those secrets to Christ. In Matthew 11:28 Jesus called for all who were burdened to come to Him for rest, whether burdened by the standards of the Law or burdened by failure – even secret failure – to live up to it. Peter echoes that in 1 Peter 5:6-7 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”

Letting go of our secrets requires humility. We have to own our secrets and the failures behind them. Primarily I mean owning them before God. (There are undoubtedly times when confession to others is in order, but public humiliation is rarely helpful.) When we do, God does an amazing thing — He covers them. He doesn’t hide them again under layers of shame, but He covers them with His love and His righteousness. Theologically, this is called atonement. God acted it out when He covered Adam and Eve with animal skins. He gave it to Israel in an object lesson when the broken law tablets in the ark were covered with the blood of the sacrifice. He completed the covering when Christ died and atoned for our sins.

Letting go of our secrets requires trusting God. We have to trust that He will keep His promise to cover the secrets, (He will) and that He won’t cast us out when we ask. (He won’t). Romans 10:11 and John 6:37 assure us. God knows all of our deep, dark secrets, and He has taken action to deal with them, beginning with Adam and Eve and continuing to the present day.

Letting go of our secrets requires letting go. It sounds obvious, but sometimes this is the hardest part. We have long memories and much more experience with the conditional, incomplete forgiveness and acceptance that others offer, rather than the total atonement God gives us. In Isaiah 54:4, God promises He won’t shame us again. For those of us who have carried secrets as an integral part of our selves, it takes time to grasp that God has taken them, and we no longer have to carry the burden for ourselves. It can be a hard habit to break. Added to that, one of Satan’s lines of attack is to try and convince us that we still deserve our shame.

The writer of Hebrews reminds us that we have a Great High Priest as our advocate, and as a result, we can boldly and confidently approach God’s throne to obtain (not just ask for, but receive) grace and mercy when we need it. (Hebrews 4:14-16) Even … and especially, when it comes to dealing with our secrets.

One Last Object Lesson

By Paula

On a night not unlike this one, the Son of God, God Incarnate had one last meal with the men He had taught and trained for the previous three years. Before the meal, He gave them one final object lesson. After countless other meals, after countless other opportunities, He chose this moment for this object lesson. He washed their feet. Once.

Peter protested. Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.” (John 13:7)

Certainly, it was a lesson in humility and service, and the rest of the conversation in the upper room focused on the love the followers should exhibit for each other, but it was more than that.

The Teacher took on the role of the lowest household servant, not because He had to, but because He chose to.
The Anointed One took on flesh and became a man, not because He had to, but because He chose to.

It was an act of pure grace. Imagine being in the room, realizing what Jesus intended to do. Flushing with shame because it never occurred to you to wash your own feet, much less anyone else’s. Jesus may have started with James the son of Alphaeus or John, who were likely the youngest of the disciples. Some speculate He began with Judas. As He worked His way around the room, the awkward silence was broken up by only the water dripping back into the basin. The recipients of this gift became noticeably more uncomfortable. As Jesus worked, the towel became more and more soiled.

Again Peter protested. Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” (John 13:8)

If this was just about hygiene or manners, that’s an inexplicably harsh penalty. However, for months, Jesus had been preparing these men for His death. Now He was illustrating the purpose, the necessity of His death. Within hours, Jesus was going to cross, not because He had to, but because He chose to. He would take not just the day’s road dirt making us fit to partake a meal, but He would take the blackness and rot of our sins and make us fit for eternal fellowship with Him in His kingdom.

Peter got it. Years later, he wrote, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit. 1 Peter 3:18.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Let These Words Sink Down into Your Ears

By Paula

“Let these WORDS sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.” But they did not understand this saying, and it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this saying. Luke 9:44-45

Before His death, Jesus spoke very frankly with His disciples about the coming events. He was going to be betrayed, handed over, and crucified, but He would rise again after three days. Everyone who heard Him understood the WORDS He was saying, but none of them grasped the reality of them. Even as the events unfolded before them, the disciples struggled with how things played out. Instead of clinging to their faith in Christ, in who He is, and what they had already witnessed from Him, that faith gave way to fear for their very lives. They heard the hatred in the mob’s cries and the religious leaders’ hypocritical disdain. They saw the brutality and the scorn of the Romans. That very natural fear led to doubts about this man they had given up everything to follow. Had they misunderstood? Was this the way it was supposed to be?

Surely, some of the longest hours in their lives were those between the Upper Room and the empty tomb.

The Resurrection changed all that. The doubts and fears gave way to the boldness and fire at Pentecost and beyond. The WORDS that Jesus said became real. Things that they struggled to grasp in those hours in between made sense at last in ways that were beyond their imagination.

Even now, with the Holy Spirit living in us, with the completed canon of Scripture readily available to us, and with 2000 years of church history to draw upon, we have the same trouble grasping the WORDS of Jesus.

Toward the end of His earthly ministry, He said, “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.” (Matthew 24:9) And we struggle to understand why culture is so hostile to our values.

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. (Matthew 24:7) And yet we trust treaties and military buildups to protect us and depend on science and technology to fix everything else.

And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24:12) We’re still shocked at scandals that reveal the depth of our self-absorption and misogyny.

Jesus told us these things would happen, and now we are living in the in-between time like the disciples in those hours between crucifixion and resurrection. We wrestle with questions – Why doesn’t God do something? Is He even paying attention? Why is everything a struggle?

But when He comes again, and He will just as surely as He resurrected, everything will make sense. The questions and the frustrations will melt into worship and affirmation that He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. His words will be fulfilled in ways outside the bounds of our imagination.

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Peace. He has overcome. We’ll know exactly what those WORDS mean. Just a little longer.

Imperfection and Perfection

By Paula Wiseman

I have one more New Testament redemption of an Old Testament event for you (at least for now). In recent posts we’ve looked at Babel and Pentecost, and then at the connection between the golden calf and Pentecost. This one is about access and how imperfection becomes perfection

Old Testament imperfection

When God called Israel out of Egypt, He meant to have a sanctified people for Himself. A holy people. Holy like He is. When He gave the requirements for the priesthood, He included physical restrictions on the priests. There was an age limit. A man couldn’t be lame, or blind, or have any other physical defects and serve the Lord as a priest (Leviticus 21:18-22). Why? Because the priest not only represented the people to God but he also represented God to the people. He was the go-between, the mediator, the intercessor.

Not only were the priests restricted but in Deuteronomy 23:1-8 Moses reminded the people that God also had standards for who could be part of the congregation of Israel, that is, who could participate in the covenants, who could receive the blessings and who could join in the public worship. It specifically mentions eunuchs, illegitimate children, and people from Ammon and Moab. (Voluntary castration was a Canaanite pagan practice.) The reason was that God Himself dwelt with His people and because of His holiness, the taint of sin and rebellion were not allowed. Those people could still live within the boundaries of the nation but they would never be full participants.

(Side note: This sounds cruel on God’s part, but remember, He is operating from a much greater perspective. And Ruth, from Moab, not only became part of Israel but she was the great-grandmother of David and the ancestor of Christ. God always acts with mercy and grace.)

New Testament imperfection

Now, knowing this … how much more amazing was the message of Jesus? Come. Whosoever. (John 3) Anyone who thirsts, come and drink of the water of life freely. (John 7) It was a radical idea. But to make sure people understood, Jesus told a parable in Luke 14:15-24. A great man gave a huge banquet and the invited guests gave weak excuses and refused to go. So the man told his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ (Luke 14:21)

Now the man giving the banquet is clearly representing God, and the banquet represents being in His kingdom. Not only are the defective allowed to participate, He ensures they know that. Bring them in, especially them he tells the servants.

What changed?

Jesus came. He is the Great High Priest so the perfection in the priesthood is achieved. Further, we have our perfection in Christ. We don’t have to bring our own. The Holy Spirit can dwell IN us, not just with us because we are made whole and complete in Him. And that perfection in Christ allows us to approach God in a way that Old Testament followers of God never could.

Jesus changed everything. He redeemed the exclusion of the imperfect to open the invitation to all who would come to His kingdom. The invitation is still open.

(One more side note: Of course, we’re not perfect. We’re not even mature and complete. But God views us as if we already were. We will be one day, and because that has been credited to our account, we live with the benefits now.)