I've been reading through Ephesians, especially chapter 1, in preparation for a home group that looks as if it won't be taking place for a while. But it's impossible to seek God in the instruction of his apostles without coming away the better for it, and one thing among many that struck me was the confidence with which Paul says "when you believed you were marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit, and that's how you know you're going to get the inheritance."

Now, to cite something that isn't visible, tangible, or otherwise immediately detectable as evidence for something in an unseen future seems odd somehow, unless the "marking" of the holy spirit isn't as ethereal and uncertain as I've often felt.

Then I came across Richard Baxter's words in his "Dying thoughts": "That this Spirit is given to all true believers is evident by the effects of His being given, They have ends, affections, and lives different from the rest of mankind; they live upon the hopes of a better life, and their heavenly interest overrules all the opposite interests of this world. In order to this they live under the conduct of divine authority, and to obey and please God is the great business of their lives. The men of the world discern this difference, and therefore hate and oppose them, because they find themselves condemned by their heavenly temper and conversation. Believers are conscious of this difference; for they desire to be better, and to trust and love God more, and to have more of the heavenly life and comforts; and when their infirmities make them doubt of their own sincerity, they would not change their Governor, rule, or hopes, for all the world; and it is never so well and pleasant with them, as when they can trust and love God most; and in their worst and weakest condition they would fain be perfect...whence are thy groanings after God, thy desires to be nearer to His glory, to know him and love Him more?...Who breathed into thee all those requests thou hast sent up to God? Overvalue not corrupt nature, it brings forth no such fruits as these...Thy holy desires are, alas! too weak, but they are holy." -

This is comforting to me, because I often wonder what real evidence there is of the Life of God in me, if there's anything that proves I've received the Holy Spirit. The things that Baxter points out I see as true in me and in the others I know who've responded to the call of God. Usually it's difficult to get anyone to say what the real change in converted persons IS, and when we read the apostle's words "Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test?", we think "uhhhhh, what's the test? what are the questions? Is it multiple choice or true/false? or is it more of a feeling?" Most Christians I've met (including the one I meet in the mirror) get concerned because they don't see the holiness they want or expect in their own lives.

But, thank God, I can adapt Baxter's pronouns and say: "my hopes have been too low; but I have hoped in God, and for his heavenly glory. My prayers have been too dull and interrupted; but I have prayed for holiness and heaven. My labors have been too slothful; but I have labored for God and Christ and the good of mankind. though my motion was too weak and slow, it has been God-ward, and therefore it is from God."

To make an edifice alive

I feel like I should say something to you about the things you should believe
but my words would all be floating bricks with nothing underneath
always falling down in piles and I cannot build you up
left with a heap of lettered blocks that say all I've not been living
and I know I know deep down I don't have what I'd be giving
I've would be writing verbal checks with the debts up to my neck
He would be formed, revealed in me
but we're industrial now, and birth's slow going
would I chop up a tree that's growing
and call the branches fruit?
then why would I preach all the things I've never been
and why would I hold to your eyes all the things I've never seen?
I need the fountain found again
that pours foundations made of life
let him be all he is in me
and let him cut me like a knife
remove the things that shouldn't be
and cause the good to grow
til I'm again a living tree
who lives the good he knows

Acknowledge and connect, offer and receive
Interface?
The Ruach Hakodesh.

The true worshipers worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.


I was reading a section in J Gresham Machen's "Christianity in the Modern World", in which he was explaining (in an attempt to counter a false perception as much alive today as in the 1930's when he wrote it) that Christianity can't be boiled down to a shared experience, off of which we build doctrine, but rather a doctrine, from which comes an experience. He used an interesting example: The Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus spoke to her about himself, the living water, and then addressed her situation with the statement about her having no husband. She responds by what seems to be a sidestepping of the issue (her own personal sin) with a doctrinal question-"Where are we supposed to worship? In Jerusalem, or Samaria?"
Machen points out that Jesus doesn't (like so many who want to share the gospel today) brush aside this "rabbit trail" and tell her "Never mind that, we'll deal with that after you've had an experience-let's focus on your sin and it's cure" - no, Jesus answers her doctrinal question with a direct answer, - a teaching about true worship. I appreciated that from Machen, I've never noticed that about Jesus' response to her before.

Later, Josiah asked to see "The REAL Jesus movie" (By which he means "The Gospel Of John" - by Visual Bible) so I put it on for him and sat down to watch. I really appreciate being able to listen to the whole gospel with visuals so I can put what's being said into context. As I watched it came to the part where Jesus is speaking to the Samaritan woman, where he says: "But the time is coming and is already here, when by the power of God's Spirit people will worship the Father as he really is, offering him the true worship that he wants. God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is." I think that's where the doctrine hits the road. When you hear something like that, you can either ask God to give you the power of His spirit to worship him truly, or you can ignore it and worship him falsely-or not at all. It's expressed so naturally, as a doctrine, but it needs to be experienced to be obeyed.

And gosh, God knows I need His Spirit to really worship Him! I know it doesn't come naturally, at all.