Loving God with Soul VI

I will apologize now for not putting in this day's study earlier. It's been quite a weekend. Today's readings now help us celebrate the meaning and joy of our Spirit-spirit relationship with God.

Isaiah 61

These first verses may sound very familiar. They are the words Jesus used in Luke's gospel when he presented himself and his ministry in the synagogue. When the Spirit is upon us and our soul relationship with God is growing, it will do as it did with Moses, Isaiah and even the disciples, take us to people and situations that are broken. We take to them a message of hope and the possibilities of a greater future.

One of the hazards of being religious is that we become "weary in well doing." We start doing godly and even noble things without nurturing our relationship with God. The power to give hope, liberate others, and be part of transforming our world is given when "the Spirit of the Lord is upon us." There is also a practical dimension to this. If there is no hope, liberation and salvation of others, or transformation of the world around us, is "the Spirit of the LORD upon us?" One of our cars was not running well last week. The battery cables had become a little loose and the connection resulted in sputtering and stalling. The explosive power of that vehicle was dependent on the connection to power being solid. So it is with the things we do for the LORD. The Spirit-spirit connection is critical.

The prophet finishes chapter 61 with a joyous season of praise, expressing his thanksgiving and confidence in God. When I hear Christians talk, there is often a lot of whining about what's going on around them. When we are Spirit-connected we are not afraid to bring up that which is sinful or negative, but we do so from a point of holy confidence. Has your Christian walk been kind of whiny lately? It may be time to reconnect with what is the true power of your life. "The Spirit of the LORD is upon you!"

Romans 8:18-39

There is so much in this passage, I could spend a week just talking about it. But I invite you to take note of just a few things. First, notice the life in the Spirit is not a bed of roses (unless you include the thorns!). There is a false notion out there that if you are spiritually right with God that everything will be successful, without controversy, conflict or pain. God always wins and so do Spirit-filled lovers of God. That is not what the Bible says at all. What it says is that God wins in the end (the message of the empty tomb and the book of Revelation), but along the way there are many losses and profound times of suffering. According to this passage, creation is suffering while God's children are learning to get it right. We as creatures also suffer.

But we never suffer alone, the good news of Romans 8:26-27. We come to God who understands and gives us His Spirit so that when the pain is beyond words, we can keep holding on. The Spirit understands and interprets to God our pain. Similarly the Spirit interprets God's pain to us so that we can do His work in our hurting world. This is another part of the intimacy of our relationship with God when we "love Him with all our soul" - shared pain.

In verses 28-30, we have one of the most controversial passages in the entire Bible. Verse 28 is often mistranslated (KJV and NRSV included). It should read, "In everything, God works things together for good," not "Everything works together for good." God works for good in everything, but some things are just bad and have no justifiable purpose. But just as David found God in the pit of Sheol in Psalm 103, so we find God making unbelievable good out of the worst of situations. Readers of this blog, could fill this site with comments of how God has done that in your own difficult and tragic situations. Verse 29 has been a source of division and disagreement in the church from the beginning. What do we do with predestination? I was raised in a more determinist faith in which my choice was diminished and God's choosing was nearly total. It is also the dominant way Protestants tend to talk about God. I must tell you that I no longer believe that way. I will do a separate article on this subject tomorrow evening, so that I can do the topic justice.

The finale of Romans 8 (verses 31-39) are full of the confidence that the Spirit creates in us as we grow in our spiritual love of God. "Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ through Jesus our Lord." God is absolutely reliable and in that we take great hope and joy.

Again, thanks for your patience. Hope to see you on Sunday.