The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth

What you heard me teach is an example of what you should teach. Follow that model of right teaching with the faith and love we have in Christ Jesus. This teaching is a treasure that you have been trusted with. Protect it with the help of the Holy Spirit, who lives inside us. (2 Timothy 1:13-14)

Teaching or instruction abounds, but knowing which one should be impacting your life is best left to the best tutor one could ever have - the Holy Spirit. When we ask the Holy Spirit to 'control' what comes into our minds, hearts, and emotions, we are trusting him to 'weed out' any instruction that isn't 'spot on' and 'zero in on' that which is truth. Any 'almost truth' isn't worth our time or effort!

What you hear me teach - God gives us so many positive examples, but is it wise to just 'accept without question' whatever it is they are teaching? No, absolutely not. We need to test every teaching against the Word of God and then rely upon the Holy Spirit to bring a confirmation of that truth deep within our spirit. If it doesn't ring true on ALL accounts, we aren't to buy into it. When I say, 'all accounts', I mean it lines up with the Word of God, is in keeping with the way God acts, and is born up by a confirmation from the Holy Spirit.

If we don't spend time getting to know the voice of God, we might just accept half-truths, or total untruths all together. One of the things we hear so much about these days is 'fact-checking' our political candidates. Maybe it is time we ask the Holy Spirit to 'fact-check' some of the things we have been believing as 'gospel' in our lives! Trust me on this one - the Holy Spirit is kind of like God's "Snopes" when it comes to 'sniffing out truth'!

God's teaching is something we are entrusted with - so we want to get it right. We don't want 'mixed messages' that are a bit 'muddied' by opinion, subtle untruth, or selfish ambition, do we? We want the truth, nothing but the truth, and the whole truth. To that end, we need the wisdom that comes from getting to know God's Word. We must protect the treasure of truth with the help of the Holy Spirit. Then we must share truth (and nothing but the truth), so others may know it, too. Just sayin!

Ordered thoughts and steady emotions

 And because you belong to Christ Jesus, God’s peace will stand guard over all your thoughts and feelings. His peace can do this far better than our human minds.(Philippians 4:7)

Those who belong - do you 'belong'? Some perceive 'belonging' as having the 'proper credentials', such as when you 'belong' to the country club in your local town and can get the benefits of that 'membership'. Others might think of 'belonging' as 'being properly placed' - having a specific purpose in what you do somewhere for someone. The oldest meaning of this world indicated a certain 'dependence' upon one another or someone with a 'greater position' than you had. If we think of 'belonging' to Christ as 'having a relationship' with one who holds a 'superior position', we might just be a little closer to how this word is used in scripture. To 'belong' to Christ suggests a relationship of willing service to and with the Lord Almighty.

Because you 'belong' to Christ Jesus - based upon the relationship we now enjoy, we will also enjoy certain 'privileges' as a 'member' of his family. Those privileges include the peace that stands guard over our thoughts and emotions. Heaven knows we need a little 'guarding' of our thoughts from time to time, don't we? They get all carried away because our emotions (feelings) get the best of us. Perhaps that is why God wants his peace to stand guard over both - neither one being able to really hold up well under the pressures of life, no matter how much we think they might. 

Our human minds might attempt to convince us that we have 'everything under control', but our emotions tell us otherwise. There are times when our emotions get all carried away, while our minds are telling us we might want to pull back and think those actions through just a bit more. No wonder we need God's Spirit to indwell our spirit, standing guard, bringing wisdom, and creating peace in an otherwise fickle environment of conflicted mind and emotions! The good news is that God's peace can stand guard when our own reasoning betrays us - helping us to sort out our thoughts and bringing wisdom where unreasonable or unwise thoughts prevail. 

Reliance upon the grace and peace of God in our lives is never the wrong 'tactic' - it may just be the one 'tactic' that keeps us out of life's muddled places. It could mean steady emotions and ordered thought in ways we have yet to experience. Just saying!

Hey, is that really true?

Don’t stop the work of the Holy Spirit. Don’t treat prophecy like something that is not important. But test everything. Keep what is good, and stay away from everything that is evil. (I Thessalonians 5:20-22)

Don't stop the work of the Holy Spirit - just how might we do that in our own lives or the lives of others around us? We might not listen when he is giving us guidance, choosing our own plans or path. We could discount something he has shown another, making them question if they are really hearing from God at all. We might find ourselves disagreeing with truth simply because it doesn't 'fit' our present lifestyle or choices. Whenever we 'stop the work of the Holy Spirit', we might find ourselves walking away from truth and toward deception quicker than we think!

Test everything - does God really mean 'everything' when he says this? Yes, he does! Test what you hear before you put your full belief into it! I always tell someone if something doesn't quite line up with scripture, we have to rely upon the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives to give us that final 'nudge' toward it, or that final 'tug' away from it. Many simply believe what they hear, failing to get into the scripture to see for themselves what it reveals about what is being taught. This is a dangerous way to live our lives because it sets us up for deception. Keep what is good - stay away from everything else!

The saying to 'chew up the meat and spit out the bones' holds true here. We are not going to swallow everything we hear - it might introduce things into our lives that will do us great harm. Why do you think God sent the Holy Spirit to indwell believers? It was for our safety - so we would have a 'filter' in our lives through which all teaching, instruction, and 'beliefs' could be 'tested'. It isn't that we aren't smart people - it is that we can be deceived easier than we might recognize. The work of God's Spirit within us is to bring confirmation, as well as to show us where there is a 'misalignment' between what we are forming beliefs around and God's truth. 

The closer we get to Jesus, the more our enemy wants to 'dissuade' us from that relationship. His tactic has been deception from the beginning of time, and he is too set in his ways to change that now! We need the protection of God's Spirit within to help us 'ferret out' any belief that is misaligned in ANY way with what God says to be true, upright, and holy. Just sayin!

Guided out so we can be guided in

 I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world’s. Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments. (I John 2:1)

Ever break a commandment? I can honestly say I have broken more than one! No wonder God is so intent on 'guiding us out of sin' - he knows our propensity toward breaking those doggone things! We ALL sin - break commandments - but we don't have to try to find our way out of our sinful condition on our own. Our attempts to get this 'sin problem' under control in our lives is a feeble attempt to get things 'right'. God's plan was to 'solve the sin problem for good' - not just give us a temporary fix for the sin problem. 

We get to know God and in turn, we get to understand how it is we break free from this constant battle with sin in our lives. We begin to see the futility of trying to be good and we settle into allowing God to show us how to be good. We appreciate the value of the commandments - as boundaries inside which we find protection from sin's downward spiral. Stay within the boundaries - know peace. Move outside those boundaries - reap an abundance of chaotic mess in your life.

How does God 'guide us out of sin'? It is more than providing the means - he also provides the guidance. If I have a cookbook, the ingredients, and the necessary appliances to create a meal, but don't follow the recipe within the cookbook, how well do you think the meal will turn out? The Word of God is kind of like the 'recipe book' for living well - the means by which we see the life change that frees us from the powerful pull of sin in our life.

We also have the Holy Spirit in our lives - like the cooking show host that not only shares the recipe, but shows us how to put all the ingredients together, one-by-one until there is this perfect combination of ingredients that result in the finished product. When we can see something done well, don't we want to emulate what we have seen? The Holy Spirit actually opens our eyes to the examples given to us (in scripture and in real life) so we appreciate the 'perfect combination of ingredients' that goes into a life 'well lived'. 

We will break a few commandments - but we have the perfect means by which to learn to live within those boundaries. Just sayin!

Just a little niggling

Do you not know that your body is a house of God where the Holy Spirit lives? God gave you His Holy Spirit. Now you belong to God. You do not belong to yourselves. God bought you with a great price. So honor God with your body. You belong to Him. (I Corinthians 6:19-20)

Is there anybody out there other than me that struggles to treat their body right? You know what I mean - eating healthy, making wise choices with your physical activities so as to not stress out your body too much, and getting enough rest. If you struggle with any of these, then just know you are not alone. I constantly go back and forth between desiring to eat healthy, but also craving a luscious brownie! The two are incongruous, aren't they? I haven't met a 'healthy' brownie yet! We crave a whole lot of things in this lifetime that are incongruous with what God desires for our lives. If you don't really understand what that word means, then let me explain. Anything that is 'incongruous' is inappropriate, unbecoming, and not in harmony with the character we are to be exemplifying in our lives.

There are times I almost do the Eve thing and blame God for putting the brownies on this earth. After all, if God had not created brownies, I wouldn't have the desire to eat them, right? I don't think God created brownies. Actually, the first known 'creator' of brownies was Fanny Farmer - placing the first recipe for this delightful treat into her 1896 cookbook. It is also believed that a socialite by the name of Bertha Palmer commissioned her chef to create a luscious treat for the ladies who would be attending the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, so not sure who 'created' the brownie, but I am certain the creation came some time after God created the heavens and earth! Regardless, the treat isn't God's fault and the appeal it has is not his, either. I 'own' my response to the delightful craving.

All that aside, let me assure you of this one thing - God gave us his Holy Spirit to help us rise above all things that are inappropriate for us in this lifetime. He is there to help us spot the things that will not add goodness into our character. He is right alongside us when we are about to choose a response or action that would be unbecoming in some fashion. If that is the case, then how come we still act so 'wrong' at times? God doesn't send his Holy Spirit to negate our choice - he just sends him to help us make the right ones. We still do the choosing - he just helps remind us which ones will be the best for us. I know it would be a whole lot easier if God just gave us no choice in the matter, but then we'd be puppets.

Remembering that we don't belong to ourselves any longer, we need to be cognizant of every choice we make - the little ones and the bigger ones. Certainly we can be trusted to make a wise choice from time to time, but let me assure you, we don't do it consistently. This is where the Holy Spirit comes into action in our lives - reminding us which choice is the best - niggling our subconscious as well as our conscious minds. We need to heed the 'niggling', though. Just sayin!

What is your 'back story'?

Are you a people person? You probably know the type of individual I am referencing here - that one who is so comfortable around everyone and just 'fits in' wherever they go. There are those who just like the comfort of a few close friends and then there are others who seem to flourish in huge crowds of friends. I am probably more like the former than the latter - just really comfortable with a few close friends and a little less comfortable with those 'larger crowd' of friends. Did you realize the Holy Spirit actually helps us be good friends - to be comfortable around people - and to have those really good relationships with them? He is God's gift to us in so many ways, but this particular 'gift' to us is significant because it is often in others that we see elements of God's love and grace in ways we don't always see it in ourselves. We have the opportunity to get to know God when we get to know those God brings into our circle of influence - because the Holy Spirit is helping us to see him there!

For the Holy Spirit, God’s gift, does not want you to be afraid of people, but to be wise and strong, and to love them and enjoy being with them. (2 Timothy 1:7 TLB)

God gives us glimpses into who he is, how he operates, and what his grace can do in a person's life as we observe those ones God places within our circle. We see glimpses of his power - because those individuals reflect that power in the "miracle moments" when God intervenes in their lives and shows himself strong on their behalf. As we behold his power on display, we are gaining knowledge of how God's power can also be displayed in our lives. We see glimpses of his grace - because God doesn't just surround us with individuals who have no issues or problems. He surrounds us with others who are just as 'faulty' as we are - those who 'mess up' sometimes as much and perhaps even more than we do. It isn't because God wants us to see their flaws, but because he is helping us to see how limitless his grace really is - and how his grace goes about restoring individuals, not just to their former state, but to a better state than they ever knew before.

Some of us will freely admit we are not always comfortable with others. It may be that we are a little intimidated by how 'perfect' their lives look on the outside. Yet, the Holy Spirit helps us see what those individuals are really like just beneath the surface - as 'imperfect' as we are and on this same journey toward 'getting things right' just like us! We don't need to be intimidated by others - we need to be embraced by them. We need the strength they have experienced and we also need to understand they haven't always stood strong. It is that developed strength that we behold, but it is the 'back story' that we don't always understand. The strength is there because of the work of God in their lives and we need to get close enough to see how God helped take all those things in their 'back story' and work them together to produce this strength in them. We learn as we relate - we receive as we embrace each other. We need each other and we need the Holy Spirit to help us get close enough to the other person to actually understand and learn from that 'back story'! Just sayin!

What a benefit package!

When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them. (Acts 2:1-4)

When we are filled with the Holy Spirit and continually renewed in his presence, the result will be that there will be less of "self" around to influence our decisions and to take our focus off of our Lord. We will experience a hunger for the Word of God that goes well beyond what we have ever known before - because the Holy Spirit is sent to teach us the things of God. He is our "tutor" in the things that relate to God's holiness, right living, and the love of our heavenly Father. There is an opening of the Word to us like never before - we call this revelation. Those things that we may have never seen in the Word previously will seemingly jump off the page at us. There will be a revelation of Jesus to us and a revelation of Jesus in us.

The command Jesus gave to his disciples was to wait - waiting requires obedience. The promise was that they would be filled. The filling of the Holy Spirit brought them into a place where they would be witnesses of all God had done in them. That is another thing we can count on the Holy Spirit to do in us - he makes us witnesses. Not like the kind that stand on street corners and hand out Bible tracts (although there is nothing wrong with that). He will help us to form relationships that allow us to freely express the love of God and then to show others God's graces through the demonstration of God's love in our lives.

In Ephesians 5, Paul directs the followers of Christ to be very careful how they live. This "carefulness" about living involves being attentive to our choices, evaluative about who we choose to listen to (self or Christ), and responsiveness to the desires of our Lord. In this same chapter, he tells us that we need to make the most of every opportunity we are given - this is also part of the work of the Holy Spirit. He opens our eyes to opportunities that we may not have seen before. He directs our attention to truth, brings light into darkness, and clearly shuts doors that will lead to our harm.

The events in that upper room those many years ago were prophesied by an Old Testament prophet named Joel. (Joel 2) Those words, given to him by the Holy Spirit so many years before, promised that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on all flesh. The promise included legal heirs (sons and daughters), people of all ages (young and old), and people without class distinction (servants and handmaidens). The Holy Spirit has a definite unifying work, bringing together people like nothing else can do. These are but a few of the wonderful outcomes of being "filled" with the Holy Spirit. There is a process of daily renewal that keeps our "cup overflowing". Paul reminded us in Romans 12:1-2 to daily renew our minds by presenting ourselves before him, allowing him to transform us from the inside out. It is when God is given the ordinary that he makes it extraordinary. The Holy Spirit is given to us so that we might experience the extraordinary in God. Have you been filled today? If not, ask God to fill you to overflowing with the power and anointing of his Holy Spirit. It is an experience with a continual benefit! Just sayin!

Daily problems, oh, and one more to boot!

26 And in the same way—by our faith—the Holy Spirit helps us with our daily problems and in our praying. For we don’t even know what we should pray for nor how to pray as we should, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with such feeling that it cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows, of course, what the Spirit is saying as he pleads for us in harmony with God’s own will. 28 And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his plans. (Romans 8:26-28 TLB)

Most days I need someone's help - if not "human help", I certainly need the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit. What is so certain is that we have DAILY problems. They aren't occasional, once in a great while, in the by and by kind of problems that emerge - they are DAILY. Sometimes we don't recognize them as problems, but they are nonetheless. Problems demand a solution - ignore them and they just get bigger. Sometimes the solution eludes us - like it did during a recent 'build' of a database I was developing for the team I support. Do you know how many times I went to bed at night contemplating how I could provide the exact solution they needed in how this database would function? About an entire week's worth of laying my head on the pillow resulted in some type of early morning epiphany of how to accomplish what they set out to have. Each night, I'd have a different set of needs in mind. Each morning, there'd come a new solution to attempt! Now, that isn't just my mind working overtime - it is the help of the Holy Spirit to either bring to mind something I already knew, but just wasn't seeing; or he was giving me a fresh solution to a problem I had never encountered before!

As with the database, we sometimes know what we envision might work, but when we put into action what we feel may be the solution, we encounter hurdles that kind of set us back. I have learned to walk away for a while from what is staring me right in the face, not in defeat, but in quiet contemplation. In those moments of quietness, and even in slumber, God is opening and refreshing our minds! He is clearing out what we see as the hurdle so that we can see the path ahead and how to vault the hurdle! Daily problems demand just as frequent of answers - and there is no better way to find the answers than to get into the posture of listening! There are times when it is better to just stop 'doing' and start 'quietly listening' so that we can see where we have made any wrong moves that have contributed to the problem. When I make a 'wrong move' with the database, it returns an immediate 'error warning' or 'void' calculation. Why? It cannot produce what is needed because something in my 'set-up' of the formula was wrong. There are lots of times I have attempted to just go on in life with 'wrong formulas' - but the 'return' on all those attempts yielded nothing but lots and lots of error messages!

If the Spirit knows how to guide us with what is in harmony with God's will, why on earth don't we accept that guidance a little more often? I know our pride gets in the way some of the time, but I think our 'hurried' lifestyle might just get in the way a little more frequently. We don't take time out of our busy days to just get quiet long enough to listen. I was making something in my shop yesterday and the solution to it kind of evaded me. I wanted a rolling cart to store my woodworking clamps on that would slide under the workbench and be out of the way. It needed to be at an angle, much like an A-Frame structure. I was constructing it with some new lumber and a little bit of scrap wood I had collected around the shop. It had to be narrow, so as to fit under the bench, but it also had to be sturdy because those clamps can weigh a great deal. I got to the part of making the angled support at the top and chose two pieces of salvaged wood to make the supports. I didn't realize they had some of those embedded nuts in the back of the wood as I set out to saw the desired angle. You know what happened - I jammed up the circular saw with a nut in between the guard and the blade. Yup, that little set back took me about 20 minutes of finagling to get the blade out, the nut free and everything put back together! Do you know what is even worse? I kind of felt like I was supposed to turn the wood over and inspect it before I cut it, but didn't! I knew the wood was the right dimension, marked it, and set out to cut it. The first rule of woodworking is to know your wood! Know the grain, where the knots are, how it is milled, etc.

The first rule of making life decisions - know your guide! We have been given the Holy Spirit to help us avoid those 'time-consuming', potentially life-altering moments when we make mistakes that could damage us, the thing at hand, or another! Just sayin!

Help me decide....

2 People think that whatever they do is right, but the Lord judges the reasons for everything they do. 3 Do what is right and fair. The Lord loves that more than sacrifices. (Proverbs 21:2-3 ERV)

What are the reasons behind the actions you take? This is a reasonable question, but one that may require a bit more soul-searching than we often want to make at any given moment. It is not uncommon to "act", then think of the motivation behind those actions. It usually happens as a result of the action falling short of whatever it was you thought you were doing when you acted! It is then that you look back, wondering just how quickly your actions got that off-course.

I've said this before, but it bears repeating - actions really do follow thought. We may not realize what we have been entertaining in our minds until we see the actions in play. As I have often said, having a "guard" over our thought life can be our salvation in more ways than one! We don't always know where our minds are going to take us, but when the Holy Spirit is there to stand watch over our thought life, the actions coming forth stand a more reasonable chance of being those God won't judge quite so harshly!

There are a lot of times we see people taking actions solely because they think God requires them. My friends, if the only reason we are taking an action is because we think it will somehow "win us favor" with God, those actions aren't going to hit the mark either. You have probably heard it said that to every action there is a reaction. Even actions we believe to be "holy" or "right" may not always be the best actions for us to take. There are times when the heart behind the actions just isn't in the right place, making even the "best" of actions kind of hollow.

I have discovered that since every action has a follow-up reaction, it is often quite easy to evaluate the impact of the action pretty quickly most of the time. I can get a "feel" for the impact of the action by the reaction of others who are in the path of that action. If the action was a positive one, usually the reaction will be rather positive, as well. If the action was hollow, not really genuine, the reaction is going to be equally as shallow or hollow. The action may have been "good", but was it sincere, trustworthy, and motivated by love? Really, that is the crux of the matter.

Whenever I want to change the course of the actions I am taking, I must first involve the Holy Spirit to stand guard over all present and future actions. It is too late for him to stand guard over those ones in the past, but he can begin to have an impact on my motivations and heart's desires for the present and future ones. I have to remember that my motivations and heart's desires can be "colored" by a lot of things that get heard, observed, and absorbed in my life. There is no better help to understand whether what is heard should actually be listened to, or what is observed should actually be absorbed into my life than to have the Holy Spirit reminding me of God's words on the matter at hand, or just pointing out the wisdom (or lack thereof) in the decision/action I am about to make/take. Just sayin!

Roots in the sewer?

For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. 11 No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. 12 And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. (I Corinthians 2:10-12 NLT)

Did you ever stop to really consider why it is we are given the Spirit of God as a teacher or guide in our lives? In looking at this passage again this morning, I realized it is so we can know the really intentional and purposeful thoughts of God - so we can really get to know him on an intimate basis. It is so true that the thoughts of one man's mind are known only to him - he has to share them in his words, actions, and attitude in order for us to even get a "hint" of what might be going on in that mind. In elementary school the kids used to taunt with the saying, "It takes one to know one", whenever someone pointed out some flaw in another person. Maybe there is just a little more truth to that than we might first like to admit!

I think of the mind as the place where roots take hold. Just as a tree is seen from the "surface up", most of the really important things we need to know about the tree are under the surface! The nice leaves and swaying branches are pretty and might bring us some enjoyment, but if the roots are having a hard time under the ground, or meddling in territory they should not be meddling in, that tree may look okay for a while, but eventually it will reveal what is underneath! Tree roots have to go deep - if too close to the surface and just sprawling out everywhere, the tree will topple when the winds come. Tree roots have both the potential to "take hold" and to be kind of "invasive" at times. We want them to have a good "hold", but we don't want them to be invading places they'd be best to stay out of in the first place!

A man's thoughts are known to that man until they are revealed by the evidence of what has "taken root" in the mind. If the mind lays out a rooting system that is too superficial, the actions of the man will be kind of wishy-washy and very scattered in focus. If the mind gets into territory it should not be in, the actions of the man will be destructive or unkind to whatever they come in contact with. If you have ever had a root system of a tree damage your water or sewer lines, you know exactly what I am trying to illustrate. We want the roots - we just don't want them to go where they aren't supposed to be!

We are given the Spirit of God to help us understand the mind of Christ and begin to see as he sees, act as he acts. We might have some "root thoughts" that need a little "uprooting". They have gone where they shouldn't have gone - so they are dabbling in things and places they have no business dabbling in as a believer. Until we allow God to reveal to us where those roots have taken hold, we will continue to act in ways that are destructive to our walk. God reveals his mind to us so that we know the specific "root system" we are to have in order to act as Christ acts. Back a few years ago, a phrase was all the rage in Christian circles: "What Would Jesus Do" or WWJD was everywhere. People wore bracelets with the WWJD lettering - others displayed it on bumper stickers and t-shirts. To really understand what Jesus would do, we need his mind! Just sayin!

I need the answer now!

There is great joy in having the right answer, and how sweet is the right word at the right time! (Proverbs 15:23 VOICE)

What is the right answer?  This is the question asked in schoolrooms all around the world by teachers desiring to "test" a student's knowledge or learning. The question seems innocent enough, but when called upon to actually provide the right answer it is a bit more difficult that one may first think.  There is this thing inside many of us which society has labeled as "test-taking anxiety" which seems to abruptly interrupt the "circuitry" in our brain and we "freeze" under pressure. I don't think this phenomena is limited to the classroom, though, for I know a good many times in my own personal life where I was called upon to share  the "right answer", but came up blank! The hard disk in my brain was spinning as fast as it could, but somehow the information I was looking to produce was misfiled or just too jumbled to come out right!

The right word at the right time is doubly hard to produce sometimes, is it not?  We just seem to go "blank" as though every bit of wisdom we amassed over the years is kind of like a locked treasure chest and we cannot remember where we laid the key! The issue isn't that we don't know the answer, it is that we don't know how to produce it. This is why we so desperately need the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If we explore the purpose of his presence in our lives, Jesus said it was to help us remember everything he commands, promises, and has taught us (John 14:26). As we look a little further into the Gospel of John, we find Jesus gave the Holy Spirit so that his disciples could take the mantle of forgiveness into the entire world - sharing the life-giving power to forgive sins.  The right answer at the right time may just be the answer that gives life, makes a path straight for forgiveness to begin its journey, and to ensure the work of forgiveness is coupled with restoration and reconciliation!

We might think the right answer at the right time is dependent upon something we "know" or are able to "reason out", but in truth, it is dependent solely upon us being willing to listen for that small voice within which guides us into all truth, gives us all wisdom, and reminds us of the importance of our actions. It is more about "yielding" or "resting" than it is about struggling or "computing" thought. That said, let me just say that not all "wisdom" is godly. We might be well-intentioned in what we share and still miss the mark. Why? It isn't that we didn't have the right intentions, we just didn't take the time to listen closely to what the Holy Spirit was saying - perhaps only listening to half the instructions and then launching into our action. We all can associate with that one, I am pretty confident, for none of us is "spot-on" all of the time in what we say or do. That is what makes us human.  It is also what makes us dependent upon "Supra-Human Wisdom" within us in order to ensure we are bringing forth the right word in the right time!

Rather than thinking we have to learn more, maybe it is just that we have to "think" less and allow the Holy Spirit to bring forth what is already there.  Just maybe that could be the best answer! Just sayin!

Not just another "anti-virus" program!

We are made free - we didn't get there on our own.  It isn't like we somehow did a "Harry Houdini" act and came out of the chains and locks "magically" - regardless of whether they were emotional, spiritual, or physical bonds.  We needed a deliverer.  I know I didn't possess the emotional stability to bring myself out of the places of depression I've experienced on occasion in my life. I also know I didn't possess the physical stamina to withstand the bonds of the things which physically wanted to keep me back like chronic pain.  We don't act as our own "deliverer" in this life - we are "made" free from those things which hold us in bondage - we aren't "making a way toward freedom" on our own.  To attempt this is as dangerous and unreliable as thinking we could find our way out of the chains and locks while submerged head first under water like Houdini. The world wants us to believe the "illusion" of being able to set oneself free, but remember this - it is all an illusion!  Houdini had more than a few "slights of hand" and "tricks up his sleeves" to get him free from those chains and locks! Whenever we rely upon the "tricks" we can muster or perfect on our own, we are relying on things we "know about", but we might actually find the thing which binds us the strongest is something we are less than familiar with!

We have freedom now, because Christ made us free. So stand strong in that freedom. Don’t go back into slavery again.  Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you start following the law by being circumcised, then Christ cannot help you. Again, I warn everyone: If you allow yourselves to be circumcised, then you must follow the whole law.  If you try to be made right with God through the law, your life with Christ is finished—you have left God’s grace.  I say this because our hope of being right with God comes through faith. And the Spirit helps us feel sure as we wait for that hope.  When someone belongs to Christ Jesus, it is not important if they are circumcised or not. The important thing is faith—the kind of faith that works through love.  (Galations 5:1-6 ERV)

The truth is we get ourselves into some pretty tight jams in this life and we don't have a clue how to get out of them.  Some are of our own doing and we should have known better, but somehow we just plowed straight ahead and now we are reaping the ill-effects of the wrong decisions.  At other times we find ourselves completely in bondage to things we just have no clue why we are under their hold.  Either way, we need to recognize we don't obtain our freedom from these things apart from God's grace intervening in our lives to bring us the deliverance we so desperately need.  We might think we can stand strong on our own, but even the strength to stand is given by God.  Many who think they are doing this by their own strength find themselves caving under the pressure of the weight of the bondage.

One of the dangers of "deliverance" is the memory associated with the bondage. You might not think this would be an issue, but if you talk with an alcoholic working through the 12-steps, you will find they are quite aware of the "pull" back into bondage again.  Why?  There is this memory associated with the bondage which exercises the control again and again, trying to get us to respond to it as we used to.  This is why it is so hard for us to break bad habits. We feel the pull and that pull is was can actually be the hardest thing to overcome.  It is God who changes our "memory" of the thing which pulls at the strings of our heart - he actually helps "dull" the memory.  It isn't that he makes us forget the bad habit entirely - he just helps us not bring the memory of it fully into focus at every turn in our lives!

It is his Spirit who actually helps in this process - for as we want to be brought back into bondage to the old ways of living - he is at work helping reminds us where our focus needs to be today.  He is not "re-programming" our brains, per se, but you kind of might associate what he is doing as similar to this process of re-programming.  I have had many a computer over the years and one thing I recognize is the tremendous mess things get into when little bits and pieces of this program get affected by some other program I allow to be placed on the computer.  They aren't always compatible with each other - one almost interfering with the smooth operation of the other.  In our brains, there are "programs" which are constantly trying to be over-written by other "programs" we come into contact with.  When this starts to happen, we get a mess of "error messages", but we don't have a clue as to how to deal with them.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives - to help us deal with the error messages, avoid the conflicts in "programs" which attempt to get us all messed up!  Thank goodness we have such a careful watcher over our lives - for if you left it up to each of us to do what the Holy Spirit does, we'd make a worse mess of things for sure!  To be truly free of the bondage of the "interfering programs", we need to allow him to do the work he is there to do.  Just sayin!

A little "mind control", please

As we have been looking at the differences between the wise, simple, and foolish, we will continue today down the path of observing some of the character traits of the wise.  One of the most profound things I believe we begin to possess when we move from just having knowledge about something into a place of actually using that knowledge is this whole idea of developing a little better judgment.  Judgment is a really tricky thing - for some it comes in the form of some awful mistake-ridden steps; for others it may seem like a walk in the park. I don't know which end of the scale you might find yourself on at the moment, but I can confess to the fact of walking at both ends of the scale at one point or another!  It is kind of like watching an speedometer on your car's dashboard - it goes up and down - depending on what you are doing with your foot on the accelerator.  If you depress the gas pedal with your foot, the speedometer goes up and the car speeds forward, but take off the pressure and it will again return to the slower pace.  The same is true in our lives.  We all know how fast things can get out of control in our lives when the pressure is great, but just a little relief from that pressure can bring us back down to a manageable pace.  One end of the spectrum has us spinning our wheels and running insanely out of control.  The other has us plugging along at an even pace, but not so crazy we are going to crash out of control. Wisdom is like having a "governor" on your mind's accelerator!  A governor on the accelerator acts as a device to maintain uniform speed regardless of load changes.  That is technical speak for the idea of something acting as a force to keep us from exceeding safe ranges with our speed!  Wisdom acts as guide for our thoughts, emotions, and eventually our actions - keeping us from responding to "load changes".  The simpleton never installed the governor.  The fool has learned to bypass it!  The wise value the presence of the governor because they see it as a means of maintaining safety in all they do.

Wisdom will control your mind, and you will be pleased with knowledge. Sound judgment and good sense will watch over you. Wisdom will protect you from evil schemes and from those liars who turned from doing good to live in the darkness. Most of all they enjoy being mean and deceitful. They are dishonest themselves, and all they do is crooked. (Proverbs 2:10-15 CEV)

"Mind control" is often equated with some form of "mystic" practice in which someone "gets inside your mind" and controls your thoughts.  Through suggestion they can make you do certain things.  Well let me shed a little light on this matter - your mind is controlled by whoever or whatever you allow to act as a governor over it.  If you submit your thoughts to the control of another, such as the leader of a gang, you might just find your actions becoming more and more deviant.  Why?  The desire of the gang leader is to have followers (little minions to do his or her bidding).  I don't know about you, but I don't want to be anybody's minion!  There are times when we think it won't hurt to turn our attention over to another, but when we get a little further into the relationship, we find ourselves spinning out of control.  It is like the load is applied and we cannot manage to bring the vehicle of our lives back into control because it is so wildly out of control.  When we ask for the Holy Spirit to become the governor over our thoughts (and ultimately our actions), we are asking God to provide us with a reliable source of "mind control".  

I think this is the real purpose behind Solomon sharing the truths about the wise and the comparison of the actions of both the wise and the foolish.  The more we learn about how this "governor" works in our lives, the more we will embrace the idea of having one it.  The wisdom that comes from above is not just there by accident, or through osmosis.  We don't just soak it in and "poof" we are changed by it.  Wisdom is application - like the governor engaging to prohibit too much gas to get to the engine, resulting in the engine speeding up and the car flying wildly out of control.  Wisdom exerts an "opposing pressure" to that of the mindless things we might want to engage in because we didn't think them through very well. When we "push down on the accelerator" to respond to certain stimuli, we find the Holy Spirit acting as a "governor" to prohibit the response to the "increased load".  Much of life is learning to balance the load - not just living by the seat of our pants.

Part of the purpose of the Holy Spirit "governor" in our lives is this idea of sound judgment and good sense.  Heaven knows full well how messed up my own judgment can get when it is allowed to run freely without any control!  I tend to see things from "MY" perspective - forgetting there are others in the mix who I need to be concerned about. I lean into things with gusto, not counting the ultimate cost of those commitments, causing myself to become over-extended and exhausted.  I journey into places I have no business being.  I lose restraint and find myself doing things I really should not be doing.  If we want to live beyond this kind of "lack of control" we need something which places "control" back into our lives. Hence, we need the wisdom which comes from above and the only connection we truthfully have with this wisdom is the Spirit of God resident within us.  Do you know why big businesses who rent trucks like Ryder and U-Haul put governors in their panel trucks?  Most of us aren't used to driving larger vehicles AND we have no clue what that increased load does to the vehicle when it comes to stopping it!  The governor is there to keep us from escalating the speed of the burden laden vehicle to dangerous speeds because we cannot rightly judge how much stopping distance we need, or what the increased load of a downward grade will produce as we try to get control of the vehicle.

I don't think our lives equate to moving trucks, but I hope you can see the illustration. We don't always have the right kind of judgment in our lives - so we need good judgment to be built-into our lives by a means which is reliable and consistent.  As we read the Word of God, studying it more and more, we learn truths which are all good.  Those good truths don't have much affect over us until we allow them to be applied.  The Holy Spirit is the one to assist with this application - as a governor over our thoughts, a guide over our responses, and a coach for us when we don't know what steps to take next.  Just sayin!

More than a subtitle

In most Bibles today, there are little sub-section titles which give you some idea what the chapter or section you are reading will be about.  These section or chapter titles help to focus us and get us "set" for the passage we are about to take in.  There are time when I just ignore them entirely because I find they might "sway" my opinion of what I will find in that section, though.  For example, if I think the section deals with the feeding of the five thousand, I just see this as a miracle of the fish and loaves being multiplied and a bunch of hungry people being fed.  I miss some of the detail within - like the fact that the only one in the group of five thousand who had any food being a little boy! The five thousand were just the men - you mean all the women in the group left home without packing even "snacks" for the day?  Or how about the fact that the disciples have all these empty baskets to put the food in - what does this say about empty "vessels"?  The empty basket only serves the purpose for which it was created when it is filled and used in service to those it was designed to serve!  You see, as we just focus on what we "think" might be there in the section, we could easily miss some of the delightful truths! So, as we read, we need to remain open to the little "finds" deep within the passage. In the passage which I have taken our reading for today from, the subtitle reads: "What it means to be acceptable to God".  I think this is a good place to start, but let me assure you, there are a whole lot more truths within this passage than "what it means to be acceptable to God".  Yep, the passage speaks of being "made acceptable" and then we "live at peace with God".  What about the truth of being really and genuinely "happy" because of this transition?  What about the benefit of "suffering" being part of this "acceptance"?  Huh?  We come to Christ and we get the "benefit" of suffering?  Yep, it is a "benefit" - probably not one "advertises" in the "portfolio" of reasons someone wants to become a Christian, right?  Yet, it is a "perk" of the "position"!

By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God. Christ has also introduced us to God’s undeserved kindness on which we take our stand. So we are happy, as we look forward to sharing in the glory of God. But that’s not all! We gladly suffer, because we know that suffering helps us to endure. And endurance builds character, which gives us a hope that will never disappoint us. All of this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love. (Romans 5:1-5 CEV)

Let's unpack this passage a little.  We are "made acceptable" - it is not something we accomplish in our own power.  This is the beginning point of our journey into "acceptance" - something which begins "outside" of our own ability and often even outside of our own desire!  Even the desire to pursue Christ's offered gift of salvation is something which is fanned to life within us by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Therefore, even the desire to believe is a gift.  We are indeed "made" acceptable - nothing we do or believe is what causes us to be acceptable.  

As we begin this journey with Christ, we learn what it is to live at peace with God.  Our condition prior to being made acceptable was one of continually trying to "make peace" with a variety of things, most of which were not God!  For example, we try to make peace with past decisions (good or bad) which now placed new demands upon us as we realized the outcome of those decisions. Some of those demands were easier than others to live up to - such as when we decide to be five minutes later to work because we stopped for gas when the tank was low.  If we got a speeding ticket because we decided to ignore the speed limit on the way to work rather than being late, we might be kicking ourselves now for not leaving five minutes earlier or buying gas on the way home last night!  We have to make peace with the decisions we make all the time.  The decision to follow Christ is kind of different, though.  We are "brought into peace" - we don't have to make our own peace!

It is by Christ we come to know the "undeserved" kindness of God.  We all kind of get what it is to experience grace - undeserved kindness.  Yet, do we miss the next part of the passage?  The part where it says this is what we actually "stand upon" in our relationship with Christ and with God the Father?  Read it again - we "take our stand" or "stand upon" grace!  Grace is our "footing", so to speak.  It isn't just a gift to us - it is something upon which we actually find "foundation".  Foundation is literally defined as the basis or groundwork of anything.  So, grace is the "basis" or "groundwork" of even greater things in our lives.  It is the starting point by which all other good things can be "built into" our lives in Christ Jesus!

What comes next is something of a conundrum for us because none of us enter into this relationship with Jesus saying we hope he takes us down the path of suffering!  Many of us even came to Christ in a period of time in our lives when we were suffering a great deal because of the decisions we made in our lives! We actually hoped he'd help us actually rise above those not so pleasant experiences!  Now we find out we can not only expect suffering, but it is something "built into" this relationship we have with Christ because it helps us develop this thing called endurance.  

Hmmm....not sure I'd have signed up for the experience if I had known that one up front!  But...don't lose sight of how this all develops in this passage.  We are "made acceptable" by receiving something which gives us all the "groundwork" we need in order to become strong and worthy participants in the family of God. It is this groundwork which gives us the ability to endure the "building process". No foundation is ever laid which is not meant for something to be built upon it! If you have ever watched a building go up, you will notice there are phases in the building.  Each phase "connects" the building to the foundation upon which it is built.  So, all we endure in this life actually connects us more and more with this "groundwork" which was originally laid in our lives by the Spirit of God at the point of our salvation!

The purpose of any building is not to just look pretty.  People don't build buildings to just stand there and be uninhabited.  In fact, they are built to be filled!  Even a shed is built to house some tools, store supplies, or the like!  The building is created to be filled.  The same is true of us - we are built upon the groundwork of grace so that we might be filled with the love of God!  The things we endure connect us to the foundation which was laid.  Those things create a framework into which God can place his love in ever increasing proportions. This is indeed the meaning of what it is to stand acceptable to God - a dwelling for his love to inhabit.  Just sayin!

Aching to pray

We often discount the influence of God's Spirit within us, but also how much he does on our behalf as we walk through the daily grind.  If you have ever been at the point of just not knowing what to do next because the situation just seems to be overwhelming you, you probably have been at the point you just want to give up instead of plunging ahead.  In those moments of frustration, the Spirit of God is within us encouraging, exhorting, and elevating us from the position of frustration to the place of possibility.  If we were to be entirely honest here, we'd admit that even our prayers get a little scattered in these times and we might not even want or know how to pray.  Thank goodness we have the Spirit of God to keep those prayers rising to the throne of God even when we cannot figure out how to pray or what to pray!

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.  (Romans 8:26-28 MSG)

I run across so many Christians who just simply tell me they don't pray because they don't know how to pray, what to pray, or when to pray.  This may seem a little too much to believe for some, but trust me, this prayer thing has Christians a little mystified - like it was something we have to get absolutely "right" or it won't "count".  Scripture bears out the truth, though - prayer is not something we have to "get right" in order to make it "count" - it is just our best faith attempt at communicating our heart with Jesus. Sometimes we will do this better than others - words coming easily, thoughts well-ordered, and we aptly express what needs to be expressed.  At other times, words escape us, we don't feel "worthy" to pray, or something as simple as just not feeling like God is going to listen anyway keeps us from even trying.

Scripture tells us to pray without ceasing and to let our needs be known to God as he delights in meeting those needs.  Yet there are times when those "needs" don't seem to be very apparent to us - we know we need God's intervention, but the specifics of that intervention just absolutely escape us. In those moments, we need God's Spirit to intercede through us - he needs to give us the words to speak and make our needs known in the heavenly realms.  Why?  Simply because we are incapable of knowing all we need, or maybe it is because we get a little stymied by the details.  Either way, we need someone else to intervene on our behalf because without this intervention, we continue to walk in circles around the same problems which have been haunting us all along!

Isn't it good to know that God's Spirit knows us better than we know ourselves?  To me, that takes the pressure off!  I don't have to figure this all out on my own - because my life is pretty doggone complicated with me in charge!  Our wordless sighs and aching groans are enough to give him insight into our deepest needs and then he goes to work to express those in only the way he can.  If I interpret this correctly, it isn't the words I speak as much as the heart behind what is spoken - for even my groans and sighs have heavenly meaning!  That is indeed good news to those who believe prayer has to be some "polished" thing - because it isn't!  It is the thoughts and intentions of my heart, mind, will, and emotions - expressed in ways God understands because his Spirit interprets them for us.

Every detail is brought before the throne of God - none escapes him when the Spirit is free to express those details on our behalf.  How then do we enter into this place of allowing the Spirit of God to become our "guide" in prayer? It is quite simple - just ask the Holy Spirit to take what you cannot express and make it plain in the heavenlies.  He will!  It is his delight to do this on our behalf.  We are all inhabited by the Spirit of God when we invite Christ into our lives to be Lord and Savior.  All we need to do then is to rely upon the Spirit to do what he lives in us to do - act as a guide, teacher, intercessor, and companion in the journey.  It isn't rocket science, friends.  Even our need to pray is a concern to God - so much so he provided a means by which the aches of our heart, the groans of our spirit, and the rawness of our emotions may be perfectly formed into prayers which reach the heavenly realms on our behalf!  That's awesome!  Just sayin!

The tongue and our steps

If you have ever tried to "watch your steps", you might just have tripped over your own two feet!  Worse, you actually are paying so close attention to your steps, you miss the post in front of you and run smack-dab into it!  You probably notice this the most whenever you are trying to watch what you say; for words can be the toughest things to keep a rein on, can't they?  At the moment we determine to watch our words, we can almost count on something slipping past our lips, out into the open space between us and the one who will hear them, never to be in our control again!  The main issue with US determining we are gong to influence our steps or control our tongue is our total inability to do either!  We definitely need some influence outside of our own effort to get this stuff right, don't we?

I’m determined to watch steps and tongue so they won’t land me in trouble.  (Psalm 39:1 MSG)

The very next verse of this psalm points to the dilemma we all face:  But as I stood there in silence—not even speaking of good things—the turmoil within me grew worse. (vs. 2 NLT)  Yep, he stood his ground, kept his peace, but when surrounded by evil, the toughest thing to do is remain strong in your stand and to hold your peace when everything inside you is just beckoning to share a little of your thought on the matter!  Perhaps the toughest struggle comes to us when we are faced with something we don't have the best feelings about and then we try to bring out some good feelings or speak forth some good words in the midst of the turmoil.  I think this may just be because we don't want to be in-genuine, or hypocritical.

So, how do we "watch our steps" when the road ahead is not very pleasant? What is it we can do to pay closer attention to our steps, but avoid the tendency to misstep?  I think the "secret" to this lies not in our desire, but in our action.  As long as WE are taking the steps to walk straight, we probably won't realize how treacherous some of our steps actually are!  We need the influence of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to guide our steps - to keep us on track - and to establish us on a strong foundation.  Some things to consider:

- OUR steps aren't consistent without the help of the Holy Spirit.  He is our enabling force when we just don't know how to take the first step and he is our directing force when we just might be about to change the course of our future stability with the step we are about to take.

- OUR ears and heart have more to do with the stability of our walk than we might actually realize.  It is more than action - it is the right action which produces the outcomes we desire.  Our ears must be attentive to listen for the still small voice of God - maybe in a word we glean in our time in daily study, maybe in a tiny whisper deep within our inner man that just "checks" us before we go any further.  Our heart must be willing to be directed - otherwise the steps we take will be ours - directed by our self-will and independent determination.

How do we "watch our tongue" when there are so many words just clamoring to get out?  After all, the world needs to hear what it is we have to say, doesn't it?  Maybe I could challenge us all a little on that one - not everything we think is worth speaking!  The psalmist often spoke of just being still and listening - something we might do well to engage in a little more frequently in this new year, huh?  Listening is one of the toughest things because we just want to jump right in and shed a little of our "light" on the matter.  Some things to consider as it applies to "watching our tongue":

- The tongue needs more help than we may actually realize.  Scripture bears witness to the fact of the words being spoken often acting as the first thing which plants the seed of thought which will determine our steps.  Think about it - Adam and Eve only took the first misstep AFTER the serpent spoke the words which placed a moment of doubt and a little confusion into the minds of the listener!  

- The words we listen to will often influence the words we choose to speak. In determining to keep a watch over our tongue, we are actually committing to keeping a watch over our ears, eyes, and other senses, as well.  What we hear influences what we speak.  What we see puts fresh thought into our minds which may not have been there before, influencing our speech in ways we may not imagine.

Lest we think we can do this on our own, let me just point us back to scripture.  James 3 reminds us of the means of controlling our tongue.  He presents the idea of a bit in the mouth of the horse, or the rudder on the ship - each being able to control something more powerful than either the bit or the rudder would appear to control.  We may not realize the influence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, often because we don't see him at work!  Yet, he is like the bit in the mouth of the horse, pulling back a little until we sense his presence and begin to be aware of his influence.  He is definitely like the rudder on the ship, slowly, but surely moving us into the direction he wants to see us headed.  

We don't own the rudder or the bit - but we are influenced by them if they are in place in our lives!  A ship without a rudder is like a man or woman without direction - aimlessly walking, purposeless in their speech.  A rudder pointed in the wrong direction will run us aground.  Therefore, we need someone other than ourselves doing the "steering" in our lives.  Just sayin!

Getting rid of the "bad seed"

We began to explore a little about "fruit-bearing" yesterday.  As you may recall, we need to both recognize what seed is being planted and have the knowledge to know whether it is good or not.  Today, let's go a little deeper into this idea of "fruit-bearing" - keeping in mind that fruit is "grown", not just magically "given" in our lives.  We can use all kinds of excuses for any "bad fruit" we want to - truth be told, it grew there because of the seed which was planted.  On occasion, we have explored the concept of "character" being formed in our lives - a process requiring a period of time with a series of adjustments this way and that until there is evidence of God's character shining through in a pretty consistent manner.  I don't think you can consider "fruit-bearing" apart from this concept of character formation.  In fact, as fruit is becoming evident, it is only because of the "character" of the thing it is "attached" to from which it draws its very source of life.  This is why we cannot expect grapes from a thistle bush, or oranges from a grape vine.  It takes the vine to produce the grape, the tree to produce the orange, and the weed to produce the thistle!

But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.  (Galations 5:22-23 MSG)

I think it is important to remember growth as a "participatory" process and not something which is "forced" upon us.  Sometimes one prepares the soil, another sows the seed, and still another tends the seed until it has taken root.  It may be another who actually reaps the harvest and thousands who enjoy the increase of that one seed.  Many benefit from the actions of a few, but all participated in the process.  In the same way, when a seed is sown into our lives, we either participate with the process or we don't.  

If the soil of our heart is too hard, the seed may fall, but we will reject it because we would not yield to the preparation of the soil to receive it.  We participate with the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Most importantly, we recognize the importance of the process - participating in it fully.  This means we allow the preparation of the soil, often uncovering hidden things we might not have known were there, and breaking up fallow soil, previously pretty barren in our lives.  We also embrace the seed, allowing it to take root.  As it takes root, we also need to be aware of the passage of time between root and fruit.  In this time, we are not "stagnant", but participating in the process of growth - taking in what will bring forth the most precious of fruit.

When we begin to "live God's way", we are beginning to participate with him in the daily transformation of our lives.  Unwholesome seed and its root is exposed - what we do with it in that moment of exposure is what determines if we are truly willing to live God's way or choosing to live our own.  It is pretty easy to recognize seed and root which bears good fruit - but we often resist the attempts of the Holy Spirit to expose the seed and root which will not.  It isn't that we don't see the unwholesome seed, it is more that we don't want to go to the effort of seeing the field of our lives turned over enough to get rid of ALL the seed and its root.  

Until we are willing to uncover ALL the unwholesome seed, there will always be some which takes root.  As you may imagine, getting to the place of "cooperating with" and "participating in" this whole "fruit-inspection" process is a little harder than we thought at first blush.  For most of us, we don't have the power we need to change the stuff we need to change.  The reason the seed grows is because we don't know how to get rid of it, cannot see where it has taken root, and don't realize how much it has multiplied within us.  

We need the Holy Spirit's power to actually expose and remove it.  You may not realize the power of the Word of God.  Take even a little of it into the soil of your hearts each day and see just how much it changes the "character" of the soil!  The regular turning over of the soil provided by the intake of the Word is what brings exposure.  Exposure leads to removal.  Removal promotes readiness.  Readiness results in planting of the good stuff.  Good seed produces good fruit.  A little intake has a huge potential!  Just sayin!

My filing cabinet

Memory is a powerful tool - learning how to use it to our advantage is probably one of the most difficult tasks we can undertake, for we remember what we'd be best to let go of and we don't remember some of the most awesome moments God provides for our growth and restoration.  If you have ever caught yourself bemoaning where you ARE, you have probably forgotten where you came FROM.  We have selective memories, at best.  Focusing too intently on one thing keeps us from seeing the things we might just need to hold a little closer to our hearts.

God makes everything come out right; he puts victims back on their feet... God is sheer mercy and grace; not easily angered, he’s rich in love. He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold, nor hold grudges forever. He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our wrongs. As high as heaven is over the earth, so strong is his love to those who fear him. And as far as sunrise is from sunset, he has separated us from our sins. As parents feel for their children, God feels for those who fear him. He knows us inside and out, keeps in mind that we’re made of mud. Men and women don’t live very long; like wildflowers they spring up and blossom, but a storm snuffs them out just as quickly, leaving nothing to show they were here. God’s love, though, is ever and always, eternally present to all who fear him, making everything right for them and their children as they follow his Covenant ways and remember to do whatever he said.  (Psalm 103:6-18 MSG)

I think we are all a little guilty of yearning for the "good old days", aren't we? We want things to be the way they used to be - not because things were all that much better, but our memories paint the picture of those bygone times being way cooler or better than our present circumstance.  One thing I have learned to do when I am hit with a sudden bought of "good old day" yearning is to run things through my memory again, but through a different "filter".  I ask the Holy Spirit to make clear what it is I recall - not relying upon my "translation" of what I recall as the real way it was.  Even the "good old days" were riddled with some pretty heavy stuff and challenges I almost thought would break me.  I just choose to remember the good stuff and shut out the bad and I don't believe I am alone in this "memory" issue.

So, what does asking the Holy Spirit do for our "memory" which we cannot do for ourselves?  Perhaps it is best stated this way - he helps put into perspective the things we went through to get where we are.  In essence, he helps us remember things from our past which we've "worked through" which we'd probably rather not go through again.  We recall the "good stuff" - he helps us remember the "hard stuff".  I honestly believe remembering the "hard stuff" helps keep us from repeating mistakes, making unwise choices, and having to "relearn" lessons.  Another thing the Holy Spirit does by focusing our "remembrance" of events is help us define who we are - God's kids, cared for by his hand, and made right because he has watched over us through all of life's circumstances.  We might just miss that otherwise!

Probably one of the most significant ways the Holy Spirit helps us is in how he helps us "process" events.  As we go through stuff in life, he is there to help us process "through" them, keeping us from muddling through by our own efforts.  We sometimes forget this important "companion" we have on our journey - thinking we have to make it through on our own because in our mind we think we ought to be able to handle stuff.  We often formulate this belief of having to "handle stuff" we go through because it is kind of familiar to us - like we have been through something similar in the past.  If there is one thing I know for sure, the thing which seems vaguely familiar to me may look and sound a lot like something I have walked through before, but there are all different players, I am at a different point in my life, and the event is only "similar", it is not the "same".  We need the guidance of the Holy Spirit to show us the similarities, but to also help us see the uniqueness in the circumstance.

The important thing to keep in mind is the work of the Holy Spirit in helping us with our "filing system".  You see, he is a "master filer" - he knows what will be needed again and what is okay to just "shred"!  If you are anything like me, you have a pile on the top of your desk right now of the mail from the past week.  Some is clearly junk mail and just needs to be discarded, but since it might be an offer for a credit card or the like, you probably stack them up until you have a couple to shred.  Other things in the pile are important, but really, once you read them, you don't need to save them - they will go in the shred pile, too.  A very few of the items in the pile actually need to make it to the filing cabinet - because they need to be saved for future reference. The Holy Spirit is attuned to the "right stuff" to save for "future reference". He can guide us in "shredding" the stuff which is just junk and the stuff which really doesn't matter once processed.  Then he leaves us with the things which really need to be "filed away" for future reference.

Since the work of the Holy Spirit is to both help us remember correctly and to file away what really matters, isn't it important to consult him when we might just be experiencing a little "recall" problem?  When we allow him to help us with recall, we often get a different perspective on the matter.  I went back to the home where I spent the first seven years of my life one day, but experienced extreme disappointment by what I saw.  I was disappointed because what I had "filed away" about the house made it out to be this palatial mansion, with a huge yard, and gigantic trees ready for the climbing.  When I saw the house, it was run down, no bigger than most subdivision homes of the day, and the trees had all been trimmed down to nubby miniatures.  My "memory" did not match "reality".  This is a perfect example of how we "file away" things which don't always "translate" into reality in quite the same manner!  

So, the next time we get a little too focused on wishing for the "good old days", we might just do well to ask the Holy Spirit to help us recall the "truth" about what we filed away!  He will help us see the work of God in our lives a little clearer and keep us on track.  We only need to ask.  Just sayin!