Archive for October, 2017

Hupomone: The Holy Spirit, Our Best Friend

Posted in Bible Study, Life and Ministry, tagged , , , , , , , on October 19, 2017| Leave a Comment »

 

 

friends

Best Friend- a person’s closest friend. (Google Dictionary)

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God…1 Corinthians 6:19

A best friend, what a precious thing to have.  Most of us at different times in our lives have had a best friend.  For those of us who spent a lot of time moving around we may have had several.  I have known best friends who were so close that it almost seemed like they were inside each others hearts and minds.  The author of Proverbs 18 puts it this way:

A man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.  Proverbs 18:24

Today I want to give you three ways that the Holy Spirit is our best friend as followers of Jesus Christ.

The first we have already touched on.  The Holy Spirit is the closest friend that we will ever have.  The Holy Spirit lives inside the believer.  I don’t pretend to understand the mechanism of this indwelling but I experience its reality.  The Holy Spirit is closer to me than my brother or any friend that I could ever have.  The cool thing is that not only does the Spirit live inside me, the Holy Spirit lives in all God’s people so that I am impacted through my brothers and sisters in Christ even as I am transformed from the inside.

Secondly best friends have an indelible effect on us.  Our behavior, our very identity is shaped by the friends around us and particularly by those we consider to be in the best category. Paul in  his letter to Titus says:

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:5

When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, he accepts us based on the                              undeniable presence of the Holy Spirit who changes us forever in a process of                      regeneration and renewal that puts on the road to conforming to the mind of                      Christ.

Finally best friends are there to help.  I can only imagine that the paralytic who was lowered through the roof in front of Jesus had multiple best friends who were looking out for his best interest.  The Holy Spirit is the best of the best friends in this area.  The Spirit is sent by the Father at the behest of the Son demonstrating the united front of the Trinity.  The Spirit’s divine nature engages us and when we open ourselves to that nature becomes helper, guide, comforter.  Where Jesus stood in the lives of his disciples, the Holy Spirit stands in the heart of his followers.

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that he may be with you forever.  John 14:16

We have this wonderful best friend.  One that is closer to us than any other.  One that desires to transform us and renew us into that reflects the very nature of God.  One that is there to help us walk out this life as children of God.  One that perhaps we fail to acknowledge, to share and share with, to truly depend on as the best friend sent straight from God into our hearts.  One that is God himself.  How is your relationship with your best friend?

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Hupomone: Best Friends

Posted in Bible Study, Leukemia, Life and Ministry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 11, 2017| Leave a Comment »

The secret to living the Christian life is to become best friends with the Holy Spirit. He has all the right qualities for that role and will not disappoint you- Charles Stanley

I posted this quote from Pastor Stanley’s InTouch Ministries devotional some time ago while Allana and I were deep in the treatment for her Leukemia.  It has been percolating in my brain since then.  The importance of this statement has become clearer and clearer in my life, though the topic languished here in the draft file.

As we walked the difficult road of cancer we greatly appreciated the observations and comments about our faith and commitment to Christ through the trial.  The truth is we don’t see it.  We didn’t then and we don’t really now.  We do not feel overly special, or faithful and certainly not holy.  Yet we see the impact of our lives and are humbled by it and blessed to see the Holy Spirit working around us in the lives of God’s people and in the lives of those soon to join the family!  So what is the secret.  Well it is not so secret.

The Holy Spirit is our Best Friend.  Friendship takes time to cultivate.  I think that too many times we think that we have all the time in the world to become friends with the Holy Spirit and that we do not need to become close with the Holy Spirit until the S*** hits the fan.  The reality is that if we wait until we decide we need the friendship of the Holy Spirit to cultivate that relationship we are in for a tough time of it.  This is just another view of the Hupomone lifestyle.  If you read the Intro to Hupomone you will see that the Greek word mean “remain under” or “remain about”.  This is the only way that a true friendship will develop.  It is the result of persistence, perseverance, steadfastness (all words used to translate Hupomone).

Many Christians believe that Acts 2 was the beginning of the relationship with the Holy Spirit for the disciples. However if you read the Gospels carefully you will find Jesus intentionally leading the disciple into relationship as a part of guiding them into relationship with Himself.  Even in the Old Testament we find the Holy Spirit in relationship with men like David, Moses, Elijah and others.  Luke notes that Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied about his son.  He also notes that Simeon who greeted Mary, Joseph and young Jesus had the Holy Spirit upon him.  No Acts 2 was not the beginning of the relationship for the disciples, it was the culmination of the relationship.  In fact it was the culmination of the relationship for all mankind.  The cross bridged the gap between man and God allowing the Holy Spirit to enter an new level of relationship.  The disciples would hold on to the Holy Spirit as their best friend, most even to their deaths.

“As Moses, David, and Mary discovered, getting to know may include walking with Him through life’s darkest valleys.  But in these times, we gain tremendous insight into the Father’s character.”  Dr. Charles Stanley

 Is the Holy Spirit your best friend?

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Hupomone: The Crazy Cycle

Posted in Bible Study, Life and Ministry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 4, 2017| 1 Comment »

hupomone

Why Hupomone?  Is it just to sound cool?  Is it to demonstrate that I know a word in NT Greek?  Ok, I have to admit it is partly because it does just sound cool.  God spoke this word to my heart while I was forming a series of short devotionals for radio.  I was engaging the idea of perseverance when I noticed Paul using this word over and over.  If you add the verb form hupomeno, then it appears just short of 50 times.  As I began to dig deeper into the concept (not only used by Paul but also by Luke, James the brother of Jesus, Peter and John in Revelations) I realized that the words so often used in translation only captured part of the idea these men were conveying.  Indeeds sometimes the connotations that we attribute to those word contradict the very heart of the message. So by focusing on Hupomone I stripped away my preconceived notions of what all of those words mean.  This is what I encourage you to do.  God has a very special message for each of us buried in this fairly simple Greek word as it sits within the whole of the Word of God.

“But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.”  Luke 8:15

Jesus in telling this wonderful parable of the Kingdom of God and the effectiveness of the Gospel tells us a little about those who have pursued the hupomone lifestyle.

  1.  They have heard the Word.  The Gospel is the basic unit of hupomone.  Without the Gospel hupomone does not exist.
  2. They are genuine.  Hupomone cannot be faked.  Hupomone requires an honest and good heart.  Many try to fake it.  They may even believe somehow that they are pursuing truth.  However in the end it is their fruit and the inconsistencies in it that betray them.
  3. They hold fast to the Gospel starting a positive “Crazy Cycle” (Eggerich, Love and Respect).  As the first point states the Gospel is the basic unit of hupomone.  It comes from the God of hupomone, the only one who can say that He is the same, “yesterday, today and forever”  This is the “crazy cycle” of hupomone.  The Gospel seeds hupomone in your life.  Then as you practice it by holding fast to the Gospel it grows, in turn your ability to hold fast grows, the Gospel Grows in you, in turn your ability to hold fast grows….well you get the picture.
  4. They produce fruit.  When all is said and done a hupomone lifestyle produces unmistakable fruit.  It is the fruit of the Spirit.  It is the fruit of life in Jesus Christ.  It is the litany of life qualities that Paul wrote to the Galatians encouraging them to get back on the hupomone crazy cycle.

Unlike so many other things in life, Hupomone is for everyone.  It may look a little different on each one of us but it will always start with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It grows when that Gospel is engaged honestly from a good heart.  It creates it’s own crazy cycle of growth and maturity that results in an incredible harvest of Spiritual fruit.

     

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