Amazing after those 110 degree days in September, but the forecast in the Hill Country today calls for sleet and freezing rain. With steadily dropping temperatures throughout the day coming in contact with the currently falling rain, it could get a little icy.

I shouldn't have sold all my sweatshirts and winter clothes in the garage sale back in Arkansas before we moved!

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Has it ever seemed to you that the God taught focus within the churches of Christ tends toward a biune God rather than a triune God? What I mean is this: have we, historically, focused so much on God the Father and God the Son to the omission of emphasizing God the Holy Spirit?

If you agree with me that we have historically de-emphasized the Holy Spirit, why has that been the case?

One of the strange phenomenas regarding the Holy Spirit within churches of Christ is how my heritage tends to be reactionary; i.e. our theological positions are at times developed in reaction to what we perceive to be theological abuse in other religious groups.

For example, charismatic churches do everything in the name of the Holy Spirit. From worship to miraculous manifestation to spiritual giftedness, the Holy Spirit is credited with everything in charismatic churches.

Consequently, churches of Christ reacted to abuses in the name of the Holy Spirit and limited the Spirit's role to "the Word only."

Does the Word itself lend any credence to the view that the Spirit works through the Word only? Does the Word itself allow for the fact that the indwelling Spirit -- clearly spoken of in the birth of the first church -- ceases to exist in the contemporary church?

Ironically, even back at the outset of our heritage, there was disagreement regarding the role of the Holy Spirit. The Campbells (Thomas and Alexander) were left-brain men who leaned on Lockean philosophy to arrive at Scriptural conclusions.

Barton W. Stone, on the other hand, as a leader of the movement that reached its zenith at the Cane Ridge Revival Meeting in Kentucky, was very much right-brained in his faith. Stone tended toward a more experiential view of religion. Stone's experiential faith allowed much room for the Spirit, as historians of the Cane Ridge Revival have shared chronicles of tongue speaking, faith healing, etc. done in the name and power of the Holy Spirit.

These historical facets of our heritage and our theology of the Holy Spirit help us better know how to speak truth in a gracious way into contemporary settings of misunderstanding.

The Holy Spirit, contrary to some, plays a significant role in the maturation of disciples into Christ-likeness. For the rest of this week, We'll break down some passages to better understand exactly what the Spirit does and why.