Tonight is another proof that the wheels in Texas turn differently. When I was coaching baseball in Arkansas, our schedule was always designed with a view toward leaving Tuesdays and Thursdays open for Track meets, tennis matches, etc.
Not here.
Tonight, the Marble Falls High School baseball team, soccer teams and basketball teams all play simultaneously. With kids from the youth group playing on all the teams, its hard to decide which team to watch. Maybe between Allan, Jimmy and I, we can cover them all!
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Last Sunday evening, I finished a sermon series on Paul's letter to the churches in Galatia. That letter is a wonderful reminder of the theological significance of the finished, redemptive work of Jesus at Calvary.
Throughout Galatians, though, Paul raises the spector of the Holy Spirit as it relates to living a redeemed life. Holiness is a key product of salvation and redeemed living requires the presence of the Holy Spirit, living inside the believer, to make the transformation into Christlikeness.
This coming Sunday, with Galatians in our rear-view mirror, we will begin a quest to better understand the presence, power and purpose of the indwelling Holy Spirit. I am convinced that the Holy Spirit is the greatest, untapped resource in the lives of many descendants of the Restoration heritage. Our roots in Baconian philosophy and the logic of John Locke left little room for something so "uncontrol-able" as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Add to that the reactionary manner of human nature. What I mean is, whereas the charismatic movement led to the Holy Spirit doing any and every thing in the life of the believer, we Restorationists silenced the Holy Spirit, relegating His work strictly to the Word. Why? Because the Spirit was more "control-able" that way; the Spirit fit neatly into our theological box of presupposition.
In recent years, many within our heritage have been rethinking the Holy Spirit. Transformed living, such as Paul calls the Galatian Christians to in Galatians 5.16-26, can never be accomplished by human ingenuity, skill or willpower. Transformed living requires change on the inside (where the real problem exists) and that is why God deposits His own Holy Spirit within us to change us and recreate us.
"Let others say that the changes are simply the result of psychology, human kindness, and conditioning; fine literature, church services, new laws, or government leaders. Christians will insist that all of these and more tools in the hands of the transforming Spirit, bringing life to the dead, passion to the indifferent, and generosity to the selfish. It is he who is at work convicting and sanctifying.
For the Christian, nothing less than the presence of the Spirit is enough to explain the marvelous changes worked in human lives. Call it grace; call it providence; call it the result of Bible study, practical involvement, or social ethics; call it 'common grace' -- call it what we will, just so we understand that in and behind any or all the instruments is the presence and work of the Spirit who seeks and finds and transforms" (Jim McGuiggan).
