The Incomplete Trinity
Before I am accused of heresy, let me say that this refers to our version of the Trinity. We leave off the Holy Spirit in our teaching and practice, but do remember to tag the Holy Spirit on to our "trinitarian formulas."
I am the furtherest (farthest? furthest?) person from a charismatic there is, but I have long felt the experiential absence of the Holy Spirit from church and practice. What are we afraid of? If God is called "Abba Father" and Jesus is the Messiah, the Redeemer, the Good Shepherd, and many other endearing names, why do we not attribute love, care, grace, etc. to the Holy Spirit as well?
I bring this up because I am working through two discipleship books right now in hopes of using them with a small group (very small). At the moment in both I am studying the Holy Spirit. There were three questions I was supposed to write about today in one of them (Renovare "Living the Mission" workbook).
1. How do you most clearly see the Holy Spirit working in your life?
a. to convict of real sin (as opposed to cultural and societal sources of shame, guilt, and embarrassment--a huge difference that is separated by a fine line in most of our thinking).
b. to empower my spiritual gifts
c. to understand the Bible at more than an intellectual level
d. to produce any semblance of the fruit of the spirit in my life because I don't produce them by myself
2. What spiritual gifts would you add to the lists in Romans, I Corinthians, and Ephesians. I find this a ridiculous question. God told us what they are, and we have no business adding anymore. Any we add would be to make us feel better and think our talents have some sort of spiritual power just because we do it. The spiritual gift of handcrafts; the spiritual gift of golf.
3. Does your church underemphasize the Holy Spirit and what would you do to change that? First, teach the doctrines of the Holy Spirit. Second, make asking for truly spiritual power a daily occurrence, especially in corporate prayer/worship. Third, stop being afraid of talking about the Holy Spirit. I was taught in fundamentalism that the Holy Spirit never talks about Himself, so we shouldn't. Well, not quite.
I am the furtherest (farthest? furthest?) person from a charismatic there is, but I have long felt the experiential absence of the Holy Spirit from church and practice. What are we afraid of? If God is called "Abba Father" and Jesus is the Messiah, the Redeemer, the Good Shepherd, and many other endearing names, why do we not attribute love, care, grace, etc. to the Holy Spirit as well?
I bring this up because I am working through two discipleship books right now in hopes of using them with a small group (very small). At the moment in both I am studying the Holy Spirit. There were three questions I was supposed to write about today in one of them (Renovare "Living the Mission" workbook).
1. How do you most clearly see the Holy Spirit working in your life?
a. to convict of real sin (as opposed to cultural and societal sources of shame, guilt, and embarrassment--a huge difference that is separated by a fine line in most of our thinking).
b. to empower my spiritual gifts
c. to understand the Bible at more than an intellectual level
d. to produce any semblance of the fruit of the spirit in my life because I don't produce them by myself
2. What spiritual gifts would you add to the lists in Romans, I Corinthians, and Ephesians. I find this a ridiculous question. God told us what they are, and we have no business adding anymore. Any we add would be to make us feel better and think our talents have some sort of spiritual power just because we do it. The spiritual gift of handcrafts; the spiritual gift of golf.
3. Does your church underemphasize the Holy Spirit and what would you do to change that? First, teach the doctrines of the Holy Spirit. Second, make asking for truly spiritual power a daily occurrence, especially in corporate prayer/worship. Third, stop being afraid of talking about the Holy Spirit. I was taught in fundamentalism that the Holy Spirit never talks about Himself, so we shouldn't. Well, not quite.
Comments
Thanks for sharing the link - but unfortunately it seems to be down? Does anybody here at partsofspeaking.blogspot.com have a mirror or another source?
Cheers,
James