As for God the Spirit, He is “Holy” because He is perfect, pure and without any defect. He’s God. Holiness also connotes wholeness. God is whole in its purest sense. God is the standard for a whole Being, Jesus the standard for a whole Person (He modeled a holistic life), the Spirit the One who brings rhythm and meaning so we can be holy like Him, broken beings being made whole.

Let’s bring balance into view when we consider the Person of the Holy Spirit. Here’s a couple paragraphs from Francis Chan’s new book:

“Some people talk a lot about—even boast of—the Spirit, but their lives do not bear His fruit. Others speak of the Holy Spirit in theoretical or scholarly terms, yet do not experience Him at work. Still otehrs ignore Him for all practical purposes and, as you might expect, rarely experience relationship or intimacy with the Spirit. And then there is that rare person who doesn’t talk frequently about the Spirit, yet whose life is a powerful display of His presence and activity.

Some of you would like it if I said we were going to find a healthy balance between unhleathy extremes. That’s not what we’re going to do. When we are referring to God, abalce is a huge mistake. God is not just one thing we add to the mix called life. He wants an invitations from us to permeate everting and every part of us. In the same way, skeeing a “healthy balance” of the Holy Spirit assumes that there are some who have too much Holy Spirit and others who have too little. I have yet to meet anyone with too much Holy Spirit. Granted, I’ve met many who talk about Him too much, but none who are actually overfilled with His presence.

Is it possible to get enough or even too much God? Is there a point when a person can be satisfied with the amount of intimacy, knowledge and power of God he and she experiences? I don’t see how there can be, because doesn’t every encounter with God only cause us to thirst for Him more?

Let me be clear. This is not a call to misinformed extremism, but an acknowledgment that as believers we can never be ‘done’ with God. He is infinite and we are finite; there will always be more of His character to discover, more of His love to experience, and more of His power to use for His purposes.”

—Francis Chan, Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit, p. 20.

Let’s together celebrate our independence today through our dependence upon the Sovereign King of all.

Here’s what I wrote then, and swim in now:

[Fall '08] Greek has seemed to be a little disjointed until we arrive in the relative deep-end of participles this semester. I am certainly still wading around in the shallow end, but being pushed further into learning how to swim in this new language (but still with those orange arm-floaties!). Last week I read a couple fascinating notes about the participle of means (”by means of”) while reading Wallace’s Greek Grammar (p. 630).

Humble yourselves … by casting your cares upon Him

The first illustration comes from the oft quoted passage in 1 Peter 5:6-7: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God …” Many times I’ve heard the next clause quoted in isolation: “Cast your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.” Do this! Yes, how needed and true it is, for He does care for us. But “cast your cares upon Him” is not an imperative clause (casting is a participle, not a verb). We miss the point when we think of the phrases separate as “Humble yourselves.” [And] “cast your case upon Him.”

The point of the Apostle seems to be that the specific way we humble ourselves before God is to cast our cares upon Him. We show humility by casting our cares upon Him. Dependence and submission in all of life — even the small stuff — reveals an attitude of humility (and creates it too).

He emptied Himself … by taking on the form of a servant

The next illustration came right underneath, where the famous kenosis passage is in view (Phil. 2:6-8). Specifically, in verse 7, where the participle should be translated “he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant.” Debate has gone on for at least the last two centuries as to what it means that Christ emptied (ekenosev) Himself. Wallace notes the typical pattern of this specific participle, that it follows the verb, and that the verb is vague, even needing (’begging’) to be defined. “By taking on” shows the means of Christ’s emptying Himself. He did not subtract His deity, but rather added the form of a slave, willingly, becoming a man, suffering and dying — even death on a cross (v. 8).

But wait, isn’t emptying normally thought of as subtraction, not addition? Wallace notes that as well, and points out the poetic features of the whole passage (most likely it was used as an early hymn). Earlier in verses 1-4 he commanded them to think and do “nothing from selfish ambition and vain conceit.” The word for conceit (kenodoxian or “empty glory”) is used by Paul to remind them of what not to do. Then Jesus comes along and shows them what to do — what it means to empty His glory (the words almost rhyme) — they are to have that same mind towards one another. Brilliant and powerful insights, Dr. Wallace!

The opposing directions in view in both passages are startling. We receive God favor by humbling ourselves, and specifically by casting our cares and burdens upon Him. (He opposes us directly even second if we go the other way, which is revealed in our not taking our cares to Him.) The antidote to seeking empty glory is to stare at the One who emptied His own glory to reveal His infinite worth in the lowliest form of all, a slave unto death. He will change us. Let this mind be in us, continually, Lord Jesus.

“I must be aware of two kinds of weariness in my life. The first is the weariness of giving out faster than I take in. That is the weariness of overcommitment; it is the fatigue of being over exercised in my service to God for others. The second kind of weariness is more subtle; it is the weariness of God Himself.

My life is a series of emptying and fillings. As I empty myself in service, I must refill myself by drawing upon God’s infinite resources. If I fail to refill, I will become drained and exhaustion will occur. One of the chief reasons I fail to refill is because I have become tired of God. In other words, I have lost my desire to be filled by God.

It is inconceivable that I can exhaust a transcendent God. Therefore, weariness can only be a symptom that something has gone wrong with my pipeline to heaven. Either is it is stopped up with something or it is broken or I simply do not exert myself to turn on the spigot. The latter occurs whenever I have discovered an interest that, for the moment at least, transcends my interest in God. Weariness with God usually begins with a wandering eye. That leads to a wandering heart, and soon I am off chasing a will-o’-wisp that seems momentarily delightful. It is in that stage of things that I become weary of God; He has lost His color, His richness, and His appeal to my heart. I am clearly on dangerous ground, and that is why God makes His strongest appeals to rekindle my appetite for Him. He asks me to deliberately surrender the trinkets for the gold; He begs me to give up the hewn cisterns and get back to the flowing river of life.”
- excerpt from Daily with the King

“For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”
- Jeremiah 2:13

Begin the day with God!
He is thy Sun and Day!
His is the radiance of thy dawn;
To Him address thy lay.

Sing a new song at morn!
Join the glad woods and hills;
Join the fresh winds and seas and plains,
Join the bright flowers and rills.

Sing thy first song to God!
Not to thy fellow men;
Not to the creatures of His hand,
But to the glorious One.

Take thy first walk with God!
Let Him go forth with thee;
By stream, or sea, or mountain path,
Seek still His company.

Thy first transaction be
With God Himself above;
So shall thy business prosper well,
And all the day be love.
–Horatius Bonar

“God’s work in us does not eliminate our work; it enables it.  We work because he is the one at work in us.  Therefore, the fight for joy is possible because God is fighting for us and through us.  All our efforts are owing to his deeper work in and through our willing and working.”
- John Piper (still looking for in which of his books I first read this)

Here I want to point to another post , where John gives a quote from the latest edition of online journal Themelios (which is always worth a read). D. A. Carson’s editorial is largely concerned with technology. Here’s an excerpt from Carson:

"Scarcely less important than speed of access is the Internet’s sheer intoxicating addictiveness — or, more broadly, we might be better to think of the intoxicating addictiveness of the entire digital world. Many are those who are never quiet, alone, and reflective, who never read material that demands reflection and imagination. The iPods provide the music, the phones constant access to friends, phones and computers tie us to news, video, YouTube, Facebook, and on and on. This is not to demonize tools that are so very useful. Rather, it is to point out the obvious: information does not necessarily spell knowledge, and knowledge does not necessarily spell wisdom, and the incessant demand for unending sensory input from the digital world does not guarantee we make good choices . We have the potential to become world citizens, informed about every corner of the globe, but in many western countries the standards of geographical and cross-cultural awareness have seriously declined. We have access to spectacularly useful information, but most of us diddle around on ephemeral blogs and listen to music as enduring as a snowball in a blast furnace. Sometimes we just become burned out by the endless waves of bad news, and decide the best course is to turn the iPod volume up a bit." (emphasis added)

The entire article is largely a reflection on his book Christ and Culture Revisited more than a piece on pure technology. Related to spiritual life in the digital age we find ourselves wrapped in, here is the conclusion:

"I shall not here review the Christian resources God has kindly lavished on us to enable us not to conform to the pattern of this world. If we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, then we must be reading the Scriptures perennially, seeking to think God’s thoughts after him, focusing on the gospel of God and pondering its implications in every domain of life. We need to hear competing voices of information from the world around us, use our time in the digital world wisely, and learn to shut that world down when it becomes more important to get up in the morning and answer emails than it does to get up and read the Bible and pray . We may also learn much from church history, where we observe fellow believers in other times and cultures learning the shape of faithfulness. We begin to detect how easily the "world" may squeeze us into its mold. We soon learn that adequate response is more than mere mental resolve, mere disciplined observance of the principle "garbage in, garbage out" (after all, we are what we think), though it is not less than that. The gospel is the power of God issuing in salvation. Empowered by the Holy Spirit and living in the shadow of the cross and resurrection, we find ourselves wanting to be conformed to the Lord Jesus, wanting to be as holy and as wise as pardoned sinners can be this side of the consummation." (emphasis added)

I agree: "garbage in, garbage out" is what I used to emphasize with our college students. These days I see that not only are our youth swimming in an endless sea of triviality , but without fighting against the current, all of us adults will be swept away as well. Information does not equal knowledge, and will not automatically produce a life of wisdom, character and depth.

We must fight like heaven to fill our minds with God’s truth. So, leave this blog, turn off your computer, and enjoy God, who is the Fountain of all joy, the Satisfaction we were created to savor. Swim the depths of His infinite perfections.

Next Monday Kari and being our new journey with our new church family — about which I’m eager to speak and write about.

This week’s "staycation" has provided a little bit of reflection time. (And lots of needing wrestling time with Dutch.) In these days I’ve written down much to come back to later — for seasons of less clarity — a portion of which I plan to post on the ol’ blog this weekend. A brief five-point memoir, and a list of five lessons learned over this past 50 month journey.

Today was a unique time, a luncheon to get to know the church staff more. A great time, and really good food, mixed in with lots of laughs. What a great team of Gospel-centered, others-directed people we are joining.

My favorite moment what when we all were asked to answer briefly, "What were you like as a child?" Right then Dutch (the only kid in the room) walked out in the middle of everyone and threw his toy. Seeing it coming I pointed at him, saying "Just like that!" and tossed a toy over his shoulder too. I’d like to say he gets his dramatic flair from his mom, but we know better.

We aren’t gossiping
We’re blogging!
Anything juicy you want to share?

How ridiculous is that? Here is one of the largest blogging platforms out there essentially clamoring to the stereotype — that blogging is just words about nothing, just like gossip is a total waste of time (and unhelpful, hurtful, etc.).

Which led me to ponder as I drove home, Why blog?

Kari can extol the virtues of what writing in general, and blogging specifically, means to her. My wonderful wife sometimes does not even know exactly what she thinks about an every day issue until she writes. And what appears out on her site is a fraction of her writing in daily life. She is always weaving a healthy web of words, reflecting, rejoicing, re-wording, and simply thinking away. Actually, her style is more “free” — just sit down and crank away. Thankfully she types as fast as any person I’ve ever met (Cortez Peters, anyone?) – on a miniature keyboard at that. Wish I could communicate half as well as she can, in written and spoken word.

Me? Well, blogging is an outlet for short snippets of thought. Quotes, reflections, some humor (always borrowed), a tad of creativity (again, borrowed) and always connected to Christ, to His Gospel, the church, and to culture (people). Politics are not the savior of our world, so I don’t meddle in that arena here. I watch very little TV (but like friends who actually own one, so I can come over and watch college football!), and read many books albeit slowly. Words and thoughts and ideas matter. Sometimes they seem to matter enough to share. As a pastor I will continue to blog, probably much less frequently, but intentionally, for some of the reasons outlined on the DG Blog.

I hope to see everything through the Gospel (as a lens), and by the Gospel (as the engine for living). By it I realize I live and breath and work from significance in Christ, not for it.

I don’t entertain any thoughts that I’ll be published any day, so this is the closest I’ll ever come. Never will reach ‘elite’ status, but since words matter (and people matter too), and not many people are out there saying anything substantial, I will toss mine out there. Without substantial truth, derived for the self-revealing Triune God Creator Redeemer, we will have tiny, insignifant lives. With Him, our tiny pebble makes a ripple, many ripples, effecting a sphere far wider than our little pond would seem.

So, my great ambition in writing is that people look past me. That’s the juicy thing I want to share. Walk away from here with Jesus. I aim that others see Jesus, and His infinite worth, work and ways.

Yeah, I blog because of Him. (2 Cor. 5:9)

For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
You brought us into the net;
You laid affliction on our backs.
You have caused men to ride over our heads;
We went through fire and through water;
But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.
(Psalm 66:10-12)

2. I resolve to boast only in the exultation I receive in Jesus Christ and also in the humiliation I receive for Jesus Christ. (1:9-10)

3. I resolve to set a watch over my mouth. (1:13)

4. I resolve to be constantly quick to hear and slow to speak. (1:19)

5. I resolve to learn the gospel way of speaking to both rich and poor. (2:1-4)

6. I resolve to speak in the present consciousness of my final judgment. (2:12)

7. I resolve never to stand on anyone’s face with the words I employ. (2:16)

8. I resolve never to claim as reality in my life what I do not truly experience. (3:14)

9. I resolve to resist quarrelsome words as evidence of a bad heart that needs to be mortified. (4:1)

10. I resolve never to speak decided evil against another out of a heart of antagonism. (4:11)

11. I resolve never to boast in anything but what I will accomplish. (4:13)

12. I resolve to speak as one subject to the providences of God. (4:15)

13. I resolve never to grumble. The judge is at the door. (5:9)

14. I resolve never to allow anything but total integrity in everything I say. (5:12)

15. I resolve to speak to God in prayer whenever I suffer. (5:13)

16. I resolve to sing praises to God whenever I’m cheerful. (5:14)

17. I resolve to ask for the prayers of others when I’m in need. (5:14)

18. I resolve to confess it whenever I have failed. (5:15)

19. I resolve to pray with others for one another whenever I am together with them. (5:15)

20. I resolve to speak words of restoration when I see another wander. (5:19)