Ministry Remnants: The Work of the Holy Spirit in Daily Life

Years ago I sat through a conference titled something like "The Work and Scope of the Holy Spirit in Ministry." I remember even then thinking it was a grand endeavor and yet I loved the teacher and mentor who led it, Edsel Trouten, not least for his largeness of vision and passion for thinking big thoughts.

And so to title this "remnant" as I have is a bit grandiose, for books and lifetimes have been spent on the question. Thus I shall see once again if my penchant for saying too much can be redeemed, the "too much" shepherded into something helpful, worth your time.

I tried to craft a message working from Luke's account of Mary's visit from the angel, specifically the answer to Mary's question, "How can this thing be?" "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you," explained Gabriel, and then, after further detail, he summed it up with immortal affirmation: "For with God nothing shall be impossible."

Does this Encounter Teach us about the Holy Spirit in our own life?

The same Edsel Trouten mentioned above -- there is no other! -- once pointed out no Scripture has direct application because no situation is thoroughly identical to that which occurred at the time of the writing. So if we hold too strict a a rule for applying we would apply nothing, since our situation has no angel, no virgin, no child to come, no Elizabeth -- you get the picture.

But if we step back we see a person -- Mary; a word from God -- "With God nothing is impossible"; the intervention of God in a person's life -- "the Holy Spirit shall come upon you." Can these things apply? To you and me? Today? Well, let's not be subtle: OF COURSE!

But Who is this Holy Spirit?

He is God, co-equal with the Father and Son, eternal, to be worshipped, heeded and obeyed. He "convicts the world of sin", a gift to make aware of that which will undo us and in the end, damn us. Furthermore, he can be grieved. He is self-effacing -- does not promote Himself. And he, therefore, works behind the scenes, deep within, slow, steady, unobtrusive.

How Do we Receive the Holy Spirit?

This can be difficult because often great emphasis is put on a point-in-time, an encounter, a specific filling. This is well and good and has biblical -- to say nothing of logical -- basis. If we are "filled" or "indwelt"; if the spirit is to "come upon us" it will happen at a point-in-time. But I think we often neglect the equally important truth that his life in us is always ongoing. 

How do we receive the Holy Spirit and begin walking with his inner, quiet, patient teaching and transformation?

• Repentance -- this is an essential, grace-enabled response to God. We turn from our own way and the door is opened for God to come in.
• We ask. Jesus taught so simply in the Gospels: "If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him." Need the presence of God in your life? Ask. He will give.
• Be still. A W Tozer says it well: "...cultivating heart stillness may be our most valuable activity because then we can hear God's gentle whisper." Or as Dallas Willard has it: "When we learn to be really quiet we begin to feel the breeze of heaven in our face."

So that's the remnant for now, with this summation. 

What is your impossible? Whatever it is, bring it to God. With Him nothing is impossible. But He works by means of the Holy Spirit. Are you repenting of any known sin, learning to be still and listen, asking, truly asking? You will find the God of the impossible coming in and slowly -- always slowly by our reckoning -- transforming your inner life so that, in time, the impossible will be a memory, and from your life will flow rivers of living water.

Ministry Remnants: Laying Eggs, aka, Preaching Poor Sermons

There once was a preacher, so the story goes, who, upon retirement learned his wife had a stash of $2,000 dollars laid aside in an egg carton, along with several eggs. 

"Where did this come from?" he asked, amazed. 

"Well, honey, every time you preached a sermon that was, as the expression goes, 'laying an egg', I put an egg in the carton." Seeing only 5 eggs the preacher was relieved. "But what of the two thousand dollars?" 

"Well," his wife replied, "Every time I had a dozen eggs I sold them and kept the cash." 

Every preacher knows the pain of having preached poorly. The reasons are many, for preachers are human to be sure. One seasoned preacher once told me, "If the congregation knows you love them it doesn't matter what you say in your sermon." I think this must surely be right and there seems to be a corollary truth: "The better you love your congregation, the more your preaching will have effect." 

Be that as it may, every preacher wants to do well, likely worries too much about it, and feels deeply pained when the message falls flat. So what to do? It is tempting to leave off, for no one needs platitudes and weary analysis. But daring to believe this could be helpful, if only to me, I will offer a few brief solutions to poor preaching.

• First things first: if you have not prayed, forget it. Pray for your people, pray regularly and at length, pray for wisdom and insight, effectiveness, anointing, unction, humility, brevity. Read Bounds for motivation. It will work if you are breathing. But pray. 
• Spend time with your people. Nothing helps you relate better to others than really knowing them. Nothing. This is a central natural means we must use to help our preaching. You need to know their perspectives, the things on their mind, their worries, ideas, concepts of God and the spiritual life. This will humble you, and will shut your mouth on half the pontificating to which you may be prone. There is no substitute for personal time with the folks who listen to you on Sunday morning.
• Study. Of course. Widely, regularly, grounded in Scripture. Listening to other preachers must be part of this. Learn through trial and error what study methods work best, how best to shape the message and delivery. And there is no substitute for going over the sermon multiple times while standing in the pulpit. Or at least do it once before you preach it for the congregation.
• Stay with the task -- few preachers get really good without years of practice. It is easy to want to give up for any number of reason. The struggle is real. But few things are more important than perseverance. God will help you. Quitting short-circuits that process, painful as it is.

I could go on with ideas perhaps, but that is enough. Discipline is required, as in any task. A preacher must submit to the disciplines of the calling if he would avoid laying the woeful egg. 

That's all for now. I want to be better, and this encourages me. I hope it may help you, too.

Briefly, on Faith

Faith isn't faith unless confidence in the object is maintained at all costs. I believe in a real, living God who is the only possible reason for good in the world. I believe He is personal, actual, morally perfect, all-powerful, all-knowing. I recognize the cognitive merit of objections; I recognize the cognitive merit of substantiations. I realize there are many ways in which I will die because of this belief for it requires more of me than I wish to give. And I am no hero, certainly no masochist. I just find that though faltering, painful, and tentative I still believe and can do no other. If that is untenable for the unbeliever, so be it. Unbelief is its own faith with equal vulnerability to the truth question. I believe there is Good. If there is a God who makes such a thing real, He will have mercy. If there is not, we will wish He were.

Indulge in the Delight of this Piece from Chesterton

There are reasons GKC is much-loved. His prose is so winsome and imaginative. I hope you will take time to enjoy A Piece of Chalk, one of so many choice selections. Here's an excerpt:

I suppose every one must have reflected how primeval and how poetical are the things that one carries in one's pocket; the pocket-knife, for instance, the type of all human tools, the infant of the sword. Once I planned to write a book of poems entirely about things in my pockets. But I found it would be too long, and the age of the great epics is past.

From Samuel Clemens on the things we know for sure...

"It's not what you don't know that'll get you in trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." ~Mark Twain

Solzhenitsyn's Reminder: What is the object of life?

“Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul.”

Ministry Remnants: Pray for Your Pastor

Ruminations on a Sunday Morning...

What does a pastor do early Sunday morning?

• pray
• wonder
• worry (yes, pastor's do that, too)
• pray
• prepare
• think of details like lights and announcements and music
• worry about who no longer comes and why
• pray
• worry about normal struggles with health and family and finances and planning
• wonder again how it is possible to effectively preach, lead, love
• struggle to affirm the expected confidence in God from the inside out
• (the list is long)

On a Sunday morning early when I need to be doing something other than random ruminations, I remind all who may see this that the pastor is human, too. Yes, pastor's have responsibility like you have responsibility, and no one is holding a gun to the preacher's head. It is a 'chosen' mix of love and duty and least of all should a pastor seek pity.

Prayer, however, is in order, for every Sunday morning is a reminder that this is God's work and sheer folly to engage without His help.

Bottom line? 

Pray for your pastor today.

- He deserves criticism, no doubt, and heaps enough on himself. 

- He's not world-class or even close, that is true, but he wishes he were. 

- He may overlook you and your concerns: this grieves him. Try to find it in your heart to forgive. 

- He has too many things going. Scold him for it if you must, but remember he is probably like you: Do you have too many things going?

Your pastor loves you, loves the church, and wakes every Sunday with a mix of trepidation and hope:

"I can do this!"

"Are you kidding?!"

"My head hurts, I am not yet ready -- I can't do this."

"Yes, you can!"

The voice goes silent and the pastor presses on.

Pray for your pastor today.