the ookey kooky Spirit?

Well, it's Halloween. In light of goblins, ghouls and ghosts, it got me thinking about things spiritual and related to the Holy Spirit.

In the world, we seem to place quite a bit of emphasis on things of the flesh. Money, clothes, food, a house, a job, sexual relationships. If you disagree, I'd ask that you look or listen to the substance of media advertising, that essentially markets having more and more of these things. I would say that well-intentioned and good meaning followers of Christ struggle with these things as well, fairly regularly, it's not simply isolated to just non-believers. There seems to be this underlying voice or hand, if you will, that pushes or draws us to fill our lives up with these material things. But I'm doubtful that this is in line with what Scripture teaches. Paul writes:

"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other." (Galatians 5:13-26 NIV)

Paul advocates that our lives be led by the Holy Spirit. Now, the world would most definitely think that as crazy. "What, led by a spirit? Ok, that's weird. Ya, witches and ghosts and things are spirits...what a wacko."

Maybe so to the world. But living for Christ, being led by the Spirit is the way to go for everything, including all these things that the world enticingly attempts via the flesh.

Again, Paul writes (me summarizing/emphasizing) "You, my brothers, were called to be free...serve one another in love......So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control...Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit"

So in light of it's Halloween, it's perfectly ok to be led by and depend on a spirit...the Holy Spirit!

maybe it's like this...

So I thought of a visual analogy to how our lives work in relation to what we're filled up with and where our joy is found. This may be silly, but I think it makes some sense. And it's summer, so maybe it's more relevant.

For this, you need to remember something from Science class:
-the principle of water displacement. The mass of some object, when put in a water glass, will displace that same amount of water.

Think of a swimming pool. A big one in your back yard. We're the pool. What's in the pool, the toys, accessories, people, the water -- is what's in our lives. More specifically, the water in the pool represents the spiritual joy that comes from Jesus and Him alone. When we come to believe in Jesus and grow in His likeness, we're adding water to the pool. We get to a normal level, and everything is ok. You can throw in a float or two into a pool, maybe some diving rings to the bottom, but not much changes. These things might represent some simple material possessions that add joy to our real lives. Having a car, having a home to build a family up under God's grace, these things are not inherently wrong and they add contentment to our lives.

Don't forget people!

People fill up your pool much better than the floats or diving rings. In our lives, that principle holds true. More satisfaction SHOULD come from relationships with others than the material things that are in our pool.

As for the people, some people might dive into the pool, hopefully they do it so as not to splash too much water out of the pool. There are those people who sometimes do cannonballs into your pool, and that causes a lot of water to be lost. Remeber, the water = joy. The people who jump into your pool of life are those who make up your community and relationships. And yes, you'll have the occasional doof who pees in your pool. Overall, having people in your pool adds to the fun and enjoyment of it. The right number of people in your pool raises your water level almost to the top level of the pool. But still, most of what's in the pool is water, the joy found in Christ.

What happens when we start throwing in too many pool accessories into our pool? At first we think great!, more cool pool toys! but then we start losing the water that's in our pool. Uh oh, not good. This happens in our lives. We go beyond levels of satisfaction found in a relevant, minimal, meet-the-need set of material goods to where we start displacing the joy in our lives. The water flows out of our pool. And for what? An underwater motorized swimming machine? You mean to tell me we're getting rid of that universal, life-giving, life-sustaining water for some pool toy? Cool as it may be, is that the smartest move? What's going to happen in a severe heatwave? The fires of life...we better have a lot of water in our pool stored up before those come on, or our pool might evaporate completely then our pool foundation starts to crack.

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." (John 7:37-38 NIV)

Be it summer, or whatever season of the year, that your life may be filled up as much as possible with the joy that is found and can only be found in the fullness of Jesus, the Christ.

monetary splendor

"I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first."
(Mark 10:29-31 NIV)

These words from Jesus spoken to his disciples come right after the encounter Jesus has with the rich young ruler. This young wealthy man goes away heartbroken at Jesus' request to go and sell all he has and give it to the poor. It wasn't the act itself I don't think that troubled the young ruler, it was Jesus' request to radically change his life's outlook and what his identity was about that discouraged the young ruler so much. This man had amassed wealth and was used to his time and focus being spent pursuing capital gains. This young man was familiar with a center point to pursue money. I can imagine his relationships, friendships, times of worship, even while faithful and honoring (as the Bible states), fit into, and were pocketed around this greater pursuit: money.

Hmm. I think the connection to nowadays and this rich young ruler is easy to make. I know I am guilty of this. Our lives are oriented such that our schedules revolve around work. Think about if you heard about some guy who's primary focus in life was relationships. This hypothetical guy isn't necessary a slouch, but very much values relationships over monetary pursuits. "Umm, ya, sorry bossman, I know I've missed 45 days this year already, but I'm not going to come in Wednesday or Thursday, one friend is ill and another is going through some difficult struggles in his marriage, so I am going to go and serve them and love on them." This "radical" guy wouldn't have a job long in our culture.

Jesus, in His words of this passage, starts by saying "I tell you the truth." I think that's enough right there to stop and really listen to what will come next. He says, leave all those things culture places a value upon and PURSUE ME. PURSUE WHAT I HAVE FOR YOU. Don't spend your life, the wonderful gifts and talents I have gifted you with, to pursue such a false idol - money.

Whoa there now Mr. crazy blog writer. At the very least, you need money to buy food and clothes and provide shelter for a family, that's how our world works! Duly noted. Money is a necessary evil to live in the world we live in today. But, I want to make the point that there seems to be an oversaturation of the pursuit of money. In my life, I know, I need a greater pursuit of God, and less reliance on money or the security I think it brings me.

More faithfulness in God, less reliance on money.

Money really is a false sense of security. After all, money is just paper, and it burns up pretty fast. Don't believe me? A good exercise would be to take a dollar bill and just light it on fire. I bet a lot of us would have trouble even just burning up $1. Wealth goes away. Economies fail and go through times of crisis. You could go to sleep one day having a million bucks in the bank, and then wake up the next day and have $10 in the bank. God's sovereignty and faithfulness will outlast any length of time money could offer for sovereignty and faithfulness.

I feel like money in its current form is overrated. Money could just as well be chickens instead of paper. Money attempts to convey power and value in our world. That would leave Warren Buffett to be replaced by Colonel Sanders. If chickens were our money, one's wealth would continue to multiply if chickens were money, a lot of people would like that. But chickens are messier and die much easier and are bulkier to carry, so paper was a better choice for money.

I think we can really believe the promise Jesus gives us in this Mark 10 passage. This "truth" that He intentionally tells us. Leaving what is familiar and known to us in life (our lives set up to pursue monetary gain) to seek Jesus and the gospel will return to us IN THIS PRESENT AGE (before we die), a hundred times more than what we know now. We also get the incredible joy of eternal life!

Please note, I am not advocating anything like, "you put a dollar in to the offering plate, you get 10 back in less than a month!" Jesus' words in this passage refer to the richness and splendor in relationships and life contentment that will come back to one who pursues Christ as their primary pursuit.

Would that be too radical to live out? Trusting in God's faithfulness more, denying money's sense of worth and its much lesser ability to complete and provide for us than what the Holy Living God can give us?

I'm going to end here, to let thoughts saturate and mull over in our minds, and then I'm going to post some suggestions that might serve as practical "how to"s to live this pursuit of God more and money less.