Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” – Lk 9:23
I’ve been looking high and low for extra reading on the person of Christ. There are this sense and urgency within that I just have to know Him. Through and through and not just about Him, His attributes, His character, or about His doing, but about Him and His perfect will.
The Christ of Heaven and the Son of God, and to God Himself I just have to know Him. I’m not explaining it well, but it’s just to see, hear, and understand him. How he was, what he said, and what that means as one who seeks after Him. I want to make absolutely certain that when I stand before Him, it is never reasoned, ‘I never knew you’.
So the search is on and that is my prayer and mission for this week. To see what might happen and where that would go. An exercise in faith because I just know He’s the only way.
GREAT prayer time today. About coming back to basics and a softening of the heart. So, I’ve reordered a TMS (Topical Memory System) again to start fresh. You might want to consider the same.
“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You.”
Isaiah 26:3
Having memorized these over and over some while ago, they brought such life and renewal. And clarity and promise. So for today, I’m reciting some of them off from memory and I’m so pleased and grateful they came back to mind.
I very much miss them, so I’m getting back to it just to review and build upon what’s there. This Spirit is going to grow within because something is stirring inside much like my passion for wilderness and music, only much more and this is everlasting. Day by day heaven nears and even if this is just a single day at a time, that is enough because thereispeace.
Topical Memory System
LIVE THE NEW LIFE
PROCLAIM CHRIST
RELY ON GOD’S RESOURCES
BEING CHRIST’S DISCIPLE
GROW IN CHRIST
Christ the Center 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 2:20
All Have Sinned Romans 3:23; Isaiah 53:6
His Spirit 1 Cor. 3:16; 1 Cor. 2:12
Put Christ First Matthew 6:33, Luke 9:23
Love John 13:34-35; 1 John 3:18
Obedience to Christ Romans 12:1; John 14:21
Sin’s Penalty Romans 6:23; Hebrews 9:27
His Strength Isaiah 41:10; Phil. 4:13
Separate From the World 1 John 2:15-16; Romans 12:2
The “Works of God” through the disabilities of others (John 9:3). And not just for those of who have physical handicaps, I suppose.
“For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” – Rev 3:17
This afternoon on my Twitter stream, I saw an article come through, and it led me to get a second look and read further into it. I was not sure what it was going to be about, but I chose to spend the time with the article’s link anyway. The article is entitled “When Men Forget Who They Are” by John Knight. It’s on the desiringgod.org site.
What got my attention was the call for Pastors to join a Conference about “God, Manhood & Ministry: Building Men for the Body of Christ.” The time spent to involve somehow, “Fathers of children with disabilities need you to get biblical manhood.” It’s not clear to me what was meant, but it was enough to continue in the article.
The author’s boy is blind. And it feels like men or parents under such circumstances aren’t a priority given the church’s condition today and what is comparatively needed elsewhere relatively speaking. Still, here by happenstance, or by Providence, some will attend and maybe make a difference among some who have children with disabilities.
So, I spend some time thinking about who’s paying attention and what they would possibly do. Hoping for the best.
Likewise, the Holy Spirit dwells in each believer (Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 6:19). Scripture sometimes represents His presence and activity through the imagery of fire, as when tongues “as of fire” appeared at Pentecost and the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:3–4). He desires to express His holy work through our actions and attitudes. When believers do not allow the fruit of the Spirit to be evident in their conduct, and when we knowingly do what is wrong, we grieve the Spirit and resist His sanctifying work (Ephesians 4:30; Galatians 5:16–25). We therefore fail to display in our lives the holiness and character that He produces in those who walk by Him.
To understand what it means to grieve the Spirit, we must first understand that this indicates that the Spirit possesses personality. Only a person can be grieved; therefore, the Spirit is not an impersonal force but a personal being who speaks, teaches, wills, intercedes, and may be grieved (John 14:26; Acts 13:2; Romans 8:26–27; 1 Corinthians 12:11; Ephesians 4:30). Scripture also reveals that He is divine, for lying to the Holy Spirit is identified with lying to God, and He searches and knows the depths of God (Acts 5:3–4; 1 Corinthians 2:10–11). Once we understand that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, we can better understand how our sin grieves Him.
Ephesians 4:30 commands us not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom believers are sealed for the day of redemption. The surrounding passage shows that He is grieved when conduct within the body of Christ contradicts His holiness and the unity He creates. Falsehood violates the truth that binds believers together (Ephesians 4:25); sinful and prolonged anger gives opportunity to the devil (Ephesians 4:26–27); theft opposes honest labor and generosity (Ephesians 4:28); corrupt speech tears down rather than gives grace (Ephesians 4:29); and bitterness, wrath, clamor, slander, and malice oppose the kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness that reflect God’s grace in Christ (Ephesians 4:31–32). Sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, and filthy speech likewise contradict the holiness proper to those who belong to Christ (Ephesians 5:3–5). To grieve the Spirit, therefore, is to act against His holy character, His sanctifying work, and the life of unity and righteousness He produces among God’s people.
Both quenching and grieving the Holy Spirit describe sinful resistance to His work, though Scripture uses the terms in distinct contexts. We grieve the Spirit when our conduct opposes His holiness and sanctifying work in us and among the people of God (Ephesians 4:30–32; 5:1–5). We quench the Spirit when we suppress or reject His genuine activity rather than receiving and testing it faithfully; in 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul immediately connects this warning with not despising prophecies, testing everything, holding fast what is good, and abstaining from every form of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:19–22). In both cases, the concern is not merely that our behavior becomes less godly, but that we are resisting the Holy Spirit Himself—the One who indwells, sanctifies, leads, and forms believers into the likeness of Christ (Romans 8:9, 13–14; Galatians 5:16–25).
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