Presby-Musings

Today we are continuing our series in the Daily Devos about the Holy Spirit. 

As you recall from earlier this week--we are constantly exchanging the atoms that make us us with one another and everything else.  Energy is flowing around us, in us and through us all of the time.  And to think that we aren't affected by this billions-of-atoms-a-second energy exchange is ludicrous. 

So there's all of this energy flowing back and forth between us--energy that bears the very DNA of a God who is not far away in his holy temple tuning in occasionally to hear our puny prayers.  This God is here, present, flowing through us in what Christians call the Holy Spirit.  And I believe this God is speaking, laughing, guiding, whispering and creating in the midst of all of it. 

When we read about the way Jesus always seemed to be speaking to God, sharing something special with God, maintaining an open channel, so to speak with God... it makes you wonder if this was exactly what Jesus was trying to …

Today we'll be continuing our exploration of the Holy Spirit of God through the Daily Devos. 

I went on a cruise to Alaska a few years ago.  While on the cruise my wife and I joined some new friends for an evening of karaoke and drinks.  Actually drinks and then karaoke.  Trust me, the order is important.

For the final number my friend Stuart was asked by the DJ to come up and sing Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive."  As the first strands of the song played over the speakers, every woman in the crowd it seemed was on her feet singing along, "At first I was afraid, I was petrified...." 

And then they came to the dance floor.  Young women in the twenties.  Teenagers.  Single moms.  Middle-aged women in super high heels.  An elegant woman in her mid-seventies.  Two lesbian couples.  A couple of old ladies who couldn't walk very well...

And Stuart. 

They sang at the top of their lungs.  In unison.  Triumphant, proud, hopeful and full of unbelievable joy. 

It was on…

Today we're going to be continuing a short Daily Devo series on the Holy Spirit of God.  

Some years ago, I remember having a conversation with a young woman who told me that she had come to point in her life where she knew she believed in God, and that this belief had ultimately led her to experience Jesus. She said that "there is just too much good in the world for this not to be true...."

The first time I heard a sermon on grace was when I was twenty four years old in a Presbyterian church in Ocoee, Florida.  I can't remember exactly what the pastor preached, but I couldn't stop crying.  I'd been an agnostic for some time.  I was bitter.  I had spent years trying to fulfill the longings of my heart by appeasing one god or another. 

And I thought that the God I had learned about in Sunday school was angry and required negotiations.  There wasn't anything imminent about that God, and by imminent, I mean up close, personal, and real.  

But then there I was he…

For today's Daily Devo, we're going to continue thinking about the Spirit of God, and how the Spirit of God works in and through us.  

I believe that the Spirit of God within us creates a longing to connect not just with other people, but with God, who knows us better than we know ourselves. 

We long to know and to be known.  We long to truly feel.  To not give in to the despair that comes from the resignation that this is all there is, and there is no Creator or Designer, no plan or purpose. 

Because when we resign ourselves to this--even slightly--we end up trying to fulfill our longings with other things, other feelings or even what some might call other "gods." 

But when those longings are met for real. We know it.  When we realize (sometimes surprisingly) that there really is a God, and that God is actually connected to us.  It draws out emotions, feelings we didn't know we had. 

And when we respond to these emotions we often sing... or pray... or weep... or stan…

Today we're going to be launching a brand new sermon series entitled Created For A Purpose: God's Great Plan For Your Life

What does it mean to be "created for a purpose?" 

In our culture, discovering your purpose is a billions dollar industry.  I did a quick search for the wealthiest self-help gurus in America today and there were at least a dozen who made $15 million or more a year---giving people advice on how to discover their purpose. 

Here's a sample of the kind of advice that landed some of these gurus on that list: 

Write down your values every six months.  Compare them to the ones you wrote down six months ago.  And... And... create a personal purpose statement.  

Passion + Action = A Purposeful Life.  

Get out of your personal bubble.  Stretch yourself.  

If you want to be be successful.  Do successful things.  

I am not making this up.  You can take your pick from a plethora of people who are coming up with stuff like this---and people are basically telling th…

I want to spend some time over the next several Daily Devos talking about the Holy Spirit of God. 

Because one of the great mysteries that Christians struggle to understand who/what the Holy Spirit is, and the way the Holy Spirit of God moves, calls, guides, convicts and teaches us.  

I'll begin by talking about atoms, energy and the Holy Spirit.  First, lets talk about atoms.  
In simple terms, we are made of atoms and other assorted sub atomic things that are constantly in flux.  We give off energy, and we receive energy from the people and things around us.  

So here we are, exchanging atoms (energy, if you will) with each other in ways that are hard to describe and almost impossible to imagine---and yet it's happening. 

We give off energy.  And we receive it. All of the time. 

This is why when we are sitting down to dinner with friends and the food is good and there is laughter in the air, and everyone is just full of joy and anticipation---you feel something.

This is why when yo…