Week 5 - The Spirit Led Life

I've had a little bit of time to reflect since this week about the content. I think i learned more this week and more of an information shift than any other week. Growing up in Christian contexts i've heard the word "holy spirit" used but i have never really been in a healthy context where i felt like any goo explanation was given much less any weight given to the idea. One of the main reasons for this is obvious. most christians like me are given examples on tv, and other, of how the name of the holy spirit is used for all sorts of wacky behavior. after attending this weeks midrash though, i am now convinced that this is no more of a shame than the downplaying or flat out ommission that evangelical christianity gives to the subject of the Holy Spirit.
well, let's begin.
here are the main thoughts that hit me hard and the order in which i think they are important:

1. Living a life of under the lordship of christ is not possible to do on our own.
Very little attention is given to the subject of depending on the power of the Holy spirit. I know that in my own life this is a new topic and i'm assuming that since i have heard so little about this from the people around me that it is new to many. i think most of the revelation that came to me is wrapped up in the idea that as much as christians say we need jesus, most of what we do is different in outward appearance more than the actual drive or power source. in other words you have your vegetarian that believes that meat is bad and doesn't eat meat, you have your athiest that believes that religious institutions are bad and doesn't attend and you have your christians that believe the gospel and try and go to church and not sin.

2. Therefore we need the Holy Spirit who is the "helper" that jesus promised us to fulfill our mission while on earth.
What should make christianity unique is not just that it is a different belief system with different practices but that the whole way in which we will practice it is through a supernatural means. That is ultimately what will make all the difference and brings out the weakness of humanity and the power of the gospel.

3. Most people continually try harder to accomplish things in the flesh instead of relinqushing all together and surrendering to the will and direction of the Holy Spirit.
One thing that has really struck me about how misguided we are in this subject is the solutions people (including myself) propose to "christian living" questions. i often find an area of my life like lust, love or patience and i try and set some boundaries or exert more effort in trying to be better in that thing. no there are two problems with this. the first is that it usually does not work. battling the flesh is a task that is generally to big for the flesh. the second problem with that is that if it actually does work it creates a self-sufficient and self righteous attitude that is directly contrary to the gospel. instead of pinpointing tiny points or outward signs that the spirit exists it would be far better to flat out surrender to the spirit and be able to exhibit the fruit of the spirit in it's entirety ...love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.

Europe

Kami and I will be in Europe for the next 10 days with no kids. So no posts for 10 days.

Week 4 - Lordship

In the course of the story formed life, week 4 has the most emphasis on personal response. Weeks one through three really challenge what you believe which does change your actions but week 4 is where there is a fork put in the road and the response of the individual is the main focus.
Week 1- We have established that God is the Creator and Lord of the universe
Week 2 - We learn that we have left and lost that and will not receive eternal life as a race
Week 3 - We learned that God followed through on his promises and brought one who can bring eternal life
Week 4- Lordship is about whether or not we are willing to accept God's gift of salvation by submitting to the Lordship of Christ. Or to rephrase that, submitting to the Lordship of Christ is the sign that we have accepted salvation

There were quite a few things that influenced me pretty deeply about this week. One of the first ideas that was thrown out there was that if the Gospel has not influenced us on an emotional level there is a pretty good chance that we do not undertand or even believe the Gospel in it's entirety. This idea really reasonated with me. I know that there are times when I am emotionally involved with the gospel, or at least have been in the past but i realize for the most part the gospel has been a very atherial knowledge based thing. The verses and ideas that we discussed in this week were, therefore, very threatening to someone in my position.
The main passages we looked at were Mark 10-22, Luke 9:57-62, Luke 14:25-33, Romans 10:9-10, and Matthew 7:21-23.
The majority of these passage revolve around Jesus sharing the Gospel with people in a way that makes them turn away and decide not to follow him. This makes for a pretty interesting thought experiment. The following was my thought process throughout the night:
1. In many cases Jesus seemed to make it really tough for people to follow him. He didn't really throw out the "just accept me into your heart" line to much, especially in these passages.
2. this is a pretty different method than what is commonly used today. I can think of story after story where an alter call is given and people are told that if they raise their hands and mutter a few words and ask a few things they will be christians and inhereit eternal life.
3. It doesn't seem like both of these methods can be right in practice or in their origin.
4. When I think about "sharing the gospel" now, I find myself thinking about a "gospel" that mimics much more the 2nd than the 1st.
5. The reason why I am communicating this "gospel" is because I probably believe it about others as well as myself.
6. Believing in the wrong gospel can be a pretty scary thing. We are told that many will come to him who performed miracles and he will say to them "I never knew you" and we are also to work out our salvation with "fear and trembling." One interesting thought i was also presented with is the idea that we are not given any personal assurance, while on this earth, that we are in fact "saved."

So, this thought process lead to some deep soul searching. There are many areas of my life that I feel i take sole ownership of. By definition they should have been transferred to christs mantel for ownership and by very definition I'm pretty sure that i can not say that i have surrendered to the Lordship of Christ. I went for a walk and found myself in the same park that I originally decided to move to KY for 9 weeks and decide to do the discipleship. I went through a process of prayer and surrender that was very difficult but very refreshing.

There are some other responses that I have had to this experience but i will post them in a different topic.