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-Taking an active roll in pursuing growth-

Balance

When I was growing up, there was one piece of playground equipment I feared/resented. As a husky youth, the seesaw was never something I looked forward too. In order for me to participate with the other kids, there needed to be a ratio of two of them to one of me.

One lessons I learned from this slightly traumatic elementary school problem was the idea of balance. I, compared to the other kids, presented a weight which they had to counterbalance.

In other areas of life, things are similar. Life is like a giant seesaw. When a great weight is presented it must have something to counterbalance. It is simply the tension we live in.

Work vs Family. Exercise vs Sedentary. Coffee vs Fru Fru Drinks.

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Photo by photosteve101

A healthy understanding of the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives starts with seeing how Jesus described the Spirit before he ascended to heaven. Jesus taught it is was better for him to leave so the Spirit might come.

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”
(John 16:7 ESV)

By Jesus ascending to heaven, the new covenant was ushered in and the Holy Spirit could fulfill the Old Testament prophecies by coming to dwell within believers.

What does the Holy Spirit do?

Without going into an exhaustive study on the Holy Spirit’s role, let’s take a look at the grand picture of his involvement in believers.

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In Part 1 of this series I discussed how many Christians are scared to take the first steps into growing deeper in their relationship with God. It is important to remember that as brothers and sisters in Christ, we all engage in the study of the nature of God and religious beliefs. No one can hide behind the “I’m not a theologian” statement any longer.

Become Aware

Human nature wants to be oblivious to things that are hard to understand. Andrew Smith is famous for quoting, “People fear what they don’t understand and hate what they can’t conquer.” In some ways that applies to Christians. We fear what we don’t understand about God because it taps into a deeply rooted instinct in our flesh, control. If we can control something, then we don’t have to fear it.

But the other part of that statement resonates even deeper into the dark caverns of our flesh. Not controlling God doesn’t only mean fearing him, but our flesh hates God because it cannot conquer him.

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Stop reading for a minute and sit under that.

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Let’s be honest with each other. There are a lot of things about God, the Bible, and Christianity in general that are difficult to understand. Often times there are long words and hard concepts when we start going deeper in our faith that scare us a little. If we don’t understand the words, then we won’t understand the concept and if we don’t understand the concept then we will end up telling people falsehoods about our faith.

And nobody wants to be that guy/girl…

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So, just breathe.

In.

And out.

Now continue reading…

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When people start to talk about what worship is and their thoughts and ideas surrounding it, there are some pretty wild thoughts. Yet, there are times when people have such twisted understandings about worship, I can feel my blood begin to boil. It boils because these issues are not simply misunderstandings, but falsehoods that undermine the very reason we strive to live worshipful lifestyles. Here is an example of what I am referring to.

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