A Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit, grant me to know you in your fullness:

• the ocean of your love
• the wellspring of your joy
• the river of your peace
• the quiet waters of your patience
• the streams of your kindness
• the floods of your goodness
• the waves of your faithfulness
• the dew of your gentleness
• the channel of your self-control

Against such things there is no limit.

Copyright David John Smith, July 2010

God's Logo

When Jesus was asked, "What is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" Jesus requested to see a denarius, and then asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?" When they replied, "Caesar’s," he then said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s." (See Matthew 22:17-21.)

Think of all the logos you carry – the marks, the symbols that you belong. You might wear a clothing logo, or the logo of your school, or the logo of your favorite sports team.

Companies, institutions, organizations want you to say that you belong to them. They want you to be proud that you have been marked by them.

Yet when you look in the mirror and see the real you fully, you see the imprimatur of God.

God’s portrait, God’s image, God’s inscription, God’s picture, God’s logo is stamped upon your very being! You have been marked by God.

The coin? Whose portrait, whose inscription is imprinted on it? Caesar’s. It belongs to him. Give it back to him.

You? Whose portrait, whose inscription is imprinted on you? God’s. You belong to God. Give yourself back to him.

Let God Love You

We all have experienced feeling unwanted, unloved, rejected.

As a child, you were called some derogatory names. As a teenager, you were the last one chosen for sports teams. As an adult, you were bypassed in job promotions.

You and I have struggled with rejection.

Starting kindergarten in September at age four didn't help me -- I didn't turn five until Decemer 24 -- so I was always the youngest in school while growing up. And I never did turn out very big and tall either. LOL! So I was always the smallest kid in the classroom too (all except for one kid that had a rare disease and he got lots of attention because of that!).

Only in college did a friend point out that I was "small but powerful like a stick of dynamite!" That helped!

Being around others who are richer, smarter, more athletic, more popular can make us feel rejected and undesireable and alone.

The good news is this: Jesus understands. "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not" (Isaiah 53:3). He was "the stone the builders rejected" (Matthew 21:42).

Jesus knows what rejection feels like -- to be overlooked, to be mistreated, to be disdained. He comes alongside us to stand with us in our pains, heal our inner wounds, and transform our very souls.

And the Lord Jesus will work powerfully within us by his Holy Spirit and through the Word of God.

• Our feelings of rejection are dismantled by his consistent and unfailing acceptance of us as those created in the image of God.
• The lies we have told ourselves are dismissed by the truth of who we really are in Christ.
• The false accusations and constant belittling from the tempter are silenced by the overcoming authority Christ gives to us.

I am loved by God, accepted by Christ, welcomed by the Holy Spirit. I am a new creation Christ. So are you.

Let God love you. Receive his embrace. Stand in his enabling.

Veteran Leaders have War Wounds

I had a seredipitous lunch recently with a pastor who told me how God told him two decades ago that his church would change. He then described to me in a panoramic way how God changed his church.

I walked away from that conversation with a new appreciation for the word "veteran". Normally when I think of the word "veteran", I think of a former member of the armed services or an old soldier of long service.

But "veteran" is also a person of long experience in some occupation or skill. The overlap in definition, however, is striking.

This pastor described his "war wounds". He showed me his "scars" and his "medals of honor". He described the "horrors of battle" and the "price of victory". He detailed the "heavy losses" as well as the "fantastic gains".

Such are all veteran leaders in the kingdom of God. A price to be paid. A world to be won. A triumph to be celebrated.

What do your "war wounds" look like? Describe to me your "scars". What does the "victory" look like?

Take Courage

I love this verse where the apostle Paul mentors his protege Timothy about courage. "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline" (2 Timothy 1:7).

Paul tells Timothy that whenever he looks inside himself and sees timidity, that timidity didn’t come from God. Rather, what originates from God is power, love, and self-discipline.

God gives you the enabling by the Word and the Spirit that you may have power – that you may have strength of character and be bold in exercising the authority Christ delegated to you.

God gives you the enabling by the Word and the Spirit that you may have love – that you may love everyone with God’s kind of love and be able to love even the unlovely.

God gives you the enabling by the Word and the Spirit that you may have self-discipline – that you may exercise mastery in a situation because you have first mastered yourself. You know when to say yes and when to say no, and you rise to the challenge and do it or choose not to do it.

When you look inside at your response to a difficult situation and see timidity, that’s when you claim God’s power and love, and that’s when you exercise self-discipline.

The courageous may not live forever in this life, but the timid don’t live at all! Take courage and hang onto God!

Jesus is Fun to Be With

Jesus is fun to be with. Children thought so. They loved being with Jesus, and he loved being with them.

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me" (Matthew 19:14). Jesus invited the children to "come" to him just as he invited Peter to come to him by walking on the water (Matthew 14:28-29).

Jesus invited the children to "come" to him just the way he invites us, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). In simple childlike faith, humility, dependence, we come to God and follow Christ.

As complicated as life can become and as complicated as the Christian life can become, Jesus draws us to consider the simplicity of a child. We respond to his invitation to "come" to him.

I find the invitation of Jesus warm and welcoming and inviting. He invites me to spend time with him, talk with him, be with him, walk alongside him. With him I receive focused attention all the time. No rush. No hurry. Never too busy. Always available. Easy to be with, unless I have sin piling up in my life. But even there, he unties me from things that bind me. And he unwinds the knots of strain and stress. He releases me into freedom and joy. Jesus is fun to be with.

Jesus says, "Come to me. Come to me as a little child. Come with innocent faith, simply trusting. Come with humility. Be real. Learn of me. Lean on me. Depend on me. Just come to me."

Has it been too long that you have come to God as a little child? When was the last time you crawled into Jesus’ lap as a child? Can you recall the last time you let God love you?

Remind yourself what you were like as a child. Spend time with children to learn again the heart of a child. Return again to that simplicity. Jesus is fun to be with.

Transformation for Every Decade

I remember my father telling me that every issue in his Christian life needed to be revisited when he was in his fifties and taken to a deeper level. I concur.

Theological issues that I resolved as a younger believer, I have had to wrestle with in more thorough ways. Personal issues that I overcame as a younger Christian, I have had to re-overcome. Spiritual disciplines that I locked in as a younger disciple, I have had to revisit and relearn.

My conclusions: We are always growing -- theologically, personally, spiritually. And our God is able to meet our needs at every decade of our lives. And the result is a deeper transformation.