Links I like

Aaron Armstrong —  June 19, 2013 — Leave a comment

How I Changed My Mind about Abortion

Julia Herrington:

My thoughts and feelings on abortion have almost always been rather laissez–faire. I felt apathetic because the topic is so abrasive. Secretly, I’ve always felt that abortion wasn’t ideal and maybe not even right. But it’s complicated to believe that when you’re a feminist, and it’s certainly not something you profess publicly. Who am I to presume to know what is right for another woman? Am I, as a feminist, willing to assert that abortion isn’t right? Would I not be robbing women of authority over their own personhood, something women have fought arduously for, for far too long? A year ago, I would have rather been caught barefoot in the kitchen, in an apron with red lipstick on my mouth, baking for all the boys, a caricature of the “problem without a name” rather than to be found in close proximity to the pro-life camp.

An Alternative to the TGC and T4G Statements about SGM

David Murray:

I love and respect the T4G and TGC men who recently put their names to statements about the sexual abuse cover-up and conspiracy allegations surrounding C.J. Mahaney and Sovereign Grace Ministries. Each of these gifted and godly men have played a hugely beneficial role in my Christian life. I’ve met some of them and know a couple of them quite well. I fully expect to profit from their ministries in the coming years.

But I have to say with heavy heart, I strongly disagree with some of the content in their public statements.

Kindle deals round 2

Yesterday I shared a bunch of Kindle deals; here are a few more you should check out:

My Take on the “Baptist Battle of Calvinism”

Tim Brister:

I am one who grew up in the middle of this battle. My first four years of ministry witnessed a surge of Reformed theology in college (1997-2001), followed by four years in the revivalist/anti-Calvinist culture (2001-2004). The third set of four years was spent at Southern Seminary when the term “young, restless, and reformed” generation was coined (2004-2008). In fact, in many ways my journey biographically was a microcosm of the larger narrative such that Collin Hansen (who wrote the book) shared a portion of my life story in his book. The fourth set of four years has been as a pastor of a confessionally Reformed church (2008-2012), where I continue to serve today.

As I mentioned in my reflections on #SBC13, the tone and conversation regarding Calvinism is perhaps the best it has been since I’ve been involved in Southern Baptist life. I took some time to reflect on the past 15 years, and I thought I’d share my big picture take on the “Baptist Battle of Calvinism.

When Reporters Roll Their Eyes at an Abortion Bill

Trevin Wax:

 

As expected, the House of Representatives voted today to ban abortions after 22 weeks (the point when a fetus can feel pain). The Senate will probably ignore this bill, and the president will definitely veto it. But the symbolic power of the House kicking against the goads of Roe v. Wade is certainly newsworthy, which is why media outlets are devoting attention to the bill.

Unfortunately, in reading the news stories, one gets the impression that most journalists are rolling their eyes at Republicans for even attempting such a laughable, backwards piece of legislation.

In Links
 permalink

Is your god kind of like Superman, but less awesome?

Aaron Armstrong —  June 18, 2013 — Leave a comment

Morals play a large part in religion; morals are good if they’re healthy for society. Like Christianity, which is all I know, the values you get from like the Ten Commandments. I think every religion is important in its own respect. You know, if you’re Muslim, then Islam is the way for you. If you’re Jewish, well, that’s great too. If you’re Christian, well, good for you. It’s just whatever makes you feel good about you.

—A “non-religious white girl” from Maryland, as quoted in Christian Smith’s essay, On “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” as U.S.Teenagers’ Actual, Tacit, De Facto Religious Faith

In his book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, sociologist Christian Smith describes what he refers to as “the de facto dominant religion among contemporary teenagers in the United States is what we might call ‘Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.’”

The creed of this religion, as codified from what emerged from our interviews with U.S. teenagers, sounds something like this:

  1. A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.
  2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
  3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about one-self.
  4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when he is needed to resolve a problem.
  5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

“It’s just whatever makes you feel good about you,” says the teenager from Maryland. Smith’s essay is an eye-opener. Because at the heart of it all:

It’s all about us.

Am I the only one who finds that a bit depressing?

The god of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is best described as “something like a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist—he is always on call, takes care of any problems that arise, professionally helps his people to feel better about themselves, and does not become too personally involved in the process.”

He helps me pick myself up by my spiritual bootstraps, gives me a pat on the head and then is off to… I don’t know, take a nap or something.

Kind of like Superman, but less awesome.

Is that a god really worth believing in?

More troubling is that many of us might be moralistic therapeutic deists and not even know it. Says Smith, “ a significant part of ‘Christianity’ in the United States is actually only tenuously connected to the actual historical Christian tradition, but has rather substantially morphed into Christianity’s misbegotten step-cousin, Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”

The language—and therefore experience—of Trinity, holiness, sin, grace, justification, sanctification, church, Eucharist,and heaven and hell appear…to be being supplanted by the language of happiness, niceness, and an earned heavenly reward. It is not so much that Christianity in the United States is being secularized. Rather more subtly, either Christianity is at least degenerating into a pathetic version of itself or, more significantly, Christianity is actively being colonized and displaced by a quite different religious faith.

So who or what do we truly believe in?

Do we believe in the God of the Bible, the God who makes himself and his will known to us; who is intimately involved in every detail of creation and is worthy of all glory and praise—or do we believe in a god who is kind of like a sweet, sleepy grandpa who loves to hand out candy but doesn’t really do anything useful?

Who or what we believe in changes everything in life, for better or for worse. When we believe in a tiny pretend god, like the one of moralistic therapeutic deism, we’re at the center. When we believe in the true God, we realize quickly life isn’t about us—it’s about God and his glory. Which do you believe?

An earlier version of this post was published in March 2010.

In Christian Living
 permalink

Links I like

Aaron Armstrong —  June 18, 2013 — Leave a comment

Should We Stop Saying, “The Church Hurt Me”?

Thabiti Anyabwile:

I hear the statement quite often. Usually it’s raised in discussions of church membership. People want to know how to help a wounded friend or family member re-engage the church. Or, they’re the ones who have been hurt and they’re wrestling with whether church is worth it. Some want to be convinced to join a church and others want to be told it’s okay to leave. Answering well depends, in part, on knowing which way the person leans.

Young pastor, obscurity is your friend

David Murray:

Lots of fascinating insight and helpful advice in this interview with Internet entrepreneur Jason Fried, President and co-founder of 37 Signals. His caution to those just starting out in business is so transferable to those just starting out in ministry.

Kindle deals for Christian readers

A few recent Kindle deals:

Seven Things Pastors Would Like Church Members to Know about their Children

Thom Rainer:

I was serving a church in St. Petersburg, Florida, when it hit me hard. One of my young children had playfully fallen on the floor in the foyer after a worship service. A deacon in the church came up to me and spoke forcefully: “You need to tell your kid to get up. Pastors’ children aren’t supposed to act that way.”

Barnabas Piper interacts with the post here.

The Trinity as Old Testament Book Club

Fred Sanders:

We can learn to read the Bible so well that we overhear in it what the Father and Son say to each other. Does that sound too mystical? Learning to overhear the Trinity’s conversation? Don’t worry: It’s very high, but it’s not mystical. Mystical means, among other things, secret. And there’s nothing secret about this trinitarian conversation, because the whole thing is published, and has been for a long time.

Don’t go right to the commentary!

Brian Croft:

We live in a blessed day as pastors.  We have easy access to the thoughts of some of the most brilliant theological minds in history and can find them addressing just about any passage in the Bible.  The temptation with access to these kinds of scholars, is to seek their thoughts too soon before we have formulated our own thoughts about the passage we seek to preach.  When should a preacher consult the insightful words of these scholars?  I think the wisdom of English Pastor Andrew Fuller given over 200 years ago is still just as sound in our commentary-saturated time today as it was in his day when the resources were much more sparse.

In Links
 permalink

When lofty goals and unexpected events collide

Aaron Armstrong —  June 17, 2013 — Leave a comment

Photo by Zsuzsanna Kilian

In February I wrote about needing to finish something I started a long time ago: my Systematic Theology certificate program. At the time, I was about two-thirds into Hoekema’s Saved by Grace and had seven additional books to complete.

My plan had been to complete all of these by the end of June. However, it seems it was not, in fact, the Lord’s will to see this come to pass. Over the last few weeks, events I don’t need to get into here have conspired against me. The long story short is, I’m not even close to achieving this goal.

That doesn’t mean I’ve not made progress: since February, I’ve completed Saved by Grace (which took a surprisingly long time to read) and The Mystery of the Lord’s Supper (by Robert Bruce, another slow-burn book), and am now about a third of the way through Sinclair Ferguson’s book on The Holy Spirit. This leaves me with the following untouched:

  1. The Person of Christ by Donald Macleod
  2. The Church by Edmund P. Clowney
  3. Pierced for Our Transgressions by Jeffery, Ovey and Sach
  4. The Doctrine of Sin by Iain D. Campbell
  5. The Promise of the Future by Cornelius P. Venema

So what’s a good takeaway from this?

That sometimes it’s good to hold a goal loosely. I’m not going to complete the remaining five-plus books in a week. Some time ago, I’d probably have been losing my mind—anything less than full accomplishment would be considered total failure. Yet, I did still manage to accomplish something. I’ve got the still-to-read list down a bit more. Progress has been made and I’m a bit closer to completing the task before me.

So what’s the next goal with this? To complete The Holy Spirit within the next two weeks, and another book on the list every month thereafter. Lord willing, this will see me complete my program before the end of the year.

What goals have you set for yourself this year? How are you doing on them so far?

In Christian Living, Education
 permalink

Links I like

Aaron Armstrong —  June 17, 2013 — Leave a comment

Common Fault Lines in Maintaining an Evangelical Approach to Homosexuality

Kevin DeYoung:

On June 11, [Peter] Wehner authored a guest post at Patheos entitled, “An Evangelical Christian Looks at Homosexuality.” The context for the piece was a recent exchange Wehner had with a Christian acquaintance on the matter of homosexuality. This unnamed interlocutor was advocating that Christians “speak out more boldly and forcefully” and “vehemently oppose homosexuality and same sex marriage.” Not knowing the details of the exchange, it’s possible I would disagree with Wehner’s Christian acquaintance just as Wehner did. I certainly agreed with Wehner’s contention that applying the laws of ancient Israel to the United States is tricky business and that determining “how the Scriptural injunctions against homosexual behavior should manifest themselves in modern American law and society are not self-evident.” That is to say, our political and legislative positions cannot be determined simply by noting that the Bible calls something a sin and therefore that sin should be illegal.… My reason for noting Wehner’s article is because he is a thoughtful Christian who—despite some good points—has, in my estimation, repeated many of the worst arguments Christians often use when equivocating on homosexuality in general and gay marriage in particular. Let me mention four of these arguments.

Feeling Unappreciated at Work?

Andre Yee:

There are few things more difficult than giving our best labors daily in an environment where we feel unappreciated. You know the feeling, and it’s not a good one. No matter how good our work environment might be, from time to time we have all felt the sting of our contributions taken for granted and our mistakes magnified.

The sad reality is that this condition is almost inevitable in this broken world. So how do we sustain joyful work in such a situation?

Want to Change the World? Sponsor a Child

Bruce Wydick:

The truth was that I hadn’t the slightest clue about the effect child-sponsorship programs had on children.

Dissatisfaction with my pat answer began to inform conversations with my graduate students. “Have you considered researching the impact of child sponsorship?” I would ask. One student was interested, and she followed the topic long enough to find out that no one had ever investigated the topic, despite 9 million children sponsored worldwide, and the more than $5 billion per year being channeled into sponsorship programs from ordinary people wanting to help. But we were having trouble finding a sponsorship organization willing to work with us. What if the research discovered that sponsorship didn’t work? This was the risk that some organization out there had to take.

I Hear Voices…Do You?

Josh Blount:

Sometimes I hear voices. Voices talking to me. Voices in my head. Do you? (Cue the creepy music.)

No, I don’t have a Gollum-like split personality, and no, I don’t need to be locked in a padded room with basket-weaving supplies. But I do hear voices, or at least a voice, and I bet you do too. I’m talking about the incessant internal dialogue going on in our heads, the voice that sounds like your voice but comes up with all kinds of suggestions, ideas, evaluations, critiques, or judgments. I don’t care what kind of chatterboxes you live with, no one talks to you as much as you do.

The Truth We Are Too Blind to See

Staci Eastin:

A woman was accusing me of lying about her prescription copay (the internet was new back then, and people didn’t understand that we were just passing on the insurance claim, not coming up with the prices ourselves). She was mid-tirade when she realized that my husband and I were clients of her business, and that if I decided to take my business elsewhere, she was going to lose a lot more than the five dollars she was screaming at me about. Watching her try to backpeddle and soften her words was interesting. But what was especially interesting was her apology when she realized she couldn’t gloss over what she’d already said. “And here I was thinking that it was my turn, only to be yelling at one of my own customers.”

In Links
 permalink

The perfect father-and-son moment

Aaron Armstrong —  June 16, 2013 — Leave a comment

fathers-hands

The first thing we are told about the relationship of the Father to the Son is that the Father thought His Son was doing a great job. [Matt 3:16-17]

So this is what fatherhood is like. This is where fatherhood reaches its ultimate expression. In human history, there will never be a more perfect father-and-son moment than this moment between Father and Son. This is the keynote—pleasure. This is the pitch that a father/son relationship needs to match—“well pleased.”

When we don’t match that pitch, a lot of things start going wrong. In fact, so many things start going wrong that we sometimes miss the source of all the trouble. In our generation we are confronted with many social dislocations that all go back to a foundational father hunger. All men are the son of some man, and all women are the daughter of some man, but far too many of them have never heard their father say anything like what the Father said to His Son.

Douglas Wilson, Father Hunger (Kindle location 84)

In Christian Living
 permalink

Links I like (weekend edition)

Aaron Armstrong —  June 15, 2013 — Leave a comment

7 Reasons God Might Not Heal Somebody

Derek Rishmawy with a bit of help from Sam Storms:

Now, I’ve prayed, I’ve gone to doctors, changed up my practices, and for some reason it just seems like one thing after another keeps coming up. I know this isn’t the greatest tragedy in the world; we have members in our congregation and friend in our lives who have struggled through much worse. Still, there have been times when I’ve wondered, “God, what are you doing? Why haven’t you healed me yet? I know you can.” … That’s why I was particularly interested in reading Sam Storm’s chapter “Why Doesn’t God Always Heal the Sick?” in his new book Tough Topics: Biblical Answers to 25 Challenging Questions. I had my own range of responses to the issue, but I wanted to see what someone who had actually devoted some research to the question had to say.

Kindle deals for Christian readers

Should Unbelieving Musicians Lead Worship?

Ronnie Martin:

Today I happen to be surrounded by ten or so worship leaders from surrounding communities who were invited to come together to share their trade secrets and insider knowledge about all things related to the ministry of worship arts. It’s no surprise that the conversation moves from light chit-chat about media and tech, to horror stories involving computer crashes, bad drummers and why church organs are actually ironic and awesome again. Up to this point, I’ve admittedly been a quiet, distracted observer, checking my I-Phone in between sips of my Psalted Caramel Mocha when suddenly the conversation shifts to who among us brings in musicians to lead worship who are not….well…saved.

Ok, now they have my attention.

When You Can’t Even Pray

Ray Ortlund:

Christians are not always on top of things. Where in the Bible are we taught to expect unruffled composure and unbroken victory? Sometimes life is so troubling, we feel defeated even in prayer. And if we cannot pray, we are really in trouble. At that very moment when we most need to draw upon God’s promises through prayer—what if we fail at that vital point of connection, when it really counts? Will our weakness bungle the purpose of God? Under normal conditions we tell ourselves that, when all else fails, we can fall back on prayer. But what if we do come to the end of ourselves and our own devices only to discover we don’t even know what to pray, we don’t understand how to connect the Bible with our experience, and God himself seems far away? What then? What encouragement can we look to beyond our own radical weakness?

How can something so destructive be so beautiful?

HT: David Murray

In Links
 permalink

5 books I’m reading this summer

Aaron Armstrong —  June 14, 2013 — 5 Comments

Summertime is nearly upon us; for many of us, this means something very important: the opportunity to take time off work! One of the ways I recharge is to spend time reading. Here are five books I’m planning to read this summer:

kingdom-come-storms

Kingdom Come by Sam Storms

This one is probably going to be my big “plugging away a bit at a time” read:

The second coming of Christ is a matter of sharp disagreement amongst Christians. Many hold to premillennialism: that Christ’s return will be followed by 1,000 years before the final judgement, a belief popularised in the popular Left Behind novels. However, premillennialism is not the only option for Christians. In this important new book, Sam Storms provides a biblical rationale for amillennialism; the belief that 1,000 years mentioned in the book of Revelation is symbolic with the emphasis being the King and his Kingdom.

Buy it at: Amazon | Westminster Books

What Every Christian Needs to Know about the Qur’an by James R. White

What used to be an exotic religion of people halfway around the world is now the belief system of people living across the street. Through fair, contextual use of the Qur’an as the primary source text, apologist James R. White presents Islamic beliefs about Christ, salvation, the Trinity, the afterlife, and other important topics. White shows how the sacred text of Islam differs from the teachings of the Bible in order to help Christians engage in open, honest discussions with Muslims.

Buy it at: Amazon

princess-bride

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

I grew up watching the film based upon this book, so I think it’s high-time I actually read it:

Anyone who lived through the 1980s may find it impossible—inconceivable, even—to equate The Princess Bride with anything other than the sweet, celluloid romance of Westley and Buttercup, but the film is only a fraction of the ingenious storytelling you’ll find in these pages. Rich in character and satire, the novel is set in 1941 and framed cleverly as an “abridged” retelling of a centuries-old tale set in the fabled country of Florin that’s home to “Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passions.”

Buy it at: Amazon

The Doctrine of Sin by Iain D. Campbell

This is one of the last books I need to complete for my systematic theology certificate:

Modern theology reveres the names of Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann and Emil Brunner, hailed as the heroes of a new, modern and re-stated Reformation theology – a new orthodoxy for a new age.

In this book, Iain D. Campbell focuses on one doctrine – the doctrine of sin – and views it first in its biblical perspective, and then considers the perspective of the Reformers and Puritans. He compares and contrasts their approach with that of Barth, Bultmann and Brunner. He also shows how the modern theologies have evacuated the Evangel of its power and saving influence by reducing the sin of man to little more than personal dysfunction.

The Gospel is shown to be the power of God to salvation, because there is an emphasis on sin as objective and factual, leaving people in need of the saving work of Jesus Christ. The new orthodoxy is shown to be not a re-statement of the Gospel, but, as Paul reminded his readers long ago, ‘a different gospel’.

Buy it at: Amazon | Westminster Books

letters-life-lott

Letters and Life: On Being a Writer, On Being a Christian by Bret Lott

All serious writers know that each word they write reveals something significant about their beliefs, something about their reason for creating, something about the one for whom they write. After all, writing lays bare the soul.

Yet the work of a Christian artist is often pressured to fit into a popular mold, oftentimes forgoing quality for the sake of convenience or acceptance, or even simply because of a lack of the bravery necessary to look square in the eye the world, and to do so with the unflinching eye of Christ.

In this series of intimate reflections on life and writing, critically acclaimed and best-selling novelist Bret Lott calls authors to pursue excellence in their craft through five fascinating essays and an extended memoir that explore everything from the importance of literary fiction to the pain of personal loss.

Learn here what it means to be a writer who navigates the tension inherent to being a Christian in the public square—and to being an artist made in the image of God.

Buy it at: Amazon

Those are the primary books I’m planning to read this summer (there may be others that come up). What are you hoping to read during the next couple months?

In Books
 permalink

Links I like

Aaron Armstrong —  June 14, 2013 — Leave a comment

Trusting God vs. Using Our Brain

Amber Van Schooneveld:

I fear that sometimes we give so much lip service to trusting God – which is a good thing – that we fail to acknowledge the part wisdom plays in decision making.

We have created a false dichotomy between applying wisdom and trusting God.

Get In Christ Alone in today’s $5 Friday at Ligonier.org

The hardcover edition of In Christ Alone: Living the Gospel-Centered Life by Sinclair Ferguson is on sale in today’s $5 Friday sale at Ligonier.org. Also on sale:

  • The Five Dilemmas of Calvinism by Craig Brown (paperback)
  • God Alone teaching series by R.C. Sproul (audio and video download)
  • God the Real Superpower: Rethinking Our Role in Missions by J. Nelson Jennings (paperback)

$5 Friday ends tonight at 11:59:59 PM Eastern.

Reflections on #SBC13

Tim Brister:

I have been attending the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention for 5 years, which is not a long time. Yet, there is much that has changed in this short period of time. In 2008, there were numerous motions against Acts 29, Mark Driscoll, and Calvinism. In 2013, not one motion or resolution was against Acts 29 or Calvinism. In fact, NAMB and Acts 29 were on the same IX Marks stage encouraging one another in planting gospel-centered churches. AND the Calvinism Advisory Committee produced a healthy and constructive document which has changed the tone of the convention regarding this controversial issue. Instead of talking about one another, Calvinists and non-Calvinists are talking toone another and standing shoulder to shoulder (differences notwithstanding) in a spirit of voluntary cooperation forwarded by meaningful theological consensus.  In fact, I did not hear one derogatory statement about Calvinists the entire time in Houston (Louisiana College excluded). These changes are no small thing.

And What Remains film + study guide

Marc Havener, maker of the short film, And What Remains, has made a study guide available for use in a small group or family setting. Head over to the film’s site for details.

God Rules the Mundane

Gloria Furman:

 I’m the wife of a busy church planter and mother to three kids, four years old and under. We live in the Middle East where sand seeps into every crack in the windows and doors and leaves a gritty film all over the floor for me to sweep. I do eight loads of laundry and clip four sets of fingernails and toenails each week.

My life is all things ordinary.

Bold, Daring Audacity Vs The Pretty Boy Preachers

Colin Adams:

Dr Steven J. Lawson spoke yesterday to a group of Irish pastors. His subject was “The Gospel Focus Of Charles Spurgeon.” Some of the content was encouraging. Much of it was tremendously challenging. However my ‘personal takeaway’ was Dr Lawson’s discussion of Spurgeon’s bold audacity in the pulpit.

In Links
 permalink

How do you know if a Christian has the Holy Spirit?

Aaron Armstrong —  June 13, 2013 — 5 Comments

holding-bible-lr

Years ago, my wife and I were members of a church affiliated with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. For those who aren’t aware, Canadian Pentecostal churches tend to be a little less, as one American friend put it, “circusy.” They’re generally a little more conservative in their expression of things like speaking in tongues and open prophesying.

Despite not being terribly showy, there were still certain expectations within the church culture. For those of us who did not speak in tongues, the question was often raised, “Why wouldn’t you want all that God has for you,” as if it was a failing on our part that we didn’t express our faith in such ways. (Never mind that Paul wrote that, “each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another” [1 Cor. 7:7] and “in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue” [1 Cor. 12:30, 14:9].)

I would leave meetings praying that if it was truly what God wanted for me that I would have the gift, but it never came. In fact, the only thing that came was conviction that this was not a gift that I was to have at all, something that confused the very few leaders I told. Yet the pressure was still there. I was in a worship gathering where two of the pastors both were praying that I would be “baptized in the Spirit” and speak in tongues. And, honestly, it was tempting to start faking just to get people to shut up about it.

Yet that wouldn’t have been honoring to Christ, nor would it have been respectful to them or beneficial to me. Instead, our family eventually decided to leave rather than let our doctrinal convictions on this (and a host of other matters) become a point of conflict.

The concern I have with the line of thinking surrounding whether or not someone “has the Spirit” is it leads to a false dichotomy—that there are some Christians who are on a higher spiritual plane than others. But there’s nothing in Scripture that says there are some believers in Jesus who have the Spirit and others who don’t. Sinclair Ferguson, in speaking of the indwelling nature of the Spirit says, “to have the Spirit is to have Christ… to not have the Spirit of Christ is to lack Christ.” 1

Simply, the difference between having the Holy Spirit and not is the difference between being saved and lost. If you’re in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit in His fullness. If you lack the Holy Spirit, you’re still lost in your sins.

So how do you know if the Holy Spirit is within you? Look at the fruit of your life.

  • Do you want to obey Jesus—and do you strive to do so? (Matt. 7:15-18)
  • Do you love others—especially those who are unlovely? (Matt 5:43-48)
  • Are you seeing increased evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in your life? (Gal. 5:22-23)
  • Do you have a growing hatred of evil and love for what is good? (Rom. 12:9)
  • Are you increasingly generous with your time, talents and treasure? (Matt 6:19-24)
  • Are you increasingly aware of your own sinfulness and need of God’s grace? (1 Tim. 1:15-16)

What we all need to recognize is that apart from the Spirit’s work within us, the answer to all of these questions is going to be a resounding “no.” It’s impossible to do any of them without the Spirit at work, bringing life into what was dead. So perhaps we ought not to worry so much about whether or not we lack the Spirit. Instead, let’s examine the fruit of our lives and see what is revealed.

In Christian Living
 permalink