Journey to The Journey

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In our confusion, we don't properly give reverence to the Spirit as we should. Thus, we often neglect him in our worship when we gather together corporately. At the same time, we often fail to rightly understand the vital role he plays in our own spiritual vitality and well-being. Additionally, this lack of proper understanding, as Cody explained in this week's lesson, has led some to fall into mysticism and to affirm things contrary to the teaching of scripture. This can, and has, clearly been problematic and, I believe, led to a number of dangerous, yet pervasive, beliefs in and among evangelical Christian circles. Therefore, it may be helpful to briefly look at a few key points of doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit specifically, so that we might, unlike the Ephesian disciples, rightly know and worship God the Holy Spirit.

We live in a time and place in history where we have unprecedented access to a wealth of information. With a few keystrokes, we can mine the depths of the Internet. Technology has given a voice to anyone with a keyboard and some bandwidth. The rise of "cheap" information has made us lazy. When we know everything...in many ways we may actually know nothing at all. There is likely more bad teaching, bad theology, and false doctrine being consumed than good. Sadly, this reality has infected the church all the way up to its highest level. Christians who accept and believe false doctrine become teachers who propagate it. The repercussions are many, but none is more damaging than the defacing of the imago dei.

Here Jesus highlights the important truth of his plan for kingdom expansion through his Church...it takes an army! Regardless of the greatness of the leader, how charismatic he is, how great he is at casting vision or rallying support; regardless of his giftedness in speaking, or how many times he can make you laugh (or cry) in his sermons; in spite of all of those things, and more, no one man can do it alone. When churches become all about the guy in the spotlight, they are on a path of inevitable destruction. Either by attrition, because that guy will eventually get old and die or retire; or by burnout, because that guy can't sustain the demands of his ministry, and he eventually collapses in exhaustion or falls into sin. We see this play out in our churches almost daily.