James 1:17–Every Good Gift is From Above

James 1:17–"Every good gift and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

Turkey day arrives.  And, like all the years before, it is on this day that people gather around tables to feast with friends or family.  We mix giving thanks between forks full of mashed potatoes and fit gratitude somewhere between the turkey and the stuffing.  But this year, while engage in those well-worn family traditions, I pray that we might consider the great faithfulness of God.  In the end, this should always be our praise as we consider the awesome things that God has done for us.  So let us keep thankfulness at the forefront of our minds this Thanksgiving, giving thanks for all the greatness of God!

Hospitality as a Way of Life

Hospitality is an important part of the Christian life.  Not only is hospitality a spiritual gift that God bestows upon certain members of the body of Christ, it is also a manner of life to be espoused and administered by every Christian.  However, due to the ever-increasing fragmentation of our culture and the rampant spread of individualism, hospitality is neither understood nor practiced the way it should.

In the truest sense, hospitality refers to a manner of caring and showing love to people by feeding them, clothing them, giving them a place to sleep/live, and showing them God's love in the most practical and human ways.  This means that we will invite people over for dinner, offer people a place to sleep, and care for them in the most practical of ways.

At the onset, yes, this is not always a comfortable or easy thing, but is necessary all the same.  To be sure, hospitality is not simply an "option" in regards to Christian lifestyle, it is a requirement for every Christian to exhibit such love as this.  Yet again, as this is not necessarily a natural way of life for most people, hospitality is something that demands some intentionality too.

This means, quite bluntly, that we as Christians will not only sieze opportunities to show hospitality but that we will seek them out also.  Even more so, though, hospitality must be shown to strangers, especially to fellow Christians but also to unbelievers too, for in showing hospitality to the unbeliever one may express the love of Christ in practical, tangible ways.  Let us then take this to heart as we strive to live a life that exhibits the love of Christ through hospitality in all things!

Understanding the Holy Spirit

Throughout the Church, there seems to be much teaching and doctrine about the Father, and certainly the Son, but the work of the Holy Spirit is oddly neglected.  To be sure, it is challenging. For however many and eloquent words we might employ to depict and discuss the Holy Spirit, we are inevitably left using material and human words to describe an altogether un-human being.  This leaves us inclined either to dig deeper into the Scriptures for clarification or simply to ignore teaching about the Holy Spirit entirely for fear of doing Him injustice.  Needless to say, the latter is unacceptable.  Instead, we should look at the opportunity to learn about God, His Holy Spirit, with joy and energy.

At the onset, the Holy Spirit is unique to Christianity.  Only Christianity teaches that God Himself, in His Holy Spirit, will actually descend upon and indwell believers.  This should excite us to know that God desires to indwell us with His very person so as to guide, to teach, and to grow us from the inside-out.  Because we are discussing a Spirit, we should be sure to consider a couple of points of clarification: we are referring to the Spirit not a material substance; we are talking about One who indwells within believers not everyone; and there is an emphasis in the New Testament, particularly Acts, for a baptism of or being filled by the Holy Spirit.  These three basic assertions form a trifecta of foundations supported and supplemented by the Word, specifically the New Testament.

While the Holy Spirit plays a major role in nearly all of the New Testament works, none more so than that of the Gospel of John and Acts.  More than any other writing does John chronicle Jesus specific teaching about the Holy Spirit.  For starters, people are to be baptized in the Holy Spirit (John 1:33), which equates to be born of the Spirit (John 3:5).  This can seem both odd and confusing, and has sparked much debate over what amounts to this baptism.  Luckily, Jesus does not leave us without reference about this, as chronicled by Luke throughout Acts.

In Acts 1:4-5, Jesus tells the disciples to wait for the promise of the Father, "He said, 'you heard from me; for John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.'"  Jesus, quite clearly, tells the disciples that, though they had already been baptized with water and were believers, they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit.  Moreover, just before Jesus ascends, in His final words to His disciples, He says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8)."  The event Jesus prophesied is Pentecost (Acts 2:4), accompanied by the physical manifestations of the Holy Spirit, namely speaking in tongues and prophesying.

Much destructive and unbiblical teaching has been done on this subject, to the effect that the Church seems polarized.  In an effort to keep true to the Scripture and reserved, we can point out a couple of clear things about this.  For one, believers are to be baptized in water and the Holy Spirit.  These being two things, they do not necessarily mean two separate occasions; they could be simultaneous.  Secondly, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the power of God.  If we do not have the Holy Spirit, we could believe all the right orthodoxy but never bear fruit.  In this far-too-normal scenario, we need to earnestly pray to receive the Holy Spirit who guides, counsels, teaches, helps us grow spiritual fruit and is the medium of worship (John 4:23; 14:15-18, 25-26; 16:4-15).

The other, and most controversial, aspect of the Holy Spirit that should not be neglected for fear of disrupting our denominational doctrines or sensibilities is in reference to the "sign" gifts: healing, miracles, prophecy, visions, and tongues.  In an effort to let the Word determine theology as opposed to the dire case of the reverse, it must be said unambiguously that these gifts are still in effect today.  We still live in the age of grace, and God still empowers believers who have been baptized by the Holy Spirit with these gifts and He still works in these ways today.

In the end, understanding who the Holy Spirit is, how He is received, and what He does within believers is essential teaching.  Certainly, it is challenging teaching that can convict and push us in unforeseen ways but this should not allow us to neglect it.  In closing, Paul indicates that the Holy Spirit "seals" our inheritance in the Father, and is a "guarantor" of our eternity (2 Cor.21-22; Eph. 1:13-14).  The purpose of this article has not been an exhaustive or comprehensive teaching on the Holy Spirit, but just a taste of the more important things that Christians need to be aware of.  Let us then pray to be baptized by the Holy Spirit so as to be empowered by God Himself!

Harmony Achieved Through Christ

Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor in the sixteenth century A.D. was fascinated with clocks and had a collection of them.  When he stepped down from the throne in 1556, he had been spending almost all of his time in Spain, in his mansion.  He had six particular clocks in his home and he was fixated on getting them each to run simultaneously, and to chime in harmony.  However, no matter how hard he tried, he was unsuccessful in achieving the harmony he had sought.  At his retirement, he equated his six dissonant clocks to the six disparate nations of the Empire, concluding that it was utterly impossible to get harmony out of such discord.

In the modern world, achieving harmonious synchronicity has become a relatively easy endeavor thanks to a standard time being set, Greenwich Mean Time.  In essence, it is the common standard that clocks are set to that creates harmony.  Similarly, although Christians may often disagree about certain things and may even argue over what being a Christian entails, we should never forget that, like setting our clocks to the standard time, what brings harmony is each of us separately and jointly aligning with the perfect standard of Christ.

Harmony is a musical term that refers to the simultaneous sounding of various intervallic frequencies that create consonance or aural pleasure.  In this, it is important to assert that harmony requires difference; harmony cannot happen unless there are different notes ringing out simultaneously.  This is a beautiful metaphor for the Church, that our differences are what makes complex harmony possible.

As Paul confirms in his first letter to the church in Corinth, "For the body does not consist of one member, but many (1 Cor. 12:14)."  Paul is talking about spiritual gifts, exhorting the Corinthians that God has blessed people with differences by His will and for His purposes.  And that these differences should not be ignored but celebrated for it is by His design that one should be gifted in teaching and another in service, or one in prophecy while another in wisdom.  We need only to remember that Christ alone is what fosters harmony, for we are all equally supported and sustained by His Spirit (1 Cor. 1-11).

Dissension and dissonance arises when believers neglect their root and connection in the blood of Christ.  When believers focus on their common inheritance that is made secure by Christ Jesus, we will not overvalue our own understandings and we will not think of ourselves higher than we ought (Rom 12:3-8).  Only in fixing our gaze on Christ can we overcome our selfishness and proclivities toward dissonance and reach holy harmony that God has intended for His children.  Let us then fix our eyes upon Jesus who leads us, His choir, in a holy song of praise to the Father!