Author: W. Keith Brenton

Who’s In and Who’s Out

/ W. Keith Brenton / 4 Comments

We like to know who’s in and who’s out. More than that, we like to decide.

But, failing that, we’ll tune in to Entertainment Tonight, American Idol, Jeopardy, Hardball, Survivor and anything on ESPN to see to see who’s in and who’s out – socially, intellectually, competitively, politically, athletically, whatever. If we can vote somebody in that we like, or vote someone out that we don’t like … so much the better!

Jesus had a way of turning who’s in and who’s out inside-out.

When His followers found a fellow driving out demons in His name, they put the brakes on him fast. Why? “Because he is not one of us,” John explained.

Jesus said: “Don’t stop him! Whoever is not against you is for you.” (Luke 9:49-50) And in Mark 9:39 he adds, “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about Me.”

John understood the reverse, in Luke 11:23: “Whoever doesn’t gather with Me, scatters.” He “got” the truth that Jesus is an all-or-nothing proposition; you love Him or you hate Him. You’re with Him or you’re against Him. You’re “in” or you’re “out.” But, as far as John was concerned, if someone didn’t follow and wasn’t “in,” no demons should be cast out by him.

He didn’t stop to consider whether possessed people were better off without the demons.

Or the possibility that the power of Christ transcended one little group of followers.

Or the fact that Jesus could see and know about that person casting out demons as clearly as He could see Nathanael under the fig tree before Philip called him; as surely as He could feel virtue leave him when a woman touched His cloak to be healed.

Or that it’s Jesus who decides who’s in and who’s out.

I’d rather accept someone as “in” and then be disappointed not to see them in heaven, than to declare them as “out” and then be disappointed that I wasn’t in heaven with them. – Old Preacher Saying

HeartWorship: A Miktam of David

/ W. Keith Brenton / 4 Comments

I trust you, God; I’m in safe hands
You are my Lord; You give good things
The good who dwell within your lands
Delight in what Your glory brings

Yet sorrows will increase for those
who scurry after other gods
whose names my lips will not disclose
nor will I pour their cups of blood

My cup and portion, Lord, you give
and make my place in life secure:
a pleasant place for me to live;
a legacy that You make sure

I’ll praise the Lord who counsels me,
instructing my heart day and night
My faith will not be shaken free;
You stand before me on my right

My heart is glad and sings all day,
My body also rests assured
Your Holy One sees no decay,
You lift me from a grave secured

You’ve shown the path of life to me
and in Your presence I will stand,
filled up for all eternity
with joy and bliss, at Your right hand.

(Psalm 16, quoted in part by Peter when preaching in Acts 2:25-28)

– WKB, ©2005

What Isn’t Hell Like?

/ W. Keith Brenton / 8 Comments

My college roommate Steve (I don’t know if he was pulling my leg) insisted that the original dust-cover of a book popular in our fellowship had its titled printed as “What Is Hell Like? – Sermons By Jimmy Allen.” Later, he said, it was changed to read “- And Other Sermons By Jimmy Allen.”

It seems that Brian McLaren’s latest book The Last Word and the Word After That has stirred the controversy to life from the embers once again. (I haven’t read it. I haven’t read any of the series. It’s not really the book or series that I’m blogging about here; so please don’t expect a review or summation. I’m just pointing out the ripple effect which inspires people to dive back deeply into scripture to re-examine why they believe what they believe.)

The book is reawakening a controversy that goes back to at least the time of Constantine about whether hell’s torture is permanent, or just hell is permanent. Eternal punishment vs. annihilation after punishment that destroys. Is it just the fire and the worm that are eternal, or are those whom they consume eternal as well?

I don’t have a clue. To me, it’s clear that the Bible speaks of hell – at least of a lake of fire – as a permanent fixture in eternity; and that eventually death and Hades (the place of the dead) will be thrown into it; and that the devil, the beast and the false prophet will be tormented there forever. Whether that applies to others I can’t say. However, that last part is in a highly interpretable prophetic passage, the Revelation to John. Here’s my question:

Why do we limit the discussion to basically only two alternatives?

What if the body we are given after death – designed to be eternal – is slowly and painfully consumed in punishment for sin? How long would that “slowly” have to be not to seem like forever? A year? One year for each one we lived in sin? A million years? What’s the difference if it all ends anyway? Will it really be a relief to know that it’s all temporary; or to know how many demons can dance on the head of pinhead when the pinhead is me?

What if that body is destroyed, yet a spirit endures – separated forever from God? Separated from pain, yes … but also separated from delight; from the feast at the table of heaven; from the hearing of eternal songs of praise; from the seeing of God’s children around His throne; from the ability to voice our penitence – all due to a lack of body: eyes, ears, tongue. Is that kind of non-existence any less torturous than fire and worm?

Is this possibility really all that different than knowing the punishment is finite, and at some indeterminable time in the unforeseeable future we’ll cease to exist – knowing all along that we could be at that table, in that choir, at those pierced Feet?

What if God graciously forgave all and ushered us into the heavenly kingdom – but many of us would have eternity to look back on all of the lost opportunities when we could have chosen to live a life that spoke of His Son? Whom would we want to sit by at the table of heaven? Would we huddle down at the far end from God with the rest of the ungrateful and ungracious, creating castes of people forgiven by God – but, in varying degrees, not by themselves?

What if God ushered us all in, rebuilt our self-esteem, wiped all of our tears away, and kindly explained that He had just expected too much of us; that He loved us all and forgiveness should not have been conditional on our gratitude for Jesus’ sacrifice? Wouldn’t there be a part of you that would make you wonder: “Then, You sent Your Son to the cross … for nothing?”

Would that really be heaven? Or a tin-foil and tinsel-decorated imitation? Or hell itself?

Are those possibilities somehow more “humane” or “just” or “merciful” or “Godly” than a place of eternal discipline for the lifelong rejection of God’s eternal Holy One? How can we possibly fully perceive and comprehend what is divine justice or divine mercy – both eternal qualities of God – in a finite and imperfect world?

And as for eternal punishment for the ever-existing sinner … well, Steve used to point out that even people who liked being spanked would tire of an eternal spanking after a few billion years.

Do any of those possibilities about the nature of hell give you any less of a case of the heebie-jeebies than I’ve got right now, writing about them?

To me, it’s the whole concept of eternity that makes ALL of the those possibilities hellacious. Because whether we would last in hell forever or not – God ain’t there! And we could have chosen to be where He is.

No matter how you interpret hell as presented in scripture, it’s not a pretty picture.

Maybe we’re not given all the details in this life because – if we knew them – we would desperately and irrevocably wish that we couldn’t know them. It would force our hand in life’s greatest choice – and choice was one of the first precious gifts God gave us in Eden. If we could see all the cards now, the hand we choose to play wouldn’t be so much a choice as a foregone conclusion.

On the other hand: perhaps the same would be true if we knew and understood every glorious thing to be known about heaven.

I think that’s why we’re given the gift of faith. Like any gift, we choose what we do with it. Some people are more motivated by love and grace; some by fear and punishment. Hardly anyone can resist the persuasive power of both. If we can see God in His handiwork and hear of His love in the Story of Christ and still choose self, we are – as Romans 1 says – without excuse.

Just being there and knowing that would be hell enough for me.

New Wineskins News Feed

/ W. Keith Brenton / Leave a comment

Greg Taylor put up a post yesterday about the news feed I’ve created for New Wineskins online magazine. I had e-mailed a bunch of folks with the text he included there … and looking at it afterward, as well as seeing later how many folks had already incorporated it into their blogs, I was stunned at how full of faith they were:

I’ve come up with a news feed for the New Wineskins magazine that you can place once on your blog or web site, and forget about it . . . and it will be automatically updated as new articles and blog entries are added to the New Wineskins site.

If you’d like to add this feature to your blog or site, just copy and paste the line of code below into your blog template or the HTML of your web page.

<script language=”javascript” src=”http://www.keithbrenton.com/wineskinsfeed.js”></script&gt;

When someone clicks on a link to an article or blog post from the feed, it will be opened in a new window, with your blog or site underneath. You can format it with font or style tags before and immediately after to give it the appearance you desire.

As some of you know, I’m going to be trying to help Greg Taylor out with some of the webmastering of the New Wineskins site as he takes on new duties at Garnett Road in Tulsa (where Wade Hodges serves). After four years of serving as managing editor of the magazine – and successfully moving it from a printed to an online subscription publication (with free-access areas) – Greg is committed to continuing to broaden its scope and focus to Restoration churches and beyond.

This news feed is one idea that Greg cleared right away, and if you’d like to help by posting this news feed, we’d be grateful for your help.

Thanks very much!

Your brother,
Keith Brenton

Nowhere in the text of the message I sent did I mention looking at the right side navigation bar of this blog or What Would Jesus Do Next? to see what it would look like.

Well, thanks to all of you who have figured out how to imbed that line of code into your templates or place it on HTML pages. And for those of you who didn’t happen to be on that first flight of e-mail recipients, here it is again:

<script language=”javascript” src=”http://www.keithbrenton.com/wineskinsfeed.js”></script&gt;

Greg must have been in such a hurry to skip town that he forgot to convert those carets in the HTML of that code – so on his blog, the news feed appears instead!

Check the first comment under his entry for the corrected code as above.

HouseHusband

/ W. Keith Brenton / 9 Comments

You may not know this about me, but I was a three-time househusband.

Yup. Work-at-home, stay-at-home husband and dad.

It all started in October 1991, when I quit my eight-year career as a copywriter/creative administrator for the largest advertising agency in Little Rock – and in my state, cashed in my retirement investment to buy $3,500 in Macintosh computer equipment (and to tide us over until the business was up and running). And I began doing the same kind of work at home – while my wife of a little over a year continued working as a professor.

You might be thinking that this plan didn’t make any sense, but there are other circumstances you’d need to know. Angi brought home about twice as much as I did, between teaching and conducting research, writing textbooks and other projects. Plus, we couldn’t have children. We wanted children. We were disappointed (and out quite a bit of money) working with an adoption attorney. We signed up with an adoption agency associated with our church fellowship instead. We prayed. We fasted.

And we had a feeling that the time was near.

We were right. Matthew was born in late December, and we were able to go to Kentucky and meet him after all the termination papers were signed in February.

So I operated a copywriting, graphic design and typesetting business from my home. And I changed diapers, rocked, held, fed, cooed, sang, and occasionally napped with our baby at home – well, he got hungry at night. A lot.

I worked. I also did laundry. Did a little interior decorating at the house. Kept it picked up and clean. Dusted and vaccuumed. In fact, I still do. I never learned to cook anything past canned soup or griddle pancakes, but I can set and clear a table and load a dishwasher with the best of ’em.

Good friends brought me good work to do, and never missed a payment on their bills.

I didn’t make nearly as much money as I had at the ad agency, but I wouldn’t trade those years with Matthew for anything.

In May of 1996, we got to go back to Kentucky to meet his baby sister Laura, then take her home with us. My little company was renamed – from Matthew Scott Brenton Creative Services (reminding me that he was my CEO and the primary one I needed to work for) to Brenton3 (cubed) Creative Services. Laura became President; my title was Vice President and Daddy. Our logo was a pink, blue and yellow wooden block with letters on it.

I kept working – sometimes juggling toddler boy, baby girl and briefcase to deliver my work – but it became obvious I needed a steadier income. For a while, I worked an afternoon-evening shift at the agency I had worked for before; sometimes baby Laura went with me and sang to my fellow-workers from her playpen in my cubicle. After several months, we put the children in day-care for a half-day and I took a part-time position at a different agency.

Things really changed when we moved to Springfield, Missouri. My job there started first, at another large ad agency, full-time – and the firm kept me in a corporate condo usually used for visitors that summer. But I had to be away from my family five days a week, driving 3-1/2 hours each way to be with them on the weekend until Angi’s position as a department chair at the university started in the fall.

I didn’t get to witness Laura’s first steps, and that’s still something that causes a pang somewhere down in the bottom of my heart.

(One mid-week after a weekend visit that was too busy for me to help clean up, Angi fired up the vaccuum cleaner – only to cause Matthew to run downstairs, shrilling “Daddy’s home!” He was sadly disappointed.)

The children went into full-time day care and pre-school. We worked. We picked them up. We became the typical two-working-parent American family.

Until, after 11 months, several major changes took place among my clients at the agency and I was suddenly out of a job. For a couple of months, I was a stay-at-home dad, but for the most part without children to care for: just a dry, trying safari for a new position. I tried the new monster.com route. In 1997, I even learned HTML and posted my own resume and portfolio on my own Web site. So that short break doesn’t really count in house-husbandry.

Then Angi accepted a great opportunity as a dean at Abilene Christian University, and we moved again. I worked at the newspaper, afternoons and nights again, posting its articles on the Web. The children seemed to enjoy day care and school, so I wasn’t spending as much time with them at home as I had when they were babies. But I was free in the mornings for chapel and other programs – and I was close enough to home that I could always be there for dinner. But that was the extent of my second stint as a househusband.

That was our routine for about three years – then Angi was offered a deanship back at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. My boss at the Abilene Reporter-News saw no reason that I couldn’t take my job with me, and I did. I worked at home afternoons and evenings, still available for chapel and special programs and summer break for three years. I even began writing a column called Parenting on Purpose that became fairly popular in Abilene.

But times got tough for the newspaper, and two of my bosses were pressed into more demanding roles there – leaving me with more work to do than I had hours to do them in. The children were in school. I felt isolated. I had wonderful friends among the moms in the neighborhood … but I just didn’t really fit in somehow. I enjoy being among people, and I just didn’t have the time to establish or connect with the kind of social network I needed. Imagine trying to start a network of househusbands … in Little Rock, Arkansas.

So ended my third role as househusband; I began the career safari again, and ended up working for my wife’s Chancellor on the same vibrant campus about a hundred yards from Angi’s office. It’s a fine job. I love being among the college students and experiencing their very different culture.

There are times, though … when I’d still like to be available when my nine-year-old daughter leads the pledge of Allegiance or my twelve-year-old son reads scripture in chapel at their school. There are too many times now when I just can’t, and that little spot at the bottom of my heart starts to ache again.

Would I be willing to go back for a fourth run as a househusband and dad, given the right circumstances?

In a heartbeat!

Edward Fudge and the Affirmation

/ W. Keith Brenton / 2 Comments

The folks who have signed and posted A Christian Affirmation 2005 have been posting some comments, and a well-reasoned one has appeared there from Edward Fudge of Austin Houston,Texas – presumably the Christian preacher and author of books like The Grace of God (which you can read free online) and The Sound of His Voice.

And, yes, the comment which appears immediately below (and therefore preceding) his is from me – as the page is now structured.

I Don’t Know

/ W. Keith Brenton / 9 Comments

Why is it so hard to say those three little words?

Why can’t I be honest with myself and others, and just say:

  • I don’t know whether God created the earth in six literal days or over several millennia, but I know He created it.

  • I don’t know how Jesus was born of a virgin, died on a cross and took up His life again, but I know it makes all the difference in the world.

  • I don’t know if the Bible is the complete and inerrant and perfect revelation of the word of God, but I trust God to give us the truth we need.

  • I don’t know how often Christians should share in the table of communion, but I want to remember Christ and discern His body there.

  • I don’t know whether God accepts worship accompanied by instruments of music, but I want my whole life to be praise to Him.

  • I don’t know if attending a church is essential to my salvation, but I do know that I glimpse a little vision of heaven every time I’m there.

  • I don’t know exactly how the Spirit moves among and within people, but I want my heart to be open to Him.

  • I don’t know if some kinds of miracles still happen today, but I know that every time someone rejects sin and self, and accepts Jesus as Christ and Lord some kind of miracle has taken place.

  • I don’t know whom God has saved, but I do know the purpose for which He has saved them.

  • I don’t know how the combination of grace, faith and works are related to how one is saved, but I want to present myself as a living sacrifice to God.

  • I don’t know the when or how of Jesus’ return, but I want to be ready to meet Him.

  • I don’t know what hell is like, but I know nothing could be worse than separation from God – and I don’t want to go there.

I’m not giving up on the things I don’t know. I’ll pursue them until I no longer can. I’ll study, pray, meditate, write, question, converse with others. I’m committed to drawing closer and closer to God’s heart as I mature.

And I want to be honest with myself and others about what I do and don’t know.

Even if it means saying those three little words.

HeartWorship: The Way He Spoke

/ W. Keith Brenton / 1 Comment

I heard Him speak upon the hill
Though He was meek, He spoke God’s will
My heart awoke; I wanted more
For no one spoke like this before. (Matthew 7:28-29)
 
I saw Him throw some demons out
Told them to go; put them to rout
We common folk saw our Savior
For no one spoke like this before. (Mark 1:27)
 
I knelt to share a fragrance sweet
And with my hair I wiped His feet
My guilt lay broken on the floor
For no one spoke like this before. (Luke 7:36-50)
 
They sent us out to take Him in
He said no doubt we would lose Him
We took His joke; we took no more
For no one spoke like this before. (John 7:30-49)
 
Though I am weak; and my words poor
His words I’d speak; His praise outpour
His Name invoke; His strength implore
For no one spoke like this before.

– WKB, © 2005
 

If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. (I Peter 4:11)

Correcting the Correctors

/ W. Keith Brenton / 11 Comments

Moved to action by an excellent post at Light and Salt by David U. – Intolerant of Intolerance – I think I went too far. My frustration and exasperation came out as anger against someone kind enough to converse with me online over some points on which we disagree. (That, on the heels of posting a response one blogger called subversive – I looked it up; he’s right – to a document with which I disagree. It was subversive; I wanted the signers of the document to know what it felt like to encounter one with which I felt they should not disagree – posted on the Internet for the whole world and God to see.)

I started to make the rounds of the usual suspects … the sites that I knew would be roundly condemning to hell anything they saw as contrary to God’s will within the fellowship that I count myself a part of. Finding little or nothing, I wandered to other sites, nerves raw and ready to argue any points on any site. (No URL requests, please.) I began to wonder if I was becoming one of the folks I perceived as People Who Are Always Right About Absolutely Everything.

I guess what convicted me most was something I perceived as a compliment; when one blog linked to my Affirmation and said I was “inspired” to write it.

Just so you’ll know – in the spirit of I Peter 4:11 – I frequently pray that God will speak through me when I blog. It is frightening to me that blogging reaches so many people.

But I had to ask myself: if I was inspired to write the things I’d been writing, was my inspiration coming from the right source?

I decided it was time to back off and see if my spiritual zipper was open.

I started posting a series on the Holy Spirit that I had taught as an adult elective class last summer at my church. It was probably too long for most folks who read my blog to get into; and I apologize for that. Sometimes you post things on your blog mainly to benefit yourself, and this was one of them.

Because – like my pal Fajita – I’ve been feeling compelled to tackle some things that are on my heart, and I didn’t want to get taken to the woodshed by someone whom the Spirit had truly inspired.

Chief among the things I’ve wanted to address: the correctors. The usual suspects I mentioned above. The “anti-everything-but-up’s”, as folks called ’em when I was a kid. I used to read their sites for entertainment; for a good chuckle and a snort and a shrug.

Having dipped way too far in their mindset – and, thankfully, having held most of my silence – I’ve had to realize that these folks probably originally started with a zeal and fervor for the Word, for serving the Lord and helping maintain the purity of His church and its doctrine (as they perceived it). Just like me, they’ve gone too far. Way, way, way too far.

Someone needs to call them back. The brother who was willing to converse with me about the Affirmation showed me how it can be done.

So I just want to ask some of the questions that I think need answering before any of us dip into the venom and start shooting the darts:

A Brother Who Sins Against You: Matthew 18:15-20 – Jesus tells us, if anyone sins against us (or has something against us), “go and show him his fault, just between the two of you.” Does it say start by writing him (or her) up in a bulletin or post it on the Internet? Or even by sending a private letter? Does it not say “go”? Is it legitimate to say this doesn’t apply to us if a brother has sinned against God instead of us? Jesus continues, “If he listens you have won him over.” Does He say, “if he reads”? Or does it guarantee that you’ve won him over just by going to him? Obviously not; the next verse says “if he does not listen, take one or two others along” and he quotes Deuteronomy 9:15 about the need for two or more agreeing witnesses. Then if he refuses to listen (not “repent!” – it just says “listen!”) tell it to the church, and if not then, treat him like he doesn’t belong. (Literally “as a pagan or tax collector.” And wouldn’t we, as Christians, still owe it to a pagan or tax collector to continue praying for their souls?

This seems to be a four-step process when carried to the extreme. Have we been guilty of skipping a step or two or three?

Has anyone ever followed this advice from Jesus? Except for Priscilla and Aquila? In Acts 18:24-31 (while Paul is out of town), Apollos comes to Ephesus and speaks accurately about Jesus. He isn’t an evil man with bad intentions. He’s just not up-to-date doctrinally; he only knows about John’s baptism. Aquila and Priscilla don’t seem to embarrass him in the synagogue where he’s teaching – or reduce his powerful influence; they invite him to their home to explain to him the way of God more adequately. Isn’t that the essence of …

Speaking the Truth in Love: Ephesians 4:11-16 – This passage speaks of building each other up; of preparing God’s people for works of service; of maturing together. Admittedly, it is not talking specifically about correcting others, but it is speaking generally of dialogue and communication in love. Is it loving to condemn or rail against someone we don’t even know because we disagree with them, doctrinally or otherwise? Is that “tough love” – correcting them from a safe distance – because of our concern for their soul? Is it loving to call to witness every infraction that person has ever committed? Is that what’s meant by …

Maintaining the Spirit of Unity in the Bond of Peace: Ephesians 4:3 – Does it cause peace to air the laundry of others in public -dirty laundry or clean? In publications which get passed around? On the Internet, where anyone can read it? Is that, as in the previous verses, being completely humble and gentle; patient, bearing with one another in love? Is that the spirit of …

The Golden Rule: Luke 6:31 – If others determined that we were in the wrong, would we want them to treat us the way we’ve been treating them? Do we even have the right to judge them?

Judging Each Other: Matthew 7:1-3 – Are actions being judged? Or people? In Luke 12:57, Jesus suggests, “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?” If people are being judged, are we willing to be judged by the same standards? If actions are being judged, is it necessary to involve names called out publicly? Since some might justify the practice by scripture, let’s examine a few of those who are called out by name there:

Is anyone in the fellowship of believers today guilty of anything approaching the level of sin these people were committing in the church of century one? The book of Galatians, addressed to all of the churches in that region and very corrective in nature, only “calls out” as a bad example Peter’s hypocrisy; as an example of the racism affecting Galatian churches. No one else is corrected by name. As far as I can tell, there is no evidence that letters in which a local troublemaker might have been named and delivered to a church in that city were ever read in another city. They would not have known those people named!

  • Euodia and Syntyche: Philippians 4:2 They disagreed with each other, not the one who called them by name in his letter. Paul urged them to agree with each other. He didn’t dictate terms on what they should agree upon. He praised them as fellow workers and begged others in Philippi to help them whose names are in the book of life

Do we season our corrective missives with such pleas and compliments? Or are we condemnatory toward those with whom we disagree?

  • Archippus: Colossians 4:17: “Tell him to complete the work that the Lord gave him.” Possibly not even a rebuke; just an encouragement.

Are we as supportive in our corrections; are we encouraging rather than discouraging?

On the other hand, the New Testament is full of unnamed people who made bad choices. They might be described (a “rich young ruler,” for instance) but are not named. There was no point in embarrassing them. They might have turned to Christ later, but their stories were germinal to the point at hand. In the case of others, their actions and teachings were identified (“false teachers” and “false prophets”), but the reader of century one was left to identify them by their fruits. That was enough.

And that’s probably more than enough for one post. If I feel compelled to ask some more questions about the Old Testament scriptures that we correctors sometimes dredge up in defense of our ways, I might post some of them another time.

God is righteous, but he is also loving. My dad used to speak of God’s dual nature as His “arms” – His arm of justice and His arm of mercy; His arm of law and His arm of grace. If we concentrate on only one aspect of His divine nature, we preach a one-armed God.

Now I incite you. Are there people you know to whom you could go in person and confront them about overly-zealous corrective ways? Can you do so firmly, gently, lovingly, face-to-face, reasonably, tactfully, prayerfully? Can you do it with concern for their souls? Can you do it without judging or condeming?

It’s a tough calling. No wonder there are so many of us who get sucked into going too far with our corrective fervor.

And so few to call us back in line.

His Holy Spirit, Part VIII

/ W. Keith Brenton / 7 Comments

One Who Testifies: Letters to the Hebrews – the Revelation
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII

Hebrews 1:14 | Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

“Spirits” is not capitalized here in the NIV and it is plural. Why do I include it? I wonder if it points out that it’s not natural for a spirit to be separate from a body in this world. In heaven, angels are spirits. When on the earth, they seem to have bodies; forms. They can be wrestled with, and knock a hip out of joint by touching it. Maybe it’s not “natural” for the supernatural Holy Spirit to be in our world without a host – us – someone to dwell within and walk side-by-side with. I’m speculating. What do you think?

3:7 | So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, …” (Psalms 95:7-11)

The Holy Spirit says this through prophecy in the book of Psalms, and the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews quotes it – warning them not to “harden their hearts” or test/try God. Because it led Him to say “They shall never enter my rest.” What the Spirit spoke long before can carry the same truth – the same warning – now.

6:4-6 | It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who whave tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

This warning, also gravely serious, lets us know that the Spirit is shared; or at least shared in. Though one, He is in many. Sort of the reverse of “e pluribus, unum.”

Is it really impossible for a Christian who has renounced God to repent again? Can the Spirit return to such a person? Or has that house been permanently tainted, laid waste, defiled, desecrated beyond further habitation? One of the phrases that recurs in Hebrews as well as other epistles is that “Christ died once for all.” This writer says that apostasy followed by penitence is the same as re-crucifying and disgracing Christ.

It’s the mark of someone who is fatally wishy-washy; who can’t decide and stick to what he/she believes; who cannot serve as a faithful witness, having called their own credibility into question.

9:8 | The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing.

The Holy Spirit was involved in the design of the tabernacle and temple (He filled Bezalel, the temple designer/contractor) … which may explain why He had Matthew, Mark and Luke include the detail that, at Jesus’ death, the temple veil was torn down the middle, exposing the Most Holy Place.

9:14 | How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Jesus offered Himself unspotted by sin to God through the Spirit. Is the implication that He renders us unblemished through His blood, dedicating us to a life of serving God through the Spirit as well?

10:15 | The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this … (Jeremiah 31:31-34 quoted here)

Again, the Spirit speaks from the past – and the message is that God will put His laws in our hearts; write them in our minds. Is the Spirit an agent of that putting and writing?

10:29 | How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

Some are squeamish about God sending disobedient souls to hell for eternity, and are re-examining and deconstructing the scriptures that speak of it. That’s good! It’s good to try to get closer to understanding God’s nature, and even to want to see Him as love in person. But there are just folks who desperately deserve to be punished. They’ve had exposure to His goodness and have trampled it underfoot and have insulted Him as their response. Would they repent in hell? Sure! Who wouldn’t?

Here the writer uses the term “Spirit of grace.” As we’ve seen above, though – grace only goes so far. It’s not limited by God. It’s limited by the one who refuses it.

I Peter 1:10-11 | Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

Peter has in common with Paul that spiritual curiosity and longing to peek into heavenly matters. The prophets shared it, too; yearning to know more than had been revealed to them by the “Spirit of Christ.” Who got to peek into heaven? We do; Christians do through that prophecy and its fulfillment, the gospel – also preached by the Holy Spirit.

3:18-20 | For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.

If you’ve ever wanted to know how Jesus came back to life, now you know.

4:14 | If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

Hmm … Peter must have been paying attention during the Sermon on the Mount! But he shares more, the full span of the blessing: the “Spirit of glory and of God” rests on us.

II Peter 1:21 | For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

If you’ve ever wondered how inspiration works, now you know. What’s it like to be “carried along” by the Holy Spirit? Maybe it’s when words fail us; when feelings go too deep for them; when He intercedes with groans that the Father can understand. Maybe that’s just the tiniest fraction of it.

I John 3:24 | Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

How does He live in them? Are there still “other spirits” to be tested? What’s the test question? (answers above).

4:6 | We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

(See also 4:13) Does that mean the Spirit is involved in the listening? That those who will not listen reject not only the speaker, but the One speaking through him/her?

5:6 | This is the one who came by water and blood – Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.

Anybody have a clue what this means? I’m clear about the Spirit testifying truth, and it’s important for two or three witnesses to agree. Is it possible that John is speaking of Jesus’ own baptism, foreshadowing the spilling of His blood and His resurrection to life by means of the Spirit (see I Peter 3:18-20 above)? All three conspire to tell the truth – the gospel – in God’s grand scheme of redemption?

Jude 19-20 | These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.

God’s Spirit is in close proximity to the theme of unity again, just as He is in John 17 and so many other scriptures. Jude encourages those who are pestered by dividers to pray in the Holy Spirit. Again … can we actually pray without Him?

Revelation 1:10 | On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, ….

What does John mean, that he was “in the Spirit”? Was he in a transcendental state? Was he praying, possibly fasting? Meditating on God’s word? Is there a heightened sense of the Spirit’s presence indicated? Can we be “in the Spirit” also (whether we are shown revelations of John’s magnitude or not)?

2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 3:13, 22 | He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Here, as in many other scriptures, the Spirit speaks directly. Not John. Not some scribe, teacher, emanuensis. The Spirit speaks. Time to listen up.

4:2 | I was in the Spirit …

It’s happening again! John is “in the Spirit.” Something extraordinary is about to happen.

1:5; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6 | the seven spirits of God (or the seven-fold Spirit of God)

Some have gone so far as to name all of the spirits separately, drawing names from scripture like “Spirit of Christ,” “Spirit of Grace,” etc. Go back through the scriptures in this study; you don’t have to trust me on this one. There’s a LOT more than just seven names or descriptors in the Bible’s phrasings. Maybe “seven-fold” Spirit of God is the better translation; using that mystic, numeric symbolism of the numeral “seven” to represent completeness or fullness.

17:3; 21:10 | … carried me away in the Spirit ….

Carried away like Ezekiel? Like Jesus? Like Stephen? (Or like I get carried away with question marks?)

19:10 | At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

(Not capitalized in the NIV) Okay, I think the NIV editors missed this one, too. Who else would be the Spirit of prophecy except the Holy Spirit who inspires it? Here’s the important point: reinforcing the fact that you can’t say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. It’s as simple as that.

Prophecy isn’t all about foretelling the future. It’s also about forthtelling the truth.

22:17 | The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.

Just as the Spirit is part of the unfolding of scripture in the opening verses of Genesis, He is crucial to the unfolding of it in the closing verses of Revelation. He begs, along with the bride – the church; the kingdom – of Christ for those outside to come in. And – sure enough – He’s right there in close proximity right at the close to water and life and order out of chaos; at the renewal of earth, at the renewal of all things, at the fulfillment of every one of God’s hopes and dreams and intentions for us, His children.

You can’t add much to that and enhance it. You can’t take away anything from it and leave it intact.

That’s probably why both are forbidden.

By no means is this an exhaustive study. I intended to raise more questions than I could possibly answer. Call me modern; call me Socratic; call me for lunch. It’s the dialog, the questioning and reading and meditation and prayer that help us grow closer to God and to each other in Christ. I can’t do that for you. I can’t even do that for me.

But I know Someone who can.