The shyness of love

 

There’s A Spirit In The Air

 

The first seven verses of 2 Timothy chapter 1 were originally designed to be addressed to leadership in the church. There is a call to all who are baptised into the faith, the call requiring us fight under His banner against sin, the world and the devil while being faithful soldiers and servants until our lives end. To do that we seem to have the need to strive earnestly and habitually to get rid of all cowardly fears and to follow the path marked for us with energy, charity, caution and self-awareness – the idea that we are individuals who know who we are about.

So Paul ends at verse seven with these words:

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. – 2 Timothy 1:7

The actually translation for the word “fear” is “cowardice.”  With the little study I have done on the subject I was intrigued when I found the word “shy” being used in a bad way, as a cowardly expression, only to find this amazing description of the Holy Spirit.

 “One of the most surprising discoveries in my own study of the doctrine and experience of the Spirit in the New Testament is what I can only call the shyness of the Holy Spirit. What I mean here is not the shyness of timidity. Paul in 1 Timothy 1:7 calls Him the spirit of power. It’s not the spirit of timidity but the shyness of deference, the shyness of a concentrated attention on another; it is not the shyness (which we often experience) of self-centeredness, but the shyness of an other-centeredness. It is in a word, the shyness of love. ~ Dale Bruner, in The Holy Spirit: Shy Member of the Trinity 

There are very few problems that cannot be overcome by living more lovely lives and having more loveliness. God has given us this ability by giving His own love to us. The early Church experienced the power of the Holy Spirit, but what sustained them was love. A great spirit of love came upon them so that they shared all they had with others who had decided to follow Jesus. They supported each other and made sure that no one was in need. They voluntarily did this. They could do it because God had poured His love on them.

Today I want to love – I want to be shy in the way that points everyone I meet to Jesus. Maybe today I want not only to be like Jesus, but act like the Holy Spirit – with love, power and self-control.

 

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Who is the greatest?

 

All Sons & Daughters – Great Are You Lord

 

Muhammad Ali, the colorful 1960 light-heavyweight Olympic boxing champion who went on to hold the world heavyweight title three times, is known to have uttered many a memorable remark during his time in the spotlight. His personal catch phrase “I am the greatest” came to serve as an identifier of the man, in that whoever voiced it, one knew that person was alluding to Ali.

In 1980, just before takeoff on an airplane flight from New York to Los Angeles, the Eastern Airlines stewardess reminded Ali, who was on his way to making a movie, to fasten his seatbelt. “Superman don’t need no seat belt,” replied Ali. “Superman don’t need no airplane either,” retorted the stewardess. 

Reminds me of another story where the disciples are with Jesus and He overhears their discussion about who of them is the greatest. In light of their inability to heal the evil spirit possessed boy, they were hardly in the position to be talking about greatness.  Moreover, they simply did not have enough experience and maturity to really understand what it means to be great in the kingdom of God.  Jesus’ teaching had a lot to teach me about what greatness in the kingdom really means.

And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” – Mark 9:33-37  ESV

 

 

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To hear and see

 

Do You Hear What I Hear?

 

Our ability to hear and see is our gateway to wisdom.

The hearing ear and the seeing eye,
the Lord has made them both. – Proverbs 20:12  ESV

So when I hear the invitation from Jesus to come to Him, what does that mean to me?

 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. – Matthew 11:28  ESV

It is a strong appeal. It leaves no doubt to the sincerity of the call to turn from whatever I am presently leaning on to depending on Him.

In many ways, it is still a call to believe in Him, follow Him, and be a committed disciple – to completely turn my life over to Him.

It is a call to an intimacy of fellowship. My walk with God is all about my personal relationship with Him.

So I hear the call, what do I see?

 

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Win over the heart

 

Love & The Outcome – King Of My Heart

 

Not a single soul—be it a student, disciple, parishioner, devotee, son, or daughter—could ride our coattails to glory. “If you are wise, you are wise for yourself.”

If you are wise, you are wise for yourself;
if you scoff, you alone will bear it. – Proverbs 9:12  ESV

So it happens in my heart – change, wisdom and growing into the character of God.  This is where I need to spend time – with my heart.

If all who laboured for the conversion of others were to introduce them immediately into Prayer and the Interior Life, and make it their main design to gain and win over the heart, numberless as well as permanent conversions would certainly ensue. On the contrary, few and transient fruits must attend that labour which is confined to outward matters; such as burdening the disciple with a thousand precepts for external exercises, instead of leaving the soul to Christ by the occupation of the heart in Him. – A Short and Easy Method of Prayer – Madame Guyon

I was reading about Jesus’ ability to see the importance of the heart.

Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side.  And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”  And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”  Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.” – Matthew 8:18  ESV

Jesus liked leaving crowds or at least withdrawing from them. If He was going to change the world, why would He be leaving the opportunity? Therein lays our mistake that many fall into today. Jesus was not trying to gain an audience; His primary task was to prepare an army. He wasn’t even looking for a following; He was really interested in forging followers. He was looking for disciples, not only the ones who listened but the one who wanted to become like Him. The journey of a follower experiences confusion, amazement, bewilderment, astonishment, testing, saving, breaking, encouragement, being exposed, and protection. How many want to be followed by such an individual? That is what it takes for commitment, it is what the journey looks like when we are going to live to share Jesus’ life with others and teach them how to live it.

When we realise what the journey looks like, we might say we are not too sure we want to start such a journey. That’s OK. It just means that we have come to realise that we cannot be a disciple in our own strength.

Jesus understood this with the two men in the verse above. He wants to see where my heart is.

 

 

 

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Wisdom

 

W I S D O M

 

I remember my mom’s good friend giving me a copy of the Rebel’s Bible when I was 14 years old. Inside the front cover she wrote all about wisdom and quoted from Proverbs. Here is a key verse.

My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
    incline your ear to my understanding – Proverbs 5:1  ESV

The wisdom she was sharing with me was not of this world but of a spiritual nature. In fact, even more than what Solomon possessed. Wisdom is used here to describe the ability to see something from God’s viewpoint. Wisdom is God’s character in the practical affairs of life. God’s wisdom is not based on theory but is worked out, with discernment, figuring out good and evil or right and wrong. God’s wisdom is also not based on a formula, but based on a right relationship with Him. In this chapter of Proverbs, wisdom is defined as having the ability to guard the heart and mind of a man.

‘If you lack knowledge, go to school. If you lack wisdom, get on your knees! Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is the proper use of knowledge.” – Vance Havner

Understanding is more than just gathering data. It is the capacity for discerning a right course of action. It implies a mental grasp and the importance of something.  It is the ability to connect the dots.

“The faculty of the human mind by which it apprehends the real state of things presented to it, or by which it receives or comprehends the ideas which others express and intend to communicate. The understanding is called also the intellectual faculty. It is the faculty by means of which we obtain a great part of our knowledge.” – 1828 Webster’s Dictionary

Solomon is telling me that his lecture is not designed to fill my head with ideas, with wishful thinking or possible argumentative positions, but to guide me in how I conduct myself. All this with the idea that I actually might act with wisdom, that it would be part of my nature and in fact, its pursuit would be my true interest.

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