What the Bible Says About the Holy Spirit – 2
It seems that our passages on the work of the Spirit in empowering Old Testament individuals to do what God called them to do came at a timely moment for myself and a few others in our class. God has been taking my ‘trust’ to the next level with this trip to Haiti – kickin’ it up a notch, if you will. Sure, there’s trust for safety and health, but the main point for me has been whether or not I’m going to fully trust Him to equip me to do what He’s arranged for me to do there. So this week’s lesson, if for no one else, was perfectly timed for me – and to be quite honest, I didn’t even realize it until the middle of class. The thing about being a teacher is that we just teach you information about what God teaches us, and pray that He’ll teach each student individually by revelation. This week God was also teaching me WHILE I taught you. He revealed to me that He can and will surely pull off what He has put in place. My prayer request for the team is that we will not be distracted by self or by others or by perceived expectation, but that we will be totally focused on the guidance of the Spirit and unhesitating in our response … and that, because of what the Lord has done and will do, all of His purposes for our trip will be accomplished.
Please join me in prayer for the Haitians. It has only been a short time since Tropical Storm Faye came through and now Gustav is expected to hit Haiti on Tuesday (August 26).
Now, let’s look at some questions:
Q. What is there (or is there) a difference between the Old and New Testaments?
A. Both the Old and the New Testaments are the inspired word of God. The Old Testament covers the time between creation and 400 years before the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist (the messenger to prepare the way for Jesus). After the final prophecy/event of the Old Testament, there was the “400 years of silence” (called the Intertestamental Period). The New Testament begins with the four Gospels which are for the most part biographies of the earthly life of Jesus. The New Testament also includes Paul’s letters as well as other writings of apostles and the Book of Revelation which is prophetic. Within the testaments, the books are not in chronological order.
On a deeper level, the difference between the Old and New Testaments are alluded to simply by the word ‘testament’ which also means ‘covenant’. The New Covenant began at the cross. Pastor Ashley has gone into much detail regarding this in his Hebrews sermon series. In very basic terms, the New Covenant is all about internal transformation (the law written on our hearts; see Jeremiah 31:33-34). The Old Covenant, although it involved external obedience to the law and presenting sacrifices, was also a matter of faith.
Q. Since we are all your children, why are there different faiths?
A. I’m not sure if this question is referring to different religions or different denominations. One way religions differ is based upon belief in heaven and hell (versus reincarnation or nirvana, for example) and the way one would attain that condition. It’s been said that even atheism is a religion. As Christians, we believe that you attain entrance into heaven only by placing your trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior believing that He died on the cross for your sins and was raised from the dead.
In regard to denominations, we’ve had some comments in class recently about variations of interpretation of Scriptures resulting in different doctrine (or teachings). A couple of examples of denomination-dividing issues, eternal security (whether or not you can lose your salvation) and baptism (immersion or sprinkling).
Q. Why is the Holy Spirit so little emphasized or even referred to as “it”?
A. I have no answer for this, but I think that we overlook a major miracle of salvation and gift from God by disregarding the Holy Spirit in our teaching and our lives.
Many, many more questions to go, so check back weekly at least – more frequently to catch up on comments and discussions. Speaking of comments, leave one by clicking on the word ‘comment’ below.
Next week’s update will obviously be late (hopefully not non-existent) due to the mission trip.
