One of the complaints leveled against Lutherans by the Protestant hordes is that we don't talk enough about the Holy Spirit. We don't point out the Holy Spirit enough. And, of course, because we don't whoop and holler... we obviously don't have the Holy Spirit.
Or so we are told.
We are going to be moving into the time of year when we do hear our Lord speak about the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. Something stands out - when Jesus describes the Spirit, the Spirit is never talking about Himself, never drawing attention to Himself, never trying to prove Himself, but rather, the Spirit always points to Christ.
It is not that we need to talk about the Spirit, rather the Spirit proclaims Christ through the Word.
But, here's the thought of this morning. You will never understand the humble nature of the Spirit, the fact that the Spirit wants to point to Christ and not Himself, if you yourself are not humble.
Every Denomination that focuses on the Spirit also tends to be egocentric as well. The same people who want to make the Holy Spirit front and center also want to make themselves, their works, their decisions, their power front and center.
I, like the Spirit, simply want Christ Jesus front and center. Simple as that. If you aren't content to simply point to Christ and Him Crucified, you don't understand the Holy Spirit, and are instead moved by another spirit. Just the way it is.
1 comment:
hehe... "Protestant hordes". Remind me not to drink liquids when I read your blog! :P
What I have always found amusing is that the Charismatics seem to believe that the Holy Spirit will operate in every way imaginable but the one way that Christ says that He does: humbly directing us to Christ and leading us into all truth.
By way of simple example: When the Holy Spirit moves in a person, in the erroneous thinking of the Charismatics, He will cause us to do all sorts of things to where almost anything done in the name of the Spirit is permitted and left unquestioned. They think that the Spirit causes great emotional highs, feelings of euphoria, and all manner of jabbering and prancing about. The Spirit causes us to dance, act like we are intoxicated, raise our hands, and make all manner of odd gestures…
…unless that gesture is the Sign of the Cross. That one act of worship is not from the Spirit. That’s old dead religion and papal foolishness. Waving your hands wildly in the air or swaying them back and forth so as to draw attention to yourself? That’s obviously from God. Covering your body with a metaphorical motion that represents the death of the Lamb of God which purchased your sinful carcass from sin and the devil? …obviously that’s just a mere invention of man that has no place among us.
This is but a microcosm of this observation that you have made which plays itself out in almost every aspect of the life of faith. You are right on.
So many have it totally backwards! In my youthful exuberance and pride, how could I have been so blind?
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