...for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.
1 Thessalonians 1:5
i had some additional thoughts on bearing the consequence of God...
today though, i kind of vere-off in another direction...kind of a post-Pentecost direction...
because i have faith that God is working in my life...and as i follow Jesus, i join Him in that work cooperatively (rather than opposing it...well, sometimes)
you see, i bear the consequence of God...which for the most part is Christ living in me or to say it another way: His Living, Holy Spirit in me...
the thing is in my life i am bearing the consequence of God working around me...through me...in me...
really, we all bear it in many ways...
for me, i was raised in a good church. lots of great expositional, exegetical teaching that fed the souls of the hungry and watered the spirits of the thirsty with scripture...and i was both hungry and thirsty (still am!)
yet, for much of my early life, while i grounded in the scriptures regarding God, i realize now that i was more like a disciple of John the Baptizer (ironically enough i was raised in an independent church of the Baptist persuasion...)
see, i knew the good news...tried to live the good news...loved God...tried to love my neighbor...yet something was missing: empowerment or the Holy Spirit
He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they {said} to him, "No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit." And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" And they said, "Into John's baptism." Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus." When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they {began} speaking with tongues and prophesying. There were in all about twelve men. And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading {them} about the kingdom of God.
Acts 19:2-8
now, it was not the fact that i wasn't saved in Christ...i was! truly, it was not the fact that i wasn't living as a "Christian"...i was. but there was no power besides some inferential Providence (through which God still works powerfully)...and yet i hadn't accessed the power and love of God available to me and through me in His Holy Spirit
now i have to admit: i wasn't your typical baptist.
many times when the minister was preaching and i got bored, i would open up my Bible and read through the exciting stories (like in Judges and the books of Samuel and Kings as well as Acts and Revelation...) and somehow in doing this, i missed the part where we really weren't supposed to believe that the Holy Spirit could 'light-us-up' so-to-speak and give us these amazing gifts, like prophecy and wisdom and healing, but also physically gift us with enhanced-strength (like that hall of faith judge Samson) or speed (maybe like Elijah when he outraced the horses of Ahab...although perhaps they were just stuck in the mud). then again maybe i was reading a lot of comic books at the time also...
my aunt jessie tells the story of my mother: margaret ann. they were driving one evening in a convertible, hot-rodding the dirt roads just south of St. Louis with two of their cousins. as they came around one curve, they lost control and the car flipped over several times, throwing my mother and the two cousins out and then trapping my aunt jessie underneath. as it was crushing my aunt jessie, my mother jumped to her feet and lifted the car...by herself. she then ordered my two counsins to crawl under and pull my aunt jessie from underneath...to which they did. my aunt jessie loves telling this story of my super-hero mother. it was always my assumption as a child, and i still hold to it today that the Holy Spirit (whether through supernatural means or by invisible angels helping or just by pumping her full of adenreline..this is less the point to me) empowered my mother to lift the car while her two boy cousins crawled underneath to pull jessie out.
i have other stories of my mother's enhanced strength (she saved my life a few times)
i am reminded of my kingdom acquaintence in vermont: eric keck. he self-published (through lulu.com) his doctoral dissertation on the Holy Spirit and the issue he saw in the present emerging church context, that the theology of Academia was lacking appropriate metaphors and abstracts to demonstrate, embody and announce the kingdom of God. (definitely worth the read!)
"How can leaders move from being ideological practionaers in talking shop if they have never been taught to hear God's voice? I am not proposing gaining intellectual understanding of biblical texts and dogmatic teachings; literally and specifically, I mean hearing God's voice. There is much literature regarding inner journeys, retrospection, and the inner voice; however, the praxis and instruction to answer this question have not yet emerged, and neither have methodologies which incorporate the metaphors to accomplish this. If we are called to prophesy, where are the "how to" books of the emerging church? The ideological thought fomenters are visible, but where are the practictioners? Who in this emerging paradigm is working through this? Who is hearing God's voice, audibly, silently, through dreams, visions, and prophetic words of understandings? How can we as the Church have interpretation for unknown cultural knowledge if we do not know how to hear God's voice? The concept of waiting upon the Spirit or leading within a corprate setting, which borrows from the Quaker and Brethren notion of "corporate guidance," presumes that those who speak to or for the group are following the Spirit. This clearly is not normative in teaching of prominent emergent church voices. Who is equipping the church to use this vastly undernourished tool? How can we be complete without it? How can we be led if we do not know how to see the leader?"
for me, i was no lettered, academic theologian, but because the church environment/community of my youth did not live out "doing-the-stuff-that-Jesus-did" in terms of modeling that kind of life...well, i didn't embody it either
which brings me back to my original thought this morning: since i wasn't living/embodying the kingdom of God in Christ Jesus through His Spirit, rather my love grew cold, and thus i was not bearing the consequences of God, i was bearing the consequences of living out the metaphors of the American dream.
[sidenote: there is a great book i read recently called 'Metaphors We Live By', by george lakoff and mark johnson, which is an outstanding treatment of how we live our lives based on the metaphors we embrace, consciously or even unconsciously (like our early models: our parents...and later others we take in (like tv dramas, MTV, movies, etc.)...(tolkien and lewis understood the power of story and myth and our we live after these kind of metaphors)...anyway really great stuff!]
...but then Jesus came and wrecked my life again. He did, He utterly wrecked it...and it has been wonderful/beyond comprehension ever since...and then i asked specifically for His Spirit...and He re-opened those long-filled up wells deep within me...and 'my heart was strangely warmed'
and more and more i bear the consequence of God in my life...we, the Church bear the consequence...His Spirit moving us onto His missional Agenda...His will being done on earth as it is in heaven...
[i've become quite the hope-filled pearl merchant since Jesus wrecked my life...and i say that in a way that hope is a very hard thing indeed...even as i hold to hope in Jesus in the midst of angst over calling and taking up my cross to follw him]
...and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Romans 5:5
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