Holy Spirit

                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                           

Aloha Dearest Family,

           Several years ago many people had bumper stickers on their cars that had the word “COEXIST” on them with symbols of all of the religions of the world. Among the “religions” was a symbol of the cross; which signifies Christianity. I personally never liked this bumper sticker because, contrary to what society says, Christianity is NOT a religion.  Religion is defined as what man does to try to get right with his god. Christianity is what God has done through His son to be the payment for our sin. Since the fall of man, sin had separated us from God, but He took care of this “sin problem’ by nailing all of our sins to the cross, in the body of Jesus Christ. 

             “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;” (Colossians 2:14)

                So what is the biggest difference between all of these other religions and Christianity? God’s gift of holy spirit. From speaking with many people, I found that there seems to be a question as to who or what holy spirit is. Holy spirit allows us to have continual fellowship and access to God Almighty. It allows us to have connection to the “power source” so that we can ask for (and expect) the impossible to come to pass. (It must be understood that God Almighty is Holy and He is Spirit-He is the Holy Spirit. What we are referring to in this sharing is God’s gift of holy spirit that is given to all who believe). It is vital for every Christian to understand the importance of holy spirit if we want to live extraordinary lives and please our heavenly Father. Since the scope of this topic is so big, I am unable to cover it in depth, but here are some of the most important points to know about holy spirit from God’s own Word.

                -Adam and Eve were made “3-fold beings.” They were made body, soul and spirit. This separated them from all of the others of God’s creatures. All animals are born with body and soul (1. a physical body and 2. soul life, which makes them alive). Only man had the privilege of having been made with God’s spirit. This allowed him to communicate with God. When Adam sinned, he lost the spirit from God. This now made him just body and soul, and all others from his bloodline would be born with just body and soul (just like the animals).

                -Now whenever God wanted to communicate with man, He would have to do so by supernatural means; like an angel or a miraculous sign like a burning bush. Or he could choose certain men and women to place His spirit upon to communicate with His creation.

                -All of the great men and women in the Old Testament had spirit upon them. Notably   Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Samson, David, Esther and Daniel all had God’s spirit. This spirit that was upon these men and women was not permanent. If they displeased God this spirit could be taken away. King Saul was a great example (I Samuel 16:14). In fact after David sinned against God, he begged God not to take His holy spirit from him (Psalm 51:11)

               -John the Baptist had God’s holy spirit upon him from his birth (Luke 1:15). He was the only person to have this privilege.

-Jesus did not do any mighty works until after he received God’s spirit after he was baptized by John the Baptist.

It is obvious by studying these points above, that all people in the Old Testament recognized the importance of having holy spirit. This set you apart from all others and designated you as God’s anointed.

The day of Pentecost is historically recognized as the birthday of the church, because on this day, God poured out His holy spirit upon all mankind. The sign that they had received this spirit was that they “spoke in tongues”. Now anyone who confesses Jesus as their Lord and believes in their heart that God has raised him from the dead (Romans 1:9), receives this same holy spirit that the apostles had. Now we can ALL walk like Jesus Christ and do the works that he did (John 14:12). For we are sealed with holy spirit.

“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”. (Ephesians 1:13)

            Now unlike the spirit that was upon men and women in the Old Testament, this holy spirit is permanent. It cannot be taken away like King Saul’s spirit was. When God gives this spirit, He does not take it back because we “born again” (born from above). This makes us children of God (Romans 8:16).

We now have another source of information to learn. Before salvation, all we had to rely upon to acquire knowledge was the five senses. Now we can receive spiritual knowledge that God can teach us. We have a distinct advantage over every other man or woman who are just body and soul, for God can teach us the mysteries hidden in His Word, the Bible. In fact you really can’t fully understand the Bible unless you have spirit.

“The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” (I Corinthians 2:14)

                

          This is why Christianity is NOT a religion. Religion focuses on man’s actions to try and ‘earn’ God’s favor. Christianity focuses on what God has done and the sacrifice that was paid to, once again, give us access to God. We have this access through His spirit that he has given to us. 

               “For through Him (Jesus Christ) we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.” (Ephesians 2:18)

                Christians today can live exciting, joyful lives with purpose and power. God has given us His holy spirit, making us “supernatural beings” with Christ living on the inside. What a glorious time to be alive!

                                                                                                                                        Love Always, Ray

                “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” (II Corinthians 2:21 and 22 NIV)

This Is Love

                                                                                                                                             

Aloha Dearest Family,

                In 1985, singer songwriter Julie Gold wrote a song called “From A Distance” which has been recorded by many artists. The message of the song is that if we look at the earth from a distance, it seems flawless and beautiful. From a distance we do not see the troubles and sadness that men and women experience in life. Also in the song are the words “God is watching us – from a distance.” These words have always rubbed me the wrong way because I know that my God isn’t watching us from a distance, but is a very personal God and loves to get involved in each of our lives. In Romans 8:28 it says that God is always at work on our behalf,

           “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” It sounds like God is very involved.

                In the Bible, no other Psalm portrays God’s personal involvement in our lives than does Psalm 139. In this Psalm, David describes God’s continual presence and love for him.

                “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.” (verses 1-5)

                To David, this thought was just too wonderful for him to comprehend, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.” (v. 6) He could not imagine the Creator of the heavens and the earth wanting to be so involved in his life. (Wow!) David then writes just how close God was to him and how God would never leave him or forsake him.

                

           “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” (verses 7-12) David could not go anywhere where the Lord would not also be present with him. He is a very personal God. He knew David and all his days even before he was born.

                “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (verse 16) 

These verses must have brought David much joy and comfort. 

           “How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you.” (Verses 17 and 18). 

How God must love us to have so many thoughts of us. Does this sound like a God that just watches us “from a distance?”

                

          God has not changed since the days of David. God still has great love for us and He wants to be involved in each of our lives. He longs to walk and talk with us each day, throughout our days. God shows us in many different ways how much he cares for us and wants to shower us with blessings. And God dramatically demonstrated His love by giving up His beloved son for us all. A son who always obeyed His Father. Who always chose his Father’s will over his own. There can be no words to describe how deeply God loved His son. But God was willing to give him over to experience agonizing torture and death – ON OUR BEHALF. This kind of love is beyond comprehension. 

               “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) 

This is called sacrifice. Someone once gave the true meaning of sacrifice; it is "giving up something you dearly love in order to receive something of greater value." We are that of greater value that God was willing to give His own son for. This is love.

                “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) If God was willing to give up His own son for us, what wouldn’t he give us?

                Through the many centuries, God’s greatest desire was to be able to have an intimate relationship with sons and daughters. This plan was fulfilled by Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. The truth is that God not only raised Jesus from the dead to live forever; He also raised us up also-to live forever. 

                                       

                Today we can find great joy and comfort, just like David did, with the reality that no matter what we do and wherever we go, God’s unfailing love is always with us. He will never let us go and He will not allow anything to pull us away from His side because of His great love He has for us. This love will NEVER change. And like David wrote, this thought is almost too wonderful to comprehend; but nevertheless it is true.

                “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38 and 39)

                                                                                                    

Love Always, Ray

                “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD, who has compassion on you.” (Isaiah 54:10)

Only One Life

                                                                                                                                                   

Aloha Dearest Family,

                We will start today’s sharing with a parable from Jesus.

                

                     “And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21)

I have heard this parable taught numerous times and always thought it was a great story and good instruction for one’s life. So I filed it away in my brain amongst the many teachings I have heard over the years . . . until I was listening to a sermon on my way to work. The preacher told a story about the son of a missionary who went far away to study his chosen field of engineering. When he was almost finished with his studies, he suddenly came down with a rare disease. The doctor came into his room and told him that he had only about a year to live. This was devastating news and crushed the man’s hopes and his dream of a career as an engineer. But just then he received a letter from his father. Now, this story took place in a time when it took months to get a letter to a far-off country. The father had no way of knowing of the son’s fatal disease. When the son opened the letter, he read the words of his father that said, *“Only one life, twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” At this point the son re-dedicated his life to Jesus Christ and promised to live for Him from now on.

                

             It was at this time that I thought about the man in the parable. He had spent so much time and energy gathering for himself that he had forgotten what was really important. Even though he was physically rich, he was not rich toward God.

 

                The longer I live and learn I have come to realize that we only have a certain amount of time here on this earth (duh). I have come to understand that the things we should invest our energies toward should be the things of God. In the end, these are the only things that will really matter and endure. Now I am absolutely NOT saying that you can’t work and thrive in your chosen field and succeed. This is what God wants, too. But we must remember that being rich in this life is found not in the things that one has, but what impact we have made in the lives of others the rewards that God has in store for us. We only have a short amount of time in order to do good for God.

                One of our family traditions each Christmas season is to watch the movie Scrooge starring Allistair Sim as Ebeneezer Scrooge. In the movie there is a scene where Scrooge’s partner, Jacob Marley, is on his death bed. When Ebeneezer Scrooge bends his head to hear Jacob’s last words, he hears “wrong, we were wrong”. At the end of his life, Jacob Marley finally realized that he had been wrong in the way he treated people; that he had been wrong in just living for himself. But now it was too late. I would hate to wait until the end of my life to realize that I could have done more.

                In Ephesians 2 it states that God has prepared good works to do each day.

                

              “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

God has prepared good works for us to do in our life. If we walk with God He can direct us in what He wants us to do. It may be to speak to someone about God, or give someone some money, or simply show kindness to someone. God has specific good works that He has for each of us to do. All we have to do is have a willing heart and to love people. After all, isn’t this what Jesus Christ wanted for his followers to do? Love. Also the good works that we do today can earn us crowns and rewards in the future. When Jesus Christ comes back we will receive the rewards we have earned in this life. These we can enjoy forever.

                I think God’s people forget who they are and become too involved with what the world can give them. Now there is nothing wrong with possessions, but our main focus in life should be asking ourselves “What can I do for God today?”

                “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them…The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” (I John 2:15 and 17) 

The worldly matters of this life will one day pass away. The only things that will last are what you have done for God and the continuance of all He has set in motion. I don’t need to tell you just how amazing it will be. 

                Finally, God has given each of us certain gifts - specific talents and abilities to use to minister to the body of Christ. What your gift or ministry is will be between you and the Father and it usually is practiced based on the needs of the believers around you but each one is vital to the work of the ministry, for the building up of the church of God. This should be our main focus in life.

             Remember we only have a certain amount of time on this earth. Let us use that time wisely and use it do the good works that God has prepared for us to do.

                                                Love Always, Ray  

  

*(For the entire poem, look up Only One Life by C.T. Studd).

How To Please God

                                                                                        

Aloha Dearest Family,

                How do you please God? Perhaps you have asked yourself this question a time or two. After all, God is perfect and He would require perfection in order to please Him, right? Already, that leaves me out. How could I even hope to come close to this standard? But maybe the answer is simpler than I thought.

                If you are a Christian, the hard part is over. For those of us who have confessed Jesus Christ as their Lord, we need to fully understand that all of our sins, sickness, guilt or any other shortcomings we have had, have been paid for by Christ’s death and resurrection. Furthermore, God has given us His gift of holy spirit to dwell within us. We are now completely, complete in Christ. (Colossians 2:10). We now have peace with God, 

               “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. (Romans 5:1)   

Now that we know that we are children of God, like all other children, we strongly desire to please our Father. Not because we have to, but because we want to. A great example of this is Jesus Christ, the original son of God. He said that he always did those things that please his Father.

 

“And He who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.” (John 8:29) 

How did he accomplish this? First of all, he must have known what the will of his Father was by studying the scriptures, and then he carried out his Father’s Will. He followed God’s commandments by loving people, giving to people and more specifically, fulfilling his own calling of preaching the good news of the kingdom of God and healing all those that were oppressed of the devil. And God acknowledged that he was pleased, “And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11) (Man I would love to hear God say this to me). He also greatly pleased the Father by choosing to become a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind by dying on a tree. Jesus Christ’s total obedience pleased his Father. If we follow Jesus’ example, we will also please God. What are some other ways to please God?

-“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

If we don’t have faith in God we will never please God. What does it mean to have faith in God? We must trust in all that He has revealed to us in His Word and that He is faithful to all of His promises. Also we believe that God will reward us if we diligently seek Him. If we do this we will please God.

                   

            -“So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:8)

I’ve heard some teach that mankind cannot please God because they are flesh, but God is Spirit. That is not what this verse means. In the context, this verse is speaking about the kind of thoughts we are to hold in our minds. If we look at the prior verses we will learn what Paul was referring to. “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:6-8) If we have godly thoughts we will have life and peace. And we will please God.  

            

            -"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable(logical) service.“ (Romans 12:1)

In this verse the word “acceptable” means “well pleasing”. But what does it mean to become a living sacrifice? Well if you look at what it took for Jesus to become an actual blood sacrifice for sins, we will have a better idea of what it means. Jesus totally gave up his own will and committed himself wholly to his Father’s will, even though Jesus knew what this would mean. It meant a 40 hour long ordeal of constant beatings and scourgings, followed by an excruciating death nailed to a tree; dying the humiliating death as a vile criminal.

                God does not ask this of us. Because of the great sacrifice that was made for us, our next logical response is to give of ourselves with this same type of commitment that Jesus demonstrated. Not to die for Him, but to live for Him. We owe this to God. This kind sacrifice will be well pleasing to God.

                                                      

                         Love Always, Ray

                “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” (II Corinthians 5:15)

Lifted Up

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Aloha Dearest Family,

                A couple of years ago I was at work and I started talking to a guy who raised and handled venomous snakes. He made a living extracting and selling the snake venom so that anti-venom could be produced. This would be used to be help people who had been bitten by snakes. He was very passionate about his chosen occupation and he told me that even God mentions it in the Bible. He said God told Moses “to look to the snake”. Well, needless to say, having studied God’s Word for quite a while, this perked up my spiritual ears. I knew I needed to study this a bit more.

                My search first led me to John chapter 3 where Jesus is speaking to Nicodemas. In verse 14 Jesus says, 

                “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,” (John 3:14)

 Now to many new Christians (and perhaps some older ones), this statement must seem very odd. What does he mean by “Moses lifting up the snake”? And what does “lifting up the son of man” mean? To find the answers, let us first look back in the pages of the Old Testament and read about what happened to the children of Israel on the way to the promised-land. In Numbers 21 we read that the people of Israel were tired and discouraged of wandering around in the wilderness so, as their habit was, whenever things became difficult, they started to grumble and complain about God and Moses.

                “They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" (Numbers 21:4 and 5 NIV)

This is not a good idea. Whenever we face a problem, we have learned to go to God for help, not complain about Him and His plan. This showed God that they no longer believed they He could supply their needs and guide them safely into the promised-land. This unbelief allowed chaos to enter into their little trip. Poisonous snakes came out and started to bite them and many died. The people soon discovered that this was their own fault; that this was happening because they had sinned.

                “The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people.” (Verse 7) Moses prayed to the Lord to take away the snakes, but God instead instructs Moses to do something quite unusual.

                “The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live”. So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. " (Verses 8 and 9)

Wow, what a strange thing to do. If you were bitten by a poisonous snake, all you had to do was to look upon this bronze snake that was lifted up, and you would be saved from death. The key is that you had to believe that this would work. What if you were bitten and you thought “this is a silly idea, to look on a snake to live. I refuse”. Well, my friend, you would die. God provided the way to survive; all you had to believe.

               

Now we will examine the second part of Jesus’ statement. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up…”  Here he is referring to his death by crucifixion in little less than a year. The victims of crucifixion would be lifted up on stakes so that all could see them. This would be a warning to others of the penalty of defying the Roman Empire. But how would this refer to Moses and the poisonous snakes?

                “…the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him."

               

Just as Israel was required to look upon the bronze serpent and believe God’s plan to escape physical death, we have to look to the cross and believe God’s plan for salvation to escape eternal death. The next verse pulls it all together, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life”.

God does not want anyone to perish but that all receive everlasting life. God has provided us the way. It is Jesus Christ, who is the way, and the truth, and the life. Without him, we would all perish.

               

But to some, the preaching about salvation through the cross of Christ is pure foolishness. These people will perish. But to us who are saved, the cross is the power of God.

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.“ (I Corinthians 1:18)              

What God instructed Moses to do in making a bronze snake must have seemed like foolishness to some; but these died. But as we see, God had a much bigger plan in mind. This record would be set as an example for what we would experience as we look upon Jesus for eternal life.

                                                                                Love Always, Ray

Our Partner- God

                                                                                                                                     

Aloha Dearest Family,

                We live a great life! We have the incredible privilege of being partners with the Creator of the heavens and the earth and His son. God’s holy spirit dwells within us 24/7, so we can have continual fellowship with Him. We pour out our hearts to Him and He reminds us how much He loves us and shows us that He will always take care of us. When you enjoy this type of relationship with God, it’s easy to trust Him for our complete well-being. You will find this all through scripture.

“Those who know your name trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.” (Psalm 9:10)

“I will love thee, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalm 18:1a and 2) David proclaims God is mine, God is mine, God is mine. We can proclaim the same every day of our lives.

“And the LORD shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.” (Psalm 37:40)

In our lives we have learned to entrust all of our plans to the Lord. This leads me to a true story.

              I was retiring from the Navy after serving 20 years on submarines. We lived in Hawaii and we decided to retire in Jacksonville, Florida, so for many months we prayed to God and asked Him for a smooth transition. We continually asked God to be a part of every aspect of our move; from the movers, to transporting our truck off-island, to arranging for the perfect air-travel for myself and my family. In all of our decisions, we included God. We lived Proverbs 3:5 and 6, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” And we fully expected God to direct our paths. God became our partner in our move, so we knew God would cover everything we would need. And He did. Everything ran smoothly–until Memphis.

                The last leg of our travel was a short flight from Memphis to Jacksonville. Upon take-off we all heard two loud BANGS! People on board were concerned and the flight crew tried to find out what had happened. After a quick assessment, it was determined that we had lost part of our landing gear upon take-off. The pilot came on the intercom and told us what had happened and said that there was a loud whining coming from one of the left engines and that we would be returning to Memphis. But they also had to circle for a couple of hours to burn off some jet fuel. Many people were very scared and some were crying. The main flight attendant assured the passengers that they had trained for situations like this. She also said that she was a Christian and that she was praying for God’s protection. My wife, son and I absolutely knew it was God’s Will for us to make it to Jacksonville and the devil was not going to ruin it. Our teen-age son looked over to us to see if it was something he should be concerned about and we gave him a confident head shake “no” and he went back to sleep. Knowing that God had it covered, I went back to sleep while my wife told people how big our God was. She said, “God just became the pilot and the mechanic of this plane”. The landing was perfect as we touched down amidst many fire trucks and ambulances. As we were getting off the plane, some people said to us, “You must have nerves of steel.” “No”, we said, “we have a BIG and powerful God who loves us and causes us to triumph in life, and He wants us in Jacksonville”.

            This is not the only story I could tell throughout our lives with the Creator. The key to this kind of life is trust. But you can’t put your trust in someone that you don’t know. It has been the greatest thrill in our lives to get to know Him and His son and this knowledge of God comes from knowing and studying His Word.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” (II Peter 1:3) 

Because we know Him, we can have absolute trust in His ability, not our own. Whatever cares or worries we may have, we cast all of our cares upon God because we know that He cares for us. We’re not perfect, but we know someone who is. His love for us is never ending. He is our Daddy. He is our partner-God.

                                                Love Always, Ray