Introduction, part 2

I decided that after my open introduction, I really need to clarify my beliefs.

A month ago The Orchard finished a series called The Ultimate Question, and here I want to share the ultimate question that I’ve had trouble answering. It started as ‘I believe what now,’ but I found this to be a misleading question because I’ve always believed in God. Perhaps I could have phrased it as, “I found faith in God, what now?” Step two in the journey is often an offering to server God, but I thought that service was already taking place on weekends when I played worship music. I enjoyed serving, or more importantly I enjoyed being in the places where it feels like I’m meeting God. I wanted more, but I didn’t know how.

Here is the part where scholarship comes into the picture. I admit that I am a geek when it comes to the details, and I’m quite an odd person in how I arrange everything as a bizarre form of maximalism. In this way I find the New Testament has two sections; the life of Jesus Christ, and the Good News of the resurrection. I believe both of these are important, but in my growth it is the life of Jesus which appeared to be part three to the answer of my ‘what now’ question.

But understanding Jesus in light of the Old Testament is not an easy thing. Jesus lived his life in public view as a Rabbi, and it was quite an honorable title to have in that time, but I think in hindsight it kind of short changes the Son of God. He also lived without sin in a society that had a ridiculous amount of moral laws. I think they had their heads so far into their commitment to laws that they stopped paying attention to God. Jesus wants us to have faith, and he wants us to walk in accordance to the Holy Spirit.

Tim Keel gives the best definition I can find for Holy Spirit. In his Jacob's Well podcast Holy Spirit the Provocateur, Tim makes reference to Proverbs 16:9, and then he says;

“I believe the Holy Spirit provokes God’s people to go and to do what they would not let themselves do on their own. I believe that God’s Holy Spirit works in our lives to cause us to go and to do what we would not do if we were left to ourselves. The Spirit provokes. The Spirit pushes. The Spirit ignites and releases. We see this all through the books of Acts. We see it through Acts in the concept of mission.”

You can’t create rules that are going to cover every situation in life, and also there are rules that become dated when societies change. Women keep your hair long was a commandment in context to a society where prostitutes kept their hair short, but in the New Testament this is expressed as ‘don’t take on the appearance of evil,’ so in this we have a general application for how we are supposed to live under God in representation of the Body of Christ. When the Old Testament is legalized into Christianity, then we have reason to hold others in judgment, and we can further understand what Jesus was doing before the apostolic spreading of the Good News.

"I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." (Galatians 2:21).

I really want to avoid being called a buffet style Christian, but there is truth to Jesus liberating us from this kind of legalization. In faith alone we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, free to live under God, free to love God, and free to show our love to others.

What is part four of my journey with God? I don't know? I’m confident that if I’m aware of what is happening in my life, then I’ll recognize what the Holy Spirit is up to in my life.