iCrucified

Posts Tagged ‘Christ’

Further Meditations in Genesis 15

^{My Comments (jb)} …this week has concentrated on dependence upon God, trusting God, and following Jesus. I started the week with Genesis…it just seems fitting to end the week with it as well.

God makes an incredible covenant promise to Abram that included protection, an heir, descendants numbering as many as the stars, “great” reward, land, and a long healthy life… Awesome stuff indeed! But wait; what about the process of getting there, to all those awesome blessings? Abram = Yay! Descendants = not so much. God also assures Abram his descendants will be “slaves” in a foreign land where they will be oppressed for 400 years. Wait for it… Let that sink in a bit… 400 Years.

Sure, they (the slave descendants) had Abraham’s covenant promise conveyed upon them…but people were born, lived, and died without seeing anything but slavery and oppression. I can’t help but wonder if Abraham’s knowledge of the 400 years was passed along to his descendants as part of their “blessing.” In other words, did they know they were going to be enslaved for this long?

400 Years…

Their emancipation was no cakewalk either… chased by an Egyptian army into the desert wilderness, they failed to trust God. An entire generation was “blessed” to die in their “desert of distrust” as part of their reward. Fortunately, we finally see the privileged inheritors of God’s promise walk across the river into land God had given to Abraham… YAY! But wait; these “people of the blessing” who were unskilled in the art of war, knew little in the ways of societal governance, and had little in the way of supply-line resourcing… were going to have to fight/war for every square foot of land that had been “promised” to them.

There’s more to this story, and these long periods of silence from God and oppression of His people have a disconcerting manner of repeating themselves… “Yeah, but that was the Old Testament, back when God was mean and people were primitive and ignorant” Right? Jesus ushered in an era of blessing and brilliance… Right? Of course he did, but not in the context most of us like to think about. Remember, all but one of the “Twelve of Jesus’ Disciples” met violent deaths. Most, if not all, followers of Christ were ostracized, oppressed, persecuted, and often killed because of their “blessed” status. It wasn’t until the fourth century before this level of oppression began to let up.

“Anyone who talks about spiritual things without any experience in them is like a person who is lost in the desert, dying with thirst… If you try to tell me about the Christian life without any personal involvement in it, you will mislead me. You will tell me fictional things, mistaken things.” ~Pseudo-Macarius

…the story continues, but we’re talking about trust, dependence, and following Jesus. What really is the cost, and what really is the blessing? How are these really measured? Can I trust God…? Am I willing to release my own self-reliance and independence to follow the unseen future led by the Invisible God?

“Deliverance can come to us only by the defeat of our old life… God rescues us by breaking us, by shattering our strength and wiping out our resistance. Then he invades our natures with that ancient and eternal life which is from the beginning.” ~A.W. Tozer

The picture I painted of the plight of “God’s people” is pretty terrifying and doesn’t look all too inviting to us from our perspective, but what if we glimpse how God looks at this:

I was always on your side. I destroyed the Amorites who confronted you, Amorites with the stature of great cedars, tough as thick oaks. I destroyed them from the top branches down. I destroyed them from the roots up. And yes, I’m the One who delivered you from Egypt, led you safely through the wilderness for forty years And then handed you the country of the Amorites like a piece of cake on a platter. I raised up some of your young men to be prophets, set aside your best youth for training in holiness. (Amos 2:8-10)

“God who is everywhere never leaves us… Yet He may be more present to us when He is absent than when He is present.” ~Thomas Merton

What if I’m one of those “400 year” people? What if I’m one of the persecuted, poverty stricken, disease-infested, natural disaster called Christians? Will I follow Him? Will I trust Him? Am I willing to depend upon Him?

“To live for the lesser things of life is to risk not really living at all.” ~Joan Chittister

“God says, when I toss My children into the air, terror comes before delight. Put yourself in the place of My people in Daniel’s day. They felt thrown into the air with no safety net beneath them. They couldn’t see their God ready to catch them.” (from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

Send article as PDF to

Book Review: The Tangible Kingdom

The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community by Hugh Halter & Matt Smay

Hmmm…what to say, what to say…

LOVED IT.

A book like this requires some degree of back-story, and it was provided, so it was a little long for me to get to the nitty gritty of what I was searching for in the story. It was around chapters nine and ten that I found myself getting “sucked in” to the heart of what Hugh Halter was driving at. I am incredibly excited about the community described in the tangible kingdom. It brings great joy to me to hear that people are living the life that Jesus taught…and not some cheaply interpreted facsimile of it.

Chapters ten through around fourteen were mostly about deconstruction from the “way we have always done things.” I appreciated that Halter was not overly critical toward the methods he was deconstructing; in fact, he seemed very sensitive to the people entrenched in those systems.

Chapters fifteen through eighteen were rebuilding chapters; teaching the foundational elements of this “incarnational community.” Everything that was shared in these chapters just seemed to make such beautiful sense… I found myself saying over and over; “yes, yes, yes, yes…!!!”

The final chapters, nineteen through twenty-one, were about the focus and outcome of the three primary components of the community once people decide to “join” the community. This focus hinges on togetherness, oneness, and otherness…and I’ll stop there. The teaching and the illustrations used by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay are very clear and easy to understand. It would be my great desire to see this community with my own eyes. I would love to get some one-on-one leadership development from an existing-healthy-functioning community.

In my opinion, this is another 5-star book and another must read for those people and leaders desiring to live missionally and incarnationally (buzzwordsy I know, but I don’t know how else to describe it). Personally, I don’t know that I’d follow everything from this book… I have some personal convictions that differ from the authors, but I understand the heart of his passion and with that I agree 100%. I recommend this book very highly. I’m glad to kickoff my 2010 reading year with this one; a great way to start it out.

Send article as PDF to

Christmastide Reflections: LIFE and The Great Light…

John 1:1-18

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of men. ⁵ The LIGHT shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it… ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God –

“He was made man that we might become God…” St. Athanasius

John 17:20-26

²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: ²³ I in them and you in me…”

Ephesians 3:1-12

² Assuming, by the way, that you know God gave me the special responsibility of extending his grace to you… ³ God himself revealed his mysterious plan to me. ⁵ God, by his Spirit, has revealed it to his holy apostles and prophets. ¹⁰ God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. ¹¹ This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.

“Come and see…” “Go and tell…” Jesus

~Pay attention ~ Be astonished ~ Tell about it ~ Mary Oliver

My soul is exploding…my intellect cannot contain the revelation of the Great Light that has come to us. I do not pretend to fully understand the Incarnation…but my soul knows that it is real! I am alive at the core of who I am in Him. The prayer of my God and Savior, Jesus, is alive in me. His Life gives me life; I can feel His heart beating as my own and I am filled with incomprehensible, indescribable, and infinite joy! But then the paradox of Love wraps its fingers around my throat and begins to choke my joy…while His Kingdom of wisdom, power, peace, and love is as kindled embers in my heart, the bonfire of His Eternal Kingdom is something “remembered forward.” The Kingdom is here, but it is not here. And, tears come to my eyes. I know people who don’t know the Great Light. I know people who are still stumbling in the darkness…and I feel like a traitor. How is it that I can rejoice and celebrate in the Light when so many are blind to this joy? I only stand on the promise of my Savior, the Light, who said “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven… and Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” I pray for comfort. I pray for the Kingdom in full. I pray for boldness to proclaim the Truth of the Great Light who is my Lord, my Savior, me Jesus…the God who Saves. Come and see the Great Light. Go and Tell about the Great Light. May the words His Spirit gives me awake deafened and blinded hearts to this wonderful and glorious Light that has come into the world.

Send article as PDF to

Christmastide Reflections: The Great Exchange…

Reconciliation is here…Restoration beckons us to come.

The past several days I have remained in a state of contemplative wonder; considering still the miracle of deity and flesh converging for the purpose of redeeming light from dark and life from death. For many people, Christmas is over…there is still the novelty and newness of gifts given and received, but the wonder of the Great Exchange has been forgotten; swallowed in the glitter, flash, and furious flurry of commercialism and consumerism. Such is life in the 21^st Century. In the great traditions of the church, however, Christmas is not over…the celebration has only just begun.

Christmas is not merely a day like every other day. It is a day made holy and special by a sacred mystery. It is not merely another day in the weary round of time. Today, eternity enters into time and time, sanctified, is caught up into Eternity.

—Thomas Merton

Christmastide: A Season of Feasts…celebrating the joining of Heaven and Earth

The wonderful nativity story from the gospel of Luke that is so romanticized by our culture has become our poster child of the Christmas season. We gather together, read the story, force a tear, stifle a yawn, and then with alarming speed we rush through the day of Christmas and begin our race towards the New Year holiday parties. And the birth of our Savior is all but forgotten; lost in the midst of fanfare-ous clutter and media mayhem.

The waiting is over, the promised Savior is here…The waiting is over, the Holy One is born…The waiting is over, the Light of the World dawns. If Advent is waiting, Christmas is a season of wonder.

As I have considered this magnificent event, God coming to earth in the flesh of man (Luke 2; Philippians 2), I have noted some parallels…similarities to other stories I have not previously considered. Mary gives birth…delivers the Deliverer, Jesus, with great and joyful exhaustion. I have been present through the births of three of my own children. It is an incredible and “full-body” experience—painful, messy, and very emotional. Giving thought to these experiences, my imagination is stirred to reflect upon the “rebirth” process. After all, this is what the divine birth is the precedent for. I think the process of rebirth is very similar to the original birth…perhaps just as much fraught with pain, mess, and emotion…sometimes exhausting and sometimes exhilaratingly joyful too. Birth and rebirth do not start and stop with a single event; both are beginnings. I wonder why so many of us treat the birth of Jesus as a single event during the Christmas season. I wonder why so many of us (professing Christians) treat our “rebirth” as a single event during the course of our lives. Both events are beginnings; the starts of something so incredible and so incomprehensible that it is hard to put into words. Laurence Stookey does an admirable job of describing the indescribable, the Great Exchange; he writes the following:

Christmas is the enfleshment of God, the humiliation of the Most High and divine participation in all that is painful, ugly, frustrating, and limited. Divinity takes on humanity, to restore the image of God implanted at creation but sullied by sin. Here is the great exchange Christmas ponders, that God became like us that we might become like God. God accepted death that the world might accept life. The Creator assumed temporality to redeem creation from futility.  –Laurence Stookey

My, oh my… How then can we ignore this great exchange, this great salvation? (Hebrews 2:2-4)

I have decided to take on the suggestion from one of the books I am reading during this immersion into the liturgical year; while society and culture moves on to the next thing, I will treat this Christmastide season (these twelve days of Christmas) different. I will linger and reflect on the Season of Feasts; for indeed, Heaven has kissed Earth and reconciliation is here. Restoration beckons us to come.

“Don’t be afraid…I bring you Good News that will bring Great Joy to all people. The Savior—Yes the Messiah, the Lord has been born today.” Luke 2:10-11

“Then I witnessed in Heaven an event of great significance… It has come at last—salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ.” Revelation 12:1-10

Send article as PDF to

I continue to spend time meditating on this Advent season; more words are stimulating my thoughts. Additionally, the books I am reading to stimulate my thoughts have really been helpful with this Advent journey.  Words that are presently stimulating my thoughts follow:

• Parousia – (literally divine presence) refers also to the second coming of Christ or the second Advent
• Repent/Repentance
• Live
• Lament
• Exile
• Coming
• Rescue
• Hope

“Prepare the way of the Lord. What is the meaning of ‘Prepare the way of the Lord?’ It means, make ready for the reception of whatever Christ may wish to do.” Cyril of Alexandria

“It is not simply a matter of waiting and rejoicing in what Advent promises us. It is about learning to live while we wait.” The Liturgical Year; Joan Chittister (p.68)

“The life of Jesus, if it is meaningful to us, is meant to reveal the nature of God” The Sacred Meal; Nora Gallagher (p.135)

A Lament:

As I consider thoughts of Advent and the words that are “bouncing” around inside my head/heart, I am also being influenced by another book, The Sacred Meal by Nora Gallagher (see quote above). Something that struck me last night is that Jesus came to teach us how to live; He should know about life, considering He is the Creator of Life and the Giver of Life (we could learn a thing or two from Him). As Jesus, the Incarnation, He modeled this living-style for us. For some reason, we do not want to believe the Christ-life can be fully lived by us while in our temporal bodies. I think this smacks of heresy and in a backhanded way, pronounces Jesus a liar. I am concerned; if we do not learn to live as Christians now…we may never “Live” as Christians.

Hope and Rescue:

Jesus said…

“I am the way the truth and the life” (John 14:6)

“Abide (remain) in me…” (John 15:4)

“I have come that you may have life and life abundant” (John 10:10)

“My sheep follow me…” (John 10:27)

“Whoever serves me must follow me… (John 12:26)

Repent and Prepare:

Jesus came to teach us how to live. If we don’t learn how to live here and now, we may never truly live. The promise is that we can…live, today, as Christ did when He walked the earth in the flesh of man. We cannot excuse ourselves from learning to live while we wait.

Parousia ~ Advent ~ Maranatha:

“…The Kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21)

“I will come back… we will make our home with him…” (John 14:1-3 John 14:23)

“This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back…” (Acts 1:11)

Live:

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29)

“Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:6)

If we don’t learn how to live here and now, we may never truly live.

“The voice of Advent in our ears is loud and clear year after year. Its three year cycle of Scripture winds over and around us, reminding us, assuring us, prodding us to bear Christ in our own lives.” The Liturgical Year; Joan Chittister (p.67)

Send article as PDF to

The second week of Advent began this past weekend. I continue to explore the season with reflections and meditations. Words that currently consume my thoughts follow:

• Longing
• Maranatha (“Our Lord, com” “Come, Lord Jesus”)
• Hope
• Glory
• Completion

A sense of “longing” continues to haunt me…an insatiable desire of spiritual hunger. My soul is ravenous for my ultimate completion in Christ…with my God. I know these feelings, this sense, is true in my deepest self, but my mocking flesh hurls insults and taunts of hypocrisy at me for speaking my thoughts of spiritual hunger. I despise this conflict and groaning of soul.

It seems in the interim of here and Eternity, this tumultuous battle between the spirit and flesh is a self-perpetuating cycle. The more my soul is awakened and drawn closer to the things of God, the more I am made aware of the catastrophic effects of sin, and consequently, the weakness and failures of my own physical nature.

~ And I long…~ Maranatha

“Blessed are the poor in Spirit… Blessed are those who mourn… They shall be comforted and they shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew 5:3-4

So many things remain broken; even if I want to feel safe in the promise of my own redemption and salvation, I am conflicted…spiritually bipolar at times… even manic. My faith does not waver; the hope and promise of my completion is strong…my eternity secure in Christ and for this I rejoice, but my hunger is not satisfied. I long to see my Jesus face-to-face, triumphant in victory, sitting on His throne as He rules the nations…the insidious destroyer who is sin forever removed from the face of a New Earth.

I Long for His glory and I hope for completion… Maranatha

Famine is a reminder, disease is a reminder…physical, emotional, and sexual abuses are all reminders of the cancer of sin. Decay, pollution, birth defect and poverty are the tinnitus to my spiritual ears. War, climatic catastrophes, pestilence, idolatry, and death blur the “eyes of my heart.” Lies, slander, hypocrisy, and pride from my fellow humanity bear the scent of terminal cancer to my nostrils. Time itself is a reminder of sin…we were not created to serve the rule of seconds, minutes, hours, or years… God created man with Eternity in his heart. Our destiny was, and is, immortality in eternity with our Creator God. The process of aging, keeping track of schedules, and the tyrannical ticking of the clock…all vicious and relentless in their reminder of man’s rebellion and disobedience toward God.

My soul longs for the King of Peace… Maranatha

In light of our longing there is hope. God has sprinkled His DNA across the universe; creation itself bears the promise of hope and glory. We awaken to the splendor of His spoken word; “Let there be light,” in the glorious rising of the sun. We marvel at the mystery and complexities of conception and birth. The incredible science behind osmosis and photosynthesis (life as we know it depends on these earth actions) are hints of God’s handiwork. We have hope looking forward…a hunger and a longing for the eternity that God has planted in us with the same breath in which He gave us life.

“I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” Philippians 1:6

“I am making all things new…” Revelation 21:3-5

Longing… it is the groaning burden of a soul that hungers for completion

Maranatha… Come, Lord Jesus, Come

Send article as PDF to

Advent: Remembering and Longing for Eden…

Remembering…pondering from beginning to end

(Genesis 1-2) God created the heavens and the earth and it was good. And God created human beings, man and woman, then He blessed them and said:

“Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground… See, I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life…” Then God looked over all He had made, and He saw that it was very good! (Genesis 1:27-31)

It was good. It was right. It was perfect… God and man walking together in perfect unity, and it was very good. The tragedy is that we (mankind) weren’t satisfied with God’s very good. In our effort to improve His Creation (Genesis 3) we created a “fail” of epic proportion. While our nature and soul have been created with Divine and Eternal DNA (Genesis 1:27 and Ecclesiastes 3:11), we have been doomed to disease, deterioration, destruction, and death because of our disobedience and rebellion against God, our Creator-Sustainer. We have struggled…groaning laboriously for the day of reconciliation since we became outcasts and enemies of God. And so, we long for Eden…we long for true reconciliation; we long for the ultimate and eternal City of God, the New Jerusalem where God will live with and alongside man as Friend, Father, Savior, King, Creator, and Sustainer (Revelation 21:1-8). This is the hope looking forward.

Advent: Remembering and longing with repentance… Hope; looking forward (Isaiah 11:1-10)

“In that day the heir to David’s throne will be a banner of salvation to all the world. The nations will really to him, and the land where he lives will be a glorious place.” (Isaiah 11:10)

Joan Chittister writes in her book, The Liturgical Year:

“Advent, from the Latin, means “coming.” But Advent is not about one coming; it is about three comings. The great spiritual question the season poses for each of us is, which coming are you and I waiting for now? At this moment of our lives, at this present stage of our spiritual development, what we’re waiting for surely determines how we will wait for it… Advent asks the question, what is it for which you are spending your life? What is the star you are following now?”

I’ve shared some thoughts about a musical release from Phil Wickham that has really moved me in recent months. As I remember and long for my Savior’s return and His righting of all things, I am drawn even more to this song, Eden. I cannot imagine what Adam must have thought, how he must have felt after breaking union with God…remembering when the stars were young…meeting His Friend and Creator at the gates of Eden to play and converse with God about the mysteries of the universe. Yes, I long for ultimate reconciliation…I want to be naked and unashamed with my God…in Eden.

Send article as PDF to

Advent: Expectant Waiting…

Several readings I have been meditating on have likened the season of waiting and anticipation to pregnancy. Interesting, this analogy, or comparison.

While I have not experienced the physical reality of pregnancy, I have walked alongside my wife through it on three occasions. I have experienced the seemingly paradoxical nature of emotions born out of this mystery that is conception-gestation-birth.

Excitement, anticipation, anxiety, exhilaration, and fear all cohabitate and gestate along with the yet-to-be-born child within…while we wait…while we wait for the fullness of time.

Expectant waiting…

There is much that we participate in, and shoulder responsibility for, as we prepare for the Kingdom to come and nurture the developing Kingdom within us.

Advent: The “before time” of the coming…

Tension and freedom coexisting. Hope and doubt mixing in a divine cocktail we dare to drink. Ecstasy and despair are the hors d’oeuvres we snack on before the wedding feast of the Lamb…

We wait…

We participate in the gestation of our hope; doing faithfully…the bidding of the King we so desperately wait for…and our hope grows…the first trimester and then a second…until we feel our bodies groaning, screaming for the Kingdom to be released; “COME LORD JESUS, COME!” Expectant waiting…

Advent: The before time of the coming

Advent is our History… our heritage. Advent is our present. Advent is our hope of the promised future…The before time of the coming.

…we wait

Giddy and groaning, we wait…

Hope looking forward with great expectation; this is Advent.

Send article as PDF to

Today marks the beginning of the Liturgical Year. This is the first Sunday of Advent 2009…

I plan to focus this year on the Liturgical Calendar. My tradition has not been one that expresses participation with the Christian seasons in full. As an act of discipline and spiritual exploration I intend to enter the journey of the Christian year beginning today. I’m using several tools that will help educate and guide me; in all likelihood, I will pick up a few more along the way. These present tools follow: Living the Christian Year by Bobby Gross; The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister; Ancient Christian Devotional – A Year of Weekly Readings edited by Thomas Oden; and I will be utilizing resources that introduce me to historical prayers during the Advent season. I will share additional resources as I learn of them and incorporate them into my journey.

During Advent we focus on

• The arrival of Christ in history; the coming of the Christ child and Messiah Jesus
• The final return of Christ at the end of time when all things will be restored
• The intermediate entrance of Christ into our lives (our personal redeeming salvation)

The themes of Advent are:

• Death and Life
• Darkness and Light
• Doubt and Longing

Advent is a time of expectant waiting…our longing for Christ deepens as we slow down and focus our attention and intentions upon Him, our Redeemer-Reconciler-Restorer. O joyous wonder awaits expectant hearts!

“The Biblical scope of Advent stretches from the garden in Genesis to the New Jerusalem in Revelation. Advent concerns first and last things. It involves looking back and learning forward. In Advent we ponder the promises of God from beginning to end.” (Living the Christian Year; p.42)

Opening Prayer for Advent

To you, my God, I lift my soul,
I trust in you; let me never come to shame.
Do not let my enemies laugh at me.
No one who waits for you is ever put to shame.

All-powerful God,
increase our strength of will for doing good
that Christ may find an eager welcome at his coming
and call us to his side in the kingdom of heaven,
where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Father in heaven,
our hearts desire the warmth of your love
and our minds are searching for the light of your Word.

Increase our longing for Christ our Savior
and give us the strength to grow in love,
that the dawn of his coming
may find us rejoicing in his presence
and welcoming the light of his truth.

We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.

Send article as PDF to

Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan

I just finished the latest book by Francis Chan, Forgotten God. I definitely connected and agreed with his heart in this follow up to Crazy Love. There was a continuing theme throughout this book formed in questions, comments, stories, and testimony that never changed: Your life should be led by and filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit of God. There is not a lot to be said by me that can further illustrate or explain what Francis Chan has already done in the book. You can preview the book here with this link from publisher David C. Cook. Also, you can find Q/A with Francis here concerning Forgotten God. Finally, an audio version is available for purchase as well at this link.

Forgotten God is well documented with (perhaps arguably; although I would not be one to argue) scriptural references. I really am at a loss as to what to say or write about this particular book. As I have said, I am tracking perfectly in sync with Francis’ words and discernment and I just find it difficult to add or share…more than what has already been, so clearly, illustrated.

I suppose the sum of the book is this; Jesus Christ calls his followers to abundant life, both here (in the present) and eternal. Abundant life should not be confused with material and physical prosperity, although sometimes this occurs in the context of abundant life. Abundant life is, at the core, walking in unity with the Triune God; Jesus said, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me…and I am in you.” Christ Jesus has empowered us with gift and blessing of the indwelling Spirit of God in order that our lives on earth might give testimony to, and glorification of, God Almighty.

Sadly, one of the greatest attacks against the Church has been perpetrated by misinformation, extenuation, and exploitation of the ministry and indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit. In one camp we have people that minimize and limit the power and work of the Holy Spirit, and in the other camp we have people who want to grandstand and (attempt to) exploit God’s Holy Spirit. Both camps are in error and propagate mockery of the Holy Spirit before an already cynical and watching world. If this is not outright blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, it is dangerously close (in my opinion).

Perhaps you have misunderstood the purpose and ministry of the Holy Spirit. If so, you might find this book enlightening, challenging, and inspiring…or perhaps your own desire and conviction needs encouragement and affirmation. Personally, I have found some ways of explaining this wonderful gift of God to others and hope to see more people walking in joyful, and victorious, fellowship with God. My recommendations are to purchase and read the book.

Francis shares a little about Forgotten God in this video:

Send article as PDF to