the roller-coaster myth and the Holy Spirit
i remember back in high school (a long, long time ago) when Christian believers who i respect would describe their lives as "roller-coaster" implying a lot of ups and downs (if you're a brainiac, think of it as the sine wave back in trigonometry) . . . and i thought about it and i became convinced that the roller-coaster lifestyle is NOT what God intends for my life . . . He has granted me victory even in routine and mundane days
so take that sine curve and now scoot the right side of the paper up a little diagonally so that the basic shape of the curve is still there but it overall goes upward over time . . . are you with me? you really need to do it physically to see it . . . okay, now THAT is how God wants me to live as His follower, there are some steps up and there are some plateaus, the steps represent intense times when God rapidly grows me spiritually (like at OneDay or in a true God-moment) and the plateaus are pauses or "selah"s (as the psalms describes them) when God intends for me to establish into my lifestyle the things that He has previously taught me.
one thing i learned this past year is that SALVATION consists of three parts: (1) "justification" which is essentially fire insurance whereby i am adopted by God into His family to become a joint heir with His son Christ Jesus (this all happens at the moment that i accept Jesus as my Lord AND Saviour); (2) "sanctification" which is the process whereby i learn to be more like Jesus for the remainder of my life on this blue planet; and (3) "glorification" which is the transformation i will undergo at the time of my physical, earthly death or rapture, whichever comes first
for me, i am living out my life in the "sanctification" mode . . . sanctify, as to "set apart" or to "make holy unto the Lord" . . . okay, i stumble often, even many times a day, not always something gross and disgusting, but anything that is not christlike, anything that falls short of the mark . . . but glory that there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus
so then, the point to all of this is to walk in faith, moment by moment, day by day, starting each morning with a QUIET TIME of prayer, scripture reading and meditation . . . then be confident that God will meet you just where you are and walk with you throughout the day . . . and when you mess up (and you will just as surely as everyone else does including the apostle paul) God will be right there along side you in the form of the Holy Spirit to rally you and hold you up, dust you off, and nudge you forward again
i just remembered something really neat: in the Bible, the greek word (i have been told by others who should know) for the Holy Spirit is PARACLETE, which when translated literally means PARA or "to come along side" and CLETE or "helper" . . . so the Holy Spirit is my "helper that comes alongside"
this gets even better: the etymology of the word PARACLETE goes back to the olympic games and the running of the marathon, which measured 26.2 miles, the actual distance between Sparta and Athens . . . if you've ever done any distance running or known any marathoners, you'll know that around mile 20 or shortly thereafter the runners hit a psychological "wall" which really whips the runners mentally, so much so that many become disoriented and some cannot finish the race . . . well, in the original olympic games if a runner could make it most of the way he was allowed to have someone run along side of him the final three miles and the helper or "paraclete" would trot with the marathoner telling to watch out for this pothole or that tree branch and help him know when to turn to stay on the correct path to finish the race . . . in the same way Jesus sent to each of us the Paraclete to pick us up if we fall to get us to finish the race . . . if you are born-again you are never alone, whether there are no other humans around or even if you know no one else is a sea full of humanity
you are loved with an everlasting love
© S. Chan 2004. All Rights Reserved.
so take that sine curve and now scoot the right side of the paper up a little diagonally so that the basic shape of the curve is still there but it overall goes upward over time . . . are you with me? you really need to do it physically to see it . . . okay, now THAT is how God wants me to live as His follower, there are some steps up and there are some plateaus, the steps represent intense times when God rapidly grows me spiritually (like at OneDay or in a true God-moment) and the plateaus are pauses or "selah"s (as the psalms describes them) when God intends for me to establish into my lifestyle the things that He has previously taught me.
one thing i learned this past year is that SALVATION consists of three parts: (1) "justification" which is essentially fire insurance whereby i am adopted by God into His family to become a joint heir with His son Christ Jesus (this all happens at the moment that i accept Jesus as my Lord AND Saviour); (2) "sanctification" which is the process whereby i learn to be more like Jesus for the remainder of my life on this blue planet; and (3) "glorification" which is the transformation i will undergo at the time of my physical, earthly death or rapture, whichever comes first
for me, i am living out my life in the "sanctification" mode . . . sanctify, as to "set apart" or to "make holy unto the Lord" . . . okay, i stumble often, even many times a day, not always something gross and disgusting, but anything that is not christlike, anything that falls short of the mark . . . but glory that there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus
so then, the point to all of this is to walk in faith, moment by moment, day by day, starting each morning with a QUIET TIME of prayer, scripture reading and meditation . . . then be confident that God will meet you just where you are and walk with you throughout the day . . . and when you mess up (and you will just as surely as everyone else does including the apostle paul) God will be right there along side you in the form of the Holy Spirit to rally you and hold you up, dust you off, and nudge you forward again
i just remembered something really neat: in the Bible, the greek word (i have been told by others who should know) for the Holy Spirit is PARACLETE, which when translated literally means PARA or "to come along side" and CLETE or "helper" . . . so the Holy Spirit is my "helper that comes alongside"
this gets even better: the etymology of the word PARACLETE goes back to the olympic games and the running of the marathon, which measured 26.2 miles, the actual distance between Sparta and Athens . . . if you've ever done any distance running or known any marathoners, you'll know that around mile 20 or shortly thereafter the runners hit a psychological "wall" which really whips the runners mentally, so much so that many become disoriented and some cannot finish the race . . . well, in the original olympic games if a runner could make it most of the way he was allowed to have someone run along side of him the final three miles and the helper or "paraclete" would trot with the marathoner telling to watch out for this pothole or that tree branch and help him know when to turn to stay on the correct path to finish the race . . . in the same way Jesus sent to each of us the Paraclete to pick us up if we fall to get us to finish the race . . . if you are born-again you are never alone, whether there are no other humans around or even if you know no one else is a sea full of humanity
you are loved with an everlasting love
© S. Chan 2004. All Rights Reserved.