Craig on Mormonism and the Inner Testimony of the Holy Spirit

An area in which he has been often criticized.

As the Spirit Leads

This morning I thought I'd be on my way to Deep Creek Lake, MD to preach tomorrow. At least that was the plan. I was very excited about having Ray with me so I could show him around Garrett County where I spent the Jan. term. That was my plan.

However, I got sick and I am just beginning to feel better. So, a classmate will be spending the time at Deep Creek Lake. Our plans and God's are not always the same. Proverbs says this so well, "The human mind may devise many plans,but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established" (Prov 19:21).

I think I'm beginning to get the idea. Thursday I had my final interview for next year's internship. Prior to the beginning of the whole interview process, I was quite nervous. I knew where I wanted to go and hoped I would go there. I had eight interviews. Of the eight, I would be happy to go to six of the eight sites and can see how God could both use me and work on me in those circumstances.

The great thing about this process is once the pastors have their paperwork in and I have mine in, where I go is not up to the pastors or myself. Ultimately, it is the guidance of God the Holy Spirit and the needs of the larger community of students that are taken into consideration. I can't influence the outcome and neither can the pastors. It will all be in the hands of God and the good people in the Field Education office. And now I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I've done my part. The pastors have done their part. Nothing else is required of me, but to pray.

I had all my plans as to how this should play out. I truly have peace and will be happy to serve wherever I am assigned because, "...it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established." All I know for sure is that I will be in WV, VA, or PA for internship...and that's enough.








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Speed Dating and Snow

After two back to back snowstorms and the campus not being completely dug out, we wondered what would be happening with the Internship Matching Workshop, aka Speed Dating. It is a time for prospective interns to interview with numerous pastors and lay people over a day and a half. Well, that's normally the way it works. But with the weather and many flights canceled, we are having an extended version of internship matching interviews for those that were unable to make it. When all the results are in from pastors and students, it is then worked out who will go where next year for internship. Pastors and students each have input, but neither makes the match. That's up to the wisdom of the Field Education Office and the Holy Spirit.

So please keep all of us prospective interns in your prayers as well as the folks that will be collating all the info and finally making the decisions.

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http://www.ltsg.edu/campus/blizzardsof2010.htm

Tomorrow's Sermon Today

We as Lutherans don’t talk much about the Holy Spirit. For some, even the words Holy Spirit conjure up images of Pentecostals, holy rollers and so on. My own journey has taken me from being a nominal Roman Catholic by way of the charismatic movement to the Lutheran church where I have seen the Holy Spirit’s work through Word and Sacrament, in our worship together, in the community of faith, and in our outreach.

In Luke, we first hear of the Holy Spirit as Gabriel makes the promise to Mary that she will be the mother of Christ. The Holy Spirit is also on the scene at Jesus’ baptism descending upon him like a dove. Once full of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. Today’s gospel reading occurs right after that temptation. Strengthened by his time of testing, Jesus is now ready for his public ministry and the Holy Spirit is at work once again.

After his baptism, he had begun teaching in Galilee, the starting point of his ministry, in the surrounding synagogues and everyone loved his words. Do you know why? Listen again to the beginning words of our passage, “Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee…” (v. 14). The Holy Spirit filled Jesus was returning home and His reputation preceded him. Now he has arrived in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth.

We may think Accident and Friendsville are small towns, but in Jesus’ time, Nazareth was just a Jewish settlement of 200-400 villagers—perhaps only a dozen extended families. We may think our church is small, but in Jesus’ time, a town could start a synagogue with just 10 men (NET notes, Bibleworks). We do not know how many or how few were in the congregation.

Jesus went to synagogue “as was his custom,” just like we go to church on Sunday. Jesus read from the scroll, just as we read the lessons in the service. That was the common practice of his day. Then following reading, commenting about the passage was the common practice. Why is this different?

Jesus brings the word, and interprets it in the midst of the people: today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. He is the interpretation; the time is now. God is at home in them. He is the anointed servant, set apart for special service by the Spirit of God...

(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MDO/is_5_33/ai_n16850374/)

He was claiming to be the One the prophets promised would come—the Messiah.

One scholar has noted “…both the inauguration of Jesus’ public ministry and his return to his hometown are under the leadership and power of the Holy Spirit” (Dennis Bratcher). The Holy Spirit’s role is central to Luke. “And it is clear that Luke is greatly concerned with anchoring this new work of God in the world through Jesus in the work of the Holy Spirit” (Dennis Bratcher).

Further, the passage Jesus read began, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” (v. 18). It is because of the work of the Holy Spirit that all the freedom mentioned in Isaiah, incarnated in Jesus Christ, takes place. It is one thing to say who you are and what you believe, but it is another to show it. Jesus not only said he was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words, he showed who he was by his works: bringing good news to the poor, proclaiming release to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, setting people free, and by proclaiming God’s favor.

Now this is all well and good, but what about us? What about our small congregation, other churches growing and ours shrinking, our needs here, the needs of the world??? Of course, Jesus could do all those things because he was God’s Son! But that’s not what Luke says!! Jesus did all of his works through the Holy Spirit.

Today, Pentecostals talk about the Holy Spirit and receiving the Spirit all the time. How do we as Lutherans receive the Holy Spirit? Luther says we received this in baptism:

Therefore every Christian has enough in Baptism to learn and to practise all his life; for he has always enough to do to believe firmly what it promises and brings: victory over death and the devil, forgiveness of sin, the grace of God, the entire Christ, and the Holy Ghost with His gifts. (Large Catechism)

The baptized people of God already have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives through us each day. But we need to “believe firmly what it promises and brings…” What will lives look like when we do just that?

In my time with you, I have witnessed God’s Spirit at work. The other day at a funeral, one of God’s children hugged a woman who was mourning the loss of her mother. The few words this Christian said were the right words at the right time. She was there and the Holy Spirit was working through her.

When we volunteer at Good Will we are proclaiming the good news of release to those imprisoned by their financial problems, unable to purchase items at the store. The Holy Spirit is working through us.

But how do we get more people to come to church? Let the Holy Spirit work through us as we share what God has done in our lives, through evangelism. Kent Knutson writes:

…evangelism is the communication of the whole gospel.... It is...to show love both to the body and to the soul… [Ending] racism is the work...of the gospel. The [wiping out] of poverty is the work...of the gospel.... [Evangelism] is the thrusting forth of the gospel. Evangelism is everybody's business. No Christian is excused. Evangelism is making the gospel alive in both word and deed.

God’s work of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ yesterday and today is good news—for everyone, everywhere.

And for the baptized people of God, who have also been anointed by the Holy Spirit, who have also been set free from captivity to sin and guilt, this text is a commission—to go, hands open wide, to share the good news in word and deed. (Ann M. Svennungsen)

Let us pray:

O Holy spirit, enter in,

And in our hearts your work begin,

And make our hearts your dwelling.

Sun of the soul, O Light divine,

Around and in us brightly shine,

Your strength in us upwelling.

In your radiance Life from heaven

Now is given Overflowing,

Gift of gifts beyond all knowing.

Philipp Nicolai

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Appalachian Adventure

Today was my first full day in Accident and Friendsville, MD. I am here for 2 weeks (3 Sundays) for Jan. term for my cultural immersion experience. These 2 towns are in Garrett County, MD, the westernmost county in MD, which borders West Virginia. It too is part of Appalachia.

When another seminarian and myself arrived yesterday, it was not a scene like that above that greeted us. I felt like I was back in Upstate NY with the snow. Just add more mountains to it and horseshoe turns around mountains.

The pastor I am shadowing pastors 3 small churches--2 in Accident and 1 in Friendsville. People are very friendly and warm here. A classmate, Gary, preceeded us last week and had wonderful things to share. I second his opinions.

Please pray as we are here in various parishes for God's leading and our open ears to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit for further clarification of call.

CPE Day 2: morning devotions

Yesterday was my first day of CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) at Bethany Village. This is an experience I have been looking forward to. I have heard wonderful things about this place and its CPE program and supervisor. It was an exhausting first day however.



Daily devotions and announcements are part of the morning routine at Bethany and this morning it's my turn to do the devotional part. This is what I'll be sharing with Bethany's residents this morning.

Praying According to God’s Will

It can be hard and frustrating to know how to pray for yourself or someone else. We know we should pray, we may want to pray, but find ourselves at a loss for words. We cannot pray correctly.

As crazy as this may sound, our inability to pray according to God’s will is good news. Hear these words from Scripture:

²⁶Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. ²⁷And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Rom 8:26-27)

This is our situation according to these verses:

· We are weak.

· We don’t know how to pray as we should. It’s one thing to pray, but it’s quite something else to pray as we should. In my own life, if God had answered my prayers the way I wanted them answered, I probably wouldn’t be in seminary or here with you today. How are we to pray when friends or family are sick or in trouble or are hurting? What about our own problems? How do we know what God has in mind?

This is God’s remedy. The Holy Spirit:

· Helps us in our weakness.

· Intercedes for us with “sighs too deep for words.”

· Searches the heart.

· Intercedes for us according to God’s will.

I find it interesting that the list of what we can’t do is half as long as the list of what God does. What a relief! Twice in this passage, we are told that God the Sprit intercedes for us. Do you know what that means? God prays for us! God does what we cannot do for ourselves. We should…we can’t…the Holy Spirit does.

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Who is the Holy Spirit?

Given the following scenario, what would your answer be? Is this a valid question?

One of the members of your church comes into your office one afternoon with a question about the Holy Spirit. She attended church with a friend on Sunday, and there was lots of talk about the Spirit, and lots of energy in the worship. “Pastor,” she said, “I never hear about the Holy Spirit in the Lutheran Church—it seems like we spend all of our time talking about God the Father and Jesus. What does the Holy Spirit do, anyway?” Explain the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church and life of a Christian.

Guilty as charged! Migliore writes that often the church has been suspicious of movements that have stressed the power of the Holy Spirit. I even experienced some of that from a member of my candidacy committee because of past involvement with the charismatic movement. As mentioned in a recent lecture, the Holy Spirit is the “least understood”[1] person of the Trinity. By the very fact that Christians routinely refer to the Holy Spirit as “it” shows the depth of our non-acquaintance with this person of the godhead. The Holy Spirit’s presence in our Lutheran churches sometimes seems completely unnoticed. Such presence is more subtle than in Pentecostal or charismatic churches. H. Richard Niebuhr suggested that churches tend to be more oriented toward one member of the Trinity or another, but not all three equally.[2] Anthony Robinson maintains that mainline churches generally focus on the Father, evangelicals on Jesus as Redeemer, and Pentecostals on the Holy Spirit.

Our weekly confession of the Creed belies our tendency to ignore God the Holy Spirit. We state, “I believe in the Holy Spirit…”, but do we know what this means? Luther gave a prominent role to the Holy Spirit in his explanation of the third article of the Apostles’ Creed. The Holy Spirit is active in calling us to faith in Christ, “enlighten[ing] us with his gifts,”[3] making us holy, keeping us in the faith and has done so and continues to do so for all God’s people past, present, and future. The Holy Spirit forgives sins and will raise us up on the last day, giving us the fullness of eternal life that we only now know in part. It is through this same Holy Spirit that we experience the communion of saints.

In the New Testament alone, we have 89 occurrences of the name Holy Spirit. If we include “God’s Spirit,” “Spirit of Jesus,” or “Spirit,” there would be many more. John the Baptist said of Jesus that he would baptize with the Holy Spirit (Mt 3:11). Jesus told his disciples that the Father would send the Spirit as an advocate or counselor who would lead them into all truth (John 14:26). There are many other functions of this same Spirit, which are too many too numerous to include. With such prominence, how is it that we know so little of God’s Spirit?

Migliore believes that our neglect, which he considers routine and suspicion of the Spirit has had “…damaging effects on both Christian life and Christian theology.”[4] Our understanding of God, Scripture, and other facets of church and the Christian faith and life may become distorted. God becomes distant and seemingly uninvolved in our lives. One of the most basic works of the Holy Spirit is to make Christ known. The Spirit draws us, helps us to experience and participate in the reality of salvation—personally and corporately as the church.

God gives gifts by the Holy Spirit to us for the benefit of the church and the world (Rom 12; 1 Cor 12-14; Eph 5). The Holy Spirit gives us assurance and hope which sustains us. It is through the Holy Spirit that God speaks to us (whether God uses the written Word, the community of faith, or whatever).When we sense that a particular hymn or sermon was just for us, that is the Spirit at work. God’s Spirit at work in believers is the “first fruits” (Rom 8:23) or “guarantee” (2 Cor 1:22) of God’s complete redemption of all of creation.

The Holy Spirit may be understood as, “the uniting and consummating love of the Trinity, the energy of the life of communion, the gift of mutual love and friendship.”[5] We are invited into this love, this life by God through the Holy Spirit. God makes God’s presence known in and through us to the world by the Holy Spirit.

---

[1] Largen

[2] Anthony B. Robinson, What’s Theology got to do with it? Convictions, Vitality, and the Church (Herndon, VA: The Alban Institute, 2006), 66.

[3] Martin Luther, “The Small Catechism,” in Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, Second Edition, ed. Timothy F. Lull (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005), 323.

[4] Migliore,224.

[5] Migliore, 231.

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