The Vine February 2013 - York St Church of Christ

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FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE BREATH and SPIRIT Did you know that right now as you read this article you could be breathing in a molecule of air that once travelled through the lungs of Jesus? Scientists have estimated that 325 decillion molecules (32,500,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000) passed through Jesus’ lungs during his lifetime. Dr. Martin St. Maurice concluded that there is a possibility that we could be breathing the same molecules of air today that Jesus breathed. He wrote, “...All of these individual molecules are constantly rearranged and recycled through biochemical and geochemical processes, so you aren’t breathing in the exact same gas molecules that dinosaurs and Julius Caesar, or Jesus, once breathed....Very little carbon, oxygen or nitrogen is lost to outer space. It’s certainly possible to imagine a scenario where you breathe in a molecule of oxygen gas and in one of your cells it gets combined with carbon from last night’s cupcake to make carbon dioxide. Your exhaled molecule of carbon dioxide is taken up by a young oak tree and, with the help of sunlight, the carbon gets converted into a molecule of cellulose that gets locked into that tree’s biomass for years. Eventually, over hundreds of years, that tree will grow, die and decompose. As it decomposes, that atom of carbon is released back to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and is used to generate oxygen through photosynthesis. That newly formed molecule of oxygen might be available to your great-great grandchild. It’s not the same molecule of oxygen that you breathed in years before, but it could be traced back to atoms that once passed through your body” What is the significance of this to us as Christians today? My answer is: ‘absolutely nothing’! Just because we share an air molecule with Jesus does not somehow connect us to Jesus in any spiritual way. Something more fascinating to consider though is this: what if Jesus could really breathe on us today as he breathed on his disciples? What did it mean for them to receive the Holy Spirit? What does it mean for us to receive the Holy Spirit today? 24. Misunderstanding about the Spirit’s role had led to much confusion and extremism in the early Church. So much so, that Paul felt the need to devote three whole chapters of his Letter to the Corinthians to correct the many wrong beliefs and practices that had crept into the Church. His teaching is timeless, and we do well to read his Letter again today so that we can clearly understand that the Holy Spirit has come, not to divide, but to unite the Church and to assure that the work of God continues according to the Father’s will. In the insect world of termites we find an unlikely analogy of the Holy Spirit. Here in Australia we find some giant termite mounds that have been constructed by these amazing little creatures. Termites are acknowledged as the master architects of the creature world and are able to construct perfectly engineered towers with gold star rated HVAC air conditioning systems that operate without power or moving parts, and service some 3 million termites per colony. Dr Brand uses this analogy and quotes from Lewis Thomas, “When three or four termites are collected together in a chamber, they wander about aimlessly, but when more termites are added, they begin to build. It is the presence of termites in sufficient numbers at close quarters that produces the work. They pick up each other’s faecal pellets and stack them in neat columns, and when the columns are precisely the right height, the termites reach across and turn the perfect arches that form the foundation of the termitarium. No single termite knows how to do any of this, but as soon as there are enough termites.... they become flawless architects...building an immensely complicated structure with its own airconditioning and humidity control.” Here we have an analogy of the Church working together as a community. “In 2 Corinthians 13:14, one of the few verses to name all the members of the Trinity, Paul gives his benediction, ‘May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.’ In a neat summary of the essence of the triune God, he does not say ‘the power of the Holy
Spirit’ or ‘the wisdom of the Holy Spirit’ or ‘the purity of the Holy Spirit,’ but rather ‘the fellowship’ of the Holy Spirit... The Holy Spirit is God’s way of establishing his presence here on earth by knitting together all the members of his Body-the Church. Community is the key word. The Spirit does not approach me as an individual soul; rather he connects me to the whole Body. Each individual cell awakens to the conscious reality of the larger whole” - the Church. (In the Likeness of God. Dr Paul Brand and Philip Jancey). The Letters of John give us a unique insight into the role of the Holy Spirit in the Church today. John gives the Spirit the unusual title of “Paraclete.” He alone uses this word, and he uses it only five times. But each time he uses it, it is in reference to one of the fives ways that the Holy Spirit motivates us as members of the Church. The great Bible teacher Sidlow Baxter once spoke about how the Holy Spirit enables us to stand up against the forces of evil. He spoke about how in our fight with the devil we might receive a few ‘black eyes’ – five in fact! He listed these as, Ignorance, Isolation, Impotence, Indifference and Imperfections. The devil wants to Isolate us as Christians, keep us Ignorant of the Lord’s teaching, make us Impotent in our ministry, cause us to despair over the world’s Indifference to the Gospel message, and discourage us because of our Imperfections. But with the Holy Spirit in our lives we are not Isolated, because he comes along side of us, (John 14:26) we are not Ignorant because he will speak to us and instruct us along the way, (John 14:26) we are not Impotent because he will enable us to exercise our faith in the most effective ways, (John 15:26) we do not despair over the Indifference of this world, because it is his work- not ours-to convince and convict the world of sin and righteousness, (John 16:8) and we do not despair because of our Imperfections, because when we do sin, we have an Advocate with the Father who is Jesus. (1 John 2:1.) Significantly in this last reference to the Paraclete in 1 John 2:1 the word “Paraclete” refers to Jesus and not the Holy Spirit. When it comes to our sin, Jesus, the Righteous One will stand alongside of us before the “The Holy Spirit is God’s way of establishing his presence here on earth by knitting together all the members of his Body-the Church.” Father and tell him that our sins are forgiven! So – back to our earlier question - what did it mean for the disciples when Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit?” (John 20:22) To appreciate this event we need to understand the symbolism of breath as it is used in the Bible. It was the breath of God by which man became a living soul at the beginning of creation. It was the breath of God which inspired men to prophesy and to pen the words we now have as the Bible. When Ezekiel saw the valley of dry bones that symbolized a lifeless, captive nation of Israel, he prophesised that God, in fulfilment of his promise to Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, Moses, David and others, would reconnect those bones, and breathe life back into the nation. It is the Spirit who anointed Jesus after his baptism at the beginning of his ministry. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit audibly and visibly came upon and transformed the lives of the disciples and people who were followers of Jesus. Dr Brand and Philip Jancey write: “The Holy Spirit...allows the reality of God’s own self to establish a presence inside each one of us...” It is the Holy Spirit who connects us once and for all with God and with Jesus. But the most historic moment in Christian history was some days before Pentecost, when Jesus breathed on a very ordinary bunch of guys, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” In that moment He passed on his baton to them, and the Church was born of the Spirit. That same Spirit is his gift to us today. We might pray in the words of the hymn: “Breathe on me breath of God, fill me with life anew, that I may love what you do love, and do what you would do”. (This is the final article in this series of Fearfully and Wonderfully Made) Ray Veal. [All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com] 25.
Page 1 and 2: February 2013 Helping people meet J
Page 3 and 4: Staff Changes in 2013 It is with sa
Page 5 and 6: A message from the new Youth Pastor
Page 7 and 8: Yorkie Play Centre MOPS *NEWS***NEW
Page 9 and 10: MUSIC ALL IN All musicians, vocalis
Page 11 and 12: Kindgom Assignment Update When I wa
Page 13 and 14: Music What’s Happening Young Adul
Page 15 and 16: Thursday Friday Saturday 5 16 72 7
Page 17 and 18: agnostic. Many of these kids come f
Page 19 and 20: BAYNES: Benin, Africa Hello Folks!
Page 21 and 22: Name Badges Ballarat Churches of Ch
Page 23: BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS (Oh, and some D
Page 27 and 28: we are under. We can say things lik

The Vine February 2013 - York St Church of Christ

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