Is Our Mind Opened To The Scripture?
Good Morning Friends,
There are a lot of things in the Bible that are misunderstood by people and sometimes the Church does not correct these things that are taken the wrong way because even the misinterpretations have some benefits. There is a cultural subversion of the Biblical faith and too often we are satisfied with an ember instead of a flame. Take for example our understanding of what it means to “confess.” Our grasp of this concept comes more from traditional teachings than from understanding the Greek origin of the word. The Greek word for confess is homologia. Homologia means to agree or be in assent and in context to agree on what God hates and loves. This was manifested in the experience of Pentecost. But that does not always fit how churches weave confession into prayer and worship life. Openly naming our sins and admitting to God we have committed them is different than affirming we really want to change from the inside out. Appreciating this comes from reading the Bible and digging a little deeper to understand its depth. It comes from learning the workings of the Spirit, in the context of the Word made flesh to the glory of our Heavenly Father. To affirm this, we really must say yes to today’s question. Is Our Mind Opened To The Scripture?
Scripture: And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.
Acts 3:7 (NRSV)
But he took her by the hand and called out, “Child, get up!”
Luke 8:54 (NRSV)
While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s Portico, utterly astonished. When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you. “And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets. Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you from your own people a prophet like me. You must listen to whatever he tells you. And it will be that everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be utterly rooted out of the people.’ And all the prophets, as many as have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, also predicted these days. You are the descendants of the prophets and of the covenant that God gave to your ancestors, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your descendants, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”
Acts 3:11-26 (NRSV)
Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
Luke 24:35-48 (NRSV)
Message: In these days after Easter I think both scripture in the lectionary and the Spirit of this scripture is telling us to get moving like the healed lame man. The Spirit should move us to jump like a deer. It is not enough to know the facts about Jesus. It is necessary that we have a personal encounter with our Lord and Savior, and allow Him to open to us in the power of the true meaning of the Scriptures concerning Himself. It is no accident that both the Bible and Jesus Himself are known as “The Word of God”! And the role of the Holy Spirit in this process is unmistakable for our traditions can either tend to the ashes of our faith or stoke the flames of the fire. Like those walking on the road to Emmaus we need to have Jesus open our eyes to understanding scripture. No matter how familiar we are with portions of Scripture, even if we are walking concordances and can recite scripture by memory, we must always read them prayerfully; we must always have a mind that is ever seeking God for a continual, further revelation and understanding of them. The indicator to knowing whether we have a child-like and dependent spirit on God is that we realize how much we do not know. And it is here we are to realize that growth in the understanding of the Scriptures is nurtured by the Holy Spirit. With effort, we can all grow academically in the knowledge of the Scriptures and totally fail to perceive the truth behind them. We must affirm them. We can be as open-minded as much we want, but we will always have an unconscious bias until God opens our mind to understand. We will always be blind to the truth until God unveils our eyes to perceive it. Friends, when the Spirit prompted Peter to heal the lame man, he is moved to use the same gesture and the same word, arise, as is used by Jesus towards the dead daughter of a ruler of the synagogue in Luke 8:54. Maybe we are to be astounded by the connections with the resurrection. I am. The place and power of the Holy Spirit in the Called-Out Assembly of God and in the life of each of us needs to affirm our readiness as a prelude to the spiritual awakening which only God himself can bring to pass. Yes I am impatient with the Church of today. Still I value the Church and long to see her filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit, but only because I love the fellowship of believers who also long to see her, as Sam Shoemaker once said “”filled with the Holy Spirit and with Fire””.
Pray that our eyes are opened to scripture. Pray
we realize that it is not great preachers who make converts, nor the pastors of this or that denomination or persuasion, but God Himself through the Spirit. Pray we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the glory of God both now and to the day of eternity. Pray we realize that the same power that raised Jesus from the grave is in us too. Pray we arise to affirm God in the power of the Holy Spirit. Pray we share our common roots in the Spirit of God. Pray we get up in the Spirit and get moving filled with a burning in our hearts for God.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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