AGENTS OF TRANSFORMATION

"If you love Me, keep My commands. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever -- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you."  (John 14:15-17 NIV)

I am confident that the Almighty God is fully able of saving, redeeming, and setting right everything that has gone wrong in this world [and doing it] by God’s own power. I’m sure that God’s Kingdom could come and God’s will could be done on earth solely by God’s own power. But the God revealed in the Bible is the God who chooses to bring that kingdom to reality through the gifts and energies of ordinary folks such as us…

The good news is that God has not left us to do God’s work alone. Jesus promised that He would send the Holy Spirit who not only would be with us, but also would be in us, enabling us to become that which we can never become on our own. 

-- James A. Harnish in "A Disciple's Path: Deepening Your Relationship with Christ and the Church"

#5018

WALKING DOWN THE WRONG ROAD

“Do not quench the Spirit,” Paul says. (1 Thessalonians 5:19)  Any time I have a desire, the Spirit will prompt me to set it before God and ask the question, “Lord, what do You want me to do with this?” Or I can simply ask regarding any course of behavior, “If I walk down this road, where will it lead in the long run -- toward or away from the me I want to be?”

God will never lead us to manage a desire in a sinful way. If I want to walk down the wrong road, I must begin by silencing God’s divine voice within me. I must be careful not to pray about this desire with a submitted spirit. I must make sure I don’t talk about this desire with wise friends who will hold me accountable. I must make sure I don’t look carefully at passages of Scripture on the subject and reflect on them. I must do all these things without recognizing I am doing them. I must keep myself in a state of spiritual and mental vagueness where God is concerned.

-- John Ortberg in The Me I Want To Be

#3983

GOD INSPIRED

"All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip His people to do every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NLT)

The Bible is a book of faith, and a book of doctrine, and a book of morals, and a book of special revelation from God.

-- Daniel Webster, in a speech at the dedication of the Bunker Hill monument in 1843

#3695