WISE Link: June 2008

24 June 2008

Living God

I was contemplating the Spirit the other day, reflecting how important He is to our enabling, to our empowering, and to our enrichment as Christian women. This is very important to me as I have been taking on my new calling in life as EO of CareWorks. I know I couldn’t do this in my own strength, capacity or competency‐ all a bit beyond me if it was left just up to me!
So often we may think we are doing things in our own strength. But Jesus has left us a crucial reminder, a wonderful going away present, the presence of Christ living within us and all around us (see John 14:16‐17). I have been reminded of this in a number of conversations over the last week. Firstly with a dear friend in ministry leadership, and then again in a conversation with Maurie, one of our CareWorks managers. Aa third time, in case I didn’t get it the first or the second time, was when Val Zerna spoke on Sunday night at the Mile End Centenary, about Global Mission Partners. (By the way if you want a truly inspiring and passionate speaker Val is for you).
These conversations were all focused on a particular image or metaphor that Frank Beale, an elder statesman of Churches of Christ, and formerly a pioneering missionary in Papua New
Guinea, used once in his writing. He was quoted by Jeff May when he wrote the forward for the OMB centenary commemorative book.
‘I spent fifteen years being scared and out of my depth. Then when the growth took place it was like body surfing. Working with the Holy Spirit means that you are being carried along with your head only just above water and if you don't ride with it you get dumped and left behind. It was the greatest fifteen years of my life.’ Frank Beale
Not being much of a body surfer myself, and yet having experienced the exhilaration of being held up and carried on a wave to shore, I believe this is a very appropriate image. However, I’m sure that Frank’s experience is not so different from many of us. We take so long to learn to let go and let God by the Spirit take hold of our lives. Then it is truly like body surfing, being taken along by the wave of God’s enabling, empowering, enriching presence. Maurie used a similar image describing our Christian life as being like a cork keeping afloat on a stormy sea, tossed about but not overcome. And it is exactly that. The mystery of God has taken hold of us and it is no longer I, but the presence of God living in and around me, being and doing!
I am constantly marvelling at how God is alive and active amongst us here at CareWorks. As people come needing assistance in the midst of their crisis I discern that God is somehow transporting them beyond their present circumstances into a new dimension of being. They are becoming all God has created them to be by the power of God’s Spirit at work in our midst, and in them. When someone comes just at the right time to us in our need, and gives generously of themselves in some voluntary capacity, I again say thanks to God for the many ways The Spirit is at work, often imperceptibly.
Whatever God has called us to be and do, whatever God is calling us to be and to do, be assured God provides the wave of the Spirit. This wave drenches us, refreshes us, and miraculously holds us up. It guides and directs us. It brings us to the safety of the shore and then takes us out again into the depths. When we succumb to God’s Spirit to carry us wherever and whenever, we’re in for an incredible ride!
Grace and peace, Julie, Executive Officer, CareWorks

God is Spirit - RRT

This month the attribute of God we are looking at is, “God—the Spirit”.
Yes we all are probably quite aware of the work of the Holy Spirit, and may take its presence with us for granted. Each one of us who has accepted the call of Christ on their lives and owned Him as Lord and Saviour, has the Spirit of God living within.
In May we celebrated Pentecost, the birthday of the church, but also the anniversary of the coming of the Spirit of God to the world. When God recalled Christ back to heaven to be with Him, He left us with His Holy Spirit to indwell His people and give guidance to us.
This wonderful gift was freely given to us by God, just as He freely gave His Son to redeem us. The Spirit of God is another love gift from God.
It is this promise of God, this promise of having His Spirit with us and in us, that gives us the ability to accomplish much in His Name. God knows that we need His help as we can not do it on our own and be able to resist the many temptations that will come our way on a daily basis.
God knows us through and through. He knows our every thought and feeling. In 1st Corinthians 2:12, we read; “And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.” (NLT)
All of us were created with a “God void” in our lives that needs to be filled in some way. Without it filled, there is an emptiness that yearns to be filled by something. Many seek in different ways to fill the void and want to feel a spirit’s presence within.
In Adelaide recently there was a “Mystic Fair” where people flocked to the Showgrounds looking for answers to fill this “God void” in their lives.
Sadly, they will not have found the Spirit of God ‐ the one who would bring life and peace to their lives, but they went seeking in the wrong place! God’s Spirit is the only one who can fill this void and set us on a path of freedom and fulfillment. It is His presence and His only who fills this void. It is at these Fairs that we are Christians need to have a presence to share the good news of God’s Spirit being alive and active in this world.
How awesome it is to know that we can have the Spirit of God as our constant companion and never be alone. May you know this presence in your life today.