Category: Ephesians

Posted in Acts, Ephesians

Grieving the Holy Spirit

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30

You and I can make the sweet Spirit of God feel sad about how we’re living. Although all people can resist Him, no one can bring grief to Him like the children of God He indwells. In a similar way, no can hurt you as much as those who you are closest to. How and when do we grieve the Holy Spirit?

One way is by allowing hatred to fill our hearts, and slander to fill our mouths. The verse immediately after the one quoted above says: “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” (Ephesians 4:31) God loves, and Jesus died for every person you know and don’t know. When we treat others harshly it hurts God and He takes it personally. Jesus said, “whatever you do to the least of these, you are doing to Me.” When we accuse and tear down each other we are actually doing the devil’s work for him. He is called the “accuser of the brethren,” who accuses people to God day and night. When we do the same we are participating in darkness, even if in our opinion the accusations are true. God alone has the right and the purity to pass judgment on others. If you want the Holy Spirit to hang out near you, then learn to be loving and kind in your words. Seek to find the best in others and try to encourage them.

We also grieve the Holy Spirit when we ignore Him or limit what we think He can or should do. Jesus said to His disciples: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you shall be My witnesses…” (Acts 1:8) In Acts 2 we have the initial pouring out of the Spirit and then the rest of Acts tells how they changed the world through the Spirit’s power. Many Christians today seem to be slightly afraid of the Holy Spirit because they’ve heard of the experiences of others that sound scary. Yet God’s plan today is the same as then. He wants to partner with ordinary people to do extraordinary things through the power of His Spirit. God wants to speak through us, heal through us, and bring His gifts through us today. When we say “no” to Him, or try to dictate to Him what He can and can’t do through our lives, we grieve the Spirit.

Search your heart and ask God how you may have grieved the Holy Spirit. If you have, ask for the forgiveness He offers us through Jesus, and tell Him you want to walk close to Him again.

Posted in Ephesians, John, Luke, Romans

Who is the Holy Spirit?

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”  John 16:13-15

The Lord’s vision for the church was not based on His disciples’ abilities, but on the ability of the Spirit who would indwell them. Nothing has changed today. God’s vision for your life is way beyond your own personality and gifts – you and I were created to have the Holy Spirit indwell us, speak to us, empower us, and guide us. Without the Holy Spirit’s presence, we are like cars with no gas in the tank. They may look nice, but they aren’t going anywhere.

The Holy Spirit is a Person, not a force. We don’t refer to Him as an it, because He is an intimate personality who Jesus says “hears,” and “speaks.” In other places we find the Spirit rejoicing (Luke 10:21) and grieving. (Ephesians 4:30) He is a Person who feels, communicates, and wills.

He is the Spirit of truth. He will convict us of our deception, and will always bring us back to being real. Sometimes we think God wants us to put our religious best forward when we come before Him. Nothing could be further from the truth. He wants us to be gut wrenchingly honest with Him, so that He can truly forgive us, and truly fill us with His power. If we fake it before God we end up with an empty heart. 

Not only will the Holy Spirit tell us the truth about ourselves, He will also bear witness to the truth of the Scriptures and to the Person of Jesus Christ who is the truth. He wants to disclose to us all that Jesus has for us, and guide us in the way we should go. None of us are qualified to be in charge of our own lives. We don’t really know ourselves, we don’t know the future, and we don’t know what other people are going to do to affect us. God, who knows all, invites us to live beyond mere “common sense” as His children. “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God.” (Romans 8:14)

Posted in 1Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians

Grace

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13

The Christian life is not difficult, it’s impossible. No one can produce what God desires in us other than God Himself. Religion of man may do a great deal of work and have impressive spiritual disciplines, but for all of its efforts, it cannot please God.

True Christianity is about grace through faith in Christ that produces both desire and power within a believer to do the will of God. It leaves no boast in the mouth of the believer except: “I am what I am by the grace of God.” (1Corinthians 15:10) In the way of grace, the believer stops “trying” to do good and learns to yield to the goodness of God inside of them.

The verse before the text quoted above reads: “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling…” (Philippians 2:12b) The recognition that God Himself is in us means that our “work” is learning how to yield to, and release, His wonderful grace within us. If we reflect more on what this means, there will be a greater sense of awe (fear and trembling) in our ordinary lives. Think of it: the uncreated God of eternity; the God who created the entire universe – lives in me. Wow!

We don’t read our Bibles, pray, worship, go to church, or do good works to gain intimacy with God. Intimacy is His gift to us through the cross. Our part is to accept this gift daily, and to learn how to “do” all spiritual things from the place of freely given grace instead of by a performance mentality of works.

Rejoice in the grace given to you by personalizing the following verse: “In love He predestined us (me) to be adopted as His children (child), in accordance with His pleasure and will – to the praise of His glorious grace which He has freely given us (me) in the One (Christ) He loves.” (Ephesians 1:4b-6)

Posted in Ephesians

Mother’s Day

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Honor your…mother.” Ephesians 6:2

My little brother, Jimmy, and I had a disease when we were babies that caused us to vomit up our food. Whenever this difficult period was referenced growing up, all mom would say was: “Never forget Mother’s Day!”

To honor my Mom, who is now with Jesus, I’d like to highlight a few of the things she instilled in her children.

Education: For Mom education meant opportunity, so from a very early age, education was celebrated. Each of us read our first book out loud to the family on a blanket Mom laid down on the living room floor while the rest of the children ate popcorn and encouraged the reader.

Instead of getting toys or treats, all of her grandchildren would receive a savings bond every birthday. The bond wouldn’t come due until they turned eighteen and was to help them pay for a college education. These seeds produced a harvest as all 18 of her grandchildren went on to graduate from college.

Gratitude: Whenever we received a gift or kindness from anyone, Mom sat us down to write a thank you note. One time all of her six children received $1,000 from our great Aunt Ruth whom we had never met. Mom insisted that we write thank you notes, but we were all in college or beyond at that point, so she couldn’t monitor our follow through. Only Sheila ended up writing a beautiful thank you note telling Aunt Ruth how grateful she was and even specifying how she used the money. The rest of us learned a lesson when Sheila alone received a second check from Aunt Ruth!

Faith: Mom didn’t spend a lot of time questioning God and she never expected her church to be perfect. Mom and Dad were at church every week, so we were too. When I had a conversion experience and everyone thought I was in a cult, Mom stayed by me even though she didn’t understand what I was into. She was proud of me being a pastor and was happy to visit our church, but she remained a faithful Catholic until the end.

I was so blessed to have her as my mom and miss her everyday but I know one day soon we will be together again forever. I hope you take time to honor your mom in some way this Mother’s Day.