Focus:
The
Holy Spirit
Function:
To
help people connect with God through the Holy Spirit
Form:
Lectio
Divina
Intro:
Today
is Ascension Sunday and we celebrate Jesus going to God and the
promise of the Holy Spirit in exchange for His physical presence.
In
verses 15-18 of John 14, just before our text for today, we read
these words: 15“If
you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And
I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be
with you forever. 17This
is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it
neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with
you, and he will be in you. 18“I
will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.
Repeat:
I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.
Today,
on Ascension Sunday we are going to focus on the Holy Spirit.
Spirit
is Wind. Divine Wind. Holy Spirit
Tony
Compolo has been a muse and inspiration to me my whole life. Kathy
and I went to hear him speak a few months ago here in Grand Rapids.
He,
like me, still has a pretty high view of Scripture and he was telling
us how he is led by the Holy Spirit as he is reading scripture.
He
was explaining how his belief system about homosexuality changed
through the discipline of Reading with God, or Lectio Divina.
And
the passage we are looking at this morning is about how the Holy
Spirit will continue to reveal new and changing truth to us.
For
example, around the homosexuality issue, we do live in an homophobic
culture and unfortunately, homophobia informs how we interpret the
scriptures around homosexuality.
In
Tony Compolo's own spiritual journey, he reread the Romans passge
with Divine reading and the focus changed when we read to be informed
by the Holy Spirit.
It
changes from what we can say about others, the way we judge others,
to the way we judge ourselves by looking at the scripture from the
lens of learning NOT WHAT IT SAYS ABOUT OTHERS, but what it speaks to
me.
Divine
Reading. He counts on the Divine Wind to help him understand it.
And
we are going to do that this morning as we practice the disciplines
of listening, meditating, praying and contemplating with God and the
text through the Holy Spirit.
Today's
exercise is taken from Soulshepherding,
a website dedicated to Spiritual Disciplines.
So,
in order to do this, we have the text for today printed in the
bulletin.
God's
Spirit is real, I pray that during this exercise, we can all connect
with God.
1st
Reading:
Listen to the Holy Spirit minister God’s Word to you. What one
word or phrase
especially touches your heart?
2nd
Reading:
Enter the passage. What emotions
do you have? What personal
struggle or longing
in your life today is God speaking into? (Be specific.)
3rd
Reading: Respond to Holy Spirit. What prayer does this passage ignite
in you to God?
4th
Reading: Receive what Christ has for you today. What is your personal
invitation
from the Lord? What do you sense God might be saying to you?
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