Brown's Daily Word 5-15-08

Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day. Praise the Lord for the Church of Jesus Christ our Lord. Praise the Lord for the Holy Spirit. Somebody once said that Christmas is about "God With us", Easter is about "God for us", and Pentecost is about "the Lord in us".
The Holy Spirit came like a mighty wind, and drove away the fear and apathy from the disciples. The Holy Spirit came as fire, that burned away the dross of sin from them, and galvanized them.
In our Wednesday Bible study, we have been looking at Hebrews 12:1. The Lord desires us to be single-mindedly focused, and determined. He wants us to denounce the destructive attractions of the world.
Chuck Colson has reported that columnist Jonathan Rauch believes that America has made “a major civilizational advance” in recent years. Colson stated, “Rauch, a longtime atheist, is thrilled about a phenomenon he calls ‘apatheism’ [apathetic theism]. It’s not that people don’t believe in God anymore". In fact, Rauch wrote in the Atlantic Monthly, "the majority will still say they believe" . . . On the whole, the people Rauch describes haven’t been putting much thought or effort into their faith. They’re looking for comfort and reassurance, not for a God who asks anything of them. This has given rise to ‘apatheism,’ which Rauch defines as "a disinclination to care all that much about one’s own religion, and an even stronger disinclination to care about other people’s.”
Colson further spoke about writer David Brooks, who noticed a trend a few years ago and coined the term flexidoxy [flexible beliefs]. Flexidoxy describes the form of religion practiced by many educated young Americans as opposed to orthodoxy. Basically, it means that people have become so flexible in their belief system that they look at religion as a giant smorgasbord from which they can pick and choose the beliefs that most suit them. They become the center of their own faith and adapt it to what they see as important. Many of you heard or read about 27-year-old Aaron Ralston who had his right arm pinned by an 800-pound boulder in a climbing accident. He had gone hiking in Bluejohn Canyon, adjacent to Utah’s Canyonlands National Park. He was an experienced climber, having already climbed 49 other peaks in Colorado which were over 14,000 feet in elevation. When he became pinned by the boulder, he thought about what it would be like to die on the mountain and have his family find his body, or, worse yet, never know his fate. Ralston, a former engineer for Intel and an avid outdoorsman, thought about his options. After five days of being pinned, and having run out of food and water, he decided to apply a tourniquet and amputate his arm below the elbow with his pocket knife. He then rigged anchors and rappelled to the canyon floor with his one good arm. He walked downstream until he was spotted by a Utah Public Safety Helicopter. What the news did not say much about was that this Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Carnegie Mellon University credits his faith in God for ability to do what he had to do. He is a deeply committed Christian who often played the piano in the United Methodist Church in Greenwood Village near Denver, Colorado. Because Aaron wanted to live, he was willing to cut away everything that was holding him back.
It is that kind of commitment and zeal that will enable us to experience Pentecostal power. When you are willing to cut away everything that is holding you back and walk out of the canyon of bondage, then the Holy Spirit will come to you in new ways and you know a life that you did not know was possible. The Bible says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us” (Hebrews 12:1, New Living). The apostle Paul did this, for he wrote, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

In Jesus our Saviour,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNdjML2kquc&feature=related