Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

There are passages of scripture that puzzle me and force me to go looking for understanding. ( yes, a lot of scriptures) Every once in a while I get obssessed with a passage that I hold in my heart for a long time, even years and I place a question mark in pencil in my bible. I really want to grasp that passage and then live with wisdom from it.

It has been several years ago that I went on a search to understand passages that taught about the Holy Spirit and His role in God. John 16:7-8 Jesus says, ” Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict  the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement.”

Oh I thought I understood His role to convict of sin and His ability to do so. I also thought I was grasping that my role was not to be the Jr. Holy Spirit in others lives. I was not responsible to convict others of their sin when I saw it. My role was to pray that the Holy Spirit would work in their lives to convict them of their sin and lead them to Jesus for new life in that area.

Now the other parts of that passage puzzled me. Convict of righteouness and of judgement? What was it saying, so I held on to what I understood and began working on not playing Jr Holy Spirit ( Yes, I am still working on not playing Jr. Holy Spirit and thinking I have to convict others of their sin. I still take His job from Him and He does a much better job than I.)

I let that passage rest for a few years, but have always wanted to find understanding of this role He has been given.  I have just read a book and in this book on page 30 the author  talks about John 16:7-8 and the Holy Spirit’s role to convict of sin, of righteousness, and of judgement.

Could this be the long awaited answers?  Yes, it has been a blessing to read and hopefully I will understand how to walk, allowing the Holy Spirit to do what He was created to do and join Him in prayer and relationship. To let Him do His job in me and then trust Him to complete His work in others. 

 There is more than I need to write so if you want to read more let me know and I will let you read my book or you can buy “The End of Rejection” by Chris Hayward.

Here are brief excerpts of what I am reading:

Convict of sin. It is the work of the Holy Spirit fo convict people of sin, and to convince them that they need a savior. His conviction always comes with an invitation to get things right- repent and turn to God. There is no condemnation in His conviction, only HOPE, the saving of our souls and for new life.  

Convict of righteousness.People don’t often think of the Holy Spirit pointing His finger at them and saying ,” You are righteous!” Yet that is exactly what He does in order to counteract the work of the adversary, the devil, who infects the children of God with lies, whispering about their “hopeless situation” and their “disgusting appearance before God.” People often behave on the basis of what they perceive themselves to be. If they are convinced they are children of God and have received His righteousness through Jesus Christ, they will be motivated to act accordingly. However, if, though God’s children, they believe they are dirty, rotten sinners, then they will most likely act as such. You are His beloved child, the rags of your righteousness have been removed and Jesus has clothed you with His righteousness.

Convict of Judgement.The Holy Spirit wants us to be convinced of the fact that our adversary, the devil, has been judged at the cross. Victory is assured. Though there will be many battles, God has already written the end of the story. Jesus Christ is triumphant, and His children are at His right hand seated in heavenly places, coheirs with Him. Christ did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. The Holy Spirit works in our lives to convince us that we are not judged by God, the devil has been, therefore we can come BOLDLY to the throne of Grace to receive Mercy.

I hope this helps you like it is helping me. May you know the width, the depth and length of God’s love for you. Understand that you are precious in His sight and He does not grow weary with your efforts to love and grow in relationship to His Beloved Son Jesus Christ.

Love

Tanya

I would love to know what you do with all the passwords you use for web sights that require them for access? I have had post-it notes all over my computer desk with the user-name and passwords—that was a mess. I have tried to use the same user-name and password on several, but some such as the bank set up a user-name and password for you. So what do you do with all the passwords? Set up a Rolodex system? I finally decided to create a document on my computer that has the Web sight name, the user-name and password listed, that seems to work best for me right now. My only concern is, Is it secure? From whom? If a hacker hacked into my information they would either laugh or cry.

I forget passwords or for some reason the one I use doesn’t work that day and I have to reset the password –uggh! so passwords frustrate me.

As I have said before I am reading the Message bible this year and I read in Psalm this week a scripture talking about needing a password to enter God’s presence and it made me laugh. Even access to God requires a Password? I was not sure I liked that idea.

This is what I found:

Psalm 100:4
“Enter with the password: “Thank you!” Make yourselves at home, talking praise. Thank him. Worship him.”

I think that is a password I can remember. A delightful password, I am glad He gives me access to His SIGHT.

Using Passwords and talking praise to Him,                                             

Tanya