When opportunity knocks... by Gary Rose

This past Friday the garbage men came early; this is quite unusual, but it does happen from time to time. What was unique though, was my wife’s reaction. I was working at my computer, writing my Friday blog post when she came in the front door all excited. She kept saying: You gotta see this, you gotta see this – over an over. So, I arose from my chair and went outside as quickly as I could. But, alas the garbage truck was gone. So, I turned to my Linda and asked: OK, what was that all about?! She explained; I was tending my flowers when they came and I happened to turn around to see a garbage man pick up an old chair that someone had discarded and sat on it. Huh, I said- What’s the big deal about that? Well, she said- he put the chair behind the truck and sat on it and when the truck went forward he grabbed hold of the back of the truck and just rolled along behind it. Cool, I said and went back into the house. About an hour later, as I was going down the hill on Pal’s dog walk, the garbage truck came around the corner with that man still sitting in that chair! I asked him if I could take a picture, Pal jumped onto his lap and then (ALL TOO QUICKLY, HE HAD TO GO BACK TO WORK). I wished I had had more time to strike up a conversation with him, but at least I took the picture. I thought about it a bit and realized that opportunities to speak to others come and go all to quickly. We must seize whatever opportunities lie before us to talk about Jesus. And I thought of these two passages of Scripture…

Colossians 4 ( World English Bible )

 ^[1] Masters, give to your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven. 

  ^[2]  Continue steadfastly in prayer, watching therein with thanksgiving;  ^[3] praying together for us also, that God may open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds;  ^[4] that I may reveal it as I ought to speak.  ^[5] Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.  ^[6] Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. 

2 Timothy 4 ( WEB )

^[1] I command you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom:  ^[2] preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching.  ^[3] For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts;  ^[4] and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside to fables.  ^[5] But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry. 

That garbage man ( they were called can-tossers when I did that job in 1968 ) took advantage of an opportunity to make his life a little easier (with that chair with wheels) and we, as Christians need to seize every moment so we can share the Good News of Jesus.

ps. The next time I see that can-tosser, we WILL HAVE SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT!

Bible Reading for March 9 and 10 by Gary Rose

Bible Reading for March 9 and 10

World  English  Bible

  

Mar. 9

Exodus 19

Exo 19:1 In the third month after the children of Israel had gone forth out of the land of Egypt, on that same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.

Exo 19:2 When they had departed from Rephidim, and had come to the wilderness of Sinai, they encamped in the wilderness; and there Israel encamped before the mountain.

Exo 19:3 Moses went up to God, and Yahweh called to him out of the mountain, saying, "This is what you shall tell the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:

Exo 19:4 'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself.

Exo 19:5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine;

Exo 19:6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."

Exo 19:7 Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which Yahweh commanded him.

Exo 19:8 All the people answered together, and said, "All that Yahweh has spoken we will do." Moses reported the words of the people to Yahweh.

Exo 19:9 Yahweh said to Moses, "Behold, I come to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever." Moses told the words of the people to Yahweh.

Exo 19:10 Yahweh said to Moses, "Go to the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments,

Exo 19:11 and be ready against the third day; for on the third day Yahweh will come down in the sight of all the people on Mount Sinai.

Exo 19:12 You shall set bounds to the people all around, saying, 'Be careful that you don't go up onto the mountain, or touch its border. Whoever touches the mountain shall be surely put to death.

Exo 19:13 No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through; whether it is animal or man, he shall not live.' When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come up to the mountain."

Exo 19:14 Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.

Exo 19:15 He said to the people, "Be ready by the third day. Don't have sexual relations with a woman."

Exo 19:16 It happened on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet; and all the people who were in the camp trembled.

Exo 19:17 Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the lower part of the mountain.

Exo 19:18 Mount Sinai, all it, smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.

Exo 19:19 When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.

Exo 19:20 Yahweh came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. Yahweh called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

Exo 19:21 Yahweh said to Moses, "Go down, warn the people, lest they break through to Yahweh to gaze, and many of them perish.

Exo 19:22 Let the priests also, who come near to Yahweh, sanctify themselves, lest Yahweh break forth on them."

Exo 19:23 Moses said to Yahweh, "The people can't come up to Mount Sinai, for you warned us, saying, 'Set bounds around the mountain, and sanctify it.' "

Exo 19:24 Yahweh said to him, "Go down and you shall bring Aaron up with you, but don't let the priests and the people break through to come up to Yahweh, lest he break forth on them."

Exo 19:25 So Moses went down to the people, and told them.

Mar. 10

Exodus 20

Exo 20:1 God spoke all these words, saying,

Exo 20:2 "I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Exo 20:3 You shall have no other gods before me.

Exo 20:4 "You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Exo 20:5 you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,

Exo 20:6 and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Exo 20:7 "You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Exo 20:8 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Exo 20:9 You shall labor six days, and do all your work,

Exo 20:10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;

Exo 20:11 for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.

Exo 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

Exo 20:13 "You shall not murder.

Exo 20:14 "You shall not commit adultery.

Exo 20:15 "You shall not steal.

Exo 20:16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

Exo 20:17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."

Exo 20:18 All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance.

Exo 20:19 They said to Moses, "Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don't let God speak with us, lest we die."

Exo 20:20 Moses said to the people, "Don't be afraid, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won't sin."

Exo 20:21 The people stayed at a distance, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

Exo 20:22 Yahweh said to Moses, "This is what you shall tell the children of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.

Exo 20:23 You shall most certainly not make alongside of me gods of silver, or gods of gold for yourselves.

Exo 20:24 You shall make an altar of earth for me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I record my name I will come to you and I will bless you.

Exo 20:25 If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stones; for if you lift up your tool on it, you have polluted it.

Exo 20:26 Neither shall you go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed to it.'

Mar. 9, 10

Mark 7

Mar 7:1 Then the Pharisees, and some of the scribes gathered together to him, having come from Jerusalem.

Mar 7:2 Now when they saw some of his disciples eating bread with defiled, that is, unwashed, hands, they found fault.

Mar 7:3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, don't eat unless they wash their hands and forearms, holding to the tradition of the elders.

Mar 7:4 They don't eat when they come from the marketplace, unless they bathe themselves, and there are many other things, which they have received to hold to: washings of cups, pitchers, bronze vessels, and couches.)

Mar 7:5 The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why don't your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unwashed hands?"

Mar 7:6 He answered them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

Mar 7:7 But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'

Mar 7:8 "For you set aside the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men-the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things."

Mar 7:9 He said to them, "Full well do you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.

Mar 7:10 For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother;' and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.'

Mar 7:11 But you say, 'If a man tells his father or his mother, "Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban, that is to say, given to God;" '

Mar 7:12 then you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother,

Mar 7:13 making void the word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down. You do many things like this."

Mar 7:14 He called all the multitude to himself, and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand.

Mar 7:15 There is nothing from outside of the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.

Mar 7:16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!"

Mar 7:17 When he had entered into a house away from the multitude, his disciples asked him about the parable.

Mar 7:18 He said to them, "Are you thus without understanding also? Don't you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can't defile him,

Mar 7:19 because it doesn't go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, thus making all foods clean?"

Mar 7:20 He said, "That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man.

Mar 7:21 For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,

Mar 7:22 covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.

Mar 7:23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man."

Mar 7:24 From there he arose, and went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. He entered into a house, and didn't want anyone to know it, but he couldn't escape notice.

Mar 7:25 For a woman, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet.

Mar 7:26 Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race. She begged him that he would cast the demon out of her daughter.

Mar 7:27 But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not appropriate to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."

Mar 7:28 But she answered him, "Yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

Mar 7:29 He said to her, "For this saying, go your way. The demon has gone out of your daughter."

Mar 7:30 She went away to her house, and found the child having been laid on the bed, with the demon gone out.

Mar 7:31 Again he departed from the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and came to the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the region of Decapolis.

Mar 7:32 They brought to him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. They begged him to lay his hand on him.

Mar 7:33 He took him aside from the multitude, privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue.

Mar 7:34 Looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha!" that is, "Be opened!"

Mar 7:35 Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was released, and he spoke clearly.

Mar 7:36 He commanded them that they should tell no one, but the more he commanded them, so much the more widely they proclaimed it.

Mar 7:37 They were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well. He makes even the deaf hear, and the mute speak!"

What does God want me to do? by Roy Davison

What does God want me to do? by Roy Davison

http://www.oldpaths.com/Archive/Davison/Roy/Allen/1940/032-whatdoes.html

 

What does God want me to do?

 People who heard the gospel on Pentecost cried out: “What should we do?” (Acts 2:37).

This is a good question -- also for Christians. Instead of doing what we want to do, we should continually ask ourselves: “What does God want me to do?”

How can we know what God wants us to do? Only through the holy Scriptures. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17).

As we study the Scriptures we should ask ourselves, “What does God want me to do?”

The Scriptures are full of instructions for daily living. Jesus tells us to follow Him, to repent, to bear fruit, to be meek, to hunger for righteousness, to be merciful, to be pure in heart, to be peacemakers, to do good, not to call anyone a fool, not to commit adultery, not to look at a woman lustfully, not to divorce our spouses without a valid reason, not to swear, not to resist one who is evil, to go the second mile, to love our enemies, to be perfect like our Father, not to be religious for show, to forgive, not to lay up treasures on earth but in heaven, not to serve money, not to be anxious about physical needs, to seek God's kingdom and righteousness first, not to judge, to do to others as we want them to do to us, to do what He says and not just listen, to be wise as serpents and harmless of doves, to endure to the end, to be like Him, to preach the gospel, to mention just a few items from the first ten chapters of Matthew.

Let us examine just three of these points.

God wants me to follow Christ.

“And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men'” (Matthew 4:18, 19).

“Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, 'Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.' And Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.' Then another of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, let me first go and bury my father.' But Jesus said to him, 'Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead'” (Matthew 8:19- 22).

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me'” (Matthew 16:24). “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38).
“Jesus said to him, 'If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me'” (Matthew 19:21).

God wants me to be meek.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).

To be meek is to be mild tempered, soft, gentle, humble, lowly, unpretentious, yielding, not easily provoked or irritated, enduring injury with patience and without resentment.

Is this the way we tend to be? Is this the way the world thinks people should be? The world tells us that we should be self-assertive, stand up for our rights, not allow others to get the best of us. But God wants me to be meek.

This is part of following Christ, for He said: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Meek is the best way to be. If we are self-assertive and aggressive, others will resist us and try to beat us down.

Meekness must be genuine. Some people appear meek as a lamb when all is going their way, but if something irritates them they begin to snarl and snap and growl like a vicious wolf.

Meekness can be learned. It is not how we tend to be. To have peace for our souls we must follow Christ and learn to be gentle and lowly in heart. Our glorious King came to us lowly, riding on a donkey (Matthew 21:5).

God wants me to be merciful.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7).

To be merciful is to have a kind, compassionate and forgiving attitude that overlooks injuries and does not give deserved punishment.

“But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Matthew 9:13).

Jesus refers to Hosea 6:4-6.
“O Ephraim, what shall I do to you?
O Judah, what shall I do to you?
For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud,
And like the early dew it goes away.
Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,
I have slain them by the words of My mouth;
And your judgments are like light that goes forth.
For I desire mercy and not sacrifice,
And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”

A similar thought is found in Micah 6:6-8.
“With what shall I come before the Lord,
And bow myself before the High God?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
With calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
Ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?”

Jesus also referred to this principle when His disciples were condemned by the Pharisees for plucking grain on the Sabbath: “But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless” (Matthew 12:7).

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” (Matthew 23:23,24).

God wants me to be merciful. “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13).

What does God want me to do? I must continually study the Scriptures to find out. We have examined three things from the book of Matthew. Although sermons and group Bible studies are helpful, we must all spend time studying the Scriptures ourselves to learn all that God wants us to do.

God wants me to follow Christ, to be meek and to be merciful.

Roy Davison

The Scripture quotations in this article are from
The New King James Version. ©1979,1980,1982, Thomas Nelson Inc., Publishers.
Permission for reference use has been granted.

Published in The Old Paths Archive
(http://www.oldpaths.com)

BIBLICAL SALVATION? BY STEVE FINNELL

http://steve-finnell.blogspot.com/2017/04/biblical-salvation-steve-finnell-if-you.html

BIBLICAL SALVATION?  BY STEVE FINNELL

If you were to look at the Biblical accounts and teaching about salvation what would be your conclusion? If you were to look at teaching about salvation, of the hundreds, of denominations would it be different from the Scriptures?

WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES MEAN TO YOU?

After Jesus was resurrected from the dead He said this. Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Mark 16:15-16 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.

What does that mean to you? I am not asking what you have been taught to believe.

The church of Christ began on the Day of Pentecost and was recorded in the book of Acts along with the conversions of the early church.

The firsts conversions.
Acts 2:37-41 Now when they heard this they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" 38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit......41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.

How would you interpret these Scriptures? I am not asking how Bible commentators have explained these Scriptures.

Acts 8:5-12.....12 But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.

What do you believe this means? I am not asking what your church catechism teaches.

Acts 8: 26-40 .....35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. 36 As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?" 37[And Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said , "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."] 38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him.......

What do you think just happened with Philip and the eunuch? I am not asking you what your church leaders have taught you.

Acts 10:34-47.....43 Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness from sins.".........48 And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ......

What is your understanding of theses verses of Scripture? I am not asking you how your church creed book explains them.

Acts 16:14-15 A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. 15 And when she and her household had been baptized......

What do you believed happened? I am not asking you what your church statement of faith said just occurred.

Acts 16:22-33.....29 And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 And said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 31 They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." 33 And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.

What is your view of what happened here? I am not asking about views that are found in books written about the Bible.

Acts 8:8 Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized.

What is your understanding of theses events. I am not asking how these events are explained in extra-Biblical writings.

Acts 19:3-5 And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" And they said "Into John's baptism." 4 Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is Jesus." 5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

What do you believed happened here? I am not asking what your Bible study group decided occurred.

Acts 22:12-16.....16 Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name!

What do you think took place with Saul? I am not asking what T.V. preachers think.

Can you see any correlation between what Jesus said in Matthew 28:29, Mark 16:15,16 and the Christian conversions in the book of Acts? 

Are the conversions in the book of Acts a true representation of what is found in church catechisms, books about the Bible, church statements of faith, T.V. preacher's sermons, church creed books, what your church leaders teach, what you always thought to be true, or what the early church fathers believed.

What do you think the book of Acts teaches about Biblical salvation? No man can be saved by what others believe.

Be honest with yourself. Is what you believe about salvation, Biblical or extra-Biblical?    

THE HOLY SPIRIT, OLD TESTAMENT & NEW TESTAMENT by Jim McGuiggan

http://theabidingword.com/logos/index.html

THE HOLY SPIRIT, OLD TESTAMENT & NEW TESTAMENT

Psalm 139:7 ”Where could I go from thy Spirit, where could I flee from thy face?”

Most of this is obvious. I’m just collecting all the texts, wishing to leave an impression. The Holy Spirit is in the Bible from start to finish and He now indwells the Body of Christ as the Spirit of God’s Son and by this He constitutes the Church as indeed the extension of the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. And “as the body without the spirit is dead” (James 2) so it is with Church which is His Body. I FAILED TO INCLUDE A PARAGRAPH ABOUT THE MAKING OF THE TABERNACLE. I’ll include it in total when I get a chance. SEE NOTE AT THE END OF THIS PIECE.*
I purpose later to offer a very brief survey of texts specifically related to the Spirit’s work with and in the person of the Lord Jesus and His earthly ministry.
Some of what follows I’m still wrestling with and would be happy for response at holywoodjk@aol.com. I mean to return to it. God enabling.

1. The Holy Spirit has always been around, working to create, bless and redeem. His presence and work is not unique to the New Covenant Church or Scriptures. He indwelt, guided and blessed the Old Covenant church also.
2. Who brooded over the formless earth like a hen over her chickens, bringing order and harmony out of the chaotic and uninhabitable and continues to make the earth fruitful? The Holy Spirit! (1) Who strove with rebellious humans for years to turn them back to God and life? (2) The Holy Spirit did!
3. When Abraham trusted God to make his own over-the-hill body and his wife’s dead womb fruitful and bear a child they couldn’t have hoped for, who was involved in the whole process right from the start? (3) The Holy Spirit!
4. Biblical writers sometimes think of “the Exodus” as the actual departure of Israel from Egypt but often they see it as the whole movement of God bringing Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness and settling them in the land of promise.
5. Who was there delivering Israel from Egyptian captivity and bringing them through the Red sea? The Holy Spirit! Who was there in the midst of them, providing, as they wandered through the wilderness in need of food and rest? And who put up with their rebellion and murmuring, continuing to guide them though they grieved him with their wickedness? The Holy Spirit! (4)
6. Having freed them from the external conditions of slavery, who was it that dwelled in and worked with them, shaping them with life-transforming truths that redeemed them from internal slavery to all forms of corruption, enabling them to walk with their heads held high? The Holy Spirit! (5) Who built the Tabernacle through those people He chose and gifted? The Holy Spirit. (6) And when God’s supreme prophet needed help to spiritually guide the nation of Israel, it was the Spirit of God–the same Spirit that worked with Moses–that began to work in a more marked way with the seventy men chosen as colleagues to Moses, providing national guidance. (7)
7. When Joshua and his peers died, Israel forgot what God had done for them the result was anarchy, civil war, renewed slavery and abuse from other nations. It was the Holy Spirit who came upon certain deliverers, galvanizing the tribes into unity that resulted in freedom and rest. (8)
8. The Holy Spirit was there when the monarchy arrived, working through Saul until he showed himself an enemy of God’s purposes. So the Spirit of God departed from him and came mightily upon David who called the nation to be one people under one God. When he sinned grievously against God, he pleaded that God not take His Holy Spirit from him. (9)
9. It was during the period of the monarchy that the prophets made their appearance in earnest. Prophets who, like Micah were filled “with the Spirit of the Lord” (10) and Azariah who proclaimed assurance to Judah and her king. (11)  Both Nehemiah and Zechariah speak of the entire period before the exile as a time when God dealt with Israel through the Holy Spirit (12) and Peter speaks of “the Spirit of Christ” being “in” them when they foretold of the coming suffering and glorification of the Master and it was the Holy Spirit who moved men to write the Holy Scripture. (13)
10. Prophets saw a coming day of calamity because of Israel’s covenant-breaking behavior but they assured Israel that a time was coming when God would signal the renewal of covenant relationship with Israel by lavishly pouring out the Spirit on men, women, girls and boys, male and female servants, virgins and old men. It would be a day of new beginnings, a day marked out by renewed Spirit activity.(14)
11. It’s important that we remember that the work of the Spirit of God wasn’t confined to acts of dramatic redemption or merely “religious” activities. Psalm 104 combines the extraordinary with the steady, everyday blessing of the entire creation. This includes his providing the gift of “wisdom” which means “thinking like God” and learning to live in and enjoy the world under him. The whole of life is permeated with the activity of the Holy Spirit.(15)
12. Then came the deportation the prophets had foretold and Israel marched into the dark, but even in captivity the Holy Spirit was dwelling, speaking, enabling and promising. Ezekiel was among the captives when the heavens opened and the Spirit of God entered him. (16)  Again and again he speaks conviction and consolation which comes to its peak in 37:1-14 where a nation dead in sin and exile is assured that the Spirit of God would raise them from their graves and give them life. (17) Compare that with Genesis 2 when God breathed the “breath” of life into the lifeless “Adam”. 
13. When many returned to the land, chastened but not completely cured, they found life hard, their enemies eager, their situation precarious and unimpressive. But Haggai (18)  gave them the assurance that the covenant promise God gave to Abraham was still intact so they were not to fear, for not only was God faithful to his past promises, the Spirit of the Lord was “standing” in their midst. Zechariah encouraged Zerubbabel, the governor, to believe that the daunting task of establishing Israel again would be accomplished by the Spirit of the Lord. (19)
14. The literature of the Intertestamental period is littered with references to the Holy Spirit and his work in the lives of believers and elsewhere.(20)  Before the birth of John the Baptist and the Lord Christ himself, an angel assured the aged Zechariah that he would have a son who would be filled with the Spirit of God even from the womb. (21)  Luke 2 says the angel told Mary that in conceiving the Lord the Holy Spirit would come on her, “and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (an allusion to the Old Covenant Shekinah–the “glory” that stood over and in the Tabernacle). And there was the aged Simeon who was told by the Spirit that he would live to see the Lord’s Messiah and being “in the Spirit” he came into the temple, saw the Christ child and praised God for His faithfulness. (23)
15. If all this is true–that the Holy Spirit was always and everywhere present, what are we to make of John’s statement that even in the closing days of Jesus’ earthly ministry, “the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified”? (24)
16. The “giving” (25)  and “receiving” of the Spirit in this passage hinges on the glorification of Christ and it has specific reference to believers in the Christ. It isn’t necessary to set it against all we’ve just surveyed. John knew very well that the Spirit had always been at work in the people of God and beyond, and that he had been with them throughout the public ministry of Christ, because he expressly said this. (26)  He had never been absent so the “giving” of the Spirit speaks of some specialized sense of His presence.
17. The glorification of Christ involved His glorious life, His atoning death, His resurrection and His glorious ascension to God’s right hand. (27)  Peter said “Exalted to the right hand of God he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.” (28)  This is precisely what Jesus was talking about when He said: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever”– (29)
18. The significance of the giving and receiving of the Spirit in the John 7 passage is generated because it relates to the return of the exalted Christ who had ended the earthly phase of His ministry and had become life-giving Spirit. (30)
19. In Acts 2, what Peter told his listeners was this: they were witnessing a new beginning, a new and special presence of the Holy Spirit who was now—what He could never have been before—the presence of and the representative of the glorified Christ who with His Father had taken up residence in the Messianic believers who constituted the new temple.
(30a). The Spirit could not function in this role earlier, precisely because the Christ in his earthly ministry was operating in the realm of the flesh (that is, under ordinary human limitations and within creaturely limits) and was not a glorified, ascended and universal Christ. For the Spirit to operate in this new way it was necessary for Christ to return to the Father. (31)
21. In the unfolding purpose of God, the Christ could not stay with them unless He first went away from them (through the process of dying, rising, ascension and glorification) and returned to them in the person of the abiding Spirit. (32)  So one of the differences between what went before God’s glorifying Christ and what happened after it, is more about the “new identity” of the Spirit than about degrees of intimacy or the kinds of things the Spirit did. The Spirit had become the presence of the glorified Christ who was no longer to be seen in “fleshly” terms (within mere human or even merely Jewish categories). (33)
22. In the Messianic age the Spirit “of God” while he continues to be the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, he is now identified as the Spirit “of Jesus” or the Spirit “of Christ” or the Spirit “of his Son”. (34)  Once more, this he could not be prior to the exaltation of the Christ, but now the Spirit comes in his name. (35)  So the John 7 passage really says more about Christology than about the Spirit.
23. Additionally, with the arrival of the Christ a new world order has appeared. (36)  The Christ is no longer a merely earthly figure but a “life giving Spirit” (37)  and his people are citizens of heaven, in the world but not of it. (38)  This means not only do they not view Christ in merely human terms, they don’t view themselves or anyone else after the flesh. (39) Their perspective is now “spiritual,” “heavenly,” that is, arising from the Spirit. (40)
24. In Acts 2, the wind and fire, the gift of languages not known to the speakers, the prophetic proclamation and the profusion of miracles connected with Pentecost, is a moment of crisis and new beginning, tangible proofs that these were the days of the Spirit of which the prophets had spoken. (41)
25. So it was not the presence and work of the Spirit that was new that was known throughout Israel’s history and mankind’s experience as part of the created order. But this was profoundly more than “business as usual.” Some of what was new was the setting in which the Spirit was now at work, the relationship He now sustained to the glorified Christ as the new and renewed manifestation of the Living Lord Jesus and His presence now in the newly created People of God. The Spirit is forever doing this kind of work, God breathes into Adam [humanity] the “breath” of life and man becomes a living being, God sends the wind [breath, spirit] into dead Israel in the valley of dry bones and a nation is resurrected. What happens in and through Jesus Christ echoes and brings to fullness all that has gone before and is reflected in the texts alluded to.
26. Close to the end of his earthly ministry, Christ told his people that he would send them another Counselor —one they know—who was already “with” them but would be “in” them. (42)  While it’s true that he later speaks of their whole new experience in terms of being “with” them (43)  it’s still true that he makes a distinction between “with” and “in”. (44)
27.  Jesus was speaking here of the time when the believers would become the new covenanted People and so would become the new temple in which the Christ and his Father would dwell through the Spirit. (45) The Spirit was with and in Israel prior to the covenant at Sinai, but with the Sinai events, Israel became something they had not been before. They became a covenant People or nation unto God who now dwelled in and among them as their (senior) covenant partner.
28. This work of Christ, in sending the Spirit [and coming in and as the Spirit] to anoint and indwell the Church, his Body, is what is meant by the phrase “baptized in the Spirit”. The phrase is from the Baptist (46) who wants the baptized penitents to know that their Christ is greater than he is. At the appropriate time, the Christ would give them the Spirit or, in the words of John, “he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.”
29. Israel of old and many individuals within it had been anointed before the Christ arrived, but with his coming the purposes and results of the anointings were new, that is, peculiarly focused. They would all come under the heading of glorifying Christ and making him Lord of all and Lord in peoples’ lives. The reign of God would rise to its final manifestation in relation to humankind.
30. The anointing of Israel of old with the Spirit, is replaced by the new anointing of a new Israel, who, with Gentiles become the new temple in which God dwells through the Spirit. (47) Those who share the faith of Abraham (rather than a place within the Sinaitic covenant), having been baptized into Christ become Abraham’s heirs. (48)
31. This move replaces the Mosaic covenant (which created two families–Jew and Gentile) with a “new” covenant which, in the Christ, makes of the two, “one new man, so making peace”.49 Israel is not “dumped” but her covenantal relationship with God is restructured and all people of faith become one with them.
32. By sending the Spirit in Jesus’ name and making him available to all who in trusting repentance take on them the name of Christ in baptism, 50  God shows the restructuring work is his. This he does in fulfillment of the words of the prophets, the Baptist and Jesus himself.
33. The Spirit’s anointing of Christ’s people was all they needed for a complete life with God in the Christ. He provided all things necessary for life and godliness and they needed nothing more! This anointing included gifted men and women who functioned within the Body in various ways.51
34. This is what John had in mind when he spoke of the anointing of the Church with the Holy Spirit who guides the church into all truth. 52 No pretended knowledge (via Gnostics or other radicals) is needed to complete them, there are no essentials missing that only the elite have access to. John is not suggesting that each individual has an anointing from the Spirit that makes him/her both infallible and exhaustively taught.
35. It is the New Community that’s baptized in the Spirit rather than each independent individual. By virtue of being part of the Community we are indwelled by the Spirit. Salvation and the reception of the Spirit is always personal but they’re not available in isolation–only within the covenanted community.
36. Suppose each human has what survives biological death, something we call “spirit” and which is said to dwell in us–we wouldn’t dream of saying, “Our spirit dwells only in our brain, our liver or heart” as distinct from, say, our foot or hand. No, our spirit dwells in “us,” no particular part of us. Nor would we dream of saying, “Our spirit doesn’t dwell in our toes or ears.” In saying the spirit dwells in “us” we mean “us” as a corporate whole and not independently in each organ as though we were a collections of independent pieces.
37. There is no “individual” indwelling of the Spirit. There are no “individual” Christians, independent units. It’s all right to speak of individual Christians as long as we know they only exist as various parts of a Body. A finger is not the whole body, it is an “individual” part of the body 53 but is an individual “part of the body”. We can only speak of a finger or foot or eye in the context of a corporate body.
38. And the indwelling is not any literal tabernacling of the Holy Spirit in us. The “indwelling” is another way of expressing his willingness to identify with and have holy communion with the covenanted Community, the Church. The indwelling is his gracious willingness to be and move among the people as their God in a peculiar covenantal way. “Indwelling” is not to be construed in a spatial sense but in a relatonal sense. We are said to dwell in God as surely as God is said to dwell in us. (54)
39. Whether the indwelling is “literal” or “figurative” the scriptures teach he indwells us. The good news is he continues to dwell in us and bless us despite our ignorance about the details.
40. Let me summarize:
The Holy Spirit has always been at work, creating, blessing, redeeming, nurturing, guiding, supplying and enlightening.
41. The prophets told of a day when the reign of God would become manifest in the Messiah and that that day would be made clear by the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. That time would be the period of covenant renewal.
42. God’s wondrous purposes became fully into view and imminent with the arrival of Jesus of Nazareth in whose life, death, resurrection and glorification the reign of God took on a greater glory than before.
43. The presence and work of the Spirit continued in some ways to be what it had always been, but it now took on a new significance. He became a witness to the glorification of Christ and to the identity of his covenanted people (the Church–made up of all nations). This meant he was working with a new phase of God’s purpose and it’s that new role that explains much of what is new in the New.
44. The Spirit, who is always the Spirit “of God” is made known as the Spirit “of Christ,” “of Jesus” and “of his Son”. This was not possible before the glorification of Jesus Christ.
45. The Spirit who had dwelt in the Old Covenant people—and visibly signaled that by the presence of the tabernacle and temple—now dwells in the New Covenant people which is made up of Jews and Gentiles who have received the Messiah. But the Son of God is not “one third” of God for GOD in one, indivisible GOD who is “tri-personal”. In the incarnation of the Word the fullness of GOD becomes incarnate. The differentiation is between “persons” in the One GOD. The Holy Spirit and Jesus are one (2 Corinthians 3:17-18) since they are “persons” with the Father and together constitute the ONE indivisible GOD. There is no confusions of “person” but the Father, Son & Spirit are one. (More later on this, perhaps. God enabling).
46. The Christ is said to “baptize in the Holy Spirit” when he sent the Spirit to the new covenanted people in whom he and his Father dwell through the Holy Spirit.
47. This new role of the Spirit might help explain the “sin against the Holy Spirit” of which Christ spoke.(55) For the Jews to reject the earthly Christ was sin but it could later be rectified. To reject the exalted Christ, who is now only and finally experienced through the Holy Spirit, is to sin a sin against Jesus as the Holy Spirit for which there can be no cure. There was/is no other Christ and there is no other way in which Christ as Lord is brought to the world. To despise the Spirit’s witness is to close the door to possible salvation because it is to despise the final manifestation of Jesus the Savior.
48. I know of no reason to say, with the majority of writers, that the difference between the Old Covenant and the New is that Old Covenant saints couldn’t keep the covenant because they didn’t have the Spirit to enable them. The Spirit, then, is supposed to have been sent to enable new covenant saints to keep the new covenant. I think this is a misunderstanding of the nature of both covenants.
49. The notion that the Old Covenant was “Spiritless” is a blunder and the view that ancient saints lagged behind New Covenant saints in faithfulness, that their love for and devotion to God was inferior and shallow is another blunder. Just by itself, the Hebrew writer’s “hall of fame” should put that claim permanently to rest.
50. It’s true that new truths were revealed and a new phase of God’s purposes arrived with the arrival of the New Covenant manifestation of the kingdom (reign) of God. The work and presence of the Spirit took on a special significance but all his enabling of people in Old Covenant times was just as real as any New Covenant enabling. With the arrival of the “fullness of time” that enabling work had a new thrust and development. It was “eschatological” and related to God’s new “end time” people and purposes which were centered in “the last Adam,” Jesus Christ.(56) All that is true, I think, but it has nothing to do with the depth and genuineness of the faith and devotion of ancient saints created and nurtured by the Spirit. At the ethical level, the glory of their lives was as rich as any in the present. Choose out examples from the New and they can be matched, at least, in the Old.
51. It’s not difficult to show formalism, apostasy and immorality in the ancients, but no one in the New Covenant writings condemns these as savagely as prophets in the old. Mere externalism was trashed by the prophets who called on people to have hearts that were circumcised and to give God themselves. Christ himself told us that the whole Old covenant canon could be summed up in the love commands. Paul followed his lead in that. (57)
52. I’m saying that much of the ignorance we attribute to Israelites under the Mosaic covenant is not theirs–it’s ours. I’m saying the Spirit made their lives lovely and sacrificial and God-fearing. I’m saying what is “new” about the work of the Spirit in the new covenantal arrangement has nothing to do with these matters and everything to do with God’s self-revelation in it’s most profound, full and unending climax in Jesus of Nazareth, now exalted and seen in and as the Holy Spirit..

 1. Genesis 1:2; Psalm 104:29-30
2. Genesis 6:3-5
3. Genesis 17:17; 18:11; Romans 4:19 & Galatians 4:29
4. Isaiah 63:10-14
5. See Nehemiah 9:20; Leviticus 26:12-13; Exodus 29:43-46
6. See Exodus 35:10-11, 30-31
7. Numbers 11:10-30
8. See Judges 3:10; 6:34 and other places
9. 1 Samuel 16:13-14; Psalm 51:11
10. Micah 3:8
11. 2 Chronicles 15:1-8
12. Nehemiah 9:30; Zechariah 7:12
13. 1 Peter 1:11; 2 Peter 1.21
14. See Joel 2:28-29; Jeremiah 31:31-34; 33:19-26; Ezekiel 36:26-28; 37:1-14,24,26-27
15. See Psalm 104, especially verse 30
16. Ezekiel 2:2; 3:4
17. See the piece, Wind of the Spirit
18. Haggai 2:5
19. Zechariah 4:6-10
20. See the works of Max Turner, Millar Burrows and others.
21. Luke 1:13-15
22. Luke 2:25-27
23. Luke 1:35
24. John 7:38-39
25. There is no “given” in the Greek text though the translations are no doubt correct in supplying it. See Acts 19:2 for something similar.
26. John 14:17
27. The cross is seen as an aspect of Christ’s glorification. See, for example, John 12:27-28 but Philippians 2:5-11 and 1 Timothy 3:16 would show more can be involved than the atoning death.
28. Acts 2:33
29. John 14:16,26
30. John 14:18,23; 16:7; 1 Corinthians 15:45. Christ retains his humanity, of course–1Timothy 2:5–but it’s a glorified humanity. See 1 Corinthians 15:42-50.
30a. John 14:23; Ephesians 2:19-22
31. John 16:5-7; 17:4-5, and see 1 Cor 15:45; 2 Corinthians 13:4; 1 Peter 3:18 (?)
32. John 14:16, 18,23,26; 16:5-7,16
33. 2 Corinthians 5:16
34. 1 Peter 1:11; Romans 8:9; Acts 16:7; Galatians 4:6
35. John 14:26
36. 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15
37. 1 Corinthians 15:45
38. John 17:14, 16; Philippians 3:30 and Revelation 12:12; 13:6 contrasting “earth dwellers” and “heaven dwellers”
39. 2 Corinthians 5:16
40. This is not to suggest that there was no “spirituality” before the Messianic age, far from it. I’m only saying that within the stages of development of God’s purposes, the Mosaic age, was categorised as the time “of the flesh” where the Messianic age is “of the Spirit”. Prior to the Christian era both Isaac and Ishmael were born in the usual way but it’s said that, “the son born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit”. See Galatians 4:28-29. The terms “flesh” and “spirit” are used in numerous different ways depending on the writer’s intention. And sometimes they are contrasting “realms”. Jesus says God “is spirit” (John 4). He isn’t saying God is “made of” “spirit” (as we are made of “flesh”. He appears to be saying God exists in a “mode of being” that is not earthly, physical but rather (perhaps) “heavenly”. He isn’t “locating” God or defining His essence (what He’s “made of”). 
41. Acts 2:16-18; Joel 2:28-29; Isaiah 44:3; 1 Peter 1:11
42. John 14:17
43. John 14:23
44. While I believe the distinction is intentional here, the point isn’t made just by comparing the prepositions. The Spirit was already “in” them as he was “in” Old Covenant prophets–see 1 Peter 1:11 but I think the passage here speaks of them as the new and indwelt temple soon to be constructed. We don’t learn all this simply by comparing the prepositions.
45. Ephesians 2:21-22
46. Mark 1:7-8
47. Ephesians 2:11-20
48. Galatians 3:26-29
49. Ephesians 2:15-16
50. Acts 2:16-39; John 14:26; Galatians 3:9,14
51. 2 Peter 1:3; Ephesians 4:8,11-16; 1 Corinthians 12
52. 1 John 2:20,27; John 16:13
53. See 1 Corinthians 12:17; Romans 12:4
54. John 14:20
55. Matthew 12:31-32 and parallels
56. This simply means that the Messianic age is the “final” age, the “end time,” the period to which all earlier dispensations led. When scholars speak of the “eschatological” Spirit they don’t mean, of course, it’s a different Spirit, only that the renewed and special sense of his presence now relates to the dispensation known as “the end time”.
57. Matthew 22:34-40; Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:14

* The Holy Spirit chose and gifted various leaders in the building of the Tabernacle. See Exodus 35:30-31 with 36:2. Then read the entire section beginning with 25:1-9 and skipping down to 35:4 to the end and then 36 where Moses has to tell the people to offer no more offerings. See the Spirit of God working in the men and women and stirring their hearts to the work.