Today's Wisdom from Oswald

July 19th. MASTERY OVER THE BELIEVER "Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am." John 13:13 Our Lord never insists on having authority; He never says - Thou shalt. He leaves us perfectly free - so free that we can spit in His face, as men did; so free that we can put Him to death, as men did; and He will never say a word. But when His life has been created in me by His Redemption I instantly recognize His right to absolute authority over me. It is a moral domination - "Thou art worthy . . ." It is only the unworthy in me that refuses to bow down to the worthy. If when I meet a man who is more holy than myself, I do not recognize his worthiness and obey what comes through him, it is a revelation of the unworthy in me. God educates us by means of people who are a little better than we are, not intellectually but "holily," until we get under the domination of the Lord Himself, and then the whole attitude of the life is one of obedience to Him. If Our Lord insisted upon obedience He would become a taskmaster, and He would cease to have any authority. He never insists on obedience, but when we do see Him we obey Him instantly, He is easily Lord, and we live in adoration of Him from morning till night. The revelation of my growth in grace is the way in which I look upon obedience. We have to rescue the word "obedience" from the mire. Obedience is only possible between equals; it is the relationship between father and son, not between master and servant. "I and My Father are one." "Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered." The Son's obedience was as Redeemer, because He was Son, not in order to be Son.

The works of the Holy Spirit

I have been doing a very quick study on the Holy Spirit this morning using nothing more than my Bible and the www.Bible.com to look up different versions of the same passages. Now, I know that this is will be very controversial...however, I think that we should take Calvinism with a grain of salt when comparing it directly with the scriptures. Here is what T.U.L.I.P. says about the Holy Spirit:

Irresistible Grace

When God calls his elect into salvation, they cannot resist. God offers to all people the gospel message. This is called the external call. But to the elect, God extends an internal call and it cannot be resisted. This call is by the Holy Spirit who works in the hearts and minds of the elect to bring them to repentance and regeneration whereby they willingly and freely come to God.

Ok, now doing just a search on the Holy Spirit / Holy Ghost / Comforter you find a very clear definition of what His job is:

Jobs of the Holy Spirit:

• He is the Comforter: John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7
• He is the Spirit of Truth who testifies of Christ (teacher): John 14:26; 15:26
• He is the Sealer of our Salvation to the Day of Redemption: Ephesians 4:30

I just find it funny that we have this whole set of rules about how the Lord actually works in our lives. Do I think that the Holy Spirit can work the way that Calvinism says it can...of course. God is so much larger than our finite minds can even grasp. However, I think that the Bible is clear on the simple things that we should know. That our merciful God, upon our acceptance of His FREE gift gave us One that would replace the earthly presence of Jesus to teach us, to comfort us and to seal our very salvation until He calls us home one day. Amen, Amen and Amen.