To help me survive the extreme quarantine, well, imposed, on those of us who own apartments here in this retirement community, Dan Masshardt gifted me with Neil Cole's, Primal Fire, which focuses on APEST and, therefore, one way the Holy Spirit empowers disciples of Jesus. I've been reading it at a very deliberate pace.
(By the way, Dan gave me permission to mention him here, an either courageous or foolish act.)
At the beginning of each chapter in the book, Cole places introductory quotes. Here is one of them which says something I've believed passionately for some time, but never express this well,...
...from an English missionary, of whom I'd never heard:
"How little chance the Holy Ghost has nowadays. The churches and missionary societies have so bound Him in red tape that they practically ask Him to sit in a corner while they do the work themselves." -- C T Studd
Amen, Preach it, bro!
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In my opinion, this describes a flaw in the CGGC...a serious flaw.
Sometimes, off the blog, I'm criticized for making too much of our body in the Church of God movement days and, most certainly, I'm taken to task for nigh unto making a saint out of John Winebrenner.
I acknowledge that there is some validity to that criticism.
In truth, my Lord is Jesus, not John Winebrenner. My references to Winebrenner and the Church of God normally highlight two facts.
One is that the Lord blessed us then and that we are decaying and declining now.
The other is that, in many ways, we talk the same talk as Winebrenner and his colleagues yet we don't walk their walk.
For all of my reverence for Winebrenner and for all of my appreciation for what the first members of our movement accomplished, with the blessing of God, there's one thing about those people and that time that concerns me.
In that day, we were too much about the Bible...
...and, too little about Jesus...
...and, even more than that, way too little about the Holy Spirit.
From that, we have a particularly serious problem today.
One of the worst aspects of institutionalizing is that, inevitably,...
...a Christian institution substitutes its hierarchy for the Holy Spirit.
And, ours has.
In the CGGC, we have a serious problem.
We began in our hay day, overemphasizing the Word and underemphasizing the Holy Spirit.
And, since the Churches of God era began we have institutionalized ourselves, and now, much more in the CGGC dispensation, we have institutionalized even more.
As I've said before, the CGGC actually defines its Executive Director as its "Chief Executive Officer." Where is there room for life in the Holy Spirit in an institution led by a CEO.
Honestly, whose power do you want to lead you? The third person of the Trinity, or Lance Finley and the Councils and Commissions and Committees he executes?
The truth is that, even in our best days, we made too little of the Holy Spirit.
And, in recent generations, we've chosen to create an institution to lead us. We have not turned to the Spirit. In a very real way, we've turned away from Him.
We have chosen wrongly.
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There are so many facets that must be involved in the repentance that is required of us.
This rejection of the power of the Holy Spirit which traces even to our first and best days, is one facet, a very important one.
But, we must, first of all, allow our hearts to be broken.
"...godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret."
If we'd stop being so proud, so certain of ourselves...
...and mourn...
...the Lord will fill us and lead us and empower us and bless us.
We must weep.
Then, when our hearts are broken...
...we must repent.
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