We Can Not Allow the Fire to Die in the Young!!

I just watched youth pour their hearts out in song for Christ all weekend at Greater Indy Chrysalis Flights #43 and #44. I watched what reaches them, and found relating to them easy.  With selections including music right from the radio mixed in with more traditional contemporary and old hymns, we created a space which had an exceptional effect on our potential for high energy--in all of us! 

The message all weekend was of the same Christ we all know and love; the presentation was even very school-like, with listening, discussing, note-taking, reporting out, but the addition of music weaving through the whole day and including that kind which they related to naturally helped them . . . relate!! This is not difficult to understand . . . 

What is this stubborness that makes us matured adults think we must only permit  services with music from our generations?  What are we so afraid will happen?  No one kind of music is going to prevail over all any more than it ever has.  Parishioners who do not relate to rock style presentations are free to attend other services. Sometimes I think we are afraid our passion will show, like the spirit within us is something we need to keep hidden, when showing spirit is what makes it grow stronger--like a plant exposed to the sun! 

I used to go to my church's traditional service for thoughtful prayer, meditation, edification in the Word, soul centering, then go to our church's contemporary service for renewal and empowerment. Now, our contemporary service, which used to be filled with singing, participating young people is devoid of the youth, with carefully styled contemporary songs . . . and fabulous musicians . . . but is the same as the traditional . . . I no longer go very much since I attended earlier in the day. The missing youth, who seem to demand, over all,  simple passion in music presentation, have taken the uncommon energy with them.

I get that power on the way home--singing in the car--from radio music, or CDs. Maybe that is okay, too . . . except . . . there is no community in that power, alone in my car, as it were. So, though I find energy to prop my faith, I long for the exquisite, long lasting power of community members reveling together in the innocent energy of young souls! I miss it. 

Maybe the answer is to ensure all of our young people attend and then after volunteer for Chrysalis Flights!  I will be there as often as I can.     Fly With Christ

http://www.todayschristianmusic.com/artists/genre/contemporary/

Finding Our Center in a World of Chaos

Dwelling in the Holy Spirit

As United Methodists, we believe we are filled with the Holy Spirit, but what does that really mean?  What does the Holy Spirit have to do with daily prayer?

With a little research, I found that “praying in the Spirit,” is mentioned three times in Scripture. In 1Corinthians 14:15 Paul says, “So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.” Ephesians 6:18 Paul, again, says,  “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Then, finally, Jude 20 says, “But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.”

 Praying in the Spirit does not refer to the words we are saying. Rather, it refers to how we are praying. Praying in the Spirit is praying according to the Spirit’s leading. It is praying for things the Spirit leads us to pray for. Romans 8:26 tells us, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”

Of all the gifts given to mankind by God, there is none greater than the presence of the Holy Spirit. He works in the hearts of all people everywhere. Everyone has a “God consciousness,” whether or not they really understand it. We all know this—even very young children have “feelings” of right and wrong. We often call this a “conscience.”  The Spirit applies the truths of God to minds of people to convince them by fair and sufficient arguments that they are sinners. Responding to that conviction brings us to salvation.  Simply said--we do wrong, we know it to be wrong, we say we are sorry, and we are forgiven.   This is the Gift brought to us in Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is our Guide and Comforter, helping us learn to use this Gift to bring love to others and ourselves.

The Holy Spirit constantly seeks to guide us to Truth.   The Spirit’s presence within us enables us to understand and interpret God’s Word.   Jesus told His disciples that “When He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).   We already know, too, this Truth, almost without thinking about it.  The fruit of the Holy Spirit brings us ever to Truth over and over each day.  As He dwells us, He begins the work of harvesting His fruit in our lives—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). These are not works of our flesh, which is incapable of producing such fruit, but they are products of the Spirit’s presence in our lives.  When we look inward, the goodness we see is the Holy Spirit, so much a part of each of us, we may not even realize how well we know Him.

Therefore, as Christians, praying is like breathing. It is easier to do it than to not do it. Though we pray for a variety of reasons, prayer is always a form of serving God and obeying Him. Prayer should not be seen as our means of getting God to do our will on earth, but rather as a means of getting God's will done on earth.  We only need look to our inner Truth to see our needs. For situations in which we do not know God's will specifically, prayer is a means of discerning it. 
So, why do we pray? We pray because God commands us to pray, as Jesus prayed, as all who seek to know God, pray.  Praying in the Holy Spirit simply means to lean back in Him, safe and comforted, and confess our fears and mistakes--knowing we are encouraged and forgiven, loved and supported, in our daily worlds.  A Christian, then, cannot be “alone,” for all Christians dwell in the Father through the inner Spirit of Truth.