Just before Halloween in the second grade, Mrs. Mooneyham assigned us a very fun project – writing a ghost story. We all told her a story, and she wrote down what we said (we didn’t have the best handwriting in second grade). Then she made mimeograph copies (yes, this was before copy machines) and gave…
Read MoreSeries: The Third Person: Studies on the Holy Spirit
Doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Who is he and what does he do?
The Holy Spirit: Who is He?
You’ve probably heard the story about the young dad grocery shopping with his fussy two-year-old sitting in the grocery cart. A woman heard the dad saying, “Be patient, Billy. It’ll be okay, Billy. Stay calm, Billy.” She finally told the dad, “I don’t mean to interrupt your shopping, but I just had to tell you…
Read MoreThe Work of the Holy Spirit, An Introduction
The story of how I was hired for my first job in ministry is, well, interesting. I was a seminary student in need of work experience, and I had met with a local pastor to discuss a staff position at his church. The church had never had a staff member responsible for Christian education, and…
Read MoreThe Work of the Holy Spirit: His Single Focus
Have you ever noticed when two people meet for the first time and enter into small talk, one of them will always ask, “What do you do?” It’s an innocent attempt to know more about a person, but it’s almost as if what someone does is the most vital thing about that person. No one…
Read MoreConviction and Calling: How the Holy Spirit Turns Us to God
I’m not a lawyer and don’t spend much time in courtrooms. Or any time in courtrooms actually. I do, however, watch enough Dateline to know what happens during a trial, especially when the verdict comes in. There’s always tension in the courtroom when the jury is set to announce its decision. It will either be…
Read MoreThe Holy Spirit and Spontaneous Regeneration
Somewhere back in middle school science class, we learned that for around 2000 years people believed in something called “spontaneous generation,” the belief that living things can suddenly come from non-living matter. If you left meat out on a table, for instance, flies would spontaneously come to life around the meat. That belief wasn’t completely…
Read MoreUnderstanding the Sealing of the Holy Spirit: A Mark of Assurance and Security for Believers
I know I’ve mentioned her before, but my grandmother was an incredibly godly woman. She lived her life with tremendous faith in her Savior. Not only did she live out the teachings of the Bible, but she was also as knowledgeable about the Bible as any seminary professor of mine. Whenever I would travel to…
Read MoreStriving for Holiness: The Role of the Holy Spirit in Your Spiritual Growth
If you’ve been a Christian long, you may have heard a preacher or teacher discuss the “three tenses of salvation.” The past tense is our justification, when, at the moment we accepted Christ, we were saved from the penalty of sin and made right with God (Romans 3:23-24). The future tense is glorification, when we…
Read MoreHow to Embrace Conviction and Experience True Transformation
As we discussed in the previous post, one of the works of the Holy Spirit is “sanctification,” our ongoing, life-long growth in knowing God better and better and acting more and more like him. In an earlier post, we talked about the Holy Spirit’s work of conviction in the lives of unbelievers. He convinces the…
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