I APOLOGIZE.
I’ve been away for too long. I’ve been dealing with computer woes. Still am.
Status update:
- I’ll probably have to reset the operating system of my new computer. There goes another week or more.
- My book about Roman crucifixions, Eyewitness to Crucifixion, is on target for release in February.
- I’ve written to my political reps many times about the Crazy. At some point, I’ll make a sign and march it.
- I’m about finished with paraphrasing 1-3 John for the Casual English Bible.
Is Spirit-filled the opposite of demon possession?
I create a leader’s guide and, when appropriate, an atlas for each Bible book I paraphrase for the Casual English Bible.
I write questions a Bible study leader could ask, and I offer ideas in the quest for answers. Here’s one of many I grappled with yesterday. Take a look and see if you have any ideas you think I should add.
LIFE APPLICATION. 1 John 3 ends with the writer making a mystical statement that can seem hard to understand. “Anyone who obeys God is spiritually linked to him, united. God lives in that person. God’s Spirit and the spirit of that person become one, making decisions together” (3:24). How can we explain that connection to someone who doesn’t feel as though they have it?
It would be tough to de-spook an idea that sounds as spooky to nonbelievers as the idea of a celestial possession—the opposite of demon possession. Many wouldn’t believe in either of those.
But perhaps the sense of oneness we get with God is like the oneness we have with ourselves. We have a conscience that talks to us. It’s the invisible mini-me inside our head. It’s us. We’re our best friend and sometimes our worst enemy.
As we get older, the invisible mini-me inside us wonders what in the dickens happened to the wonderfully sculpted body of big-me. We hardly recognize us anymore. Eventually, we don’t recognize us at all. When we look in the mirror, we know that’s not us. Or at least it’s not all of us. And certainly not the best of us.
We’re more than a potbellied bag of bones. We’re the mini-me that has always been more child than grown, more immature than polished, and more fragile than we would ever want big-me to show.
We humans already have that sense of oneness even apart from God.
But we have the Spirit of God, too. That’s the source of some of our best ideas, greatest insights, and most intimating to-do projects. Any one of which can drop unexpectedly into our head like we’ve got a hole up top, or fall into our lap like we’re the perfect one for the job—even if it’s the last job we’d want to do.
Casual English Bible
Biblegateway
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