In last Friday’s session, we focused on one article written by Paul Kroll entitled, “The Holy Spirit is the Presence of God Himself.” It’s always good to see that we as a group had greater realizations as we studied the article which gave us deeper and more understanding about the Holy Spirit. Some common questions against the Trinity doctrine and specially on the Holy Spirit were answered by the author of the article to the satisfaction of the group.

Despite the heavy downpour, a couple diligently attends our meetings although their residence is quite a distance from the meeting place.

Here’s the a video of that meeting:

Sermon on “Live by the Spirit”

I gave a sermon on “Live by the Spirit” to my home church, the ReThink Community, a local church of Grace Communion International last August 20, 2017 and I based my message on the passage found in Galatians 5:16-25. As Christians living in this “present evil age” (Gal. 1:4) I reminded them about the need to be led (Gal. 5:18), to live by, and to keep in step with the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25).

Salvation: Work of the Whole God

Additionally, I also wanted to emphasize in this message that on the basis that Christ had already finished his earthly work some 2,000 years ago, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is a continuing work leading, guiding and transforming people to become like Christ — “until Christ is formed” (Gal. 4:19) in them .  This is a continuing work of the Holy Spirit since the time the church was established at Pentecost (Acts 2) and will continue until the return of the Lord Jesus Christ or when we die — whichever comes first.

I showed to the church members that God’s work of salvation is one complete whole with the involvement of the whole God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father decided from before the foundation of the world to adopt all of humanity into his family. The Son became human assuming our humanity to reconcile everyone back to God. The Holy Spirit works in each person helping each one to personally respond and experience the love of God which transforms them to become like Christ. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all involved in the work of reconciliation.

Living in Between the Times

Although living in this “present evil age,” Christians should resist the power of sin, resist the devil, be led by the Spirit, live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit.

Here are excerpts of that sermon. It’s about 9 minutes long:

I really believe this is very important for everyone to understand. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is ongoing because of the finished work of Christ. It’s the work of the whole God: Father, Son and Spirit.

It’s amazing that we have now met for the 21st time for our weekly Discover the Word, which is a discipleship class of the ReThink Community, a local congregation of the Grace Communion International here is Santa Rosa, Laguna.

For this session, we discussed the 2-part article of Dr. Joseph Tkach entitled, Use and Misuse of Spiritual Gifts. We are following the 40 Days of Discipleship guide which can be found in our GCI mother website.

After the reading of the article, discussions about the topic followed especially on the issue on speaking in tongues. Here’s a video of that meeting:

Some say the Holy Spirit is merely a power which God uses. They say it’s the power of God. Others say, the Holy Spirit is a person.  There seems to be some confusion over this matter.

For this 20th session of Discover the Word, we discussed the topic about the Holy Spirit based on the article written by Dr. Mike Morrison entitled, The Holy Spirit. The article presented proofs that the Holy Spirit is indeed God and has attributes only God has like: being eternal, omnipresent and omniscient. And just like God, the Holy Spirit also creates, empowers miracles and is doing the work or ministry of God.

It is comforting to know that God continues to work in us perfecting us to become like Christ through the Holy Spirit living in us and guiding us each and everyday of our lives. The reason we can say that the Father and the Son lives in us is because the Holy Spirit does live in us as Jesus had promised.

The group appreciated the well-written article and expressed how they have gained more knowledge and understanding from this session.  Here’s the video of our 20th session:

Why Jesus Died

Our 19th session of Discover the Word focused mainly on one article entitled, “Why did Jesus Have to Die?” That’s a good question — why Jesus died. But before we discussed this topic, some clarifications were made and additional information were shared about the previous session’s topic on the Arian controversy.

So We Might Live

Christ died so that we might live. Part of his ministry was that he was “born to die” and at first, his disciples could not understand and accept that fact. But after his resurrection and ascension they did. He became sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). “He became something he was not, so that we might become something we were not.”

Images of Salvation

The “seven images of salvation” mentioned at the end of the article was helpful in broadening our understanding of what salvation is all about. In the Bible, salvation is described in many ways lilke metaphors,  analogies and other ways of illustrating what it is all about.

Some of the participants asked questions while some gave their comments too. There was a lively discussion that evening. It was fun.

Here’s the video: