Friday, May 23, 2008
Acts 5:3-4 Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God."
HOLY LIGHT, GUIDE DIVINE
I grew up in the 1980's, so I was a part of the phenomenon that is the Star Wars Trilogy (now no longer a trilogy but six movies). In those films, George Lucas created what he called "the force" -- an invisible energy field that binds the universe together. It was sort of a vague mystical religion.
There are some today who picture the Holy Spirit like that nebulous "force" created by George Lucas. But the Bible teaches me that the Holy Spirit is not a thing, but a person of God with a will, a will united with that of the Father and the Son. Peter warned Ananias that in lying to the Holy Spirit, he lied to God. In these simple verses the Bible tells me that the Holy Spirit is God.
So the Father planned to save me in eternity; the Son carried out his plan in time; and the Holy Spirit has made that salvation my own by faith.
It was the Holy Spirit that worked with water and word (in Baptism) to create faith in my heart. It is the Holy Spirit who works through Word and Sacrament (especially the Sacrament of the Altar) to keep my faith in Christ strong.
Whenever I take up God's Word, I pray that God the Holy Spirit guide me to understand that Word through Him.
Thou Holy Light, Guide Divine,
Oh, cause the Word of Life to shine!
Teach us to know our God aright
And call Him Father with delight.
From every error keep us free;
Let none but Christ our Master be
That we in living faith abide,
In Him, our Lord, with all our might confide.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 224:2)
