Unwordable

"The Spirit helps us in our weakness," Romans 8:28.

How weak are we? We don't have a clue about spiritual protocols in the presence of the Creator of all worlds. When we go to God in prayer, which he encourages us strongly to do, we don't know even what to say. We don't even know how to speak with the Majesty, the King of kings, the Lord of lords. (We hardly even understand who we're talking to.) But no worries! God's own Spirit, alive within us, helps us in our prayers. The Spirit steps in between us and God and expresses the unwordable, even inaudible language of our hearts. And the thanksgivings and the petitions and the requests and the praises come into God's hearing exactly right.

We meet with a brother or sister today praying in weakness for God's power. And together we give thanks that he hears us, really hears us, just fine.

Metamorphosis

"We are being transformed into the image of the Lord," 2 Corinthians 3:18.

Transformation. Metamorphosis. Change. Something changes us. Something transforms us. Something metamorphosizes us. What is the thing that transforms us? Rather, Who, not What. Who transforms us? The Lord does. The Lord, who is the Spirit. We received the Holy Spirit. The Spirit changes us. To what end? To look like Jesus. What does looking like Jesus mean? It means to love like he loves. To shine more and more like he shines.

We visit with a brother or sister today as we keep turning to face the Lord. And together we give thanks to God for turning his shining face toward us.

Breath

"God breathed into the man's nostrils the breath of life," Genesis 2:7.

God breathed. The breath of life. Breath. Wind. Spirit. From the very get go, God Spirited the Spirit of life into the earthy clay figure. The same Wind that blew over the primordial watery abyss, now blew into the clay man. The same Spirit that brooded over the fathomless depths. This Wind. This Spirit. This Breath, God breathed it into the clay model. And as the Wind of God breathed into it, the earthy form became a living man. The Holy Spirit makes lifeless things live. That's what the Spirit of God does.

We meet with a brother or sister enlivened by God's Spirit within us. And together we live out a new life of praise, of service to the one God over all, through all, and in all.

Exactly

"The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you," Romans 8:11.

Whose Spirit? The Spirit of God. And what did God do? He raised Jesus from the dead. This same Spirit dwells in us. And just as God raised Jesus from the dead, exactly like that (exactly!), God will give life to our dead bodies. How? through his Spirit. His Spirit of life who dwells in us. Wow! But wait. All this depends on if, in fact, God's Spirit dwells in us, right? If. If God's Spirit dwells within. So who has the Spirit dwelling within them? People who are in Christ Jesus.

We meet with a brother or sister today assured of life by the Spirit within us. And together we give thanks as we anticipate God's life to win over our death just as he raised Christ out of the dead to life.

Prostitute

"Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you," 1 Corinthians 6:19.

Didn't the Good Book already say this two or three chapters earlier? Yes. Well, sort of. There it was talking about the whole congregation as God's temple which foundation has Christ Jesus who sustains the whole structure, so be careful about the teachings built on it (they will be tested by fire). Here it's talking about a person's using sex inappropriately - don't do it. Our bodies don't belong to us. They belong to Christ. Don't prostitute what belongs to Christ. Our bodies house the Spirit, the Holy One alive within each of us. We know this. Or for sure should know it.

We visit with a brother or sister today in purity respecting the Spirit alive within. And together we glorify God with all our being: heart, soul, mind, strength.

Adopted

"God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts," Galatians 4:6.

Who sent Christ's Spirit? God. God did. Where did he send the Spirit? Into our hearts. Whose hearts? Ours. What does the Spirit prompt us to do? To call God "Father." "Abba!" And why did God send the Spirit into our hearts? Because we are his children. We pay attention: God adopted us his children! And since God has first made us his children, he secondly sent the same Spirit as his Son's into our hearts. And we get to call God, Father. And by what principle? By the principle of faith. We are children of God through faith.

We visit with a brother or sister today in the name of our father, God. And together we say, Thank You, Father!, for adopting us your own in Jesus.

Home

"You are God's temple and God's Spirit dwells in you," 1 Corinthians 3:16.

Don't we know this? (Yes. we do. well, at any rate, we should. basic stuff, here.) The Holy Spirit builds us, one by one, into a temple for God. In fact, God's already at home among us, while it's still under construction. God's Spirit lives in You. You, plural. You all. All y'all. Talking about the church, here. Of which we are individually parts, yes, but it's not talking about the parts here. And anybody that messes with the Spirit's home, the church, gets destroyed. Holy temple. We belong to Christ. Christ belongs to God. Seriously.

We meet with a brother or sister today awed by the Spirit's building us up into God's temple. And made one together, we give thanks to be included in God's eternal home.

Locus

"Written with the Spirit of the living God on tablets of human hearts," 2 Corinthians 3:3.

The Spirit of the living God writes a recommendation letter. A letter that everybody can read. The letter says there is a new covenant, a ministry of liberty. So where is this letter written? Be sure: It's not carved in stone. It's not with ink. It's with the Spirit. It's written on the heart of each believer. And the letter's envelope? The church of the living God envelops the letter. The letter's message: The Spirit approves the church as the locus of its ministry. The dwelling place of God among humans. The new Jerusalem. The new temple.

When we visit with a brother or sister today, we open our hearts for anyone to read Spirit's message. And together we give thanks to Christ for sealing this ministry with his blood. 

Dwelling

"You are being built together by the Spirit into a dwelling place of God," Ephesians 2:22.

In Christ Jesus. We, strangers and aliens. We, without God and without hope. We, far, far away peoples. We are being built together into a temple. In the Lord. Stone by stone, heart by heart, we, together, are growing a dwelling place for God. A holy temple. The Spirit of God places us just so to fit into that structure. The joiner is the Spirit who renders us worthy of access to God, indeed, renders us as a home for God.

We visit with a brother or sister today as living stones in God's temple. And together we live out praises to God for making Jesus the cornerstone that orients us all.

Characteristic

"By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body," 1 Corinthians 12:13.

When we were baptized into Christ, the Spirit of God worked to make us parts of the body of Christ. Assembly required. The one Spirit assembled us into the one body of Christ. Whatever disintegrated characteristic might have defined us beforehand - Jew? Greek? White? Black? Culture? Language? American? Mexican? - whoever we may have been beforehand, we all of us drank deep drafts from the one Spirit. So now, though there are many of us, we are become integral parts of something new. The Spirit fit us all into the body of Christ. His one church. His one congregation. His one kingdom.

We meet with a brother or sister today assembled by God's Spirit of grace. And we give thanks to fit perfectly together in his holy body.

Unrepeatable

"Christ was made alive in the Spirit," 1 Peter 3:18.

Yes, indeed! Just after he had been put to death in his flesh. Talking about the cross here. Killed, but now alive in the Spirit. And in this death (and burial) and resurrection, we see a uniquely righteous man die for all sorts of unrighteous people. He suffered for sins, once for all. An unrepeatable event in all history. Why? so that Christ, alive in the Spirit, may bring us all into relationship with God.

So we visit with a brother or sister today having received the Spirit of God's son, children of God. And together we give God and his Christ glory and honor and thanksgivings for ever.

Spirit

"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit," Zechariah 4:6.

Word of God. The word of the Lord. God's plans come to reality from the will of God, not from human military might and strength, not from human power and authority. The Spirit of God, not the spirit of man, accomplishes God's will. God's anointed priest, indeed, God's anointed king, come from the center of the light of God, from his lampstand. From his own Spirit. The golden lampstand with its golden oil give light for the Spirit of God to see everything everywhere on earth, to conscript it all to his will. Priest and king unite in Jesus, the Christ of God. God's Spirit works with power and action in a broken, impotent world.

We visit with a brother or sister today enlightened by the Holy Spirit. And together we give thanks to God for the power and might of his Spirit to raise us up from the dead.

Which

"This is that which," Acts 2:16.

?? What ?? This is that which, what? This is the thing that the prophet Joel was talking about. What was the prophet Joel talking about? He was talking about God pouring out his Spirit on all flesh in the last days. Oh. Yeah, we remember now. So, who's talking now? Peter. On Pentecost. About 8 centuries after Joel. About 7 weeks after Jesus was raised from the dead. Peter (with the others of the twelve apostles) had just received God's Holy Spirit. And Peter told the thousands of people that had gathered: Here they are! The last days Joel was talking about! God's pouring out his Spirit on everybody! And it starts with the message that God raised Jesus from the dead and made him both Lord and Christ.

And for the past two thousand years brothers and sisters have met to praise God whose Spirit pours his love into their hearts. And we give thanks together for fellowship as his children in Christ's Spirit.

Vivifying

"I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh," Joel 2:28.

Who's talking? God. Who's he talking to? Ancient Israel. How ancient? Oh, about 8 centuries before Jesus was born. give or take. God's talking to a people who have experienced the Day of the Lord, no fun at all: a day of darkness, gloom, thick clouds, fire, desolation, all encompassing, oppressively powerful opposition, devastation. Because of sin. Yet God promises another Day yet ahead of them, a Day of restoration. And in that Day he will pour out his Spirit of life to their descendants, and to the whole world.

We meet with a brother or sister today recipients of the new Day of grace. And together we give thanks for his Spirit's vivifying power to bring us life in Christ.

Artesian

"Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water," John 8:38.

Whose heart? Of whoever believes in Jesus. What about it? Living water will flow from that heart. Living. Water. Rivers of living water. How does that artesian spring get there? Ah. Oh. Right. Well. It gets there by getting a drink at Jesus's place. But wait! What in heaven's name is he talking about? He's really talking about the Spirit. About people receiving the Spirit. That whoever imbibes him will receive his Spirit flooding into eternal life.

And so we meet a brother or sister today in the Spirit of God's children. And together we thank God for thirst quenching refreshment of true life.

Stand

"We have obtained access to this grace in which we stand," Romans 5:2.

We stand in God's grace. God's generosity. God's gift. God's free gift. We stand in it. We got access to this grace through Jesus. Not only to have access to it, but, we understand, that we stand in it. Are standing in it. We stand in grace. And so we're happy. Happy even in sufferings! Why? because we're standing right now, even as we speak (or even as we write/read) - we are standing in God's grace. We have access to God right now. We are in God's presence, right now. We are standing in God's grace, right now. By faith. By trusting in Christ.

And as we meet a brother or sister today, we smile big standing in grace. And together we say: Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!