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This week's article written by Mike Soyka
Happy New Year! What a wonderful time of year. It is a time to reflect upon the closing year as well as make resolutions in order to improve in the year to come. As I have reflected on the teaching at Hill Point over the past year, I am struck by the most recent theme of “foundational teaching” that Pastor Scott delivered throughout December.
The teaching involves our power and authority as believers. At an incredible risk of paraphrasing hours of teaching in a few lines, God entrusted all power and authority to Jesus. In turn, Jesus, through his redemptive work and the sending of the Holy Spirit, has likewise imparted this power and authority to His followers (you and me). We (every follower of Jesus) have the ability to reflect the glory of God to those around us. Candidly, I feel woefully inadequate to reflect God’s glory. I align more with the sentiment in Isaiah 6:5… ”Woe to me! I cried. I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
There is a parable in Matthew 22 that until recently I never fully understood. In it, there is a banquet. The invited guests decline the invitation, whereby the master invites anyone that will come. At the end, the master throws out one of the guests who is not properly adorned in wedding clothes (that would have been provided by servants prior to attendance). This treatment always seemed harsh to me. The master opens up the invitation to all, but then is incensed when a guest isn’t exactly what he should be.
Since Pastor Scott’s teaching, I think I now have a greater grasp of this parable. God has invited all to join Him. God knows my inadequacies and provides me with all that I need (wedding clothes in the parable or spiritual gifts as a believer). In turn, God expects me to reflect His glory. Once I have accepted the invitation and have received the Holy Spirit, I can no longer shrink away from responsibility using poor excuses of “just being a sinner saved by grace.” I WAS a sinner saved by grace, but now (and I never cease to be amazed nor truly comprehend this next part), I am A CHILD OF THE KING!! God has LAVISHED grace and mercy and countless blessings upon me and calls me to display HIS glory to all.
Consider the apostles in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and compare those men to the transformed men in Acts. You can hardly recognize them to be the same guys. The bumbling, stumbling men in the Gospels are no comparison to the bold, courageous heroes in Acts. What changed? Simply, it is the power and authority of the HOLY SPIRIT. The HOLY SPIRIT remains unchanged, and as a believer, you possess this same power and authority.
So, as we enter a new year, I would encourage you to read Acts and reflect on the power of the Holy Spirit. Make a resolution for God. Commit to reflecting God’s glory through the power of the Holy Spirit and the utilization of all the gifts and talents He has lavished upon you. I could only imagine this commitment will send you to your knees as you realize that this can only be done through dependence on God’s wisdom and power. What a wonderful posture for 2010!!
I close by paraphrasing Marianne Williams…
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us…….YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD! Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel unsure around you. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us.”
May 2010 be a year marked by reflection rather than deflection.
“To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy - to the only God, our savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore.” Jude 1:24-25
Mike Soyka
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