By John A. Huffman Jr.
Romans 12:1-2
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Last week we looked at the secret of the Holy Spirit's coming into an individual's life. We saw that this incoming is not something to be awaited. The Holy Spirit comes into the life of every single person who has repented of sin and trusted Jesus Christ as Savior. Every Christian has the Holy Spirit.
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I received many responses to last Sunday's message. Apparently it spoke to a need in the lives of many of you.
There were two specific responses representing reactions from the ultimate ends of the spectrum.
On the one hand, a woman shared with me how she was raised in a Pentecostal background. A strong emphasis was placed on experiencing all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. An enormous stress was placed on the gift of speaking in tongues and the gift of physical healing, two evidences that the Holy Spirit had actually come into a person's life. Although this extreme emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit had not damaged her and her faith, it had negatively impacted some others close to her who intuitively saw these as spiritual excesses, emphases that pushed them away from a vital faith. In fact, she shared with me that she would be circulating a number of tapes of the message to some of these people for whom she thought last week's message would be a helpful corrective.
At the other extreme, a woman came in to see me this week to express her appreciation for how God had been ministering to her in recent months through St. Andrew's. Early in her life, she had committed her life to Jesus Christ. She had had a close, personal relationship with the Lord, and she was very active in her church. She then married. It was a troubled marriage. She did everything in her power to make it work. The church she attended preached adamantly against divorce. She didn't want a divorce, but there was nothing more she could do to keep the marriage going, and she found herself divorced, much against her own desires. Her church basically disowned her, rejecting her as a divorced person. She quit attending church. She said, "For years, I simply stayed away from the church. Through all those years, I still loved the Lord in my heart but didn't feel at home until my children introduced me to St. Andrew's. Here, I found an accepting home. Here, I have renewed my commitment to Jesus Christ. And, after last Sunday's sermon, I just had to come in and see you, making a public declaration of my renewed faith in the Lord and my joy in being part of this wonderful congregation.
