I took a theology course recently which was structured around the Nicene Creed.  This is a very important creed in Christian history, and it speaks significantly about God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.  But when speaking of the Holy Spirit, the creed is limited to:

“And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spake by the prophets.”

All we know of the Holy Spirit here is that He gives life (thus being involved in the work of creation), He is worshiped as a Person of the Trinity, and He spoke (in the past) through the prophets.  When reading the Bible, especially the New Testament, this seems like a ridiculously small scope of the Holy Spirit’s work.  I’m in no position to write a theology textbook, but here are a few obvious roles of the Holy Spirit taught in the Bible:

1. Creator (Genesis 1:2, Job 33:4) – The Holy Spirit is involved in the work of creation.
2. Prophetic Voice (1 Samuel 10:10, Acts 13:2, 2 Peter 1:21) – He speaks through people with prophetic words (even today!).
3. Visions (Ezekiel 11:24, Joel 2:28, Acts 2:17, Acts 10:9-23) – The Holy Spirit gives people supernatural visions (even today!).
4. Seal of Salvation (Romans 8:9, Ephesians 1:13, 1 Corinthians 6:19) – He dwells within believers and marks them as belonging to Christ.
5. Incarnation (Matthew 1:18) – He caused the virgin conception of Jesus Christ in Mary.
6. Baptism (Mark 1:8, Acts 1:5, Acts 10:47) – He completes the internal spiritual work of baptism.
7. Counselor & Teacher (John 14:26) – The Holy Spirit counsels and teaches us as we follow Christ.
8. Empowering (Acts 1:8, Acts 4:31) – He gives us spiritual power, enabling us to boldly live for God.
9. Guide (Acts 16:6) – The Holy Spirit gives us practical guidance and direction.
10. Unity (Ephesians 4:13) – He unites us in fellowship with one another.
11. Gifts (1 Corinthians 12-14, Exodus 31:3, Ephesians 4:11-13) – The Holy Spirit gifts us for ministry.
12. Sanctifies (2 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 Peter 1:2) – The Holy Spirit purifies us and empowers us to live holy lives.

This isn’t even an exhaustive list.  The point is, I rarely see good writing or teaching on the role of the Holy Spirit in the everyday lives of Christians.  It’s as if we should be content to simply know that He exists, that He made some people prophecy in the past, and that’s it.  It’s not surprising the He is often referred to as “the forgotten third Person of the Trinity”.  I think this not only dishonors God and grieves the Holy Spirit, but also hinders believers from fully living out their faith.  We can do nothing without God, and it is our communion with, reliance upon, and connection to the Holy Spirit that enables us to be obedient to God’s will and build His kingdom.

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

The second area of life that I realized I need to put Jesus first in is my physical health.  I’ve always been a pretty “low maintenance” person – I don’t like having to think much about eating, exercising, etc. – and that worked just fine until I hit my mid-twenties, and my metabolism plummeted.  Since then, I’ve bounced around between 180 lbs and 230 lbs, my current weight.  None of that is extra muscle; it’s 50 lbs of pure fat.

Again, it would be easy to pursue weight loss for reasons of personal vanity or quality of life, but for me, the prime motivation is that I want Jesus to be first in my life, even in my physical health.

Thus, some changes need to be made in the form of diet and exercise.  Here are a few things I’ll be implementing:

• Eating – I am an “eat to live” kind of person, but my problem is that I like the feeling of being “full”.  A couple changes I will need to make are: 1) no fast food, unless absolutely necessary; 2) control my appetite, and resist the urge to feel “full”; 3) eat more fruits and vegetables.
• Exercise – I decided to try working out with a kettle bell (hopefully 2-3x per week), since I hear it’s very effective, and doesn’t require me to leave home (also, I broke my exercise bike).  I realized long ago that if I need to leave home to exercise, I won’t do it.  We’ll see how this goes.  Also, I need to spend more time walking, so I got a pedometer I can put in my pocket, and I’ll try to walk at least 5000 steps per day.

I would love to get down to 190-200 lbs, and I think this is totally doable.  Even being “low maintenance”, these few changes should produce good results, and hopefully that will keep me healthy so that I can serve God to my fullest capacity.

“I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” – Ephesians 4:1b

This past Sunday, I told our church that we should “resolve to put Jesus first this year.”  What I shared came out of some of my own convictions about how God wants me to reorient my life around faithfulness to Jesus.  I’ve realized that I have become complacent in a couple areas of life that reflect that I am not totally surrendered to Christ.

The first area that I need to put Jesus first in is my personal organization and time management.  Those who know me are aware that I am chronically disorganized, forgetful, and I often lose track of things, such as emails, appointments, and tasks that need to be completed.  While a certain amount of that can be chalked up to personality traits or mental limitations that I can’t change, some of it is just because I haven’t put in the effort to get better, even though I believe Jesus would expect more faithfulness from me.  I need to become more organized, not just because I want to be a better person or have a better life, but because I want Jesus to be first in my life.

In the past, I’ve always tried to come up with new methods or systems to get my life in order, but it has never worked, at least not for long.  At this point, I think it’s not so much a matter of finding a new system or method, but of actually using the tools that I already have effectively.  For others who are looking to become more organized, here are some of my favorite tools that I love and can’t live without:

• Evernote – Definitely one of the best applications out there.  I use it for keeping meeting notes, school notes, shopping lists, you name it.  And it syncs effortlessly between all of my devices, which is one prerequisite for any application that I use.
• Google Calendar – This is great not only for keeping track of personal appointments, but also for sharing calendars for church, family, and other interests, allowing me to collaborate and keep various areas of life in harmony.  Again, effortless syncing works great.
• Google Tasks/Astrid – Google’s tasklist solution is great, but they still don’t offer syncing with mobile devices.  Astrid is one of many solutions that uses Google’s API to take care of syncing, and it’s the best out of the options I’ve tried for Android.
• Dropbox – I love Dropbox!  I use it to store all of my sermon notes and other critical files, which keeps them safely backed-up, and also available on my phone or anywhere else I need to access them away from my laptop.
• YouVersion – This might not seem like an organizational tool, but YouVersion.com’s Bible application is incredibly useful for keeping me on track in my most important discipline: reading the Bible!  It has many different reading plans available, and can remind you to read every day!

Hopefully I can make some progress, and remain focused on keeping Jesus first in my life.

Next: “Jesus First – Part 2: Health”