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CONSECRATE

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.

I set my mind on you.

I fix my eyes on you.

I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, we belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

HEAR

Luke 4:17 –21 ESV

And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    because he has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

    and recovering of sight to the blind,

    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

CONSIDER

And notice from whence it all comes—the Holy Spirit. Jesus emptied himself of all his God-like qualities and became a humble human being, just like us. He was filled with the same Holy Spirit who fills us in order to show us just what is possible when a human being is filled with the Holy Spirit. As we gift our lives to Jesus (which is consecration), he gifts us with the Holy Spirit—who remakes us into the very image of God who is Jesus (which is transformation). Then he moves in and through us to activate and actualize his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven (which is demonstration). 

This is the whole point of Jesus: to show us what it looks like when the Holy Spirit has complete domain in a humble human being. It begins with our being born again by the Holy Spirit when we receive his sacrificial death for our sins and rise up into the power of his resurrection life. We call this work justification, which I call the first half of the gospel. Then we enter into what I call the second half of the gospel, which the Bible calls sanctification. Sanctification is the process of being filled to the measure of all the fullness of God by the person of the Holy Spirit and learning to walk in love—becoming an agent of God’s powerful transforming presence in the lives of others. 

In the spirit of Gospelling, I’m going to list a series of verses from Luke’s Gospel so far, which show you all the movements and explicit mentions of the Holy Spirit (in case you missed it). It’s pretty stunning. You’ll have to see the email to get this little bonus feature today. 

Finally, though, I want to share my most favorite part of today’s text. It is the little word in the last word of the last sentence from our reading. Here’s the last bit. Let’s see if you can guess the word.

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

What’s your guess? 

Today! 

This little word was my inspiration to write the Sower’s Creed some years ago. In case you missed it, it’s in our Gospels companion journal. I’ll drop it in as the text for our prayer today. And if you would like to download it at no charge see today’s P.S. 

And the last time I checked, it’s still Today! 

BONUS HOLY SPIRIT STUDY OF LUKE’S GOSPEL SO FAR: 

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