The Melody of the Holy Spirit

When he was 19 years old, he went to a large party in an affluent neighborhood. Alcohol and drugs abounded. He became high as a kite as did many others there. That night one act on his part changed his life for the next 15 years – prosecution, prison, probation, break probation, back behind bars, released on probation again, break probation again, and back into jail where he’s awaiting a release into treatment or a sentence to go back to prison. I met with him yesterday for the fourth time.

God does act in strange and mysterious ways. He was booked into the jail where I’m a volunteer chaplain in November of 2021. I didn’t meet with him then, but Ricco did. Ricco is an inmate in the jail and my spiritual partner and newfound friend who is like a chaplain himself in his unit and throughout the jail. Last December, this 34-year-old-man accepted Jesus as his Savior and Lord, and 2 Corinthians 5:17 came true in his life. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Finally, he had caught a break. In December of 2021 he accepted Jesus as his Savior and his Lord. The first 34 years of his life were wiped clean in an instant and his new life began. I meet with him now on a weekly basis as a chaplain to disciple him. What a blessing for me to witness what God has done with a sinner lost in addiction and crime and to be part of his entry into the body of Christ.

What does any of this have to do with you, my friends? Seek out those who are living life on their own without Christ, especially those whom no one else wants to have anything to do with. Befriend them. Tell them about Jesus. If they are already saved, stand alongside them and be a beacon of hope for them. You were put on this earth to serve Jesus Christ and be His instrument to bring His love and mercy to the lost. You may not be a chaplain, but the lost and hopeless are all around you. Find just one person you can minister to and be a light into his or her dark life. That is enough.

I hadn’t heard from Shawn yet in 2022. He’s serving a 28-year sentence in Stillwater and usually calls at least once a month. He called last week.

“We’ve been in constant lockdown since January,” he told me. “First there was Covid lockdown for two months. Just as that was lifted, there was a stabbing followed by an assault on a staff member and then on a corrections guard. After that, there was a big fight between rival gang members. During the Covid lockdown, we were in our cells for 23 hours a day. With the violence, it was 24 hours. That’s why I couldn’t call.”

I took a second to catch my breath. “How did you handle that, Shawn?” I asked.

“I was OK because I had Jesus with me,” he answered. “I did a lot of Bible reading and praying. I also spent time practicing on my guitar and doing artwork.”

My next question of Shawn was, “What about the others, the ones who don’t have Jesus to lean on in such times? How did they handle it?”

Shawn didn’t hesitate before answering. “Some of them lost their minds during the 3 1/2 months. I could hear screaming and yelling up and down the cell block.” He paused before finishing his summary. “I’m glad I have Jesus. If I didn’t, I’d be just like them.”

Shawn met Jesus in the Wright County Jail in Buffalo Minnesota, where I am a volunteer chaplain. I will be talking to another man charged with second degree murder this afternoon. He also walks with Jesus and conducts Bible studies in the jail and counsels individual fellow inmates. His name is Ricco. I am so blessed to know these men on a personal basis.

Waiting for the Lord,
Like at a train station.
Where the Lord’s train comes from
Or where it’s going, I don’t know.
But it stops for me, and I get on.
Then the adventure begins.

The way we react during the day will either hinder or help our praying. If we allow a state of reaction not born of a simple relationship to Jesus Christ, we shall have so much wilderness waste to get through before we can come to God.

The Holy Spirit is there all the time, but we have lost sight of Him by allowing things that have not sprung from our simple relationship to Jesus Christ. Anything that is so continually with us, even our religious life itself, that we never really pray in the Holy Spirit, may be a hindrance.

Oswald Chambers

The Bible is not all there is, but it is the source of all there is. Billy Graham, Oswald Chambers, and David Wilkerson are extensions of the Bible writ large. Though not exactly like Elijah, Isaiah, Paul, and John the Baptist, they are Christ-followers extraordinaire and what they say matters.

In his authoritative commentary of the Bible, Matthew Henry, inspired by the Holy Spirit, was anointed in a special way and should be heeded not as a writer of Scripture but perhaps (not in actuality but as a metaphor of thought) as a co-author after the fact.

These men, like their Biblical counterparts, lost themselves in finding God, a fit model for the rest of us.

There are two days each century in which all the numbers are the same. 1.1.11 is one of them and 2.22.22 the other. Such a day will not occur again in your lifetime.

Is there anything mystical about these numbers lining up? Or magical? Or some special meaning? No, no, and no. But it would be a day easily remembered if you decided to follow Jesus two steps closer starting with this day – or three steps, six steps or ten, depending on how close you are to Him in the first place.

It might be finally doing the thing He has laid on your heart to do that you have not yet done. Or not doing something that offends Him and others around you. Five years from now you could look back and say, “It was 2.22.22 when I decided to do always, only, that which pleases God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

“Come a little bit closer,” the Holy Spirit said to me as I stood a stone’s throw from Him on the seashore. As I moved closer to Him, He moved closer to me, until He surrounded me and was within me. That is the vision, but my self is also within me. What there is more of at any point of time determines what I think, say, and do.

from The Old Man, the Seashore, and the Holy Spirit

The term born-again gets bad press in some circles of Christendom, probably because folks don’t understand what the basic definition is.

We all are born into the family of Adam and Eve and become citizens of this natural world, separated from God as were Adam and Eve.

When anyone chooses to receive Jesus Christ as their leader instead of Adam, they are born-again into His family. It’s like adoption papers are drawn up, and we sign at the bottom that we renounce our natural birth through Adam and choose to be born-again into the family of Jesus Christ.

Or it’s like renouncing our citizenship in the world and becoming citizens instead in the kingdom of heaven. In this case, we renounce our old country and are born-again into a new country.

I’ve lost myself in finding You.

I was about to ask how I go about losing myself when the Holy Spirit put into my mind to check the wording. I don’t lose myself first and then find Jesus. I find Him first and in the process I lose myself. So, the real question is how do I go about finding Jesus?

“You have to plan to find Me. Build it into your day as you did at St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral in Cork and Trinity College in Dublin. Set aside the time.”

“Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the Lord, “to those who carry out plans that are not mine.”

Whose plans are you carrying out today?
1. My own plans.
2. The plans of my political party.
3. My keep-up-with-the-Joneses plan.
4. The plans that the people I admire tell me to carry out.
5. God’s plans.

The questions to ask yourself at every fork in the road are these.
1. Where is God in this?
2. Is this something Jesus would want me to do?
3. What does the Bible have to say about it?
4. Is what I am following the truth of God or fake news?
5. Is what I’m about to do exhibiting God’s love for my neighbor?

Do you want to be a child of the world or a child of God? That’s really the underlying question to all you do.