I Believe in the Holy Spirit

Mark Twain was well known for his use of profanity. After many years of marriage his wife decided that she was going to help him quit. Thus, one morning, while she was helping her husband tie his tie she started using every profane word that she had heard her husband utter. She did this in hope that her husband would recognise how foul such language really was. When she finished, Twain, without missing a beat, said to his wife, "Dear, you got the words, but you ain't got the music!"

Sometimes I wonder: when it comes to Christianity, do we have the words without the music? What I mean is this: it is possible to believe all the right things, say all the right words, even act in a mostly Christian fashion, but have no vital relationship with God. In short, it is possible that there is no music in our lives, and perhaps there never has been.

The good news is: our lives do not have to remain song-less. There is one who can put the music of God back into our souls. The person who can do that is the Holy Spirit.

Today we come in our study of The Apostles' Creed to this statement: "I believe in the Holy Spirit." When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives in a personal way, the words of Christianity have a melody and a harmony added to them.

I want to share a Scripture with you about the Spirit and tomorrow we will begin to examine this Scripture together. Jesus says in John 14:16-18...

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

What wonderful good news this is! Because the words of Jesus are true, these words mean that we can have a personal relationship with God. Tomorrow we will begin to look at more of what this means for each of us....

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