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The Pastors Blog

Holy Spirit #13 Questions for CG and Devotionals

His Presence and Power

Dear Church Family,

This past Sunday we looked at 2 Cor 3:14-4:6 and we considered the sobering issue of spiritual blindness caused by Satan and its cure through the Holy Spirit.
 
Here are further questions to help you reflect on the message in your CG and/or in your devotionals.

  1.  Spiritual Blindness and Its Cure

In 2 Cor 3:14-18 Paul describes how the Holy Spirit removes the “veil” of spiritual blindness from hardened souls through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  When people, freed by the Spirit, see Christ for who He is they are changed – over time – into His very image.
 
But Paul tells us in 2 Cor 4:4 a most sobering truth: He explains that people do not see the truth (or “light”) of “the gospel of the glory of Christ” because they are blinded by Satan from seeing it.  He is “the god of this age” who keeps mankind from truly understanding and treasuring and loving Jesus and His saving message as we should.
 
Finally, in verses 2 Cor 4:5-6 we see that while Paul see His job as proclaiming Christ as Lord in the Gospel, he knows it is God who must shine the light of the Gospel in the hearts of the spiritually blind so that they may see.  (God does this through Holy Spirit as 2 Cor 3:16-18 previously alluded to.)

  1.  Considering the blind.
  • As you consider the lost around you, how do think of them?  How does is it affect you to think of immortal souls as blinded by Satan from seeing the truth of the Gospel? 
  • Spend some time praying for those around you still blinded to the glory of Christ.  Ask the Lord to command His “light” to be seen in their hearts. 
  • Ask God to use you redemptively this week in the life of someone who is spiritually blind.  Ask Him to give you an opportunity to share your hope in Jesus with them so that He might use it to cure their blindness.
  1. Hope for the “Cure”

Recall your own conversion experience if you can.  Recall how the Holy Spirit made you see the value of Jesus and His Gospel when you previously could not?

Consider also your part and God’s part and reflect on the difference.  Paul was able to see “proclamation” of the Gospel as His work, and yet He knew that God is the only One who can make people who are blind to the Gospel see it.  In other words, we share imperfectly, God changes perfectly.  We speak and pray and love, but only God can change the hearts of the lost around us.

  • How does this give you confidence that He can use you in the lives of those blind around you?
  • Do you tend to over emphasize or underemphasize your role in evangelism?  How about God’s role? 
  • Pray that God would help you recognize He can use you, but that He is the only One who can cure spiritual blindness.  Ask Him to help this be an encouragement to you to be His faithful witness in word and in prayer while you leave the heart-changing to Him.

Finally, as requested, here is the quote from CS Lewis that was used in the message on Sunday.  It is from a book of Lewis’ speeches called “The Weight of Glory:
 
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.

It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.  …Our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance, or indulgence”
 
Ok folks, that’s all for this week... until next time…
 
God bless you,
Albert