Sydney Holiday Post #1

I did something a little out of the ordinary for a Saturday night – I went to church.

My brother leads the 5:30pm Saturday night service at Church by the Bridge (www.cbtb.org.au) in Kirribilli (for the South African readers, the name is no misnomer, this is literally right under the Harbour Bridge. It’s pretty freak’n awesome!)

The talk was on the Armour of God from Eph Ch 6 – I had visited this passage many times during ’08 and as I was sitting there smugly thinking, ‘I know this stuff’, I discovered something new.

“Take the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God . . . “

I was made to consider for the first time why Paul calls it the sword of the SPIRIT. I would have called it the sword of GOD, or at least the sword of CHRIST. But the sword of the Spirit draws our attention to something altogether different.

God’s word is the way that the Spirit works in us to such an extent, that Paul can call the Word the Spirit’s sword. The Spirit illuminates it to us, He writes it on our hearts. He convicts us to the truth of it. As I was sitting there under the bridge, with the Word before me, the Spirit was rushing amongst us and within us doing a supernatural work.

Sometimes the evangelical circles I move in almost seem to deserve the criticism that we neglect the Spirit. (For the record, I don’t think we do, but I can see where the misunderstanding comes from.) But last night I realised that for God’s Spirit to wield God’s word is an intense spiritual activity from another realm, invisibly breaking into our own time and space. In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that it is the very nature of God to reveal himself in this way, it would be down right spooky.

Not a bad thought for a Saturday night, me thinks.

(Epilogue: After church was done, Hayley, my brother and I hooked up with some old friends, got some pizza and red, and sat on the grass under the bridge watching the sun go down and the lights come up. I’m on holiday! But the CBTB people get to do this every week??!)

(Epilogue part 2: And for the South African readers, guess who we met at church on Saturday night? Kenny and Rose Lloyd (with little Jenna)! How cool is that?!)