The Holy Spirit is on the move

I have been wrestling with my own doctrinal positions on several levels over the last year. I have been living them, rather than only "thinking about them."
As a member of a local church, my own experience of worship and my experience of
forgiveness, reconciliation, and the like have thus informed my thinking.
In fact, lots of what is on the web today needs to be tested within the living church.
Us protestants forget that the church is living. It is living.
It is living. We are not autonomous beings just throwing words around.
We are representatives of Jesus Christ, and his actual body.
I have wrestled with infant baptism--for instance.
Our daughter is not baptised.
But we now feel like we can say yes to baptism.
Both, because our theological eyes have been opened a bit, but also, because the
church we now attend would function as a living testimony to Christ's body.
So we feel more comfortable in baptising her.
I have wrestled with an understanding of the Eucharist.
This will always be the highlight of worship for me. It is the story--in the raw, of how Jesus Christ did what we all can never do. He bore the wrath of God, the judgment of God--in His body.
I am currently wrestling with Cessationism (the idea that spiritual gifts only occured in the time of Jesus, and thus, we cannot necesarily know their power today.
While this is a limited and paltry description of a major issue, one can read Wayne Grudem's book on the subject and gain further light.)
I like what C J Mahaney has to say on this subject.
I like to think of myself as a catholic, charismatic, reformed evangelical.
How about that for some words.
Baptoluthopresbyanglican
My life hangs in the balance of that moment when Jesus said "Yes" on the cross.
Thus, my theology is eucharistic and comes from the cross.
Thus my philosphy of ministry is Eucharistic, and comes from the cross.
God says YES to the No of the world, on the cross.
Jesus died that we might be saved.
Jusctification by faith alone is right, and true.
But there is more. There is the story, the story of the cross, and the resurrection.
We cannot widle down Jesus into a doctrinal pigeonhole.
We try--but--thanks be to God, we are not allowed too.
We never get the last say.
That is such good news.
Bonhoeffer has some of the wisest words I have ever heard on this.
In his magesterial book--Creation and Fall, he describes how we, as human beings
"Live from the middle."
We live from the middle.
We will never know our beginnings, and we will never know our endings.
We must trust the Lord with them.
He informs my theological positions.
What do you think?
So here are some thoughts that run parallel to lots of my thinking of late.
They are from Soveriegn Grace Ministries web sight.

"While we believe that Reformed theology faithfully represents the teaching of Scripture, our ultimate theological commitment is not to a particular system of theology, but to theology that is biblical. We have no other boast but the cross of Christ.

Beyond this agreement on the general tenets of Reformed theology, there are a few aspects of doctrine and practice that are common to many Reformed traditions but to which we do not hold. These include infant baptism, cessationism (the belief that some miraculous spiritual gifts have ceased), and some traditionally Reformed types of church government.

Do you want to know more? C.J. Mahaney’s booklet “Sovereign Grace and the Glorious Mystery of Election” discusses God’s initiative in salvation and the importance of interpreting one’s conversion experience biblically. The first title in our Perspectives series, this booklet is also available as a free PDF download.



4. How can you be both Reformed and charismatic?
While such a combination is not common, it is by no means theologically inconsistent. A cessationist perspective (i.e. a belief that the so-called sign gifts of the New Testament came to an end after the apostles) does not follow necessarily from the general tenets of Reformed theology. Indeed, a robust view of the sovereignty of God suggests that believers can expect to experience regularly what some theologians have called the active presence of God.
The insistence that gifts such as prophecy were limited to the apostolic age most commonly arises from entirely understandable concerns about the issue of revelation. Scripture is truly, and must remain, the only source of inspired, inerrant, authoritative revelation from God for the faith and life of the church. However, New Testament teaching regarding spiritual gifts in no way implies that the gifts necessarily endanger the role of Scripture in the church’s life. Our experience with spiritual gifts confirms this.

The best way to prevent the undermining of Scripture’s authority is, quite simply, to maintain and teach a high view of Scripture. Scripture must be allowed to function in a way that demonstrates that it is indeed God’s normative revelation for the faith and life of the church. This includes allowing Scripture to govern the use of spiritual gifts. We strongly believe that, when the use of gifts is tested and governed by Scripture, two things will happen: God’s people will be edified by the proper functioning of the gifts in accord with God’s purposes, and Scripture will be protected as the only authoritative and normative rule and guide of all Christian life, practice, and doctrine (see our Statement of Faith).



5. What do you believe about spiritual gifts and the work of the Holy Spirit?
We hold to the continuity of all the spiritual gifts given to the church referred to in Scripture. We find nothing in Scripture that suggests that these gifts have passed away or will pass away prior to Christ’s return. Rather, Scripture portrays these gifts as available to believers and vital to the mission of the church. We want to be obedient to Scripture’s commands, not simply to acknowledge spiritual gifts, but to earnestly desire them (cf. 1Co 14:1).
Thus, we are charismatic in that we believe in the present-day work of the Holy Spirit in the many ways that the Spirit’s work is described and manifested in Scripture. However, we are careful to emphasize the broad work of the Spirit. We never want to be preoccupied with the more spectacular aspects of the Spirit’s work to the neglect of the countless ways in which the Spirit is at work in our lives. Most importantly, nothing could be more spectacular, miraculous, or powerful than God’s work of regeneration in a person’s heart."