Jesus Continued [Book Review]

Have you ever wondered why Jesus said it would be better for His followers if He left and sent the Holy Spirit (John 16:7)? When I first read that verse, I was taken aback.

Like Thomas in John 20, many of us would much rather have a physical human being that we can touch and see than an unseen Spirit that, like the wind, “blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes” (John 3:8). Often as Christians, we feel disconnected from God. We look at God speaking to His people in the Old Testament, Jesus teaching the disciples in the Gospels, and the Holy Spirit moving mightily in Acts, but we have a hard time connecting that with our lives today. This difficulty that even seasoned Christians have relating to God the Holy Spirit has led to Him being referred to as “the forgotten God” (to borrow Francis Chan’s term).

In his book Jesus Continued…: Why the Spirit Inside You is Better Than Jesus Beside You, J.D. Greear wants to help Christians personally relate to God through the Holy Spirit.

Greear opens by asking, “Do you ever feel like God is someone you know about more than someone you know-like He’s more of a doctrine than a person?”

Worship: The Joyful Feast of God’s Glory

This blog post was adapted from a sermon that I gave at Crossroads Fellowship on Sunday, June 24, 2012. To read some of my other sermons, click here.

Do you chew gum? Have you ever thought about why we even have gum? Gum has been around in some form or another for thousands of years going back as far as Ancient Greece. But when you think about it, it really has no purpose: it isn’t able to fill you up, it’s flavor only lasts for a limited amount of time, it eventually makes your jaw sore, and worst of all, it gets stuck on the bottom of our shoes. So why do we still have gum? For many it is because of the short-term enjoyment it brings.

Luckily, most people realize that we can’t survive just by chewing gum. Our physical bodies need real food and water to function. Food sustains us, brings us satisfaction, and enables us to continue with our lives. But what about our spiritual sustenance? Where does it come from?