Tag: Devotional

  • The Paraclete

    The Helper Who Softens Life’s Falls

    If you have read Gleanings for any length of time, you know that I have tried parachuting a couple of times. The last time I tried, I collided with a gopher hole on landing and broke one of my legs. I haven’t done it since, but I still get an adrenaline rush when I see skydivers.

    The concept of a parachute is older than you probably think, dating back to Leonardo da Vinci, who seemed to have borrowed the idea from someone else. He had sketches of a rigid-frame device.

    According to the Saturday Evening Post,

    “The first “modern” soft parachute, as well as the name for it, came from the work of Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard. Blanchard was obsessed with air travel. Not only did he invent the first soft, silk parachute, but he was also the first person to cross the English Channel by air … in a hot-air balloon. He was also the first person to successfully use his soft parachute during an emergency. According to him, at least: He claims that he used a parachute to escape an exploding hot air balloon, but no one else was around to verify it… Blanchard is credited with coining the word parachute in 1784, and his supposed emergency use of it was in 1793.”

    The word para – originates in Latin and means to prevent. The word chute stems from a French word meaning to fall. A parachute prevents or softens a fall.

    A similar word in Greek is also para, but it means to come alongside.

    The Greek combines para (alongside) and the word kaleó (to call) – paraclete. The paraclete is the one who comes alongside to comfort, help, advocate and more.

    Like a parachute helps control the falling skydiver, the paraclete is given to help us. Jesus promises we will have this helper.

     “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you John 14:15-17 ESV

    The Holy Spirit is the Paraclete. He indwells believers to advocate for us, comfort us, guide us, teach us, intercede on our behalf, and so much more.

    If you are tired, overwhelmed, lonely or in distress, you don’t stand alone. The promised Paraclete lives within you to help carry you through, soften life’s falls, and protect you. 

    What a blessing.

    Kevin

    SUMMARY

    The Holy Spirit is the Paraclete, the Helper Jesus promised, who comes alongside us. If we are tired, overwhelmed, lonely or in distress, we don’t stand alone.

    TAKEAWAY

    Like a parachute helps control a falling skydiver, the Paraclete is given to help you.

    The Holy Spirit is the Helper Jesus promised. He indwells believers to advocate for you, comfort you, guide you, teach you, and intercede on your behalf.

    If you are tired, overwhelmed, lonely or in distress, you don’t stand alone. The Paraclete lives within you to help carry you through, soften life’s falls, and protect you.

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  • Humility and the Pride That Drowns Out Everything Else 

    One of my first jobs after high school was as a general laborer for an oilfield service company. Whatever grunt labor was needed, I did. I handled a shovel, a jackhammer, a paintbrush and a hammer. None with any particular skill, but with the energy of youth. It was a job, and it paid well enough.

    I was thinking of one job in particular. We were painting in the compressor area of a gas plant. We used some kind of aluminum paint on the running machinery, so hot that the paint sizzled and dried as fast as it hit the metal. Who knows what we were inhaling.

    I don’t remember exactly what function that area of the plant performed, but it was so loud I couldn’t hear my workmate talking from 3 feet away.  Of course we had no hearing protection, and that kind of work is what eventually led to me wearing hearing aids today.

    It was the mid-1970s, and safety gear existed, but everyone scoffed at it, and no one used it. We didn’t use masks or hearing protection. The only gear we used was hard hats and steel-toed boots.  We all thought we were tough enough not to need gear designed for wimps. Oh, how wrong we were.

    Our pride in not wearing the gear that would protect us was self-serving nonsense. Our pride was as loud as the compressor noise and drowned out everything else.

    Pride is dangerous. I’m not talking about the satisfaction of doing something well; I mean the kind that tells us we know better than others and stokes our inflamed egos.

    The Fall in the garden was caused because, in their pride, Adam and Eve wanted to be like God. We see pride causing problems throughout the Bible and throughout history. If we are honest, we can all think of a time when our own pride caused issues in our lives.

    The Bible warns us of the dangers. The Bible mentions the subject in dozens of places.

    Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18 ESV

    In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.” Psalm 10:4 ESV

    For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.Galatians 6:3 ESV

    For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Romans 12:3 ESV

    Pride keeps us from acknowledging our sin and inability to fix ourselves. It separates us from God by choice and leads to destruction if left unchecked.

    God calls us to humility. The humble person puts others first and doesn’t think themselves better than others. The humble person knows they need God’s help to do what we cannot.

    True humility isn’t being a doormat or thinking you have no value. It’s knowing who you are and choosing out of love to value others. Christ is the ultimate example of being humble. He set aside all the power and trappings that were his by right and came to save us.

    May we learn to set aside our foolish, destructive pride and learn to walk humbly with God.

    Kevin

    SUMMARY

    Pride is dangerous because it keeps us from acknowledging our sin and separates us from God. God calls us to set aside our destructive pride and learn to walk humbly with Him.

    TAKEAWAY

    Pride can get as loud as that compressor and drown out everything else, even the things meant to protect you.

    Pride keeps you from acknowledging your sin and your inability to fix yourself. Left unchecked, it separates you from God and leads to destruction.

    True humility isn’t being a doormat or thinking you have no value. It’s knowing who you are and choosing out of love to value others, just as Christ set aside what was His by right to save you.

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    Big Bucks and the dangers of pride

    Paul’s Path to humility