Pentecost 8 Bucket Lists

[HKHaugan]

Pentecost 8 Bucket Lists

Everybody talks about making a bucket list. Things to do, places to go, people to meet. I'd like to say that my bucket list is not like that, some unusual activity I would like to do or some exotic place I'd like to go. When the usual bucket list has been done the 'bucketeers' find incompleteness still awaits.

Rather, I have something else in mind. I'm more interested in understanding and sharing primary biblical insights. A trip into Scripture guided by the Holy Spirit's nudging always seems to bring a fresh unexpected thought. This is what makes this kind of a bucket list a search into an exciting new vista. And it's not done in a vacuum. There's the reading, the prayer, the exchange of ideas, the sharing and the logging. Just the experience of opening yourself to the possibilities that these little surprises might bring makes the mind a treasure trove waiting to be unearthed.

It is not that a walk through the Bible is an intellectual, theological, esoteric or mystical journey. It is more like whatever you find on the way is significantly real for you. It is that inner sense of having seen a light that opens the way to another path. It may not meet the superior perusal of the seminary professor but it was something that your heart felt and no one could take it away. It was your own 'wow' moment. You want to share it. You see, my bucket is always half empty, ready for more. That's what all my writing has been about. It probably will never make the hallowed halls of academia or the cherished acceptance of theological pundits. But it wasn't written for them. It was for me, the Lord wanted to teach me something so that I could pass it on and whoever would take it in might feel inspired to do the same.

While I was reading Scripture I had these basic thoughts you have read and heard from me. They were the Lord's gifts to me for my growth. They are neither profound nor novel but what I believe the Lord wanted me to learn and then pass on.

First, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience (Gen.1:26). That's fundamental. We are not probing what is invisible trying to understand it. We are spiritual beings trying to comprehend our place in a physical body in a physical universe which is loaded with experience we are pressured to understand within.

Second, every human being is a spiritual image and likeness of God; a mind, heart and spirit (Php.2:5, 1Sam.13:14, Rom.8:16). We are copies of the “I Am” who appeared to Moses and became a man in Jesus.

Third, every human being is born alone due to sin. This aloneness marks every human being in mind, heart and spirit thinking uniquely and relating uniquely, having to learn from God how to develop what He has created in us. But born alone and separated from God, we need recovery of our spiritual, personal, relational being which can only be achieved through spiritual rebirth and growth (Jn.3:16).

Fourth, everything we do in the visible is motivated 100% by what is invisible (Rom.1:20). Every seen thing has an unseen meaning. The universe itself is conceived as such by an invisible process done by an invisible Mind at work and invisible perceived by our invisible self consciousness. All human activity is invisibly processed then acted on influenced by choice and decision based on invisible themes like love, hate, status, achievement, desire, recognition and so on.

Fifth, we start and practice every next moment to think spiritually, then personally and then relationally, in that order (1Cor.2:11).
Sixth, now this is a really important thing. Scripture is always, in every one of its teachings, getting us to look forward. Every next moment is an unknown, unpredictable entity to be lived by faith in Jesus Christ (Eph.2:10). 'Every next moment' is a theme in itself that describes everyone's life from day to day. Every next moment is an event, an occasion, a happening, a meeting calling for faith because they are unknown, unpredictable factors. Faith is the forward looking opening to experience the spiritual nature of God working through the Holy Spirit in every next moment.

Seventh, here it all is in a nutshell: everything, and I mean everything, is spiritually centered. The whole business of life is an invisible process in a visible setting. It's the self perceiving, evaluating, feeling, sensing, choosing, deciding and acting based on believing with the mind, trusting with the heart and acting based on faith in what is believed and trusted. So the big question for every human being is this: “Who do I trust in this invisible dimension to put my body on the line wherever I am in every next moment?”

Now we move to God's plan of recovery

First, accepting a relationship with Jesus Christ is the only way for human beings to be restored to God (1Cor.3:11, Acts 4:12) by being reborn spiritually (Jn.3:16). While we are spiritual beings created in the image of God, our spiritual beings have been separated from Him and our image needs to be recovered and restored by His Spirit through Jesus.

Second, the Cross of Jesus is the patterned way to live by faith for recovery into eternal life (1Cor.1:18). The Resurrection is its proof. The way of the Cross is faith in Jesus for our every next moment when we make choices and decisions.

Third, the Bible is the only authority we can ultimately trust as the spiritual source to shape our humanity as images of God (2Tim.3:16).

Fourth, every spiritually reborn person is part of the Body of Christ, the spiritual family, and called to grow within it through worship, discipleship, ministry and mission.

Fifth, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and life and the source for living our life in the Body of Christ through the gifts He gives us (Rom. 12, 1Cor.12 and Eph.4).

Sixth, spiritual discernment by the Holy Spirit identifies not only the source of evil as the devil and the strategies he uses to distract our spirituality from Christ but also the spiritual means to live as witnesses of the Lord in a broken world (Gen.3, 1Pet.5:8, Eph.6:10 on).

Seventh, every next moment, circumstance and event are spiritual realities waiting for us to be faithful preparing for them and going through them.

The fuel that helps us live our spiritual humanity is the gift of the person of the Holy Spirit.

So here are 14 insights, gifts to me from the Lord, that make up my bucket list of every day next moment gems to be creatively involved in life as it really is wherever we are. In fact, if I really take them seriously, they would be as applicable in the most exotic places among the most different cultures in the most distant hearts as they are right here at home. What's in your bucket list?