February 9, 2000
EDITORIAL:
Pray for courage to trust the Spirit
___You remember the most stupendous circus stunt: A lion tamer wills his giant cat onto a pedestal. As the audience stares in rapt silence, the tamer places his head inside the great beast's powerful jaws.
___The feat mesmerizes. What if centuries of breeding overcome months of training? In an instant of primordial passion, the lion might destroy the tamer. The audience senses primal power and feline ferocity. Many imagine themselves in the tamer's tuxedo. How terrifying, to place oneself in such proximity to annihilation. How thrilling, to stare death in the teeth and smile.
___Texas Baptists packed a Fort Worth arena last week to experience the spiritual equivalent of lion taming. Jim Cymbala, pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York City, addressed the state Evangelism Conference. He talked about his church's experience with the Holy Spirit. His story is found on page 1 of this week's paper.
___Most Baptists are about as comfortable with the Holy Spirit as most people are with lions. We may be intrigued, but we know enough to keep our distance. Oh, we realize the Spirit is not supposed to hurt us, but we sense it is powerful and untamed. So, we never experience the victorious thrill of the lion's master. We keep a safe distance.
___Of course, we have a pretty good reason for our fear. In the name of the Spirit, churches have been split, lives have been destroyed and reputations have been ripped asunder. We have seen the dark side of spiritism--charlatans who claim to possess the gift of the Spirit. They speak in incoherent tongues, pride themselves on spiritual superiority and manifest few, if any, of the biblical fruits of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The pages of Christian history are splotched with distortions of the Spirit. And so we are spooked.
___Many also fear the Spirit for quite another reason. We affirm the true, biblical nature of the Holy Spirit. We're not worried about perverse people who become intoxicated on a fermented fruit allegedly raised in the Spirit's vineyard. Rather, we quake at the Spirit's incomprehensible power. We realize it may lead us beyond our religious "comfort zones." It may produce consequences we cannot control. It may take us where we do not want to go. Quite simply, we are afraid of what might happen to us if we submit completely to the Spirit's power and divine will.
___Yet we must quench our fear and step toward the Spirit in faith if we are to see God transform Texas, Cymbala urged. Brooklyn Tabernacle illustrates his point. The church has grown from about 25 defeated souls in a rundown building to more than 6,500 redeemed saints who fan out across the nation's largest city. Only the Spirit of God can work such a mighty deed, the pastor proclaims. The congregation has grown in a community known for more crack houses than church houses, more "ladies of the evening" than ladies of the Woman's Missionary Union, more pimps than deacons. Against all odds but the Spirit's, lives of people from the direst of circumstances are being redeemed every day.
___Texas needs that kind of Holy Spirit power. Texas Baptists must tap into the Spirit's power if we are to complete the humanly impossible task we believe God has set before us--to present the saving gospel of Jesus Christ to all 10 million unbelieving Texans. Our best plans and our most concerted efforts are inadequate. That's a hard admission for self-reliant Texans. But only God can accomplish this task. If we are to be partners in completing it, then we must allow the fearsome and loving power of the Spirit to guide and sustain us.
___Prayer is our key, Cymbala said: "There is no Holy Spirit power without prayer and no evangelism without that power."
___Let us pledge to pray for the Spirit's power to fall upon Texas Baptists for the sake of God's kingdom and hell-bound Texans. God is faithful. Will we pray vigilantly? Will we submit to the Spirit's power?
___ Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
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