The Abyss and the Holy Spirit

We had another member of our PLT (Pastoral Leadership Team) give the message today. That's all part of the "team" approach of our church...We have messages from different leaders of our church all the time. Our lead pastor does most of the messages, but I'd say maybe 2 of every 5 messages are done by other leaders within the church. Keeps things fresh!



Today, Rob gave a GREAT message. I want more time to absorb it, but one thing I want to share is about an illustration that I thought perfectly captures what a church is sometimes guilty of.



Have you ever seen the movie The Abyss? In it there is a diving scene. The diver needs to go down to great depths, the abyss, and this is a problem because the pressure of the water will crush his lungs and he will die. The solution? A super-oxygenated liquid that the diver "breathes". The diver is suited up and the helmet attached at which time the liquid begins to fill his helmet. The theory is that we all breathed liquid once in the womb, and "he'll remember". As the diver begins to force the liquid into his lungs he has to fight the body's natural reaction to choke, gag, and get out of the "danger" situation. He thrashes around and looks to be in great distress. The diver is in much discomfort attempting to breathe the oxygen in liquid form, and his body instinctively tried to avoid it.



Rob said that is what we sometimes do with the Holy Spirit.



We thrash around avoiding that which we know is good for us. We fight it every step of the way. His message was somewhat convicting.



Stephen was the subject of the message today...His fearless faith. I'll blog more about that later because it was a very inspirational message. It is a message that needs to be heard by more than who were in attendance at Northbrook today.