stained glass

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Parting thoughts on God, the Holy Spirit’s doings (Part 7)


<— Click here for Part 6
stained glass, God, Holy Spirit, Babbitt, Minnesota Evangel:ical Lutheran Church, Tammy, Kevin, Glimore, Romans 8:13, Sanctification, Wiesbe, Trinity, positional, progressive, perfect, doctrine, Acts 20:32, Romans 6:1 - 22, Galatians 5:16 - 25, Romans 8:13, Romans 5:5, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Galatians 5:22 - 23

I have a love affair with stained glass. Yes I know, very fuddy duddy, but that’s me. God, the Holy Spirit as a dove is the most common representation that I’ve come across but I found this image online. It is framed in Babbitt, Minnesota Evangelical Lutheran Church. They were installed in June, 2003. The artists are Tammy and Kevin Gilmore. Click image to enlarge.

Sanctifying

“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” (Rom 8:13)

“Sanctification is the gracious work of God in setting the believer apart for Himself and for service in the world.” (Wiesbe 2002) All three persons of the Trinity play an active role in our positional-past (Acts 20:32), progressive-present (Romans 6:1 – 22) and perfect-future (Galatians 5:16 – 25) sanctification. In this process it is the Holy Spirit who shapes our affections (Rom 8:13), sparks our desires (Rom 5:5), moulds our character (2 Cor 3:18) and produces the fruit which validates our Christlikeness (Gal 5:22 – 23).

Conclusion

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit has been catapulted into the forefront of Christian debate in the past few decades. A revival of spiritual and mystical interest in our cultural context means that the church must be on it’s guard, actively defending the Apostolic teachings, developing and promulgating sound doctrine for the good of the church.

Beyond theory, the Holy Spirit is critical to the spiritual health and wellbeing of believers and the body as a whole. It is He who guides us, He who teaches us and He who gifts us. Without complete reliance upon Him we become the dried up, worn out, spent organization that Satan would have us be. With Him we are the unshakable, unwavering, steadfast Church of God. Amen!

Want to hear the verse in context? Romans 6
What is this about?
<— Click here for Part 6
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Tradition. Part 2 of 5


I really love the coast. Click any image to enlarge.

This morning (ah, this was written last night) the girls woke up at the crack of dawn. Because they have neither an off switch nor volume control it wasn’t long until Liezl and I were up too. Soon after breakfast we headed to the mouth of the vlei where we spent a few hours exploring the caves along the seashore, picking up flat pebbles and playing hop scotch (ok, the hop scotch was mainly played by the kids). In the afternoon we hit the paddle boats and sought high adventure upon open waters after which we feasted on fresh feesh and slap chips (R10 a meal! Yum Yums in Sedgefield, it’s not high cuisine but it’s reel food and it tasted reel good).

I love holidays.

Maybe you remember yesterday’s post (click here)? I was out collecting churches and chatting about tradition and Scripture and all? Anyway we visited St George’s church in Knysna. It’s actually quite amusing, there’s three little churches all lined up in a row, a light brown stone chapel close to the road, a pink plastered blemish on the other side of the street and St George’s nestled in between. The contrast between the colors and styles of these churches made them each stick out like a sore thumb.

Left: The old brown monument. Center: St George’s, the chocolate church of fun. Right: The church of the pink unicorn (for all I know they’re probably a bunch of perfectly nice Baptists. But PINK! Come on folks, who was on the paint selection committee?).

St George’s is a gorgeous dark chocolate stoned beauty. I’m thinking it must be about 83 years old because the cap stone was laid by the Bishop of George, a Right Reverend Henry Bindley Sidwell on September the 12th 1926.

Walking into the church caught me a bit by surprise, the stained glass (something I have always had an interest in) is quite, unusual. Walking in you get what you’d expect, a typical one hundred yearish looking glass but as you look around the church you’re struck by something new, something entirely unexpected, the rest of the glass is quite contemporary, even modern looking. Liezl wasn’t nuts about it but I thought it was quite appropriate, the traditional and the new, merged together into something beautiful.

The top most arched window has the familiar A and Ω Greek characters which call to mind Revelation 1:8 and the deity of Jesus Christ. I was interested in the design of the Alpha character itself and spent some time poking around to see if there was additional meaning associated with it but pulled a blank other than this picture which has the pope in the background (click here) and this image of the burial of Christ (click here).
If there was a circle in it I’d have said that the cross was a Presbyterian device, however I think it’d be more technical to call it a Patonce Cross. In heraldry, the three petals would represent faith, wisdom and chivalry however in the Christian context it more likely that they represent the Trinity. Under the cross two winged and haloed angels (with a pin prick white dot above them) bear a banner, on the left reading, “Let us sing” and on the right reading “unto the Lord”. Psalm 95 triumphantly opens with the chorus, “O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.”
Below the upper arches are the two main bodies of the stained glass. On the left a woman plays a pipe organ with an angel above her looking down. The caption below reads, “To the glory of God and in undying remembrance of my beloved wife Helen Edien Fox 1974-1949 Endued with the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit (1 Peter 4)”. On the right hand side a two angels listen intently. There is a sheet of music lying on the ground. The caption below reads, “My soul doth magnify the LORD and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour This window was given by her husband”. Click image to enlarge.

As I walked up to the sanctuary… maybe I’ll leave that for tonight’s post.

Wanna find St George’s:

Do you enjoy beautiful churches? Why do some churches look one way and others another? Is it all just down to taste or are there other differences? I’ve got some thoughts on this… in tonight’s post.