“SPIRITUAL THERMODYNAMICS” – Dec 7

“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Romans 8:9a

I am aware that the first day of winter is officially December 21 but I am calling it early.  It is winter.  Any day with temperatures below freezing is a winter day to me.  I realize that I have a long wait until spring and that prospect is a bit depressing.

wakingphotolife: / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

I was considering winter in a melancholy mood as I drove into work .  My pick-up spewed a large cloud of steam when I accelerated from an intersection.  My vehicle’s engine energy could visibly be seen transferring into the air as the heat of evaporated moisture was crystallized.  I watch smoke slowly waft from chimneys dotting my route.  The smoke being evidence of fires burning within, replenishing the energy continual being lost to a world tilted in the wrong direction from the sun.

I recalled my thermodynamics classes from college.  Heat is the transfer of energy from a higher temperature object to a lower temperature object.  The sensation of heat is relative.  I feel the heat of a coffee mug because the temperature of the mug is greater than my hand; therefore, energy is flowing into my hand.  I feel the cold of an ice-cube because the temperature of my hand is greater than the ice and my energy is flowing into the ice.

However, cold is not a state that we can be in.  Cold is not a noun.  Hot cannot be a subject.  Both hot and cold are verbs.  These sensations are merely an indication of whether we are conveying or absorbing energy.

We live in a world that is in a perpetual spiritual winter.
It is a world tilted the wrong way from the Son.

torremountain / Foter.com / CC BY

True spirituality is not a noun.  Christian cannot be accurately experienced as a subject.  These terms are best described as verbs.  Their reality is more accurately determined on whether a person is conveying or absorbing the love of God.

Every child of God has Christ within them.  The love of God comes to us through Christ who dwells within us.  It does not come from our environment.  It may come through other people but it is always from God, who is in us.  It is due to Christ’s work within us that we are being changed and transformed.  It is because of Christ within us that we have righteousness and life.

Christ is the source within us of our spiritual energy – life.
We would be cold and dead without him.

However, I wonder if the spiritual warmth that we feel is not that energy but more like heat.  I wonder if the spiritual feelings that we have are due to the transfer that occurs when the Spirit is working within us or the Spirit of God is flowing out from us into a cold world.  I wonder if the problem with being lukewarm is that it is evidence that there is no working of the Spirit in our lives – there is no conveying or absorbing of the love of God.  Therefore, we feel neither cold nor hot but are lukewarm.

I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot.  Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. Revelations 3:15-16

Like heat, a child of God should feel the conveyance and absorption of the love of God in our lives.

When we preach the gospel, we feel the cool confidence of the word of God drawing the lost from a cold world.

When we suffer, we feel the warmth of the peace that passes understanding as God’s love flows into us.

When we speak a word of encouragement, we feel the soothing joy of high truth flowing into debased confusion.

When we spend time in the scriptures, we feel the heat of the Spirit opening our minds.

When we love our neighbor, we feel the fresh patience of God’s mercy and grace.

When we pray, we feel the warmth of our God drawing close.

When we worship, we feel the afternoon breeze of glorification confounding a world of denial.

We contain within us a hope that needs to flow into this world.  Let us let our lights shine.  Let us experience the mysterious transfer from one degree of righteousness to another that comes through Christ who dwells within us.

Maybe, when we feel the cold of a spiritual winter it means that we have had our hands on the world a little too much and we need to pull back for a while and absorb the refreshing love of God.

Maybe, when we feel the passion of a spiritual high it means that we are ready to convey that energy and excitement love into a world that desperately needs it.

Winter is a wonderful reminder of how much we have been blessed.  We may be in a cold world but we are not cold.  We live by the warmth of the love of God within us.  We have not been left to a world as spiritually cold as the one I see outside my window.  We contain within us the furnace of revival and renewal for a dead world.  We have the source of eternal life within us, so we will never be spiritual cold again.

Christ is within us!

He will never leave us nor forsake us!

Let winter come to the praise and glory of my King.

The colder it gets the more I am thankful for my Savior who is within me.

PRAYER: O Lord, thank for the new life that I have in you.  Thank you for loving me and sustaining me.  Father, help me to acknowledge you in all that I do and see – even cold winter days.  You truly are glorified in all of your creation.  Thank you for the blessing and sustaining warmth of heat.  Thank you for giving me all that I need, when I need.  I pray this in the precious name of your Son,  Jesus Christ.   Amen.