johnmdemarco posted on October 02, 2011 18:30
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, coined a phrase for this dynamic of God “wooing” human beings. He called it “prevenient grace,” or “grace that goes before us” through the Holy Spirit.
The word “spirit” is represented in the Hebrew language of the Old Testament as “ruach.” Additional meanings of this Hebrew word include “breath” and, especially, “wind.” For example, “ruach” is used in Gen. 1:2 to describe the Spirit of God hovering above the waters amid the act of creation. The same Hebrew word, however, is used by the wise Solomon in Ecclesiastes when he dismisses much of our worldly search for meaning as “chasing after the wind.” Later, in the third chapter of the Gospel of John—written in the Koine Greek language of the New Testament—Jesus uses the word “pneuma” to refer to the Spirit when he declares to the religious teacher Nicodemus that “the wind blows wherever it chooses.”
The wind. It is the breath of God, and it also is a powerful, natural element of God’s created world. “Wind” as Spirit woos us toward the heart of God; it is “grace that goes before us.” It chases me on a perpetual basis. And yet chasing the “wind” of the created world can distract me from that same heart of God.
It can be tough to discern the difference between the “Spirit” wind and the “worldly” wind; but the distinction makes all the difference. Pursuing one leads to peace, while pursuing the other leads merely to the temporary illusion of contentment. Sometimes I find myself pursuing God and brokenness in startling juxtaposition, both winds often swirling within the same storms.
As I have stated, all of this God pursuit—him chasing me and me chasing him, even while being sought by and seeking after the gusts that lead to nowhere—was oblivious to me during my long crucible of authorship. This does not mean it failed to represent a significant investment that would later elicit lasting dividends.
Read it on Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Chased-Wind-Youths-Literary-ebook/dp/B005ONTO9Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1316770155&sr=1-1
Read it on Nook:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chased-by-the-wind-john-michael-de-marco/1105847060?ean=2940013410183&itm=1&usri=chased%2bby%2bthe%2bwind
Read it on iPad:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/90909