We Believe: Giver of Life

Mr. Robert Terry
In the Nicene Creed, following the Scriptures, the Spirit is the “the giver of life.” Christians receive more than physical existence; they share the high privilege and calling to be “temples of the Holy Spirit.” One of the most used prayers in the history of Christianity, O Heavenly King, reminds us of our need and desire for the “giver of life.” 
“… giver of life.”

When Spring finally arrives each year, it comes as a wonder. Green shoots emerge from the brown, dead earth while the trees begin to bring forth buds and leaves. Life irresistibly emerges from its temporary slumber. In the Nicene Creed, it is the Holy Spirit who is proclaimed the “giver of life,” and we know that God is the source of all that is vital in His creation.

Many Christians throughout history have decorated church sanctuaries during the season of Pentecost with green boughs, wreaths, and fabrics, making the connection between the renewed life of spring and the coming of the Holy Spirit. But, this bringing of greenery into the sanctuary indicates more than mere biological life – it also connects the coming of the Holy Spirit to spiritual life.
[1] As Christ says to Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). This new birth is to be born of water and the Spirit to newness of life in Christ.
When Christ speaks to the woman from Samaria in the Gospel of John, chapter 4, he tells her about the living water that only he can provide. “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” This promise is fulfilled at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes to enliven the apostles and the church for service and fullness of life. At the end of the apostle Peter’s sermon in Acts chapter 2, the people ask, “What must we do to be saved?” Peter replies, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

In the Nicene Creed, following the Scriptures, the Spirit is the “the giver of life.” Christians receive more than physical existence; they share the high privilege and calling to be “temples of the Holy Spirit.” One of the most used prayers in the history of Christianity, O Heavenly King, reminds us of our need and desire for the “giver of life.”  

O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth,

Who art everywhere present and fillest all things;

Treasury of good things,

 and Giver of Life -

Come and abide in us,

Cleanse us from every stain,

And save our souls, O Good One.
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