SPIRITUAL SQUEEGEES

Every spring and fall, I dig out my squeegee to take the layer of dust off the home's windows. I use a mixture of warm water-vinegar or water-ammonia to wet the windows, then squeegee them dry. When I bought this tool, I was reading some homemaker books that extolled the superiority of janitor-grade squeegees, as opposed to cheapies sold in regular stores. Truly, quality matters, and this one has lasted for decades and still does a clean “sweep” of a wet window.

In our spiritual lives, too, we need high-grade “sin-detecting” squeegees. When our spiritual windows, as it were, get clouded by sin-dust-and-grime, rubbing them with a quick “sorry-I-messed-up” rag just won't do the job. Cutting through the negative grime that sin leaves takes more than a spiritual shrug.

I have appreciated the insights about a holy life offered by Jerry Bridges (1929-2016) in his several Christian living books. He was affiliated with The Navigators, whose emphasis is discipleship and Christian growth. In his book The Pursuit of Holiness (NavPress, 1978, 1996), he wrote about the “daily battle” of resisting sin and living for Christ. It's a struggle that mandates honest, humbling self-reflection to “see” through the grime of our daily lives to the purity of Christ. Bridges remarked:

The Holy Spirit strengthens us to holiness first by enabling us to see our need of holiness. He enlightens our understanding so that we begin to see God's standard of holiness....Even Christians taking in the teaching of the Bible can be deceived about their own sins. We somehow feel that consent to the teaching of Scripture is equivalent to obedience.(p. 72)

When we allow our “spiritual windows” to be scrubbed by the “squeegee” (as it were) of God's cleansing Holy Spirit, then we realize how dirty our thoughts and actions really are. Maybe we can still manage life through the grime of sinful attitudes and poor choices, but it's not what God intended. Bridges continued:

As we grow in the Christian life we face increasing danger of spiritual pride. We know the correct doctrines, the right methods and the proper do's and don'ts. But we may not see the poverty of our own spiritual character. We may not see our critical and unforgiving spirit, our habit of backbiting, or our tendency to judge others (p. 72).

When that happens, he added, we're like the Laodicean church described in Revelation 3:17, thinking they were just fine spiritually, not realizing they were “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.” In other words, mud-covered windows obscuring the purity of God, needing deep spiritual cleaning.

My windows look a lot better after I give them some squeegee-TLC. But my washing task isn't perfect—or so I see when the afternoon sun glares through them and I see every little swath that escaped the squeegee's blade. I'm grateful that God still accepts me—streaks and specks and all—because He hears my confession and sees me through my faith in Jesus. And I think of that promise we're given in Revelation 3:2—that someday “we shall see Him as He is.” What a glorious-perfectly-clean-window promise follows that: “ And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”

"DESCEND...."

 

Acts 2:3 describes the coming
of the Holy Spirit on the disciples
as "tongues like of fire."

A monthly feature on a hymn of the faith.

Our secular world happily embraces Christmas and Easter as times for decorated trees and gifts, eggs and chocolates in a basket, and family, work and community parties and feasts. At church, add in nativity or passion plays and special hymns. But after Easter, a significant spiritual milestone—the coming of the Holy Spirit--seems to slip by quietly. We know it as Pentecost, coming fifty days after Easter (this year on May 19) and marking when Christ returned to Heaven and the Holy Spirit came upon the waiting, praying disciples.

 But....there is a hymn for it. A brilliant 19^th century writer and minister named George Croly filled that gap with his hymn known as “Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart.” Its music was written by an Anglican choirmaster and organist, Frederick Atkinson.

 Born in 1780, and son of a doctor, Croly was ordained after his education at Trinity College in Dublin, At about age 30 he moved to London where he gained a reputation as a writer and literary critic, writing for journals and penning books on secular and religious topics. His poetry and prose were described as “vigorous and eloquent.” Of his half-dozen hymns, “Spirit of God, Descend upon my Heart” would become his best known, found in more than 300 hymnals. Many can recite its opening verse:

Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;

Wean it from earth, through all its pulses move.

Stoop to my weakness, mighty as thou art,

And make me love Thee as I ought to love.

 He had one unforeseen problem in gaining an Anglican appointment. A Roman Catholic man had the same name. Eventually, a distant relative of his wife (a “Lord Brougham”) helped clear his reputation as Anglican, and Croly was assigned in 1835 to revive a struggling church in the slums of London, St. Stephen Walbrook. Under his dramatic, mostly extemporaneous preaching, the almost-deserted church began to grow, with many commuting (in those horse-and-buggy days) from outside the neighborhood  to hear him.

 Croly had married a woman who contributed to a literary magazine he worked for. They would have five sons and a daughter. But one son died at 23 in a battle in India. His wife would die when he was 71, and his nine-year-old daughter just a few months later. Four sons would survive.

 In 1860, at age 80, he was still ministering at St. Stephen's when one November day he went on a walk, collapsed and died. He was buried at St. Stephens. The classic church building still is used: History - St Stephen Walbrook London

 Here is one internet video of Croly's “Spirit of God,” with printed words and choral background:

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