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Praying about the flow of time: Prayers to the Holy Spirit for Pentecost

Lynne Baab • Tuesday June 3 2025

I need comfort this week. When describing the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room, Jesus uses a Greek word that doesn’t have an easy English translation but which can mean “comforter.” In anticipation of Pentecost this Sunday, I want to consider this Greek word, parakletos. It literally means “one who comes alongside,” as in a law court. John 14:16 is the first use of that word in the Bible, and here are Jesus’s words:

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.” In this translation, the NRSVue, a little footnote after Advocate...

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Praying about the flow of time: The Feast of Tabernacles calls us to stay fluid and flexible

Lynne Baab • Tuesday October 15 2024

Twenty years ago, I heard a sermon that stayed in my memory. The preacher set up a contrast between tents and buildings. He said it was no accident that God’s people lived in tents for so long while wandering in the desert. He said God had a purpose in refusing David’s request to build a temple (2 Samuel 7). God wanted the Ark of the Covenant, God’s presence with the people, to stay in a tent so it could easily travel with the people.

The minister talked about the way tents keep us flexible and fluid. God can guide us more easily...

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Draw near: Praying to the gracious, tender, truthful Spirit

Lynne Baab • Tuesday October 25 2022

Imagine that you feel called to be a minister. You train for it and take a position in a church. You struggle with ill health for a lot of your life, serving a church for a while and then withdrawing to cope with illness. What might you ask for from the Holy Spirit?

Rev. Thomas Lynch (1818-1871), a minister in England whose health impeded his ministry, wrote two dozen hymns that were published in various hymnbooks in the 1800s. I am not familiar with any of them except one specifically addressed to the Holy Spirit. I have loved this hymn for several...

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Draw near: Praying to the Holy Spirit

Lynne Baab • Tuesday October 18 2022

I wonder how many of you remember this praise song:

Spirit of the Living God, Fall fresh on me, Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me.

In the 1980s we sang it often at church, so I assumed it came from that era. I just learned that it was written in 1926 after the author, Daniel Iverson, heard a sermon on the Holy Spirit at a revival meeting. Rev. Iverson was a Presbyterian minister who served congregations North and South Carolina and Georgia, then planted seven congregations in Miami. (You can listen to a contemporary version of his song here, with a fascinating change...

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