16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you to the age–

17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.

26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.

— John 14:16, 17, 26

8 And when He [the Spirit] comes, He will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:

9 in regard to sin, because they do not believe in Me;

10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me;

11 and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world has been condemned.

— John 16:8-11

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and love from Christ to you.

Let’s move forward not away from Mount Sinai nor Mount of Beatitudes, but move deeper into heart of the One who stood on both. The God who speaks from fire and the God who blesses from a hillside, would ask us this question: “Are you listening?” If we ever heard something inside, we may whisper, “That wasn’t right,” or “Come back,” or even “we are better than this!”
There’s a good chance it wasn’t our conscience alone. That was the Holy Spirit, not condemning or convicting, and yes, there’s a difference.

We used to thinking conviction is this crushing thing, this shame inducing spotlight that says, “Look how dirty you are.” No. God doesn’t mean to destroy us. The Spirit of God convicts to awaken us. He comes to rescue us. He’s not pointing a finger in our face. He’s holding out His hand to reach to us. Jesus said in John 16 that the Spirit would come to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. That means the Holy Spirit exposes what’s wrong not to humiliate, but to heal us.