The Lord blessed
us with a bountiful and beautiful weekend. Alice and I spent the weekend with
Jessica and Tom who live in Abington, one of the suburbs of greater
Philadelphia. We spent Saturday driving around the City of Philadelphia, seeing
some of the historic sites including Tindley Temple (United Methodist
Church), Comcast Center, and Reading Terminal Market. We prepared and served an
Authentic Indian dinner to Tom and Jessie and Tom's parents. It was a treat.
Yesterday, Pentecost Sunday we attended New Life Presbyterian Church, where
Jessie and Tom worship. It was reported during the worship about the church's
mission al involvement in India and in Ukraine.
On the Day of
Pentecost the Church was born. It was propelled into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,
and the outer parts of the world. The Church of Jesus Christ has been under the
same Management for over 2 thousand years. Jesus Christ the Lord of the
church, promised: "You will receive power." He promised to give us power for a
purpose: "You will be my witnesses." Jesus told us to wait patiently for His
power: "But stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on
high" (Luke
24:49; Acts
1:8). That power came on Pentecost: "When the day of
Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the
blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they
were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and
came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit"
(Acts
2).
The
winds of change had come. The Church was empowered for its life and ministry in
the name and to the glory of God in Jesus through the Holy
Spirit. Jesus promised He would never leave us, and that
promise was kept when He came on Pentecost as the Holy Spirit, who is God's
continuing presence in our lives. Jesus promised He would stay with us in the Holy
Spirit to guide our continuing spiritual journey. Jesus promised He would stay
with us in the Holy Spirit to empower us. God in Jesus through the Holy Spirit
provides those special abilities -- we call them spiritual gifts -- to serve
Him.
When
the Holy Spirit came for the first time on that Pentecost, following our Lord's
resurrection, the faithful were moved. Their tongues came alive. They were
empowered or gifted for life in the Kingdom and ministry to the world: "They
devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the
breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders
and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. " (Acts
2:42-47).
It
still happens today. God's faithful people are Pentecostal, baptized and driven
by the Holy Spirit. They are swept up by the winds of change. They don't
always know where they are going, but it doesn't matter because the faithful
know Who is sending the winds. It is written that the Risen and Exalted Lord is
making all things new. It is always tempting to remain stale, safe, and
stagnant. We are afraid to take risks and venture out. We are afraid to ask
the Lord do something new and afresh in our lives.
Fear of the new often blinds us to the fresh
blessings the Lord is pouring out upon His people through the Holy Spirit. It's
like the parables of the wineskins and old garments: "No one sews a patch of
unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment,
making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If
they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be
ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved"
(Matthew
9:16-17).
Dr.
Jones wrote, "When a person feels self-satisfied and content -- whether it be a
stuffy Episcopalian, a fanatical evangelical, or an overzealous Pentecostal --
then he has ceased to be responsive to God. No one, Pentecostal or other, has
arrived at such a degree of spirituality that he can rest content. God always
has more in store."
Our
Lord is the One who calls us to step out of the boat and walk on water with
Him. Our Lord is the One who calls us to take up the cross and follow Him. Our
Lord is the One who calls us to risk everything through which we find security.
Our Lord is the One who calls us to lose our lives for Him in order to find life
in Him.
In
"Who Switched the Price Tags?: A Search for Values in a Mixed-Up
World" (1986), Tony Campolo wrote, "I read a sociological study that has
great significance for those of us who are trying to respond to champions of the
yuppie value system. In this particular study fifty people over the age of
ninety-five were asked one question: 'If you could live your life over again,
what would you do differently? ... Three answers constantly re-emerged and
dominated the results of the study ... 1. If I had it to do over again, I would
reflect more ... 2. If I had it to do over again, I would risk more ... 3. If I
had it to do over again, I would do more things that would live on after I am
dead."
One
eighty-five year young woman named Nadine Stair put it like this: "If I had my
life to live over again, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would
relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I
know of very few things I would take seriously. I would be crazier. I would be
less hygienic. I would take more chances. I would take more trips. I would
climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets. I would burn
more gasoline. I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more
actual problems and fewer imaginary ones.
"You
see, I am one of those people who live prophylactically and sensibly and
sanely. Hour after hour. Day by day. Oh, I have had my moments, and if I had
it to do over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd have nothing else.
Just moments, one right after another, instead of living so many years ahead of
each day. I have been one of those people who never go anywhere without a
thermometer, a hot water bottle, a gargle, a raincoat, and a parachute. If I
had it to do over again, I would go places and do things and travel lighter than
I have. If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the
spring and stay that way later in the fall."
Jesus
put it like this, "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for me will find it" (Matthew
16:25). "As soon as you begin to live the life of faith
in God," wrote Oswald Chambers, "fascinating and luxurious prospects will open
up before you ... let God choose for you ... We have to learn to walk according
to the standard which has its eye on the Lord." Let us move with the Risen
Lord. Let us get swept up by the Holy Spirit winds. Let us become Pentecostal!
Like those first century Christians, wait for Him to come. And open
our hands and hearts and heads when
His Holy Spirit winds start blowing in our direction. Let us allow ourselves to
be filled, blessed and propelled.
It is
happening. It is happening all around the world, and it is happening among us.
In
Christ,
Brown
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