Praise
the Lord for this week. It has been a week of celebration and
thanksgiving. Last Sunday we celebrated Pentecost Sunday,
joining the Lord's people around the corner and around the globe
praising the Lord for the gift of the Holy Spirit that He sent upon His first
Disciples, and the Church was born. Praise the Lord for
the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has promised
that, "upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hades
shall not prevail against it." And the seventh angel
sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this
world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall
reign for ever and ever.
The service of celebration
last Sunday was followed by a big dinner reception with a sumptuous menu
prepared by our people. This past Monday my wife Alice was honored by the
yearbook committee of the Class of 2016 as they dedicated this year's yearbook
to her. This was a recognition and acknowledgment that she is one a
gifted and talented, and above all very caring, teacher. The Year
Book dedication service was held in a special gathering of the class
2016. It was a total surprise for Alice. She had no clue. She
was blown away. Laureen, Sunita, Andy, Gabe, Addie, and Asha all
came up from Washington, DC to join in the celebration. In my book my wife is a
very gifted teacher with divers gifts and variegated talents, with
unwavering convictions and unshakable integrity. One of the added
blessings of this week was to have our grand children Gabe, Addie and
Asha with us. We all had a beautiful and blessed time.
Yesterday
our Church hosted our monthly Community wide dinner. They served BBQ
chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, baked beans, and applesauce, all topped off
with decadent Ice cream brownie sundaes. ( Summer has arrived !)
Thank you, Jesus.
On
the Day of Pentecost the Lord sent the Holy Spirit . It descended on the
disciples, who were in one accord. The coming of the Holy Spirit was both
audible and visible. It galvanized the disciples, who,in the
eyes of the world, were ordinary and very common. When the Holy Spirit
fell upon each of the disciples, they were galvanized, propelled, and
catapulted into the world with boldness, great conviction, power, and
passion. They moved into the world to turn the world upside down (and to
turn hearts right-side up). In the first chapter of Ephesians,
Paul wrote that we will all come to know the immeasurable greatness of
God’s power that lives in us by faith. I
like the word, immeasurable - you can’t begin to measure it, because God’s
power is so vast. I like the word,
greatness, because the word implies absolute giganticness. I like the word, know, because we human
beings cannot ordinarily really understand about the immeasurable
greatness of God’s power that lives within us. In the third chapter of
Ephesians, Paul again talked about God’s great power that lies within us. He described that we have the power to grasp
the length and width, and height and depth of the love of God for us. This power is the power to finally grasp or
know or comprehend the vastness of God’s love for us. We then are able to do far more than we ever
think, imagine or ask from God. I like
that. I like that God’s power inside of
God does more with our lives than we can ever think, imagine or ask.
God’s
real power and presence comes to us in many different ways. I love the quotation from C.S. Lewis about his
knowing Christ first hand. “When I was
an undergraduate in Cambridge, if I were to say that Christ came to me, I
should be using conventional words that would carry no precise meaning. For Christ comes to men and women in
different ways. When I try to record the
experience at that time, I use the imagery of the Vision of the Holy
Grail. It seemed to me like that. There was, however, no sensible vision. There was just the room, with its shabby
furniture and the fire burning in the grate, and the red shaded lamp on the
table. But the room was filled by a
presence that in a strange way was both about me and within me like a light or
warmth. I was overwhelming possessed by someone who was not myself. And yet, I felt more myself than ever
before. I was filled with intense
happiness and almost unbearable joy as I had never known before or never known
since. And overall, there was a deep
sense of peace and security and certainty.”
This was Pentecost for C.S. Lewis.
It was a first hand experience for C.S. Lewis, one of the greatest
authors of this past century.
Jesus is real.
He is present with us in and through the Person of the Holy Spirit.
Life is stronger than death. A miracle
occurs or a thousand miracles occur and we know - we know first hand of
God’s goodness to us in Jesus Christ. We
experience Him here and now with naturalness, conviction,
authority, delightfulness, and humor. He is part of our story.
in fact, He is the key to our story. In Him we
live, move, and have our being.
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