Jesus is praised and is exalted. He
reigns and rules and overrules. He is mighty and merciful. He
makes the woeful heart to sing. Indeed, as He declares,
"weeping may tarry for the night but joy comes in the morning".
Praise the Lord for the way He grants us rest in the night and ushers us
into another day filled with his blessings and paved with His grace. We
have had some much beneficial and even torrential rains all around us.
The hills and dales, the fields and the farms, the mountains and
the midlands are looking luscious green. Peonies are blossoming
in fragrant abundance.
Some of my friends back in Orissa India have
posted some of the pictures of summer fruit trees, such as mangoes and jack
fruit. Ah, indeed, it is summer time in Orissa, India.
Schools and colleges are closed for summer. Praise the Lord
for sweet summer with which the Lord gifts His people all over the world.
Our church is hosting a special banquet on
Saturday, the 17th of June, 2017. It will be held at the Church
fellowship Hall. Dinner will be served at 6:00 PM. This
banquet is presented in honor of dads and grads, along with moms.
The Menu will conclude Prime Rib, homemade rolls, vegetables, and
all sorts of decadent desserts. Denny and Lynda are in charge of this banquet.
We praise the Lord that we get to celebrate His grace and goodness in
season and out of season.
Some time ago I listened to a tape of
Elizabeth Elliot, the author of several books, including "Through Gates of
Splendor". I had the privilege of meeting her in person in Boston
several years ago. Elizabeth Elliott has entered the Eternal
City, the New Jerusalem, and indeed has gone "Through Gates of
Splendor". Elizabeth Elliott went through much tribulation and many
trials during her life span on earth. She described her first year on the
mission field in Ecuador, where she faced three major blows to her faith.
First, the informant who was helping her with the native language was
murdered. Then all of her language materials, everything that went into
the writing of a language that had never been written down before, were stolen.
Further, the station on which her husband, Jim Elliot, had been
working went down the river in a flood. Many years later, as one who has
had many more tragedies, including the murder by Auca tribesmen of her husband
Jim, the death of her second husband and many other trials, she still had a
lifetime of waiting upon God. In that taped message, she declared:
“When I was 12 years old, I told the Lord that I wanted Him to work out His
will in my life at any cost. When He set about doing that, I was amazed.
I didn’t think it was going to be that way. We never do.
The will of God is never exactly what you expect it to be. It may
seem to be much worse; but in the end, it’s going to be a lot better and a lot
bigger. What is your desire?”
When we pause and ponder back to the Upper Room on Pentecost Sunday we read that the wind was blowing, rushing with an irresistible force. Perhaps Nicodemus was among those who heard and saw this undeniable evidence of the wind. New thought, new energy, new vitality, new creativity, new emotion came to life by this in-filling of the Holy Spirit. God was bringing His people to life, individually and corporately. He was birthing His church.
Not only was wind part of the picture, but tongues of fire were also part of the picture. It is written, “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them” (Acts 2:2). The fire of the Holy Spirit purges, burns away the chaff, all that debilitates and prevents you and me from becoming what God created you and me to become. Not only is the chaff burned away but the Holy Spirit refines us, burning off the dross bringing out the pure metal. The Bible talks about the “refiner’s fire” that purges us and enables us to live with the warmth of God’s Spirit emanating from our lives. This fire of the Holy Spirit helps us to love others, being a people who are more giving, more consistent in our Christian lives, more forgiving of others.
Just as in incarnation God came in human form, and in the crucifixion God died for the sins of the world, and in the resurrection God triumphed over sin and death, even so in Pentecost God empowers you, me, and His church universal to live to His glory and to do His work until He comes again.
“Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me." Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me, empowering me and us to be and do all you dream of us being and doing!”
In Jesus the suffering servant.
Brown
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