“Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind... divided tongues as of fire appeared... All were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability...” Acts 2:2-4
Several million church goers are going to hear this read this Sunday. Many thousands of readers will stumble over the geographic names – kind of ironic since we are reading of the Spirit giving the ability to speak in every dialect. Other thousands will begin to daydream. Children will stare at ceiling fans or count the organ pipes as I used to do. Thousands of preachers will wonder if their message will bring some fresh insight to their parishioners.
Maybe among the millions will be some who wonder if “God declares, 'I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh...,'” (2:17) why aren't we experiencing the outpouring of the Spirit right here, right now?
On that day when Peter declared, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” (2:21) 3000 people responded. Why not today?
Could it be because we don't ask? Or because we don't really expect the Holy Spirit to do amazing things today?
Has our faith been so domesticated that we have stopped looking to be awed?
Following Jesus, whether 2000 years ago or today is a radical departure from the norm. Jesus was never boring and never predictable! Our very faith is a result of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is never boring, never predictable!
Predictability is what we have done to the faith. Boredom is the result.
Let's go back to the story. “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak...” (2:4) All of them!
In what languages do you share the love of Jesus? What, not a preacher or an evangelist? All were filled, all spoke... All of them!
Maybe you already speak the language of an engineer, or the language of a teacher, or the language of a teenager, or the language of the sports fan, or the language of the musician, or the language of the social networking media, or one of the other myriad of languages of 21st century culture.
No doubt we are all multilingual. No doubt we can all be filled. No doubt we can in some small way, each of us, share the love, the acceptance or the invitation of Jesus.
Let the amazement begin!
Grace and peace,
Jeff Silvernail
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Doing, Developing, Bearing 5-6-09
We are now in the season of our New Dreams cottage meetings in which, among other things we are dreaming Spirit-guided dreams for the mission and ministry of Prince of Peace. It is a fun process getting to know one another, hearing your dreams, envisioning your visions, imagining what is possible for this mission outpost for Jesus. With God anything is possible! So it is fun to stretch the horizons of our dreams.
Sometimes we talk about things we should do – they are many good and faithful things that fall into this category. Sometimes we talk about programs we should develop – more great ideas.
Here something else we can talk about – fruit we could bear.
I ran across an interesting quote, “Have you ever noticed the difference in the Christian life between work and fruit? A machine can do work; only life can bear fruit.” Andrew Murray
I have worked in factories where there are production quotas. You should produce x number of pieces in your 8 hour shift, if not you better have a good reason such as the amount of time the machine was down for repairs.
I have also watched the promise in the blossoms of trees this time of year with time and care become the abundant harvest of the fall. Bearing fruit takes more than the machinations of work. Bearing fruit takes the hand of God working together with the essence of life.
St. Paul wrote to the church in Colossae, “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.” Colossians 1:9-10
Do you see the connection, “bearing fruit in every good work”? We work, yes, but we do so not as a spiritual production quota but as a natural consequence of life that is growing in God. As surely as fruit follows flower so does our doing and developing follow our growing, fruit of our relationship in, with and through Christ.
In Christ's grace and peace,
Jeff Silvernail
Sometimes we talk about things we should do – they are many good and faithful things that fall into this category. Sometimes we talk about programs we should develop – more great ideas.
Here something else we can talk about – fruit we could bear.
I ran across an interesting quote, “Have you ever noticed the difference in the Christian life between work and fruit? A machine can do work; only life can bear fruit.” Andrew Murray
I have worked in factories where there are production quotas. You should produce x number of pieces in your 8 hour shift, if not you better have a good reason such as the amount of time the machine was down for repairs.
I have also watched the promise in the blossoms of trees this time of year with time and care become the abundant harvest of the fall. Bearing fruit takes more than the machinations of work. Bearing fruit takes the hand of God working together with the essence of life.
St. Paul wrote to the church in Colossae, “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.” Colossians 1:9-10
Do you see the connection, “bearing fruit in every good work”? We work, yes, but we do so not as a spiritual production quota but as a natural consequence of life that is growing in God. As surely as fruit follows flower so does our doing and developing follow our growing, fruit of our relationship in, with and through Christ.
In Christ's grace and peace,
Jeff Silvernail
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