Fire and the Presence of God
Today at MCC we celebrated Pentecost Sunday and talked about what it means to the church. In
Acts 2:1-12, we read about when the promised Holy Spirit came to the disciples in the form of tongues of fire on their heads. Before Jesus left, He told the disciples to go out and and preach the gospel, but first, they were to wait for the Holy Spirit who would come and be their Helper. This gift - to be baptized with the Holy Spirit - offered the disciples 3 things:
1. The power and courage they needed to spread the Word.
2. It allowed divisions to be mended. The first thing we see when the Holy Spirit comes is a reversal of what happened at Babylon - everyone heard the disciples speaking in their own language.
3. They all had a personal experience with God - they each had a flame over their head. In the Old Testament, fire was a sign of the presence of God.
These are all available to the church today and are necessary for the church to grow. The disciples baptized 3000 people the very day the Holy Spirit came! We talked about what the Holy Spirit means in our lives - He gives us peace, He intercedes for us, He convicts us to do things, He empowers us to be graceful. I appreciate also how the Holy Spirit helps us to recognize God's presence and grace in our lives.
"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you." John 14:16-17
Spreading the Good News
Today at MCC, Jeremiah led a discussion from
Acts 1:1-11. This passage tells about what Jesus did after His resurrection and before He returned to heaven and we talked about what stood out in it. Jesus died and came back to life. He appeared to many people over 40 days, promised the Holy Spirit, and then was taken up into the sky. Before He left, He told them that they would be His witnesses to the end of the earth.
Today, we see how after 2000 years, His story is still spreading to the ends of the earth. That is so amazing! This summer, we will be able to continue spreading the good news with our Outdoor Worship Series. We talked about some of the exciting things we hope to do. Start praying now that His will may be done.
Jesus' Prayer for Unity
Today in church, Dan Hoard talked about unity as we read about it in
John 17:20-26. This chapter contains what is known as Jesus' High Priestly prayer because it is where He prays for Himself, His disciples, and for those who will believe in Him in the future. Jesus main concern in this prayer is that the church will show unity as He & the Father show unity so that the world will know that He is real.
When we look around at the church, it doesn't always look unified, but we have to remember that it "is not about me." We should think instead about how we can be led by God to reveal a truth that doesn't originate in our own desires. This is, after all,
God's church. We should focus on living a life based in grace, peace, forgiveness & hope for this is what we see in God's relationship with the Son.
Dan also reminded us of St. Francis of Assisi who said, "preach the gospel; if necessary, use words." So how do we preach the gospel? We should consider that it's more than "going to church," for we
are the church. We should bear witness to His word.
