Day 19, On The Road To Pentecost: I WILL PUT A NEW SPIRIT WITHIN THEM

Ezekiel 11:1-25

God is looking for a people who will be faithful to Him and His Word.  In this faithfulness God seeks to create that people to be participants in what God is doing in the world.  His kingdom is about truth and justice, about peace and joy, about life and thriving in the grace and mercy of God.  To that end, God will judge anything or anyone that stands in opposition to His will, because they are not about truth and justice, peace and joy, life and thriving in His grace and mercy.  They are about themselves.  They live by their ego and make decisions based on their greed.  They want power and they want money.  Collateral damage means nothing to them, as long as they get what they want when they want it.  

Ancient Judah, though saying they were the people of God, did not live as God’s people.  Injustice, lies, greed, evil penetrated their society.  In an effort to draw them back to Himself, God provided for them to be taken into exile in Babylon, where they would stay for about 400 years or so.  Yet, God would not leave them alone and without hope.  Through His prophet, God spoke of how He would take their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh (see vs. 19).  God’s promise was, “that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them.  Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God” (vs. 20).

There is a very insightful thought in Ezekiel 11:5 where God says, “I know your thoughts.”  God knows the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and will not be hoodwinked, duped, conned, fooled, or tricked.  He knows our thoughts.  He also knows how to work in the human situation, and is always seeking to soften our hearts, and make them pliable in His grace-filled hands.  So, it is, in the midst of thoughts about judging sin, God establishes again the reality of His amazing grace.

There are people and institutions and businesses all around us that do not have our best interests in their game plan.  God does have our best interest in His game plan, however.  The writer of Hebrews renews this ancient thought when he quotes Deuteronomy 31:6, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you” (Heb. 15:5).  God is present in the midst of a world gone wrong.  Evil exists all around us, but in a world gone wrong, God is raising up a people who have tasted His goodness and grace, and know that their best life is in Him.  We are invited to be one of those people. Perhaps this is why Jesus called people to Himself when He said,

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew 11:28-30, The Message)

Day 18, On The Road To Pentecost: I WILL DO AS YOU SAY

Luke 5:1-11

Sometimes, reason seems to go against the ways of faith.  It makes sense, really, because we live in a tangible, measurable, factual world.  Or, do we? Shakespeare had Hamlet say to Horatio, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (Hamlet, Acts 1, Scene 5).  Even science is living and moving.  It is not static.  What was consider fact, years ago, in many instances, is now seen not to be fact at all.  So, maybe it is good to have an open mind, because our minds are, in fact, finite.  

On the way to Pentecost we are brought face to face with the ways of human thinking and the ways of God; and, the two do not always match.  Take Peter’s fishing experience.  He knew his trade, and he knew that sometimes the fishing is good and sometimes it isn’t. When it isn’t, you clean up your equipment, get a good night’s rest, and go back at it the next day.   Then Jesus turns your world up-side-down.  He says, “forget your conclusions, Peter, and trust me.”  Peter, knows Jesus is out of his element but believes in him enough to say, “We worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets” (vs. 5). The results?  Mindboggling.

Sometimes, Jesus tests our common sense, and we are left scratching our heads, thinking that what He says isn’t making sense.  Could it be, however, that there is such a power at work in the world under which, even common sense, is placed?  Faith will sometimes test common sense, and call us out of ourselves and into the power of God. That’s what Jesus seems to be doing with Simon Peter.

Peter did what Jesus suggested, and the results were so staggering to him he said, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (vs. 8). Peter realized He was in the presence of someone who, in His actions, stretched his imagination to the limit and forced him to a new level of self-awareness.  “Amazement had seized” Peter, and stopped him dead in his tracks.  Then Peter heard life-transforming words from Jesus, “Do not fear, from now own you will be catching men” (vs. 10).  Peter and James and John (who were his partners) took Him seriously, and we read, “They left everything and followed Him” (vs. 11).

On the day of Pentecost, a movement will begin that will so impact countless numbers of people that for twenty centuries they will leave everything and follow Jesus.  These people will see through the ways and means of humankind, look into the face of God, by faith, and it will change their lives.  You may be one of those people.

C. S. Lewis said something that speaks to my heart.  He said, “Don’t shine so others can see you. Shine so that through you others can see Him.”  That’s what happened to Peter and his partners.  For the rest of their lives they sought to live so that through their lives people would see Jesus.  

Day 17, On The Road To Pentecost: I SAW A LIGHT FROM HEAVEN

Acts 26:1-18

Saul of Tarsus!  Who would have ever thought that this man would become a follower of Jesus Christ?  Yet, he met Jesus (vs. 13), and Jesus changed his life.  From the moment of the initial change until the day of his death, Saul lifted up Jesus Christ and proclaimed that He is the long-awaited Messiah.  Until the day he died in Rome, Saul, now called, Paul, sought to reach out to Jew and Gentile alike, obeying Jesus and seeking, as Jesus said, “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:18).

The broken world of Saul’s day and the broken world of our day has not changed much.  People still need a life-transforming relationship with God.  God’s grace is so marvelous that God doesn’t write off people; not even Saul of Tarsus.  God isn’t saying “Get in or get out.”  He is saying, “Get in.  Get in.  Get in.”  God still seeks entrance into our distracted, busy, and anxious lives.  He is still calling people to turn from the darkness to the light, and from the dominion of Satan to God.  God is still the God who receives and forgives and pours out His grace.  God is still the God who comes into our lives and saves us from our on selves, from our own pride and lust and greed.    

On the day of Pentecost God would pour out His Holy Spirit on His people and set into motion a force for God’s amazing love in the world.  The early church saw itself as a movement for Jesus in the world.  Wherever people of the church went, they lifted up Christ, and gave themselves to works God would have them do.  Two thousand years later the force is still awakening the lives of broken, hurting, and hungry people.

Edward Gibbon, in his work, The Decline And Fall Of the Roman Empire, describes the early decades of this force for God’s love by saying, 

A pure and humble religion gently insinuated itself into the minds of men, grew up in silence and obscurity, derived new vigor from opposition, and finally erected the triumphant banner of the Cross on the ruins of the Capitol.

That’s remarkable.  Many people thought the Jesus’ Movement would die after a brief period, and become one more religion that could not stand the test of time.  They were wrong.  The Holy Spirit filled those people with the power of God, and used them in ways that most likely stunned even them.  Today, the call of Jesus is still front and center, “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.”

The story of Jesus is still being written and we are invited into it, with all the weight of the Holy Spirit behind us.  

Day 16, On The Road To Pentecost: HE IS THE SON OF GOD

Acts 9:19-31

Saul of Tarsus was a devout man of Jewish faith.  To say, “devout,” is probably an understatement.  He was a pious, fervent, committed, serious, and staunch believer in Judaism.  Then the foundation of his entire life was rocked by the voice of Jesus as Saul traveled the road to Damascus where he was going to bring Christians to Jerusalem to face the fathers of the Jewish community. Jesus said to Saul, “Why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4).  And, whatever happened in his heart that day, changed him forever.  He immediately began “to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God’” (Acts 9:20).

Saul’s conversion would reach far beyond Damascus, and rock the world both of his day and ours.  Not many days into His new life in Christ, however, certain people “plotted together to do away with him” (vs. 23).  Some of Saul’s friends helped him get out of Damascus and took him to Jerusalem.  Because of his reputation, Saul wasn’t freely accepted among the believers.  They just couldn’t believe a man could so radically change his life; not Saul, at least.  Fortunately, God raised up a man named, Barnabas, who took Saul under his wings and received him as a real brother in Christ (see verse 27).  Saul’s story had just begun and it would have many ups-and-downs and ins-and-outs.  However, God used this man in tremendous ways and, through him, began the ongoing evangelizing and discipling of people around the world, an evangelizing and discipling that is still underway twenty centuries later.

I know that none of us is Saul, but I wonder how God has changed our lives?  Has God rocked our inner world?  Is God speaking into our circumstances, and conditions through us.  Or, perhaps, to see it differently, has God used us as a Barnabas to some young believer who is just getting started in their journey with Jesus?  

We need each other in our faith journey.  We aren’t Lone Rangers.  We are the community of Jesus in the world.  The Church is that safe place where people can come, get their spiritual bearings, and become a part of the Body of Christ in their lives and in their world.  Of the early Church, Acts 9:31 says, “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.” 

As we journey in the power of the Holy Spirit may it happen again in our day.  Is it possible that God could raise of some folks whose lives have been so rocked by Jesus, that they become witnesses of the grace, mercy, power, and love of God?  I don’t know how to reach an aggressive, distracted, preoccupied world that moves to the drumbeat of power, lust, and money.  I’m quite sure, however, the Holy does know how.  In that light, God help us to live in such a way that God might slip into our communities in ways we never dreamed possible, and turn the world right-side-up, and fulfill His passion for His creation.

Day 15, On The Road To Pentecost: WORTHY IS THE LAMB WHO WAS SLAIN

Revelation 5:11-14

In the throne room of heaven, and caught up in the activities going on around him, the apostle John hears “the voice of many angels.” They are a part of a choir of singers so large John describes it as being comprised of “myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands” (vs. 11). At one point he says, “And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard singing…” (vs. 13). And what were they singing?  John tells us,

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing….To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”        

Seeing the resurrected Christ Jesus in divine authority mesmerized John.  Maybe it should mesmerize us, too.  John says that as the worship continued “the elders [who were around the throne on which Jesus sat), “fell down and worshiped” (vs. 14).  Maybe this is what one does when one experiences the suffering, crucified, but now risen, Lord of lords and King of kings.  Some things just bring the glory of God into you, and you worship; oh, how you worship.

In this vision Jesus was the focus of all the singing and celebrating and worshiping. Through it all we are brought face to face, again, with the marvelous love of God.  What God does in the human heart today is done because Jesus was slain, but came back to life through the resurrection power of God.  This event brings the very life of God into us, and changes us so that we know Jesus is “Worthy…to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing” (vs. 12).

Out of the tomb He came 

With grace and majesty.  

He is alive!  He is alive!  

God loves us so -- see here 

His hands, His feet, His side. 

Yes, we know He is alive! Our God reigns. 

                           (Leonard E Smith, Jr., 1974)

It is a dangerous world in which we live but, in that world, “Our God reigns.”  He is guiding and directing and saving and restoring and renewing His creation.  We’re not home yet, so we don’t see the full ramifications.  Rest assured, however, that the integrity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, will get us home.  God will get us home. And, on the journey home may we join the many voices and sing,

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing….To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” 

Day 14, On The Road To Pentecost: GENUINE HOSPITALITY

Luke 14:12-14

The kingdom of God in the world operates as an alternative community.  Jesus describes it as a luncheon or dinner, and his counsel is for us to open the doors of the gathering to everyone, not just the folks we know. “Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” (vs. 13).  In other words, invite the marginalized, the disenfranchised and those who might otherwise be excluded and alienated.   

  

Followers of Jesus march to a different drumbeat. They live and move and have their being in the mind and spirit of Jesus.  They open their hearts to any and all.  The world thrives on money and power and glamour. The kingdom of God says that money and power and glamour are not important.  There is room at the table of God for everyone, even you and me.

In Luke 14, Jesus sets the stage for what is to come when the Holy Spirit is poured out on God’s church and into the hearts of God’s people.  God’s people are a people of love, acceptance, hospitality, and openness.  We don’t shut doors, we open them.  We don’t have an economic, political, social, or racial requirement.  We invite everyone to the table of Jesus, because once upon a time, Jesus invited us to His table.  We live in a spirit of hospitality, a hospitality rooted and grounded in God’s amazing grace.

Several years ago, Newsweek magazine carried the story of the memorial service held for Hubert Humphrey, former vice-president of the United States. Hundreds of people came from all over the world to say good-bye to their old friend and colleague. But one person who came was shunned and ignored by virtually everyone there. Nobody would look at him, much less speak to him. That person was former president Richard Nixon. Not long before, he had gone through the shame and infamy of Watergate. He was back in Washington for the first time since his resignation from the presidency.       

Then a very special thing happened, perhaps the only thing that could have made a difference and broken the ice. President Jimmy Carter, a follower of Christ, who was in the White House at that time, came into the room. Before he was seated, he saw Nixon over against the wall, all by himself. He went over to [him] as though he were greeting a family member, stuck out his hand to the former president, and smiled broadly. To the surprise of everyone there, the two of them embraced each other, and Carter said, "Welcome home, Mr. President! Welcome home!"      

Commenting on that, Newsweek magazine asserted, "If there was a turning point in Nixon's long ordeal in the wilderness, it was that moment and that gesture of love and compassion."   (http://www.sermonsplus.co.uk/index.htm).

What is it we say to the disenfranchised?  We say what we say to everyone, “Welcome home.”

Day 13, On The Road To Pentecost: HOLY HOLY HOLY

Revelation 4:1-11

From Easter morning to Pentecost Sunday, we are continually called to look into the face of the resurrected Jesus and lay out our lives before Him so that He can pour the very life of God into us.  In the first century the church lived, first of all, in the in-between time.  Jesus was risen but the Holy Spirit had not yet been given.  For fifty days following His resurrection, the believers met and prayed and reflected and dreamed.  During these days Jesus revealed Himself to be alive to many people.  Today, we know that during these fifty days the believers were moving toward the dramatic and cosmic size pouring out of the Holy Spirit, but they didn’t.  Today, we journey aware that in every conceivable way, God was at work then, and God is at work now.

In our world we need to get glimpses of the resurrected Lord because He is with us today in a different way than He was with the first believers.  Today He is the suffering, crucified, and now living Lord of lords and King of kings.  Today we see Him high and lifted up, the Sovereign of the universe.  The apostle John helps us see Jesus.  In his vision on the island of Patmos, John sees Jesus “sitting on the throne.  His appearance was difficult to describe but John says, “Around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the throne I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads” (vs. 4). The throne was the center of activity and many things were happening all around the throne.  What we most need to see, however, is these words to the One on the throne,

HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME…. Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created. (Revelation 4:8, 11)

We need to see Jesus in His fulness today.  In our troubled and troubling world, we need a Savior, not just someone who can get us out of the mess, but One who can enter into our stories lead us forward as One who has taken on life at its worst, all the way to death, and then burst out of the grave alive forevermore. An old gospel song by Alfred H. Ackley (1933) says,

I serve a risen Savior; He’s in the world today, 

I know that He is living, whatever men may say. 

I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer; 

And just the time I need Him, He’s always near. 

He lives, He lives! Christ Jesus lives today! 

He walks with me and talks with me  

along life’s narrow way. 

He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!   

You ask me how I know He lives within my heart. 

 He lives within my heart.

Day 12, On The Road To Pentecost: I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK

Revelation 3:14-22

The church in Laodicea was the church but, ironically, Jesus was on the outside knocking on the door, seeking admission.  The church had a knowledge of spiritual things but it did not experience the reality of spiritual things. They were, in the words of Jesus, “lukewarm” (vs. 16), a condition foreign to the ways of life in God’s kingdom.

This church lived an unexamined life.  Because it had wealth it thought everything was okay.  Deep down inside, though, Jesus knew this church was “wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (vs. 17).  They had come to focus on the wrong things, and their focus took them on a trajectory of spiritual and life failure.  Instead of writing it off, however, Jesus invited this church to invite Him into its story.  He stood at the door and knocked, saying, “if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me” (vs. 20).  Jesus’ promise went even further.  He said, “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” (vs. 21).  

It is a dangerous world in which we live, and Jesus is committed to enabling us to navigate the world in truth, integrity, and holiness.  To that end, Jesus calls us out of ourselves and into Himself.  He calls us to life, eternal life.  He invites us to intimate fellowship with Himself.  He calls us to live as citizens of His kingdom in the everyday world of our lives.  

On this journey to Pentecost, may we remember that God is with us and that He is present so that we can be overcomers.  The resurrected and now living Lord of lords is seeking intimate fellowship with His Church.  “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (vs. 22).

May our hearts pray today,

You are Lord, You are Lord 

You have risen from the dead 

And You are Lord 

Every knee shall bow 

Every tongue confess

That Jesus Christ is Lord        

              © 1977, Marvin Frey

Day 11, On The Road To Pentecost: THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL TEACH YOU

Luke 12:4-12

The Bible explains to us that we are dealing with a holy and sovereign God.  He is in charge of the universe.  He is all powerful and all knowing.  Tragically, most people don’t have this cosmic view of God.  Their world view indicates they don’t fear God,  they don’t need God, and they don’t make room for God.  

Jesus makes known to us the reality of the living God.  Life and death are at His fingertips.  If we are going to fear someone or something, it really ought to be God. Yet, almost before Jesus explains this to His disciples, He turns the discussion toward grace.  The God who could write us off and be justified in doing so, tells us that we are valued in His sight.  Our God doesn’t write people off; He invites them into His kingdom, His life, His love.  God works in such a way that He invites us to a place where He can say, “Do not fear” (vs. 7).  It seems that all throughout Scripture God is saying, “Do not fear.”

God has given us the greatest gift that can be given – Himself. He calls us into His life so that we can live and move and have our being from within the safe place of grace and mercy and love.  He calls us to a way of being that is transforming, renewing and energizing, the place of forgiveness and new beginnings and hope. Many people do not understand this about God, but those who have been embraced by His grace sure do.  Followers of Jesus live in a world blinded to grace, and in that world they are privileged to share the story of Jesus and to witness to what it means to have life in the very life of God.

For these reasons God has given His Church the Holy Spirit who is present in the lives of God’s people to enable them to testify to God’s “good and acceptable and perfect” will (see Romans 12:2).  The world needs a Savior and it has one.  The Holy Spirit fills the life of Jesus’ people with a power that enables them to be a fragrant aroma of Christ wherever they are.  When they know don’t how to share God’s truth, the Holy Spirit teaches them.  When they fall short in their ability to witness about the living Christ, the Holy Spirit teaches them.  Perhaps this is why we sing songs like,

Come, Holy Spirit, I need you;  

Come, sweet Spirit, I pray 

Come in your strength and your power;  

Come in your own gentle way 

Come like a spring in the desert;  

Come to the withered of soul 

Lord, let your sweet healing power;  

Touch me and make me whole.

                     Heritage Singers, 1973

A Prayer: 

Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, That my thoughts may all be holy. Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy. Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy. Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit,to defend all that is holy. Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy. (Augustine, 4^th century)

Day 10, On The Road To Pentecost: BE FAITHFUL

Revelation 2:8-11

The crushing weight of suffering, can destroy people of faith if they are not prepared for it.  The world we live in is harsh and brutal.  Man’s inhumanity to man is seen everywhere, and everywhere there is suffering and killing and destroying.  It is a most unsettling time in human history. It’s not new, mind you; just prevalent and in every neighborhood throughout the world.

The resurrected and now living Christ is aware of the situations throughout the world.  He is aware of your situation, and speaks His ever-familiar words to you, “Do not fear” (Rev. 2:10).  He spoke these words to the church in Smyrna, has spoken them all through history, and is speaking them today.  Life happens, and challenges of a thousand kinds happen in a world gone wrong.  The call of the living Christ in this world is “be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev 2:10).  

We are not forgotten to Jesus.  He is with us, even in the darkest moments of life.  We are not abandoned even though our journey takes us through suffering and pain and death.  As Oswald Chambers says, we may be “uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God” (My Utmost for His Highest, Updated edition, April 29 reading).  The road ahead in this world is unseen.  We can’t see five minutes ahead.  Yet, we do not stumble along the way.  We put our hands into the hands of the resurrected Lord and move forward, “certain of God.” We may not know what God will do in our lives or our circumstances but we know that He is eternally faithful and in that certainty we seek to be “faithful until death.”  We are faithful to Jesus because we trust in His Word.  We trust, knowing that regardless of where the road leads, it will lead to a cosmic moment when the resurrected Lord will give us “the crown of life.”  

We beseech thee, Master, to be our helper and protector. Save the afflicted among us; have mercy on the lowly; raise up the fallen; appear to the needy; heal the ungodly; restore the wanderers of thy people; feed the hungry; ransom our prisoners; raise up the sick; comfort the fainthearted.  

                      (Clement of Rome, 1st Century)

“In the world you have tribulation, 

but take courage, I have overcome the world.”

                                                 -- Jesus, John 16:33 (NASB)

Day 9, On The Road To Pentecost: JESUS, AFTER THE RESURRECTION

Revelation 1:9-20

When in a vision John saw Jesus on the throne of heaven he said, “I fell at His feet like a dead man” (Revelation 1:17).  It was an overwhelming moment for him to experience the Jesus of the Resurrection.  John saw Jesus, 

clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash.  His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.  His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.  In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and His face was like the sun shining in its strength (Revelation 1:13-17).

No wonder John fainted upon seeing Jesus.  Yet, Jesus reached out and touched John and spoke words to him that His disciples had come to hear often, “Do not be afraid” (vs. 17). 

In this vision John  saw Jesus in all His glory, the glory of heaven, sovereign, holy, all powerful, even frightening.  Perhaps this is why the first words out of Jesus’ mouth were, “Do not be afraid.”  Being in the presence of God can take away your breath.  You don’t treat moments like these lightly.  These are holy moments, life transforming moments, sacred moments.  Moments that changed the trajectory of your life. 

When you stand in the presence of “the first and the last…the living one” who “was dead” but is now “alive forevermore,” words don’t come easily and silence might just be the order of the day.  When one sees Jesus in His resurrection authority holding, “the keys of death and Hades” in His hands, it is time to be still and know that God is God (vs. 17-18).

This is the Jesus we encounter on the road to Pentecost, the Jesus who fills the life of His followers with the power His Holy Spirit.  We serve the risen Savior, the living Lord, the “Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end,” the one “who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens” (Revelation 22:13, 3:7).

The world doesn’t take Jesus too seriously, but those who have encountered the resurrected Jesus do.  The one we serve cannot be held in a grave.  

Up from the grave He arose,  

with a mighty triumph o'er His foes. 

He arose a Victor from the dark domain,  

and He lives forever, with His saints to reign.                                                                                -- Robert Lowery, 1874

Day 8, On The Road To Pentecost: HE BREATHED ON THEM

John 20:19-29

Ten of the eleven remaining disciples were gathered together on the evening of the day the rumor began to spread about Jesus being raised from the dead.  They gathered in fear because they knew the Jewish leaders would not be happy about the rumor, and might take their frustration out on them.  Then, Jesus showed up, standing in their midst and saying to them, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19). 

Revealing Himself to be alive, with the wounds visible on His hands, feet, and side, the disciples were awestruck and they “rejoiced when they saw the Lord” (John 20:20). As they collected their thoughts Jesus again said to them, “Peace be with you” (vs. 21).  Then He commissioned them when He said, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (vs. 21).  The Bible then says that as Jesus spoke these words, He breathed on  them.  That’s a strange act for our culture and age to grasp.  Yet, it was a profound act that draws us back to the creation story in Genesis 2:7 where we read, “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”  

As God breathed life into mankind in the beginning, He now breathes the life of the Spirit into His disciples.  It would be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, but even now the Holy Spirit is breathed into these men.  Whatever was to come in the life of these men, would be breathed onto all believers on the day of Pentecost, and it would change the world. 

I love what Barbara Brown Taylor says about what was going on at Pentecost and how it would affect Jesus’ disciples then, and His disciples now.  Taylor writes about Peter’s message on the day of Pentecost,

He told them how to prepare for a holy hurricane. ‘Reorient your lives.’  That is the truth of what he told them, knowing full well that was what would happen the moment Jesus came to live in them.  Forget everything you ever thought you know about who is in charge in this world.  Get ready to revise all your notions about what makes someone great, or right, or worthy of your attention.  If you think you know which way is up, think again.  If you think you know how things should turn out in the end, get ready to be wrong.  This Jesus I have been telling you about is one surprise after another.  You cannot second-guess him.  All you can do is love him and let him love you back, any way he sees fit.  Sometimes it is so strong it can scare you to death.  You want to know what you should do.  Repent, return, revise, reinvent yourself                                          

                                           Bread of Angels, p. 72-73

“Holy hurricane.”  This is a great way to describe the work of the Holy Spirit.  God can’t be contained, controlled, manipulated, or harnessed.  When Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into you, get ready for the ride of your life.  

Day 7, On The Road To Pentecost: PEACE BE TO YOU

Luke 24:36-40

The resurrected Christ showed up in the midst of some of the disciples and we are told ‘they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit” (Luke 24:36-37).  The emotions didn’t last too long, however, and they found themselves hearing Jesus say to them, “Peace be to you” (Luke 24:36).  Also, apparently, Jesus knew they would need some evidence that it was He, so He invited them to see His hands and feet, to touch Him so that they would see “a spirit does not have flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39-40). The reality of the living Christ would become more and more real to them over the next several days and weeks, and by the time Pentecost came, they were convinced Jesus was alive.  

How does one live in light of the resurrection of Jesus?  That Jesus is alive changes everything.  Maundy Thursday leaves us confused.  Good Friday leaves us stunned and grieving.  Holy Saturday leaves us sad, bewildered, and frustrated.  Then Sunday comes and Jesus breaks into our lives, proving that He is alive, comforting us with the powerful, hopeful and recreating words, “Peace be to you” (Luke 24:36).

Can the Peace of Christ have meaning in the world of our day?  It is a very troubled and troubling world, and the thought of peace can seem very far away from the trenches in which we live our lives.  Still, peace is the promise of Jesus.  He said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27).  The peace of Jesus is an inward reality that governs the lives of believers.  Peace may or may not come in the world but it can come within the human heart.  Truthfully, it is the human heart that most needs the peace of the resurrected Jesus.  If the inner heart is one of peace then the outward expressions of that inner heart will be peace.  

Truthfully, too, it is not peace we so much need.  It is the One who brings peace we most need.  When He is present the atmosphere of our lives is brought to life.  When He is present the power of love fills the room.  When He is present Life takes over.  When He is present death is redefined, conquered, and put in its place. When He is present the final word of our lives will not be death.  The final word will be Life, eternal Life.  When Jesus is present we are able to give our lives to Him so that in Him our hearts are not troubled, and fear is jettisoned from us.   In Christ Jesus we can pray,

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. 

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.   

                        (St.  Francis of Assisi)

Day 6, On The Road To Pentecost: PERPLEXED

Acts 5:17-26

In the early days of the church, as the Holy Spirit moved among the people, the apostles found themselves in hot water with the religious authorities.  In fact, they were put into a pubic jail.  The word was, “this has got to stop. We’ll put them in jail and that will shut them up.”  It didn’t.  An angel of God “during the night…opened the gates of the prison,” set them free and said to them, “Go, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this life” (Acts 5:19-20).  They obeyed but when the authorities found out what they were doing, they rounded them up again, and brought them before religious leaders to answer for what they were doing.

Isn’t it interesting how the life-transforming work of God’s grace in certain places upsets the established order of things?  The God who would bring peace to the world is silenced, or so it seems.  If the powers that be have their way, the Gospel is simply opposed and rejected and stilled.

It is intriguing that the apostles and the early church, had no intention of being a problem to anybody.  They just has a message, a resurrected Lord, to share with the world.  They could not be silenced, and they sought to “speak to the people…the whole message of this Life” (Acts 5:20).  Some things have to be shared and proclaimed.  A message that proclaims the suffering, death, and then resurrection of someone, can’t be silenced.  Jesus is that “some One,” and those who have tasted, in their souls, who Jesus is and what He is doing, can’t be silenced.  Some things have to be shared and proclaimed.

Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962), the world-famous violinist, earned a fortune with his concerts and compositions, but he generously gave most of it away. So, when he discovered an exquisite violin on one of his trips, he wasn't able to buy it. Later, having raised enough money to meet the asking price, he returned to the seller, hoping to purchase that beautiful instrument. But to his great dismay it had been sold to a collector. Kreisler made his way to the new owner's home and offered to buy the violin. The collector said it had become his prized possession and he would not sell it. Keenly disappointed, Kreisler was about to leave when he had an idea. "Could I play the instrument once more before it is consigned to silence?" he asked. Permission was granted, and the great virtuoso filled the room with such heart-moving music that the collector's emotions were deeply stirred. "I have no right to keep that to myself," he exclaimed. "It's yours, Mr. Kreisler. Take it into the world, and let people hear it"  (“Our Daily Bread,” February 4, 1994). 

Some things just must be shared.  They can't be kept in a display case somewhere.  So it is with Jesus.  He must be shared.  The news is too good to be "consigned to silence."  May God help us to let our lives speak clearly the wonders of God amazing grace.

Day 5, On The Road To Pentecost: GOD'S GRACE AT WORK

Acts 5:12-16

In this brief paragraph we get a glimpse of the spirit of life in the early days of the Church.  Mystery abounded.  People witnessed the activities through eyes of wonder and amazement.  They really didn’t even know what to do with it all.  They just knew that something was happening they had never experienced before.  The wind of the Holy Spirit was blowing and all they could do was observe it (see John 3:8).  There was unity among the believers and fear among others.  The church grew and the news spread.  Broken people in need of healing were brought before the church, and “signs and wonders were taking place among the people” (see Acts 5:12).

These things cause me to wonder what life might be like should believers unite their hearts to the DNA of God, and then live in the light of God’s DNA flowing through them.  I wonder how Acts 5:12-16 might find expression in our day if we could remove ego and pride from the story and just let God be God in our midst.  

I’ve often wondered what it would take for God to burst into the storyline of the 21^st century so as to really influence people for the grace and mercy He has revealed in Jesus.  I’m not sure it would look exactly like it looked in the opening days of the church but I am convinced it would be beyond our imagination.  I don’t think we could think it up or orchestrate it. I’m pretty sure that we believers would all stand amazed as we experienced the new outpouring, and sought to be a part of it all.

I’m wondering what God might do in my life should I could really step aside and let Him be God in me.  Have you ever wondered that about your life?  How does God want to be present today?  What does God want to do?  How does God seek to make Himself known today? Is our faith child-like enough to believe that God “is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works with us” (Ephesians 3:20)?

A Prayer for today:

“Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, it is you who said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant:  ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers have gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah.For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:24-30)

Day 4, On The Road To Pentecost: SOMETHING MARVELOUS

Psalm 118:1-24

The Lord God of the universe is on the move in His creation.  Not just on the move, though.  God is on the move in redemptive, restoring and reinvigorating ways.  God’s chosen, “the chief cornerstone,” of all that God is doing in the world has so powerfully moved in history that the psalmist proclaims, “You have become my salvation” (Ps. 118:22, 21).  Salvation isn’t something God gives or distributes.  God is our Salvation.  Salvation is something God is to us.  More than this, salvation is Someone God is to us. No wonder the Psalmist says, “This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes” (Ps. 118:23).  To that end, when the Psalmist speaks of that time in which God is doing something marvelous in His creation, he describes it this way, “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps. 118:24).  

What Jesus accomplished in His life, death, and resurrection is something marvelous to behold.  It staggers the imagination to realize that death is a defeated foe, that life is not without meaning, and that our lives can be stamped with God’s marvelous, redeeming, restoring, reinvigorating, and amazing grace.  

As one who lives in the aftermath of what cancer can do in a body, and facing my own mortality in poignant and powerful ways because of it, I can testify that God’s amazing grace is at work.  I am banged up, beat up, and somedays, fed up, with my broken body.  However, into the damage has come God’s “chief cornerstone,” and because of Him “there’s a deep settled peace in my soul” (a line from the Gospel song, “Hidden Peace,” by John S. Brown, 1899).  

Like so many of you I, too, have looked into the realities of my world, and I say with the psalmist, “Open to me the gates of righteousness; I shall enter through them, I shall give thanks to the LORD” (Ps. 118:19).  God has so profoundly impacted my life that whether I continue to live or if I die today, “I…will tell of the works of the LORD” (Ps. 118:17).

God’s grace stuns us into a new reality, a new way of being. When the apostle Paul was awakened to God’s grace and explained what it means, he simply said, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).  What a great grace.  What a great life.  What a great God.  Hear this prayer of Augustine, 354-430,

Look upon us, O Lord, and let all the darkness of our souls vanish before the beams of thy brightness. Fill us with holy love, and open to us the treasures of thy wisdom. All our desire is known unto thee, therefore perfect what thou hast begun, and what thy Spirit has awakened us to ask in prayer. We seek thy face, turn thy face unto us and show us thy glory. Then shall our longing be satisfied, and our peace shall be perfect.  

Day3, On The Road To Pentecost: THE SOUND OF SALVATION

Psalm 118:1-24

“The sound of joyful shouting and salvation is in the tents of the righteous” (Ps. 118:15).  This is an interesting phrase, isn’t it?  “The sound of joyful shouting,” and “the sound of salvation.”  “Joyful shouting,” I get; but, what does salvation sound like?  I’ve never even thought of salvation as having a “sound.”  

I am thinking the psalmist had to turn to metaphor to express the faith of God’s people.  Some things have to be experienced and, once experienced, it is often difficult to describe for someone who wasn’t at the experience, exactly what it was like. Some experiences need to be shared with others, but how does one share them?  Maybe the “sound of … salvation” must be heard by one’s self before it can be grasped, if “grasped” is even the right word. 

I love the word “salvation” because it implies a need of some kind from which someone needs to be delivered.  Metaphorically, we might see it as someone being in deep trouble who doesn’t have the resources at hand to solve the problem.  So, going down for the third time, as it were, and crying out for help, they know that if help doesn’t come, they’ve had it.  Then, wonder of wonders, they feel the hand of someone who has come into their story, with the strength to save them. In a few moments they find themselves in the place of safety and deliverance.  The near tragedy has passed and they know they were saved.  

The Bible refers to our Living God as one who saves.  He comes into the stuff of our lives with deliverance and mercy and grace in His arsenal.  Coming right down into the trenches of life, He saves us; and, for the rest of our lives, no matter where the journey might take us, we know that it is only because of God that we even have a story to tell.  What does salvation sound like?  Maybe it sounds like “amazement,” if amazement could have a sound.  Maybe it sounds like “pure wonder,” if pure wonder could have a sound.  Maybe it sounds like that feeling of experiencing something so awesome that one blurts out, “it’s too good to be true,” If that emotion could have a sound.   

Throughout the life of Jesus people were amazed at Him, mystified by what He taught, how he interacted with people, and how he touched people and brought healing into their lives.  In this light, maybe salvation sounds like hope.  Good Friday thought it had destroyed hope.  Easter says, “Not so fast.  It’s not over yet.  God is on the move.”  

God is on the move in our lives, isn’t He?  And, He is on the move in resurrection power.