Pentecost

Today is Pentecost Sunday. Wouldn't it be neat to be baptized on this day? The day that the apostles received the Holy Spirit? I was thinking about that today during church.

Anyway, today is Pentecost. Today is the day that the apostles allowed themselves to be CHANGED by the Holy Spirit. This was the day that they spoke in tongues and began the formation of the church. Today the same Holy Spirit descends on us. Will we allow it to change our lives also? Will we allow it to change our hearts to fervently seek Christ? COME HOLY SPIRIT, COME!!!

God Changes Things

Today as I was doing my devotional and reading the scriptures, I thought I would focus on a certain verse for my blog. However, as I read the devotional, God changed my thinking. Now, I can't even find the original verse that had struck me initially.

"Every sabbath, in the synagogue, Paul led discussions in which he persuaded certain Jews and Greeks." - Acts 18:4

Paul never missed a sabbath. As he traveled, he went to any synagogue that he found. However, he talked about Jesus and persuaded those who didn't believe to believe. When we enter church we know that the preacher/priest will talk about God/Jesus. We expect that. However, we should not let the preacher/priest be the only one. The preacher/priest is teaching us so that we too will go out and talk to others about God/Jesus. We should be focused on God's standards and not worldly standards. God has blessed me with a godly man who talked about this very topic in an e-mail this morning. I'm in awe. But there's more.

"Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly." 2 Timothy 2:16

Jesus said that we should be "in" the world and NOT "of" the world. This is reflected in Timothy's words as well. Kyle said that he "sucks" as a man according to worldly standards - he doesn't have tons of stories of sleeping with women, he doesn't drink excessively and have great drunken stories, he doesn't play video games well, etc. However, I am glad. I started thinking about the other man in my life whom I have always looked up to, my Dad. He too "sucks" by worldly standards. But I'm glad. I'm glad that the two most important men in my life are walking according to God's standards. I hope the little man that I am helping to create will do the same thing.

"Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness." Romans 6:13

This verse, most importantly, means our tongues. We should use our tongues for righteousness and talk about God/Jesus. That will make us all "suck" at worldly standards (for men or women), but that's something to REJOICE about!