[Dailydevo] Daily Devotion Monday June 5, 2006

[Barry Ludwig]

Daily Devotions  Monday, June 5, 2006

This is the week that follows the day of Pentecost. It is the season of the
Holy Spirit who transforms God's people with energy into people of the
Kingdom of God. What does the Spirit breathe into us? This week Pastor
Ludwig will explore that question.

 

Acts 2: 1- 12

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together  in one place.
And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush  of a violent
wind, and it filled the entire house where  they were sitting. Divided
tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a  tongue rested on each of
them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to  speak in
other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews
from every nation under heaven  living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the
crowd gathered and was bewildered,  because each one heard them speaking in
the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all
these who  are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us,
in our own native  language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of
Mesopotamia,  Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging  to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome,
both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs--in our own languages we hear
them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed,
saying to one another, "What  does this mean?"

 

Who Belongs to God?

We live in a world made up of insiders and outsiders. Of course that can
change. One who was on the outside last year might very well find himself on
the inside next year. When I was in high school, jocks were insiders and
academic geeks were outsiders. After college the reverse was true for that
same population. In the Holy Land, a Jewish people who had been forced into
ghettos in Europe are now doing the same to Palestinians. Mary Chapin
Carpenter once wrote a song with the line, "Sometimes you're the windshield
and sometimes you're the bug." It is the way of life, but Pentecost reminds
us it is not the way of God.

 

On Pentecost the disciples of Jesus Christ spoke a language of redemption
and love which invited ALL people to be a part of God's household. The
various languages and cultures to whom the disciples spoke, were at odds
with one another but in Christ they were invited to be one people in spite
of their different political persuasions, dietary disciplines and cultural
points of view. Jesus did not call them to be one in each other, but to be
one in HIM.

 

Do you feel like an outsider? You are not! In Christ you have been invited
to be inside the company of God's people. Are you treating another human
like an outsider. Put it down and inhale the breath of the transforming
Spirit of Christ. Pray for the Spirit of Pentecost that you might hold out a
hand of invitation to all people in the name and mind of Jesus.

 

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