grid blog :: pentecost 2005

grid blog :: pentecost 2005!... _________ I wasnt entirely sure if there were any parameters on this grid blog but Im am glad to participate even if I missed any other guidelines than the blog being about pentecost. I am also writing this early as I am going to be away from the computer over the weekend but wanted to be involved. _________ Pentecost revived the Church, we are so afraid of that word sometimes because of the amount of hurt it has caused. REVIVE, what is it we need to be revived from....we need to be revived from our plans, what we think is best, at Pentecost God came, and when God comes our plans go out the window. Maybe your thinking "Oh OK I think Ive heard this sermon before" but I wonder if hearing it again (even from my blogging pulpit) would be such a terrible thing if we never Really took it on board, I dont write this from a completly perfect position either (are you surprsied, yep I thought so), but my point is that while our plans are not always problems, we need to stand back sometimes, let go, give up, come to our end for God to be given the room to take hold. So heres my story for pentecost today The Story of the Boulder ...Theres a story of a young guy who was excited about "serving the Lord" and when I say "excited" I mean "excited" this guy was the one who was first standing for the hymns and didnt leave that well timed getting up time people in church instinctivly have ...one day he was wondering what to give his life to, what work God was calling him to. He struggled and strived for an asnwer from God and then one day he was on a walk and his ind was a million miles away from his yearning for a call, and he was enjoying the cold air rushing down into his lungs and looking around at the landscape where he was ...suddenly he saw it, the Boulder, he looked, and watched, mesmerised almost, this was it, as he looked up to the sky for anything, just confirmation to run towards the Boulder that had captured his heart, the still small voice confirmed it, "push this boulder", "push it for my glory" so the young guy went for it pushing with everything he had. ...after a while he was getting tired, his enthusiastic smile which accompanied his frantic pushing was dropping as he came to the realisation that the boulder wasnt moving, slowly but surely his last ebs of strength where being used up, his smile had morphed to a gritting of the teeth as he went for another push....finally, sweating, hurting, and spent he slowly slid down the boulder. ....sitting at the foot of it, he cried out to God, thinking of everything he had put into the pushing, all the excitement he had lost, he said "I tried, I gave everything, nothing moved, the boulder cant be moved its hopeless" God replied instantly "I asked you to push the boulder not to move it" and with that the boulder moved with the slight movements of the young mans back panting still out of breath from his pushing. God uses our weakness, our emptiness, often that means the lack of our plans, if I had seen this guy pushing on a boulder (I hope you grasped that it was symbolic, Ive never met anyone who has been called to the "restructuring the geological landscape ministry") I would have thought, "man that is hopeless, but hey good luck with that!" and so often the callings God put on our lives are too much, and thats because God dosent want us to take control, he wants to use us as the sheep dog not the shepherd thats his job, to be attentive to his ear, to be an outworker of his plans, and they wont always be logical, but they will be the best. The on lookers to the pentecost experience didnt understand what was happening, they thought they were drunk, and we need to be people in the 21st Century who look to heaven for answers, for vision with hearts that are responsive in action to do things that arent logical, where people think we are crazy, intoxicated, and drunk (understand me here, Im making a point that not everything God calls us to makes sense im not advocating excessive alcohol). But I think we see something else key in Acts 2, it would have been easy for Paul and the early church to say, "oh you guys wouldnt understand this is God stuff" and so often we as the church can take that attitude (im talking catholic (universal), no ones gets out of this) of spiritual elitism, our ways are better than yours, we know, you dont .....but the truth is Paul explained, and we need to, we need to so that we have grace to our sisters and brothers who dont understand because they havent experienced the same as we have. So in closing we need to be revived by the spirit today on pentecost, revived so be filled with vision to do illogical things for the kingdoms advancing, but to be a people of Grace willing to give an answer and not take the road of elitism. Bless you today to be filled by the Holy spirit and LIVE life in the freedom and Grace of Jesus. No apologies for not writing on what I originally intended to by the way! I was going to translate this into automated translation french (which may not be that great) but anyway I tried but blogger spewed out all the french characters so its a purely english offering today.