A little girl was
gardening with her grandma. They were
watering the rose bushes in the garden.
The little girl got a rosebud and tried to open the petals in the form
of rose. Every time she tried to open
them, she failed. She went to grandma
and complained: “Every time I try to
open the petals, I fail. How come when
God opens them, it becomes a rose?”
Grandma’s response was great. “Sweetheart, God does the work from inside
out. And when God does it, the outcome
is beautiful.”
Today is a special
Sunday: Today is Pentecost. We celebrate Christmas and Easter. I do not know why Pentecost is not given a
special recognition. Today is the
birthday of the church. What is it? What
happened on that day?
The best way to explain
is that God worked from the inside out.
You just heard different languages being read. If the Tower of Babylon was a time where too
many languages caused confusion and chaos, then Pentecost is the time when God
revealed Himself in comprehendible languages to different nations so that the
Truth will be revealed and guide us:
John writes:
But when he, the
Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. (16:13)
We also read in 14:25 "All this I have spoken
while still with you. But the Counselor,
the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all
things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
God is revealing Himself
in a new way to us. He revealed Himself
through Biblical patriarchs, judges, prophets, then through His Son Jesus
Christ. Now He reveals Himself in the
form of the Spirit, who is our comforter, teacher, and guidance to the truth.
Let us examine the story
of Pentecost:
1- The Spirit of God
descended on a group of people who were united in prayer.
Christianity is not a
private, individualistic religion.
Although we make the decision to accept Jesus and follow him
individually, yet there is collective response and responsibilities.
The Spirit of God
descended on a group of people and not individuals. We should not take this lightly.
Please notice that the
group was there in prayer. Although
there were talking, but their talk was prayer and meditation.
While we were doing men’s
Bible Study last Saturday, we were talking about Daniel and his courage to
confess to God his sins and the sins of his people (Daniel 9). We found that praying and confessing to God
are so important, yet we do not do it.
We asked ourselves why.
Beside the time factor,
someone said that we have the problem of gossiping. If someone shares with us a topic to pray
for, unfortunately it becomes a gossip issue.
The Holy Spirit descended
on a praying group. I do not understand
how to ignore such an important fact. I
do not understand why we have more people attracted to come to the different
activities of the church, but praying groups are not very attractive.
A tour guide in
There is power in a group
who prays. Thomas was not with the
disciples. He wanted to be alone. Other disciples were together in prayer. There is power in being united in
prayer. “…when two or
three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Matt. 18:20).
We will continue in
English.