An Outgoing God... a short reflection on Luke 15:28

Part of my devotion this morning was Luke 15:1-32... The parable of the Lost Sheep, the lost Coin and the lost (prodigal) son... Parables I love and are moved by all the time. AS I read them again today something new struck me... I don't think its revolutionary, its no deep secret code or anything... but it is something that helped me focus on the grace and the love of God. Much is made of the Father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, throwing off his dignity and running to embrace his son as he comes home. It moves me to think of God's reaching out to welcome repentant sinners home. It is a great illustration of the ministry of Jesus to sinners and tax collectors.

But today in v 28 I noticed something I hadn't really thought of before... When the elder son came home he refused to go in to the party, he was upset about what the younger son had done and how he was being welcomed back... it say that the father went out to him as well... he went to reason with him affirm his place in God's family and invite him to come and join the celebrations...

WE have an outgoing God who goes out to welcome us back home, from the lostness of sin and of joyless self righteousness. A god who goes out to embrace and to engage, to comfort and to confront both were acts of love, both to call us back to his family together.

Nicky Gumble in his One Year Bible comments says that we are left with a cliff hanger will the elder son come in and be reconciled with his father and his younger brother or walk away... That is the punchline of Jesus story to the pharisees and scribes who were concerned about Jesus spending too much time with sinners and tax collectors. It is a cliff hanger often for the Church as well...

Thank you Father God For being such an outgoing God.

see a prayer I worte for public worship based on this reflection.

Empowered to Serve (Romans 12:1-16)... God's Spirited people: The gifts of the Holy Spirit in Bible and the Church Today (Part 2)

I really like Ben Elton’s satirical book ‘Melt down’ about the impact of the credit crunch on an upwardly mobile couple and their friends living in London. They decided their son was a gifted child and therefore they sent him to a private school across London, because he wouldn’t get the attention he needed at the local state school all their resources would probably go into just controlling all the kids from the local housing estate. They were quit amazed at how all their friends children seemed to be gifted as well and deserved a private school education. There children were gifted, they told themselves, it wasn’t a case of white flight! It didn’t hurt that their son had a nanny who helped him with most of his homework and projects. But when they hit financial difficulties and faced bankruptcy, they decided that just maybe their son was really quite normal and reluctantly sent him to the local state school, where they were surprised that he actually did really well and made a good friend with a child from a refugee African family. 

Giftedness is an interesting topic in our society today. We tend to value people who are gifted…gifted athletes, gifted musicians, gifted academics, gifted business people, gifted artists… are sort after, acknowledged, praised, highly paid and placed on a pedestal…yes they still have to put in the hard yards and the practise and produce the goods but we celebrate and value them. We promote them as role models and are often surprised when they let us down with their behaviour outside the field, or their field. We confuse gifted with good, ability with virtue. And we can think that being gifted leads to status and entitlement. 

We are working our way through a series looking at the gifts of the Holy Spirit in scripture and the church today. When it comes to thinking about gifts and giftedness in the church we can carry the thinking of the world with us. You just have to look at the idea of celebrity pastors, gifted communicators with access to the internet who have more status and influence than they actually warrant. The gospel actually turns our thinking about having gifts and being gifted on its head, in Kingdom of God thinking, as we will see from our reading this morning, God gives gifts to all his people so they can serve and love one another. The gifts of the spirit are given to empower us to serve. 

Romans 12 starts ‘therefore’, it is a changing point in Paul’s letter to the Romans: from theology to ethics, doctrine to duty, belief to behaviour, from exposition, explaining the Gospel, to exhortation, how we live it out in everyday life. Paul had been writing to the church in Rome which was made up of both Jews and gentiles, how we are to be a cross cultural people of God has always been a challenge for the church, he explains that they are one people because both Jew and gentile have been made right with God by grace, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that they are one people because they have been filled by the same Holy Spirit. Now in Romans twelve he starts to explain how they are to live out that reality. The first two verses we had read to us this morning give us the over view of what is to come. That we are to live our lives as a living sacrifice… this morning we sang Third days song offering which sums it well in the lyrics.. “Lord I give you my life… because you gave your life for me… This is spiritual worship that our whole lives are handed over to God: that we are wholeheartedly about God and the purposes of God. It means that our minds are renewed; our thinking needs to change from conforming to the world around us, elsewhere Paul talks of having the mind of Christ, that we are gospel people. Then the rest of the book of Romans applies that to different ways of behaviour, it starts with gifts and serving one another and as we saw in the last section of our reading it moves on to look at how we love and treat each other. Then need for virtues to go alongside giftedness.

Paul starts by exhorting his readings not to think to highly of themselves, but rather to have a sober judgement in accordance with the faith God has distributed to you. In the ancient near east the idea of being a servant or serving others was looked down upon,  society was based on things like status, patronage and reciprocity; that’s doing things for others so you will get somewhere in return. But Paul invites his readers not to have that mind set but rather to see that they have been given gifts to be used to serve each other and those gifts should be used lavishly and effectively. 

We often think that in accordance with the measure of faith we have been given means that “we’ll my faith isn’t that strong so I don’t think God would have given me any gift’. But a sober judgement calls us to not only to not think too highly of ourselves but also not to think too lowly of ourselves either. That measure of faith is not how much faith we think we have but invites us to look at the measure of what Jesus Christ has done for us.  Jesus death and resurrection, Jesus forgiveness and new life is the measure of our faith. You know if you come to God with the feeling, “well who am I God, I’m not up to the task?” you actually stand in a longline of heroes of the faith who felt the same way… Moses and his speech impediment… David a shepherd and the youngest in his family… Jeremiah no one’s going to listen because I’m just a boy…Isaiah…a man of unclean lips from a people of unclean lips… Peter… a fisherman who denied Jesus three times…Paul…who had persecuted the Christians…Paul… who because of that considers himself the chief sinner and least amongst the apostles. It’s not how we feel but what Christ has done for us.

Paul goes onto say that it’s not about us as individuals either but rather that we are the body of Christ, just as the body is made up of many parts and for the body to function each of those parts needs to play its part so it is with us. For the body of Christ to function properly we all need to use the gifts God has given us. For you to grow you need the people around you to minister to you, for me to grow in Christ and do what God has called me to do I need you to do what God has called and empowered you to do.  

Then Paul lists seven gifts that are representative of what he is talking about. All the lists of Gifts of the Holy Spirit we will be looking at are different because none of them are exhaustive and they are all designed to convey different things in their context. Here you kind of get the feeling that the things Paul is talking about are our natural abilities rather than the supernatural things we will see in 1 Corinthians 12. Although as Paul starts with prophecy we need to acknowledge that they are gifts that come from the presence and empowering of the Holy Spirit. We shouldn’t be surprised if there seems to be a mix of what we might call natural ability and spiritual ability. God made each one us, he made each one of us unique each one of us with different gifts talents and abilities, and shouldn’t we expect that God would want us to use those things for his glory for his body to function. In Romans 8 Paul had talked of the whole of the Christian life being lived in the Spirit: we are God’s new creation and we should expect the Holy Spirit to take some of those things and infuse and grow them or recreate within us abilities and talents as Gifts for his body. 

Let’s have a look at these gifts. If you have a pen you might want to follow along…

First prophesy… prophesy is mentioned first because in both the Old and New Testament it is seen as the sign that the Spirit of God is present and at work. People often mistake prophecy as being foretelling the word of God. But it is more the telling forth of God’s word, by special revelation applying God’s word to situations here and now. The Old Testament prophets spoke to Israel’s life and situations through the lens of the covenant. Likewise in the New Testament it is through the lens of the gospel. It is bringing God’s timeless word and making it timely. It should be done in the measure of faith we are given, both calls the prophet to exercise their gift in the measure of faith they have for some it will mean the occasional word for others it will mean an abiding ministry. But also this measure of faith also calls the prophet to make sure they are speaking the gospel not their own words. Elsewhere as we will see Paul says it is for the community to discern what God is saying.

Serving is next and people usually jump up and down and say yes I can do that I can make the cups of tea or sweep the floor. But I think we are called to do that sort of thing, the word for serving used here is the same word we get the word deacon from. In older translations it was the word administration, which means the ability to make a vision a reality, like you would administer medicine to cure a disease. It speck of both a ministry of word and of practical tasks to see things done. In acts 6 seven people are set aside as deacons to ensure that the money gathered for the widows was distributed equally amongst the Jerusalem Jews and the Hellenistic Jews, Jews with a more Greek background. If this is your gift says Paul don’t step back get in and do it. 

If it’s Teaching then teach. Teaching differs from prophecy in as much that teaching is explaining the Gospel to people so they know it and can live it. Expository preaching is open up God’s word so we can understand it and apply it, in the midst of that I hope that God reveals himself to people and it becomes prophetic as well. But teaching is a gift for speaking, for leading children’s ministry adult education and small groups, one on one passing on the gospel. 

Encouraging, is the ability to exhort people to grow in their faith. To inspire people, while in Hebrews 10 it says we are to spur one another on. There are some people who are gifted at this. There a few people in my life when I spend time with them I come away built up and encouraged because they have used this gift. We all need these kinds of people around us.  Linda harper has often shared in our service and it is usually an encouragement from her own life to grow in our faith, I think it’s a good example of this…

If it giving then do so generously, we are all called o give and to contribute but here Paul is talking of people who simply have this as part of their lives. It may man that they are responsible for the church funds or personal resources but they have a passion to meet the needs of others financially. Paul encourages them to do it with generosity; Zacchaeus is a great example of this once he is welcomed back into God’s people by Jesus his first instinct is to give half his money to the poor. Not out of obligation but from what he has generously received from Christ. 

If its leadership then lead. There are tens of thousands of books that have been written about leadership, it is not a status thing but a service thing, being able to see a vision and see it come to fruition. People are often reluctant to take it up because of the time commitments and other things. But this is not just a gifting for people who take on offices in the church. Recently experts have started to talk about 360 degrees leadership. That wherever we are in an organisation we offer leadership in how we relate to those around us, how we respond to and encourage those in leadership positions how we inspire and relate and encourage those around us. It’s a gift to use where ever we are.

Lastly show mercy. The ability to show God’s love and care to someone. WE do it cheerfully because there is nothing worse than someone being made to feel as if they are a burden to people. But also we do it cheerfully because we know we are serving God by showing his mercy.  

Now don’t forget the list in Romans 12 is not exhaustive its simple examples… as I’ve been speaking maybe the spirit has been stirring up some thoughts in you as to what God has given you. 

One of the ways in our western world we have come to think too highly of ourselves is to see ourselves as consumers, we are here to consume, it’s our role in the economy, but we are finding out that rampant consumerism is counterproductive and destructive to our environment, and its unsustainable. It’s the same in the church. People often come to a church for what they can get out of it. In today’s world you can even go shopping in person or over the internet for the flavour, size, style, fashion and extras you want in a church just like you would any other consumer item. But our churches Logo speaks of the spirit ‘burning and not being consumed’… the call of God on us, is to be empowered to serve each other in love. We are constantly reminded that for a body to remain healthy and function it’s not only what they eat consume but how they exercise as well. God has made us new by his crucifixion and resurrection, God is renewing us by his Holy Spirit’s presence in us the call is not to be self-absorbed and self-centred, it has been said that someone who is wrapped up in themselves makes a small package, but rather to allow our gifts and ourselves to be unwrapped and unpacked to serve Christ through serving one another, to love Christ by loving one another through practical service.

A prayer of thanksgiving: based loosely on reflections on Romans 12

Just a simple prayer of thanksgiving and praise that has come out of my reflections on Romans 12... Paul speaking to a church that is bought together from across the cultural divide between Jew and gentile. Bought together by grace, in the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and by the presence and filling of God's Holy Spirit and called to present their lives as a living sacrifice; To serve one another and to love one another.

"All over" is sort of a kiwi-ism for being from different countries and cultures... on any given Sunday at St Peters we can have people from nine or ten different cultural backgrounds... we are a smallish church 40-60 on Sunday but we are a new Auckland church  reflecting the fact that Auckland is one of the most multi cultural cities in the world (top 10).

 The image is the burning bush an emblem of the PCANZ from the stain glass window at St Peters with candles. It represents individuals being filled by the Holy Spirit and our church set a blaze again by the Holy Spirit

Gracious and loving God,

We gather together today from all over:

From different origins and cultures,

Diverse backgrounds and places,

We have journeyed here by different routes,

Our stories are different,

But we gather together before you.

We are one because of your son Jesus Christ.

We come with a unity of purpose,

To give you thanks and praise,

To offer ourselves in worship.

Holy and Righteous God,

Great is your faithful love for us:

We had gone astray and were lost in darkness and sin,

We were far off from you and away from your grace,

But you stepped into our world, the word became flesh,

You sent your son Jesus to call us back to you,

To proclaim good news, recovery of sight freedom and release,

To proclaim and establish your kingdom on earth.

Jesus dies that our sins may be forgiven,

We know new life because you raised him to life again,

We are being transformed by your Holy Spirit’s presence in us.

Good and merciful Lord,

Fill us fresh with your Holy Spirit:

Enable and empower us to witness to the hope we have in you,

To tell and to live out the love and truth we have found in Jesus.

Just as Jesus came not to judge but to forgive help us to forgive,

Just as Jesus came to bring reconciliation allow us to minister your peace,

Just as Jesus came not to be served but to serve, empower us to serve.

As we are full of love for you, may we be filled with love for one another,

As we know your grace and mercy may we let it be known,

WE give ourselves to you as a living sacrifice

To bring glory to your name O God, Father Son and Holy Spirit.

Bible in One Year App... a recommendation.

Just want to say how much I am enjoying, benefiting and appreciating the Bible reading plan I am using this year. I try and read through the bible each year and have done that using various means in the past... a 'One year Bible pocket edition book... a bible reading plan from scripture union... the One Year Bible website using my laptop. This year I have discovered the ''Bible in a one year" app which as well as providing a bible reading plan that includes a portion of the New testament, the Old Testament and Psalms or proverbs each day has a good reflection and commentary by Nicky and Pippa Gumble of Alpha and Holy Trinity Brompton fame.

While it is data heavy for my ancient sort of smart phone it runs well on  my Samsung T700 tablet. On a practical level its ease of use and type face and layout make it very useable and readable. The bible readings are hyperlinked into Nicky's reflections and commentary so it is easy to flick back and forth.. The readings use the NIV bible and Nicky often supplements that by using quotes from the message in his reflection. I appreciate Eugene Petterson's translation/paraphrase of the bible to off set and augment reading a text like the NIV rather than reading it as my main bible text.While I don't use the audio file option for Nicky's reflections I cans see or rather hear how it is a useful feature.

There is an introduction to the theme each day, a reflection on each of the readings The reflections are  a good mix of  solid Biblical exegesis, passion for the gospel, deep personal insight and good application. There is a prayer at the end of each of the reflections on the bible reading.

I have appreciate both the readings and also the reflections of Nicky and Pippa Gumble. I did wonder how having a single theme for each day would work, if it was going to be a forced thing as there were three different passages each day. But I have found that they natural fit with the readings and help focus the three readings for everyday life. The prayers at the end of each reading are short and actually help to apply the bible passage to life.

I have to admit my devotional life has been rather on hold towards the end of last year and I had found myself slipping into  bad habits when it came to reading the bible outside of what I needed for Church and sermons... But I have found that as I am back on track and reading and reflecting and spending time with God in the word that he speaks to me through this daily devotion regularly...

AS you may be aware I share my name with the famous Egyptologist Howard Carter, a  connection I am often embarrassed about however this week God spoke and encouraged me very clearly through that connection and Nicky's reflection on 'your most exciting find the devotion for 6 April...

" Howard Carter made the world's most exciting archaeological find because he did not give up seeking. God loves you. God dos not force himself upon you, but he promises to reveal himself to you if you honestly seek him"

Not only in my personal life but also in a way that can only be the Holy Spirit that speaks directly to what I preaching on as well.  From my message on the gift of the Holy Spirit finished with part of the devotion I read on the Friday morning I finished writing...

In a coincident that could only be seen as the Holy Spirit Nicky Gumble in my devotions on Friday finished encouragingly with this…

“ we see how much is available to those who follow Jesus wholeheartedly, put their faith and trust in him and offer themselves to do his will. This is what you are called to. AS you do this, Jesus sends you out into the world with power and authority to proclaim the gospel and heal the sick”

I must say that Alpha is producing some really good free material and resources for people and the church today...   and I thoroughly recommend this bible reading app to you. You can get it via the Bible in One Year  website (just follow the link) or from google play... I'm no sure about iphone versions (sorry apple users) and it seems from looking at the website you can have the devotions sent to you as an email each day as well. And it comes in both english and simplified Chinese.

Empowered to Witness (Luke 24:36-49) - God's Spirited Poeople: The gifts of the Holy Spirit in the bible and the Church today (part 1)

One of the things I like about St John’s church in Rotorua, where I worked for six years, is the way they have managed to combine their old stain glassed windows with contemporary stain glass art. Like here, when they built their new building, around the same time as this one was, they bought the stain glass windows from their old church, and made a feature of them but also had three pieces of new stain glass art commissioned. A large floor to ceiling window with the burning bush from exodus crafted into it. When the sun shines through it lights up and glows. The emblem of our church comes alive; it says there is life here.  At the front of the church there are red and blue windows and light comes through them and reflects on the cross above the communion table. Red for the blood of Christ, Jesus the Lamb of God and purple the royal colour, Jesus is our Lord and king. At the top of the worship area is a light well and along the windows in that well are triangles of coloured glass. They are there to represent the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The idea was that light from the upper windows would shine in and through coloured glass and down onto the congregation. It was meant to symbolise the fact that the whole congregation were called to minister not just those up the front, God had poured his holy spirit out on all his people and called them to witness to Jesus Christ and that God had given them gifts to enable them to achieve that. 

While the first two instillations worked really well there was just something not right with the third one, I don’t know what is was, but the light never shone down through those windows and that glass onto the congregation, there was a disconnect with the congregation.  I wonder if that didn’t tell a story… somehow we have become disconnected with what God has for us in the Holy Spirit. We’ve been left in the dark about something vital that we need to be the body of Christ, that we need to minister God’s healing and wholeness to each other that we need as a people to witness to the world around us that Jesus Christ is risen. I’m talking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 

Some of you will be sitting there thinking what are these gifts of the Holy Spirit you are talking about Howard? Well relax between now and Pentecost on May 15^th we are going to be looking at the passages in the New Testament, in Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Peter 4 that talk about what these gifts are, in each of those passages there is a list of them… We’ll unpack that and how it connects to you.  You know we are more used to relating spiritual activity with the occult in our society than with God’s Spirit that is present in and with us, when they are just counterfeits of what God has for us. We will see that God wants to minister his love, his forgiveness his healing and to speak to and through us to the world he loves. I'm talking about the power and Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Today we are going to start our look at the gifts of the Holy Spirt by looking at the gift of the Holy Spirit. The passage we had read out to us today from Luke’s gospel is the last of three resurrection encounters Luke records. The first focuses on the empty tomb, the second on the road to Emmaus focuses on how Jesus death and resurrection fulfilled the prophecy of the Old Testament. This one focuses on Jesus commissioning his disciples to preach repentance (that’s turning from going our won way to going God’s way) and forgiveness to all the nations and the promise that God would send them power to enable them to witness to all they had seen and heard. 

This encounter forms the link between Luke’s gospel and his account of the early church in the book of Acts. It’s the last scene as you were and just like with so many TV shows which start previous on what God is doing? It is retold at the beginning of acts. It’s the link between Jesus earthly ministry and his ministry through us the church his body here on earth. Just like Jesus ministry was achieved by the power of the Holy Spirit, you’ll remember at the start of his ministry, John sees the spirit come down on Jesus like a dove in his baptism and in the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus says the Spirit of the Lord is upon me and has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.   So Jesus promises to send his Spirit to empower his disciples to continue the task that he has given us. 

Jesus promised his disciples the power to achieve what he has called us to do.  I want to explore that by looking at three e’s. for 'E'ze of memory...

The first is theHoly Spirit energises us. This year I’ve been plagued by trouble with my various computers. They are great when they work but when they don’t I actually feel totally powerless. I have a great IT department in my four children and I get a great deal of help but I still feel powerless when things go wrong. You can have the same feeling when you sit in front of the news and see what is going on in the world as well, or it can feel that way in a struggling parish, where it feels like one step forward one step back year after year, or even when we look at Jesus commission to his disciples. But Jesus says we are not powerless, because God has sent his Holy Spirit to dwell with and within us. What gives us the power to be wholeheartedly about the things of God, is God’s very presence with us. The same Holy Spirit that was in Jesus, the same power, Paul says, that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us. That is our energy source. 

Secondly the power enables us. In John’s gospel we se w Jesus teaching on the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirt was our paraclete, our councillor, that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth, would take the words of Jesus and bring them alive in our lives. Elsewhere it says the Spirit would lead and guide us, give us the words to say when we were dragged into adverse situations where we had to give a defence for our faith, would pray our deepest prayers in groans too deep for words, but not to deep that God does not hear. WE often think that prcolaiming repentance and forgiveness and witnessing means speaking and preaching but in Acts 2 we see that when the Holy Spirit came upon those first believers in Jerusalem at Pentecost, and yes the apostles preached and taught and did miracles but it is backed up shown to be true in the amazing love that was evident in the church in Jerusalem. Who cared for the poor, gave hospitality and set an example for the whole of the city. It was about what they said but also how they lived… how they acted and reacted to injustice and poverty. N T Wright says that to proclaim repentance and forgiveness takes ‘the resolute application of Gospel, under the Lordship of the risen Jesus’: The whole of the gospel to the whole of life.  In Galatians 5 Paul talks of walking with the Holy Spirit, that this ongoing day to day step by step relationship with God will produce fruit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control. The Holy Spirit enables us to live out and tell out the gospel. 

The Spirit gives power by equipping us to do what Jesus commissioned us to do. This is where the gifts of the Holy Spirit come in. In the list of the gifts of the Holy Spirit we will see things from prophesy and tongues and healing right through to administration, serving, giving, generosity and mercy. Ways God speaks to and through us to ways God shows his love and kindness. The Holy Spirit wants to equip us to be witnesses to proclaim repentance and forgiveness, in word and deed. 

I spoke before of a disconnect and I think there are many things that have meant we are disconnected from knowing that power in our lives and our church today. I see aspects of all these in my life… so Howard are you listening.

Firstly, in the passage we had today Jesus spent some time showing the disciples that he was not some sort of spirit or ghost. They wrestled with that because he seems to appear and disappear, to arrive in locked rooms. We can think of resurrection in terms of simple resuscitation, but Jesus is in a glorified state, it’s the same but totally different creation and new creation. In  1 Corinthians 15 Paul spends a large amount of time trying to explain it. That Jesus has a body that is free from death and corruption that is just right for eternal life with God. They did and we can struggle with the reality of the resurrection. We often live at the foot of cross, we know forgiveness and we can forget that we are the people of the empty tomb, there is new life where death and sin are defeated. And we miss out on all that God has for us. In CS Lewis’ Narnia series at the last battle the true Narnians are thrown into a stable to supposedly be killed by  a false Aslan, but they the real Aslan and they find themselves in a new Narnia full of wonder, bigger and brighter. All except the dwarves who although they have passed through the door huddle in the corner as if they are in a dark filthy barn and no amount of encouragement from others is going to change their mindset. We live with a risen Savior, we know new life, new creation and power in the Holy Spirit because of a risen savior.

We can also think that we are still in that waiting period: that Easter to Pentecost period. There was that wonderful 1990’s BBC comedy series called ‘Waiting for God ‘ about two rather spirited old age pensioners in a retirement village, literally waiting for God waiting to die… We are no longer waiting Christ has risen we live in a post Pentecost age, we need to change our perspective, we are not waiting to die, God is here with us by his spirit, empowering us. energising, enabling and equipping us. 

I think we can think that it’s only for Jerusalem, but not here… It’s Ok down the road at the Pentecostal church people can go there if they want that stuff but we are God’s chosen frozen…. But historically the Presbyterian Church was founded in the flames of Holy Spirit revival. I saw this wonderful piece of satire during the week. A supposed news story about an ex-marine sniper who had got employment in a conservative Baptist church… they were concerned that people were getting too enthusiastic in their worship , if anyone dared raise their hands and close their eyes well he’d shoot them down. Ouch!  It started in Jerusalem but in spreads and is with and for all God’s people everywhere. All God’s people here…

Lastly, I think we can live in the come to Jesus and not know the power of the Holy Spirit because we are not about the commission of Jesus. I know in my own life that if you are on the couch and watch sport that if you eat high energy foods and it’s not healthy. We don’t need that power that energy  to simply come and consume. There are chemical reactions that actually absorb more energy to keep happening than is produced in the system: They are called endothermic… Simply keeping an institution going is an endothermic process. It will absorb all the energy we have, relational, time, resources and still demand more.  But the amazing thing is that where mission is happening and people are encountering and having lives transformed by encountering Jesus there is energy to spare it exothermic, it produces energy because that is where the Holy Spirit is empowering his people to do what he has called us to do. 

In a coincident that could only be seen as the Holy Spirit Nicky Gumble in my devotions on Friday finished encouragingly with this…

“ we see how much is available to those who follow Jesus wholeheartedly, put their faith and trust in him and offer themselves to do his will. This is what you are called to. AS you do this, Jesus sends you out into the world with power and authority to proclaim the gospel and heal the sick”