speaking in the Spirit

Good afternoon sisters and brothers,
Please pray for our search committee and candidates as they gather this evening. Pray for calm nerves, good communication and for God's calling to be clear between our churches and one of the candidates. Our scripture today continues the story of Pentecost. As the disciples proclaim God's power in languages given to them by the Holy Spirit, many are amazed and others assume they are drunk. Peter explains from the Bible that God is sharing the Holy Spirit with all who believe as a sign that, in Christ, the final redemption of the world is getting closer. From our perspective it's hard to imagine Peter's feeling that the end was coming so soon, but our ministry is still part of bringing God's redemption to completion. How are we going to build the peaceful kingdom today?


God bless,
Sam


Acts 2:14-24
14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. 21Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’



22“You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know— 23this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. 24But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.

love in action

Good evening friends,
John reminds us here that love is active, not passive. We need to love with our actions. He also reminds us that not every spirit, not every voice we hear comes from God; we need to use our discernment and wisdom to know God's word from falsehood. Easier said than done.


God bless,
Sam


1 John 3:18-4:6


18Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. 19And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him 20whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; 22and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him. 23And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.



Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world.




4Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

dry bones and new life

Good evening friends,

Thanks so much for all the prayers of support for our family; it really means a lot to us. Today's reading is a favorite of mine because it's a powerful image of God's ability to bring new life into situations that seem hopeless. It's also a reminder that the power for renewal lies outside us. God fills us with the wind of the Spirit. At the same time that new life requires a choice from us to live with hope. That's why the prophesy to the people matters: they have to embrace the new life God offers if they are truly going to live. We can always choose new life or barren dryness.

God bless,
Sam

Ezekiel 37:1-10

The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ²He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. ³He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 

⁴Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. ⁶I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.” ⁷So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 

⁸I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. ⁹Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” ¹⁰I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. 

Adventures at sea, part 2

Good evening sisters and brothers,
Having prophesied disaster and been ignored, Paul is unable to refrain from saying, "I told you so." Even through this failing, he is able to offer some comfort to his fellow travelers. It's also interesting that his vision is so specific, and that, having seen Paul be right about the big picture, the commander is now convinced by Paul's ability and follows his advice. May we keep up our courage when the going gets rough too.

God bless,
Sam

Acts 27:21-32

21 Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul then stood up among them and said, ‘Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and thereby avoided this damage and loss. ²²I urge you now to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. ²³For last night there stood by me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, ²⁴and he said, “Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before the emperor; and indeed, God has granted safety to all those who are sailing with you.” ²⁵So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. ²⁶But we will have to run aground on some island.’

27 When the fourteenth night had come, as we were drifting across the sea of Adria, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. ²⁸So they took soundings and found twenty fathoms; a little farther on they took soundings again and found fifteen fathoms. ²⁹Fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. ³⁰But when the sailors tried to escape from the ship and had lowered the boat into the sea, on the pretext of putting out anchors from the bow, ³¹Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, ‘Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.’ ³²Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the boat and set it adrift.

women in Acts

Good morning brothers and sisters,
Today's reading takes us to the Book of Acts, to a passage telling a story of one of Paul's missionary journeys. This is one of a few "we" sections in Acts where the third person narration of most of the book becomes first person. The best explanation is that these sections may have been the parts of the story Luke was actually present for, while the rest is an account he has woven together from research and listening to other people's stories.

This passage highlights the important and varied role of women in spreading the gospel. In the first paragraph the apostles preach to a group of women, one of whom becomes their host for their stay. The second paragraph is an odd one. Paul's healing seems to be a strange one. It reminds me a bit of how evil spirits always recognized Jesus too, but Jesus didn't want them to speak.

Blessings on your day,
Sam


Acts 16:11-18
¹¹We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, ¹²and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. ¹³On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. ¹⁵When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.


¹⁶One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. ¹⁷While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” ¹⁸She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

enlightened hearts

Good morning friends,
Today's reading is short, and I'd recommend taking a moment to digest between paragraphs. Paul prays for the church that each of the believers would grow in their knowledge of God. As part of that he prays that God's "spirit of revelation" would enlighten their hearts to know the hope of our calling and the greatness of God's power for us. That's a great prayer that I join in enthusiastically for each of us. 


May God bless us with enlightened hearts today and every day,
Sam

Ephesians 1:15-23

¹⁵I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason ¹⁶I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. ¹⁷I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, ¹⁸so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, ¹⁹and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.

²⁰God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. ²²And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, ²³which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Spirit power

Good morning sisters and brother and happy Birthday!
This morning is Pentecost, the church's birthday. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they were filled with power from heaven. Once the Spirit fills them in this passage, they have the power to live and share the gospel from Jerusalem all the way to India in a single generation. The Spirit gave the church then and now many different gifts for sharing God's love. God Spirit still guides us and gives us the gifts we need for ministry today. Where is the Spirit leading you today?

God bless,
Sam

Acts 2:1-21

1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.


5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes 11Cretans and Arabs — in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”


14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 ‘In the last days it will be,God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”


*Sunday

1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

3bNo one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

4Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.


7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.


12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Spirit and flesh

Good morning sisters and brothers,
Yesterday Paul highlighted the difference between trusting in Christ and trusting in the law. Today he works on the differences between the spirit and the flesh. He begins with the idea of freedom because when we trust in Christ we are free from the law. He's quick to point out that freedom is not about doing whatever we want, but about using our freedom to do good. The whole law is summed up in the commandment to love our neighbor as ourself, so if we follow that guideline we will fulfill the law's purpose without the law.

Notice too what Paul talks about as "works of the flesh:" certainly the ones we expect like fornication, but also quarrels and factions. These things Paul warns about have always been wrong, whether under the law or now that the law is set aside. In the same way, the fruit of the Spirit, our new way of life in faith has always been approved by the law. Paul caps this section with a plea that summarizes his call to responsibility: "If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit." Amen.

Blessings on your week,
Sam

Galatians 5:13-26
13For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. 14For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. 16Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.

19Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, 21envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

serving the Word/serving at tables

Good morning folks,
Our passage today relates an early controversy in the church and its solution. There was a dispute over food distribution between Hellenists and Hebrews. Remember at this point everyone in the church is Jewish but it seems that there was some degree of division based on degree of comfort within Greek society. When the passage talks about Hellenists it may mean Jewish Christians who were Jewish by conversion rather than by blood. It also might mean Jewish Christians who spoke Greek and had a largely Greek cultural outlook rather than Jews raised in Palestine apart from Greek culture. In either case the point at issue is Greek culture versus Hebrew culture within Judaism.

This passage recounts the election of the first deacons. Stephen and the others were chosen because of their character, wisdom and faith to make sure everyone in need was being served. It's interesting that the deacons were elected to take care of day to day responsibilities so the apostles could "devote themselves to serving the word," but Stephen immediately starts preaching and arguing in the synagogue. Clearly serving the word and serving at tables isn't mutually exclusive, but knowing that the details are taken care of allowed the apostles to be more effective in their ministry. We don't have deacons anymore at Laurelton, but the ministries of community care and attention to need continue to be important parts of our calling as a church. All kinds of service are rooted in faith; as we see with Stephen, we never know where that faith will lead us.

May God give us strength for the journey,
Sam

Acts 6:1-15

Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. 2And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, 4while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.”

5What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. 7The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

8Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. 9Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. 10But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. 11Then they secretly instigated some men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. 13They set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; 14for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.” 15And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.