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God's Words For US
by Cecelia Lester
“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised,
which you heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but
in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Acts 1:4b-5 (NIV)
During my recent stay at a rehabilitation center/ nursing home, a friend gave me a book entitled, Mr. Jones, Meet The Master, by Peter Marshall. I decided to get back into it this week. I began at the beginning of the book, reading a forward by Catherine Marshall. This book is a compilation of several of his sermons.
The second sermon, entitled, Disciples in Clay, told how we would have turned away the men Jesus chose as his closest followers. Peter Marshall points out that these twelve men did not understand the impact Jesus’ teachings would have on them or upon the people of that time. He states it this way,
“Of course these three years did something to them and in them.
The fuel had been laid on the fire, but it was not lit.
The seed had been sown, but it had not germinated.
All the possibilities of change in them had been created, but the changes had not happened.
What did change them”?
Not the crucifixion
not the resurrection
but the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.” 1
The thought came to me that in our 21Century society, we do not call on the Holy Spirit to help us or to empower us in our daily life. The Holy Spirit gave the disciples power to live for and to die for Jesus Christ. They spread His teachings throughout the known world. In our world today, we are afraid of offending other people if we speak of God or Jesus, let alone the Holy Spirit. We should be ashamed of ourselves for falling into the trap set by the enemy. We need to repent of this and whatever sins that are holding us from receiving the Holy Spirit into our lives.
As I continue to read this book, I find Reverend Marshall predicts how the breakdown of the family will bring the downfall of our society. He wrote and delivered these sermons in the 1940’s. Were the people not listening? Did they think he was preaching over their heads? Could the hearers have thought, “That’s not going to happen?”
Young postwar couples were finding jobs, getting married, buying homes, and starting families. People seemed to be more interested in what they could see and grasp onto than they were about things of the Holy Spirit. Not everyone did this but it seems that a large majority of those in their early adulthood did.
The book of Acts tells of the movement and activities of the Holy Spirit. I started reading Acts this week and found myself encircling statements pertaining to this third person of the Godhead.
I will share more later.
- Mr. Jones, Meet The Master, ©Fleming H. Revell Co. Reprint 1988 by Robert Schuller. Page 32
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Cecelia Lester has been serious about her writing for over two decades..
She composes Christian essays and posts them to her blog quietspirit-followingmyking.blogspot.com/
She has served in a faith-based organization, Grace In Action by writing two newsletters and searching for possible grants.
In July 2017, she published her first book, 'Times of Trouble Bring Rays of Joy.'
She and her husband of 54 years live in central Indiana. They have one grown son.
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