Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Luke 11:13 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"
THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT
Recently we celebrated the Festival of Pentecost. The word Pentecost means "50th." It has this name because it is the 50th day after Easter. This is the day Jesus kept His promise to pour out the Holy Spirit on the disciples. As a result, they were blessed with courage and zeal to carry the Good News of His Gospel into many parts of the world.
Along with the festivals of Christmas and Easter, Pentecost is one of the high festivals of the Christian Church Year. Christmas and Easter are seldom forgotten because the world celebrates them (after a fashion) along with the Church. However, because the world finds it difficult to secularize Pentecost -- it's pretty hard to fit things like reindeers and bunny rabbits into it! -- the world has no use for Pentecost and chooses to ignore it.
For believers in Jesus, though, Pentecost is a truly glorious holiday, as precious as Christmas and Easter. Without the Holy Spirit's gracious work of enlightening our sin-darkened hearts, we could not rightly understand or appreciate Christmas or Easter or any other event in the life of our Savior. For "the man without the Spirit does not accept things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (I Cor.2:14, NIV).
Pentecost is a once-a-year church holiday. Yet we have reason to praise the Holy Spirit in every month of the year. He continues to come to us through the words of Scripture that we read and study at home and that we hear and learn at God's house. By the Word He works repentance in us, strengthens our faith, comforts us with our Lord's forgiveness, and produces in us the fruits of faith, good works. The Holy Spirit inspires us to take the Good News of the Lamb slain for sinners and share it with family, friends, and neighbors that they too may rejoice in its soul-refreshing message.
Remember to pray often for the gift of the Spirit. He is a gift that your heavenly Father promises to give you unconditionally.
