Sunday, May 23, 2010

On Pentecost Sunday -- II

I have to confess, my understanding of the Day of Pentecost was, for a time, stilted and Anemic. Coming to faith in a Pentecostal Church (Church of God Cleveland, TN), my focus had previously been nailed on the external manifestations that occurred as the 120 were gathered in that upper room. For too long, this Deacon was fixated on the "signs and wonders" aspects of Pentecost and the entire "pentecostal" experience. I began to see these things in an entirely new light in my journey into Anglicanism.

The gift of the Holy Spirit wasn't dispensed for the sole elevation of the the individual believer, nor was it given in order for the Church to have a "Holy Ghost Hoopla". Think for a moment, the tribulations and tortures that were levied against the saint and the Church in the decades and centuries after the Church's birth. Saints were exposed to perhaps the most horrifying deaths imagined by humanity. Death by the sword, death by wild beasts, death by fire and other machinations; the mind boggles and the soul cringes. But lets ask the question, would these Saints have been able to withstand this hellish onslaught without the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit wasn't given for our entertainment or for our petulant pleasure. No, far from it. That "Other Comforter" has been sent that in these last days, that we might be powerful witnesses for the Almighty and his coming kingdom.

May we might be found faithful vessels of the Almighty...


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