AFTER THE JOURNEY

I think I am addicted to writing!

But after the discipline of editing and posting every day* since Ash Wednesday, the commitment is completed....

I'll be popping in from time to time - - hope you will check in on me....

*I pre-posted in advance a few days that we were going to be gone....

DAY 50 – PENTECOST

PENTECOST..........Finally - after all the waiting - it is here!

Jeremiah 31:33
Luke 24:45-53
Acts 1:1-5
Acts 2:1-41
Hebrews 12:1-3

In Jesus day, Shavu’ot – the Festival of Weeks – was the next major festival following Passover, and it was the last of the Spring Feasts.   It honored the giving of the The Ten Commandments at Mt Sinai after the Israelities were rescued from slavery in Egypt.  It’s name of Pentecost came from the original instruction that it was to be fifty days after Passover.  I do not know exactly what year the commandment was given to celebrate Pentecost – but it was probably sometime between 1093 and 1071 B C, so it has been being celebrated for a minimum of 3,088 years. 

Pentecost, as a celebration of the giving of the Ten commandments at Mt Sinai – God’s Word written on 2 tablets of stone; and subsequently the Torah aka Pentateuch – God’s Word written in the first 5 books of the Old Testament dictated by God and transcribed by Moses – is a significant precursor to Pentecost in 33 A D when God’s Word became written on men’s hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit, the promised Comforter who was to come. 

Jesus made that possible by his death on the cross. He endured the cross, despising its shame, for the joy set before him. What was that joy? Us. We are his inheritance. Everything he suffered was for our redemption – and he finished the work he came to accomplish: to be the consummate sacrificial payment for sin and to give us access to God Almighty. 

When Jesus lived on earth, he was both fully God and fully human, but his humanity limited his mobility. He could only be in one place at a time. Now, through the power of the Holy Spirit, he could be everywhere, with everyone at all times. 

Pentecost was just 10 days after Jesus’ ascension. The disciples and 108 additional followers had obeyed Jesus’ command to go back to Jerusalem and wait – which included lots of time dedicated to prayer. They were obedient and expectant. They weren’t told what day the promise would come – but the fulfillment of the promise on the date it occurred is significant. 

That Pentecost in 33 A D was different than all others before it. It was fulfillment. Just as Jesus changed the 3 earlier Spring Feasts by fulfilling them – and specifically telling the disciples that from that year forward, instead of remembering the Exodus, the Passover celebration was to be about Him, He effectively did the same with Pentecost.   God was no longer distant and available only once a year to one high priest and a few chosen prophets, he became available to every one who seeks him. And – it was the date that marked the beginning of the Christ-ones’ church – literally, the beginning of Christianity...and it happened 1984 years ago! 

In my 38 years in the Presbyterian Church, that beginning was honored. Now, in the Pentecostal church I am in, it isn’t even mentioned. Go figure. In my Presbyterian history everyone was encouraged to wear red on Pentecost Sunday.   Red, because it is symbolic of the tongues of fire that came down on those in the upper room. Then they carried their message to the streets – and the masses heard the gospel in the various tongues that the Holy Spirit spoke through the 120 Upper Room Seekers – each in their own language!

Peter – who had denied Jesus in the courtyard during Jesus’ abuse and suffering – now boldly proclaimed the Truth of the risen Lord to the masses… and 3000 converts were added to their numbers.  Talk about people finding Truth!  That’s one of the actions of the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit is the loving, gentle Comforter – the One who leads us into all truth, if we only ask. 


Lord, I’m asking….

DAY 49 – WAITING FOR PENTECOST

Just a little longer….

In +-33 A D, 120 people were gathered in the Upper Room in Jerusalem.  Praying.  Fasting.  Waiting.  This is their 9^th day of waiting for the promised Holy Spirit – the Comforter Jesus promised them.   

Crowds were gathered from all over Israel for the coming Feast of Pentecost – the celebration of the giving of the Law at Mt Sinai, which came to be celebrated as the giving of the Torah – the first 5 books of the Bible that God dictated to Moses.  

But this faithful remnant of those who believed in Jesus as the Messiah was focused on waiting – just as He told them to do.  Praying.  Fasting.  Waiting…. 

And so we wait….

DAY 48 – WAITING FOR PENTECOST

THE WORLD’S SAD SITUATION

Romans 12:9 (Berean Study Bible)

Love must be sincere.  Detest what is evil; cling to what is good. 

That is a pretty strong edict!  We live in a world that currently courts evil – embraces it – and calls it good. 

It is heartbreaking that it is so, but it was prophesied as being what will happen before metered time ends – and the meter is running out….

I should be gloriously happy for my eternal future –  but the anticipated joy is tinged with sadness.  The root of the sadness comes for all those who refuse God’s message of love, those who do not cling to what is truly good.  God alone is truly good!  He and he alone is the plumb line for GOOD.  Good is parametered by him.  Without Him we have nothing – eternally.  That’s huge! 

The world is on a slippery slope leading to certain destruction – and seems not to care!

Jesus warned what would come at the end of time – and we are there. 

I am grateful for the promises we can hold on to:

Matthew 28:20 ESV

I am with you always, to the end of the age. 

Romans 8:38-39 ESV

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

John 16:33 ESV

“…I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Lord, have mercy!  Peel away the scales from the eyes of all who seek Truth.  The search begins and ends with YOU! 

DAY 47 – WAITING FOR PENTECOST

SAVED AND BEING SAVED

There is a phrase that I love which is part of my 38-year Presbyterian heritage (1970 – 2008).  The phrase is ‘Saved and being saved.’ Salvation starts with that beginning moment of ‘being saved’ – of accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Savior!  Salvation was made available by Jesus’ sacrifice – God himself, incarnate – coming to earth in the form of man to pay the price for original Sin and the egregious sins of the world for all of metered time; but the process does not culminate in a one-time decision. Every day we are ‘being saved.’  We have to make a choice to accept the gift each and every day. It isn’t imposed on us. And the gift has a price for us. It means that we die to self and become alive in God – that our life is no longer our own, but that we acknowledge our opportunity to have eternal life was bought with a price. In initially committing to giving up our independence and becoming submitted to the Lord’s will, we begin a journey that continues throughout this lifetime – a journey of becoming more and more like him as he peels away the layers of our ‘self’ and guides us deeper and deeper into his truth. There are specific days when I am poignantly aware of that cleansing work of God’s continual salvation, and I am grateful that it is so. 


I love miracles – but the miracle of a changed life is the greatest miracle of all. Saved and being saved!