This is truly such a powerful time in the Church year as we leave the Easter Season behind and move into the time of Ascension and Pentecost.  This is a time to take the message forward and share it with others.  While most of us have difficulty in explaining the truths of our faith or for us to have a crisp and accurate description of the bible to share with another, we do have another gift!  It is an important gift!  It is especially a great time to claim this gift and to share this gift as we think about Pentecost Sunday and the beginning of the Church.  The gift, my friends is to share how God has blessed you and those you love.  How God has brought you through a time of trial. How God has comforted you at a time of grief or sickness.  We can share how God has blessed our life.  And we are all called, commanded is the biblical word to “go out and share the good news!” 

May we all remember that the grace of God is enough for us.  Sometimes we need to take a little risk ourselves to allow ourselves to be used for telling another about the Love of God!  Let’s keep working at this.  Sometimes you would be surprised by how appreciative and thankful people really are when we share how God has blessed us in our lives!  As I have said to you many times, “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord!”  Thanks be to God!!

One of my vivid memories of being in church as a youth was attending a Square Dance that the church hosted in its Fellowship Hall.  There were people of all ages, but there was a contingent of teens, with strong enough showing to make us all feel as comfortable as a teen could feel in such a situation!

It was my first time square dancing, and although I am not sure I revealed it at the time - I had a blast!  "Swing your partner" was a phrase oft repeated through the night...

At the end of the Easter season, the church turns its focus toward the gift of God's Holy Spirit - our divine partner!  It is with the energy and vitality of the Spirit that the early church proclaimed Jesus as savior - crucified and risen to forgive sins.  It was by the lead of the Spirit that the followers of Jesus danced into the future despite persectution and risks around them.

It is with the same enthusiasm that we enter the dance floor eager to be embraced by a partner who promises to never abandon us;  uplifted by a God who sets the pace for our loving and forgiving;  and 'calls out' the possibilities for us to lead others into the dance of grace and forgiveness.

Let us go forth with our 'partner' the Holy Spirit encouraging us to boldly share the good news found in Jesus!

Text for the Day -- Mark 16:19-20

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So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.

Did you hear about…

My niece Christina just graduated from WCU this past Saturday.  It was a great day, lots of sun and most of us present at the graduation ceremony baked in the warm sun as we gathered at the WCU Football Stadium!  It was an inspiring ceremony.  I think I’ll share a little of what the commencement speaker shared with us that day on Sunday!  But what I want to say about last Saturday’s graduation day was what happened at the post-graduation party and luncheon.  It was there that the McGowan, Nassir and Letizia families sat down to share a meal, to have a toast and to tell the stories of our families to one another.  These days for us are so special as our  families are blending together and getting to know each other.  It is here in the telling of the old stories that we share our heritage, our roots and traditions and bind ourselves more closely together. 

My guess is that this is what we all do as families.  We tell our stories!  We share our dreams and in the sharing, the binding of hearts begins and then deepens.  It is no different with the stories of faith.  Moses invites his adults to be conscious of sharing the Israelite Family story with their children.  It is in this telling and in the listening as well, that hearts are bonded together and God’s amazing grace and mercy for us is understood. 

The summer days are close on our heels.  Let us thank the Lord!  We will gather together in various ordinary and extraordinary settings as families enjoy the summer season together.  And just a word from Moses to each of us, let us not forget in the telling of the stories to allow our words also to express God’s grace and action in our lives as well.  It is this telling of God’s goodness to us, that the message of faith gets passed down to another generation.   These stories are unique for every one of us!  It is uniqueness of our particular story of God’s way with us that is most treasured and remembered by our children and friends! 

So let the story telling begin anew!  God has revealed himself to each of us in the activities and challenges of our everyday lives.  Let us tell the story again of days remembered!  But let us also tell new stories of how God is gracing our lives in new ways today! 

Prayer

Give me a voice to tell the story, Lord. Amen

Blogpost 5/14/12

Text for the Day -- Deuteronomy 7:7-11

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It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that

the LORD set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest

of all peoples. It was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath

that he swore to your ancestors, that the LORD has brought you out

with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from

the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your

God is God, the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with

those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand

generations, and who repays in their own person those who reject him.

He does not delay but repays in their own person those who reject

him. Therefore, observe diligently the commandment—the statutes and

the ordinances—that I am commanding you today.

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At heart of today’s devotional reading is God’s peculiarity.  God chose a peculiar people in a strange place in an odd time to reveal God’s will for humanity.  You may ask, what is so peculiar about it?  Deuteronomy 7:7 says, “It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you - you were the fewest of all peoples.”  God chose the Jews as the people to make God’s blessings known to the world.  They were, and are, a relatively small group of people.  Have you ever wondered why God chose to reveal God’s self in a time when there weren’t better ways of keeping records?  Why not now when our society is globally connected through the internet and news?  Wouldn’t it be easier for God to communicate to us today when we are concerned with detailed accounts of history?  

This line of questioning often comes up in conversations with those who do not believe(atheists or agnostics).  They are valid questions, questions that I have considered myself and continue to wrestle with.  From an apologetics standpoint, in order to prove that God would be easier to understand if God revealed God’s self in another way or through another medium(other than the Holy Spirit/Christ/Bible) is extremely challenging.  You would have to give examples from a reality that simply does not exist.  This is highly improbable.  How could anyone really know if another method of revelation would be more effective than the one we currently have?  Would you or I be more likely to believe or disbelieve if God used the internet instead of the Bible?  Or, what about another means of revelation?  This results in little more than speculation.  

In fact, God’s chosen method of revelation tells us a lot about who God is and how God chooses to operate.  At first glance, the Jewish people and the Bible are a peculiar choice to reveal God’s will for humanity.  But, what this demonstrates is God’s freedom to act in ways that God sees fit.  God is not confined to our expectations and assumptions, and God often acts in ways that seem contradictory to us.  Deuteronomy 7:8 says, “It was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors.”  God loved a peculiar people in an odd place.  God promised that the nations would be blessed because of Abraham’s and his descendants, and here we are some 3,000+ years later worshipping the God of Abraham.  In fact, one third of the world’s population are Christians who worship that same God.  So, given the peculiarity of God’s means of revelation, I would say that God placed a pretty good bet when he chose the Jewish people and the Bible as God’s method of revelation.  That is, it seems to have paid off!  

The cross is also a peculiar means of revelation.  Christ died on the cross and we say that this is God’s chosen form of self revelation.  This is peculiar indeed.  God chose fisherman, women(who were not counted as equals in ancient society), liars, and thieves as Christ’s first followers.  What all this means to me is that God is free to act in history in any way that God chooses.  God’s actions may seem strange to us, but history tells us that they have been effective, for here we are following this peculiar God!