Devotional 5-13-16

Read Acts 2:1-21 and John 14:16-26

We as Christians celebrate Pentecost as the beginning of the Christian Church, the day in which, as it says in Acts 2:2,4:

And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.    All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

The Jewish people had all come to gather to celebrate Shavout (The giving of the Law to Moses) so there would be many people from various regions coming together for this celebration, all with different languages.  Once the Holy Spirit had filled them, they began to speak in their native tongue, but each could understand the other. This was unifying the followers of Jesus into one body.  Acts 2:6-11 says:

The crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs--in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power.

What does this tell us for today? There maybe many divisions among us, such as; race, culture, denominations, language and geographical boundaries.  We are all Christians, we have one God and one guide in Jesus Christ.  We should all be striving to change those things in the world that create; injustice, intolerance, hate, poverty, inequality, non-acceptance and many more.  Let us all learn to remove these barriers to be the CHURCH that God created through his Son Jesus Christ.
Let the Holy Spirit fill us with the fire to change our world!!! Let this be your prayer.

God Bless all!!!!

Fred Herr