Christmas

Another Christmas has come. Sociologists tell us that Christmas is a time of intensified depression, conflict and loneliness. For many in this society Christmas has become just that.  Some poor people living under some bridge, looking at all the glitter of our commercial Christmas, might just say with the Old Scrooge, “Bah, humbug.” Not only the homeless or the poor who do not dare to see the inside of a Target or T.J. Max, but also for many others Christmas has become a miserable bah, humbug during this time of ongoing recession. Many have embarked on this Christmas season, struggling with many humbug feelings. Old people in retirement homes with grown up children who have moved far away are left with memories of Christmases long ago and often with a lonely heart ache. Families that have suffered job loss in this time of recession or a single parent struggling to make ends meet might find a list for Santa written by a child’s hand too much to keep this year. Many parents as a result may end up feeling remorseful and even inadequate. And a man or a woman whose spouse is gone either through divorce or through death, sometimes is left with photographs and memories, and Christmas cards from the past. To people like these and many others who have lost loved ones or are single or are terminally ill, Christmas time advertised as happy times with friends and families, as a time to eat good and feel good might not feel so good after all. Therefore, the question is how do we make Christmas truly joyful for all of us and not just for a certain section of the people? The only way to do it is to understand for whom Christmas came and why Christmas came.

We make the mistake of thinking that Christmas comes for happy and wealthy people, people with families and someone to kiss under the mistletoe. But that is not what the Christmas story in the Bible tells us. Christmas did not come to a people living in joy and prosperity, but to the people of Israel living under the tyranny of Rome. In Luke 2:8 we read that Christmas came to shepherds who belonged to a lower class in Israel and thus were representatives of the poor and the humble. In Luke 2:36-38 we read that God did not send the good news of Christmas to a perfect family, but Christmas came carried in mother Mary’s lap to a widow named Anna who was neither wealthy nor privileged nor had a husband to kiss under the mistletoe. Christmas came especially for people such as these, people who were suffering.  Just as Christmas came to the shepherds and the poor widow named Anna with a message of hope Christmas comes to us every year not to make wealthy people wealthier or happy people happier, although it may seem like that in our world of misplaced priorities, but Christmas comes as an act of God from beyond to bring hope to those who have no hope. Christmas is all about the light of God coming down in a dark world of tyranny, poverty and despair to bring redemption and hope. For that reason God did not send His angels to the wealthy but to the poor shepherds out in the field with the good news of great joy, because they were the ones who needed it most and because they were the ones along with the widow Anna who could grasp the true meaning of Christmas and rejoice. 

Joni Eareckson Tada, once an all American girl became a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the neck down from a diving accident in Chesapeake Bay at the age of 17. After a bout with depression, bitterness and anger towards God Joni through the power of friends, families and the Bible began to trust God again. Today she runs a ministry called “Joni and Friends” for the support of people with disabilities, and she says, “The Bible speaks of our bodies being glorified in heaven…I now know the meaning of being ‘glorified.’ It’s the time after my death here, when I’ll be on my feet dancing.” That’s what Christmas bring to people, hope, because wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manager lies the true gift of Christmas, Jesus Christ. The one about whom the angels sang to the poor shepherds out in the field as the Savior born in Bethlehem, and the one in whose face the widow Anna beheld the salvation and redemption of God for the oppressed people of Israel. He is the one who would raise the dead and return them to their grieving families. He is the one who would make the blind see once again the colors of the rainbow, make the lame dance with joy and the mute sing glory to God in the highest. He alone is the true gift of Christmas, because He is the only hope that God offers to humanity living in the grip of pain, sorrow, death, sickness and hopelessness.  Therefore, if anyone is struggling today, anyone without a job or money, anyone who has lost a loved one, anyone bedridden with sickness, that anyone is not outside of the joy and the celebration of this season. In fact, the true gift of Christmas came specifically for that anyone like it did for Anna, Christmas came for suffering people and Christmas came to bring the light of Christ that drowns out our darkness.   

Merry Christmas!

Preparing for Christmas

Another Christmas season is just around the corner. K-Mart and Walmart are ready. The question is are you? How do we truly prepare for Christmas? For help we turn to John the Baptist’s message in Luke 3:3-6.  

We detect a tone of urgency in John the Baptist’s voice as he goes through the land of Judea asking people to change and repent for the kingdom of God was about to dawn upon humankind.  Back in the good old days when a king of the east prepared to make tour of his kingdom, he would send a courier, a personal attendant hired to make arrangements for the journey and to prepare the roads. Even in our day, when the U.S. president decides to visit a city, days are spent in preparation of the city for his arrival. Every porthole is filled and streets made secured and beautiful for the coming of the president. In the gospel of Luke, John is acting as a courier of the ultimate king to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is asking the people to prepare themselves, to come to repentance and be baptized, and be ready to receive their king. In this way John the Baptist fulfilled what was prophesied through the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 40:3-6). The voice of the prophet is calling us to focus on God, make straight path for Him to come into our lives. We cannot find God through Christmas gifts or through Santa, but by removing obstacles in order to make a straight path for Him to come into our lives.

One obstacle mentioned in verse 5 is valleys. Valleys are representative of people who are going through a very dark time in their lives (See Psalm 23:4). We know people who are going through some very dark valleys. Some have lost loved ones, some have lost jobs, some are in financial crisis, and some have medical bills piled up so high that they cannot see Christmas. Some of our neighbors are living in the valley under the shadow of a hard life. These people in the valley consumed by suffering fail to see God in this season when others go to shopping malls and spend big money. John the Baptist’s voiced cried out to people saying, “Every valley shall be filled in, and every mountain and hill made low.” People are being called to prepare for the coming of our Lord by filling up these valleys, by lifting people up with the good news of Jesus, their Savior who would one day wipe away every tear from their eyes. Whether it is spending time with those who do not have families, or comforting those who have lost loved ones, or sharing financial blessings with those in crisis, we are being called to fill up those valleys so people can see God coming into their lives

The other obstacle mentioned in verse 5 is every mountain and hill. In order make God’s path straight we also have to deal with the mountains and hills of our lives. Mountains and hills are symbolic of our pride, ego, and our affluence. Our Christmas to a certain extent is defined by these mountains. We also lose sight of God who is coming in the midst of these mountains. Our Christmas is defined by who has the most beautifully lit and decorated house and who has the most money to play Santa well. We must bring down these mountains and hills, and see ourselves as we truly are; as spiritually poor people needing God’s mercy and grace. Then only can we allow God to make a straight path into our lives.

            Another obstacle mentioned in the same verse is the sin in our lives. The voice of John cries out to make “The crooked roads straight, the rough ways smooth.” The crooked and rough ways of our world will have to be dealt with in order to make a straight path for the Lord. These are symbolic of sins in our lives. Are there sins in our lives that we need to repent for? Are there crooked ways of the world within us, hidden lust or greed, or self-centeredness? Do we need to address them before God? Are there rough ways of the world within us? Are there rough ways of bitterness, anger, jealousy, ill will within us that we need to address before God? John the Baptist went around preaching the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin.  The crooked ways have to be made straight, the sins of our lives have to be confronted and repented for, if we want to build a straight path for the Lord to come to us this Christmas. Are you ready? If not, now you know what to do, lift the lowly, humble the pride and repent of sin.

 

   

Church: The Manifold Wisdom of God

There is a negative attitude among some Christian as well as non-Christians about the Church these days. In this age of post-Christendom the Church has lost its privileged place. It is looked upon as a place where hypocrites dwells or simply as a place of no relevance. Some of the criticisms I must admit is well deserved. However, as I preached through Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians I stumbled upon another definition for the Church, a definition every Church must strive to live up to. In Ephesians 3:10 Paul calls the Church the manifold wisdom of God. He writes there: So that through the Church the manifold wisdom of God be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

            The word in manifold refers to the many-sidedness or multi-coloredness of the wisdom of God. The Greek word translated manifold in this verse referred to intricately embroidered pattern of many colored cloaks or the manifold hues of a garland of flowers. It is used here to speak of the richly diverse nature or many-sidedness of God’s wisdom. When we think about what God did through the Cross of Jesus Christ we tend to have a narrow one sided focus. We tend to think of only that Christ died for my sin and that I am forgiven. Yet what Paul is revealing to us through this phrase “manifold wisdom of God” is that the wisdom of God that lies behind the Cross of Jesus Christ goes beyond just our forgiveness, that it is many-sided. Just as in Genesis 3 our sin led to the breaking down of relationships in all directions (Adam and Eve’s relationship with God, Adam’s relationship with Eve, Adam and Eve’s relationship with themselves, and Adam and Eve’s relationship with the rest of the created order), the atonement for our sin on the Cross means reconciliation in all directions, and ultimately the restoration of the whole world in which people will live in harmony with God, with one another and with the rest of the created world. That is what the manifold or the many-sided wisdom of God refers to, that the outworking of God’s wisdom has many sides to it other than just our forgiveness. In the immediate context of Ephesians 3 it refers to God through the Cross not only reconciles the Gentiles to Himself by forgiving their sins, but also reconciles the Jews and the Gentiles (2:16).

            Therefore, when Paul says through the Church this manifold wisdom of God is made known he is saying that the very existence of the Church as a multiracial community where two previously warring people, the Jews and the Gentiles now reside in harmony is a tangible manifestation of the manifold wisdom of God. In our time when you see an Indian and a Pakistani or an American and an Iranian or a Palestinian and an Israelite or a Croats and a Serbian loving each other in a Church because now they have been reconciled to God and to each other through Jesus Christ, you not only know that their sins have been forgiven but that the sin of hatred that kept them as enemies is also taken away by Jesus. And you begin to understand the truly amazing manifold wisdom of God, that He not only forgives and reconciles to people to Himself through the Cross of Jesus, but that He also reconciles them to each other as a first step towards the new haven and the new earth that one day He will create. And the Church on this earth made up of forgiven people reconciled to God and reconciled to each other across socio-economic-political-racial lines becomes the first sight of that new heaven and new earth.

            Next Paul says that this manifold wisdom of God through the Church is made known to all the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Rulers and authorities in the heavenly places are a reference to the fallen angels, the demonic force that oppose God and tries to frustrate his plan for world peace by making people hate and destroy each other.  Therefore, what is made known to them is that even though the power of darkness crucified Jesus on the Cross, God through that Cross has started the process of bringing world peace, and the Church where all walls of divisions are broken down is the tangible expression of that manifold wisdom of God. This is the identity we as a Church need to live up to.

Atonement

The one word that sums up all that Jesus did is atonement. Therefore Paul could write in Romans 3:25 speaking about Jesus, “Whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement (NRSV).”  Richard John Neuhaus writes: “Atonement.” It is a fine, solid, twelfth century Middle English word, the kind of word one is inclined to trust. Think of at-one-ment: what is separated is now at one.[1] In essence Atonement simply means reconciliation. It stands for the act of God in Jesus Christ by which humankind is reconciled to God (2Corinthians 5:18).^[2]But why need reconciliation or at-one-ment?

We all know what happened in Genesis 1- 3. Godallowed humanity represented by Adam and Eve to eat off of every tree in the garden except for one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:16-17). God, as opposed to being a selfish giant, acted as a loving father giving everything withholding only that which was necessary for the betterment of His children. What the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represented was moral autonomy, i.e. the autonomy to decidewhat is right or wrong or what is good and evil. God in His infinite wisdom wanted humankind to leave that job to God who understood the true nature of evil. But as Genesis 3:5 points out, the human desire to be like God, to decide for oneself what is right or wrong led humanity to sin by breaking God’s commandment to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  It was then because of that sin, the sin not only of breaking God’s commandment but also of not submitting to God’s moral authority that humanity ceased to be in relationship with God. They were, as the end of Genesis 3 tells us, driven away from the life giving goodness of God’s presence. This breakup of relationship with God also had a far reaching impact on all of creation. When Adam and Eve refused to live in harmony with God, when they became self-centered instead of being God centered, all hell broke loose on earth. The harmony with their individual selves was destroyed. The Bible tells us that they became self-aware and ashamed (compare Gen.2:25 with Gen.3:7). Today, shame, guilt and low self-esteem dominate and determine the lives of many people. The harmony between one human being and another was also destroyed. Adam who once sang a love song to Eve (2:23) blamed Eve for the fall (3:12). Today, racism, genocide, wars and conflict give a modern face to that ancient blame game. Lastly, the harmony with therest of the created world was also destroyed through the curse from God. In Genesis 3:17-18 God says to the man, “Cursed is the ground because of you,..…thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you...” Today the human abuse of natural resources, the wiping out of natural habitats, and in return being threatened and destroyed by mega natural disasters live out on a global scale that ancient curse. The solution to the brokenness of this world is once again being reconciled to God.

It is only by being God centered again that we can be properly self-centered by having a healthy self-image, be other-centered by caring for the good of others, and be world centered by truly caring for the world that God created. This is what atonement does for us. It reconciles us to God through Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins, and by reconciling us to God it reconciles us to each other and to the world at large. That is why Paul writes in Romans 8:19, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God,” i.e. people who have been reconciled to God through Jesus.

Therefore what does this atonement look like in our everyday life? It takes the form of reconciliation with our-selves, our looks and our past. It means forgiving ourselves as God in Christ has forgiven us, and not being ashamed anymore. It takes the form of interpersonal, racial and ethnic reconciliation. It echoes the love song that beyond our superficial differences we are bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. It takes the form of taking care of our world, its plants, its animals and its resources. After all, according to Genesis 1, God created them all and called it all very good. It goes beyond party alliances or whether one agrees with Al Gore or not to what God gave humanity to do when He created humanity. In Genesis 2:15 we read that the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till and keep it. The Hebrew word samartranslated keep basically means to exercise great care over.[3]

---

[1]Quoted in Scot McKnight’s A Community Called Atonement, pp. 15.

[2] Olson, Roger E. The Story of Christian Theology.Downers Grove: IVP 1999, pg. 322.

[3]Hamilton, Victor P. The Book of Genesis: Chapters 1-17 (NICOT), pp. 171

Fall

Fall comes to All

Death’s breath Crisp

Crumbling

A choice

As days fade

Hickory Yellow or Maple Red

9/11

In our Judeo-Christian tradition remembering is of utmost importance. Our identity as an individual or as a nation is influenced by what we remember about our past and about ourselves. In Exodus 13:3 we hear Moses urging the people of Israel to remember their great deliverance from Egypt. This act of remembering is established forever in the Jewish celebration of Passover, and this act of remembering was meant to be more than just a mental exercise of recalling a past event, but it was meant to shape the Jewish identity and how they lived. As they remembered generation after generation what God did when He brought them out of slavery in Egypt they were to remember their identity of being God’s free people and live accordingly no matter what socio-political situation they found themselves in.
As we approach another anniversary of that tremendous 9/11 tragedy that shook our country’s soul to the core we are called to ‘never forget.’ In essence we are called to remember and allow that remembrance to shape us as individuals, as a country, and influence how we live. As Miroslav Volf, director of the Yale University center of faith and Culture in a 2007 interview with Christianity Today editor Collin Hansen, points out, “Part of our identity as nation depends on what has happened to us in the past.”  But as Dr. Volf also points out in this interview, much of the conflict between people is “fueled by memory of what happened in the past.” One such example of hatred and conflict fueled by memory of what happened in the past is that of the often volatile relationship that exits between Hindus and Muslims in India. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that as we remember what happened on 9/11 we do not allow hatred to beget hatred. As we remember the hatred of terrorists, the bravery of those aboard United Airlines Flight 93, and of the firefighters, medics, police, civilians and countless others at the Pentagon and around the rubble that once was the gleaming twin towers, as righteous anger throbs once again in our brain and pain in our hearts let us be careful not to let that remembrance influence our identity in such a way that we become hateful towards those who are Muslims in this country. 
 Especially, as Christians we have a responsibility, as Dr. Volf would say, to let our memory of Jesus influence how we remember things in our past. In the Lord’s Supper tradition as narrated by Paul in 1Corinthians 11:23-26 Jesus in verses 24 and 25 is heard saying as He breaks the bread and takes the cup, “Do this in remembrance of me.” In essence what Jesus is saying also is, ‘Never forget.’ What Jesus is asking us to remember is His self-sacrifice for our sin, and allow that remembrance to inform our identity and how we live in this world.  And when we remember Christ’s death in such a way we remember not only what Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 5:10 that while we were God’s enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, but that Jesus died for our enemies also. This remembering of death of God’s Son for us who once were God’s enemies not only should influence how we live but also how we remember our past, how we remember even those past events in which someone has hurt us, and learn not to become bitter but better as a result, learn to forgive and love as God in Jesus Christ forgave and loved us. May the memory of 9/11 like the memory of the Holocaust always be with us reminding us of the evil that does not hesitate to do violence to human dignity and life, but may that memory be dwarfed by the shadow of the Cross that affirms and perpetuates human dignity and life before the eternal throne of God.

The Church

Let me talk to you about what it means to be the Church. Paul in Ephesians 2:20-22 describes the Church as a temple of God made up of people in which a personal God dwells. This is also what Jesus had in mind when in Matthew 18:20 He says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” The Church is not a building. It is a network of relationships in which God is present in His Spirit. Therefore, Paul says that the foundation of this temple or the Church is made up of a network of relationships, of people designated as apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone or the main stone of the building. On this solid foundation of apostles, prophets and Jesus Paul describes the rest of the structure as made up of other Christians, Jews and Gentiles joined together and growing together into a holy temple of God. The English translation joined together simply does not do justice to the type of intimacy or unity Paul is describing here. What the Greek word means is fitted firmly together. You cannot have a safe and solid structure until the bricks are fitted firmly and cemented together. That kind of intimacy is what Paul has in mind when he describes the Church as God’s temple build of Christians.

For Paul you cannot be a Christian and mature as a Christian in isolation. Your growth as a Christian requires that you enter the Church by entering into a network of intimate relationship with other Christians and grow together as a result of it in holiness and purity. Any type of growth requires continuous engagement and relationship with others, because it is relationships that stretch us. You want to grow as a father stay deeply connected to your children. You want to grow as a husband stay deeply connected to your wife. Through ups and downs of your relationships with your children and wife you will be stretched and as result you will grow into a better dad and a better husband. The same is true of the Christian life. You want to grow spiritually as a Christians stay in the Church in an intimate relationship with other Christians. You will learn to let go of your pride and let others carry your burden. You will learn to carry other people’s burden in return. You will learn to forgive as you are offended by one of your Christian brother or sister, and you will learn to repent and ask for forgiveness as you yourself offend someone in the church. You will learn to be other centered rather than being self-centered. There is no growth without intimate relationship. How will you know how to forgive if you always stay away from relationships out of fear of being offended? It is like body building. Unless you pick up a weight that is exerting pressure on your muscle in the opposite direction you will never grow. It is in that struggle, in that stretch and pull that we grow. That is why people who go church hopping because they get offended easily never grow into Christian maturity. The fact is it is in the context of our relationships with our Church people that not only we grow, but also provide others with the opportunity to grow. In essence, as Paul says, we grow together in holiness into a holy temple of God.

Freedom!

This 4^th of July, the day we celebrate our country’s independence I decided to explore the meaning of freedom in the Christian sense. For our purpose we will look at 1 Corinthians 8 as the text for our definition of Christian freedom.

Paul in this text addresses the second issue raised by the Corinthians in their letter to him, the issue of eating sacrificial food at the cultic meals in the pagan temples. Eating cultic meals was a regular part of worship in those days. The gods were thought to be present at the meal since the meals were held in their honor and sacrifices were made to them. These meals also had a social dimension in the sense that this was the basic “restaurant” in the antiquity, and every kind of occasion was celebrated in this manner. For the most part the gentiles who had become believers in Corinth had attended such meals all their lives. The problem then was that after their conversion to Christianity and most likely after the departure of Paul, some of them returned to the practice of attending the cultic meals. The common Corinthian slogan was “we all possess knowledge.” Therefore, they argued on the basis of the knowledge that they possessed that since idols are nothing and that there is only one God that it is o.k. to eat sacrificial food at the cultic meals. Therefore, attending pagan temples and eating food sacrificed to idols had no consequence what so ever, since they were eating with friends and not worshipping what did not exist.

Apostle Paul agrees with the Corinthian Christians who claimed to have knowledge that idols are nothing, but he disagrees with them on the basis on which their Christian actions were formed. They as Christians were not to act on the basis of superior knowledge, but on the basis of “Love.” Therefore he says, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up (1).” The Corinthians used to believe that by following conduct based on knowledge believers would be built up. Apostle Paul turns all this on them. He says that not only does that knowledge not build up, but it “puffs up” or makes an individual proud, and often forms the basis of communal disharmony. Not only that, Paul also says, “One who claims to know does not yet have the necessary knowledge (2).” Earthly knowledge is at best partial. True knowledge does not puff you up or make you proud. It, in fact, humbles you by making you realize how little you know. Only love that seeks interests of others can build up a community. Therefore, according to Paul, love and not knowledge ought to be the basis for Christian action. 

 Paul here calls Corinthians to love their weaker brother/ sister who does not share their knowledge but needs understanding and building up in Christ. In verse 5 Paul acknowledges that there may be demonic powers behind the idols that are referred to as the “so-called gods” worshipped by pagans. These weaker brothers and sisters, whose conscience is weak, for whom these so-called gods once were a reality when they were pagans, would end up entering into that dark world again because of the examples of those Christians who claim to possess knowledge. In essence their knowledge-based action would lead to the falling of the weaker Christian brothers and sisters. Therefore Paul says, “Therefore if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat again… (13).” Allow me to give a contemporary example of this ancient Christian problem. In our time many Christians think it is o.k. to drink a beer or two once in a while. But, according to Paul, if this freedom to drink leads their weaker brother or sister who witnesses them drinking and who once had an alcohol problem to fall off the wagon it is best not to drink at all.   

This is the essence of Christian freedom, a freedom guided by love and concern for others as opposed to knowledge of one’s rights and privileges. Reformer Martin Luther said freedom in Christ makes ‘a Christian man the most free lord of all, subject to none but at the same time the most dutiful servant of all, subject to all.’ Christian freedom is not a freedom to do what we please but is a freedom to do what builds others up in the sight of God. We call our nation “a nation under God” and we say that we are a Christian nation, but the question is, “Is our sense of freedom based on love or just on individual right?” Let us ponder!

May God bless America!

Finding God

YOU SPEAK TO ME

WITH WORDS IN THE COTTON WOOD TREES.

SOMETIMES I HEAR YOU

IN THE UPROAR OF A WATERFALL BREAKING,

OR IN THE LAUGHTER  THAT RIPPLES THROUGH A STREAM.

SOMETIMES MY TIRED LEGS FOLLOW

THE RUSTLE OF YOUR FEET IN THE DARKNESS

TO WHERE THE SILVER MOON LIGHT

MEETS THE JAGGED REALITY OF A MOUNTAIN,

THEN UNDER THE THOUSAND SPARKLING

EYES OF THE SKY

YOU WATCH ME.

                                   

Our Father's Day is Every Day!

I read a wonderful book called Adopted for Life. In it author Russell D. Moore tells us that our Jewish and Christian fore fathers rarely would have prayed silently with their heads bowed. Instead, “they prayed noisily with their arms outstretched towards heaven.”[1] I have seen Christians in India pray like that, with loud cries with arms outstretched towards heaven. Russell Moore goes on to tell us that he heard Patrick Henry Reardon, pastor of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago explain that style of prayer. Pastor Patrick Henry Reardon standing up with his arms outstretched says: Does not this look like a toddler, in virtually every human culture crying out to parents for attention?[2] I thought to myself, yes it does, because I have a toddler who first thing in the morning when she wakes up stretches her arms upward towards me for me to pick her up. I have a toddler when he gets tired of walking stretches his arms out towards me so that I can carry him. I have a toddler when she wants to cry stretches her arms out towards me so that I pick her up, and she can bury her face in my shoulder and cry. This is indeed a universal gesture of a child seeking comfort and attention from a parent. Therefore, when we pray like this with our arms stretched out towards God we are making an important statement, that God is our Father (Matt.6:9) and that we are members of God’s household (Eph.2:19). To Him we reach out everyday as we pray, "Give us this day our daily bread (Matt.6:11).

---

[1] Moore, Russell D., Adopted For Life (Wheaton: Crossway, 2009) pp. 54.

[2] Ibid. 54

Pentecost

Even though Christmas and Easter are over there is still the festival of Pentecost to celebrate according to the Christian calendar. In late spring, in the midst of enjoying the warm weather, travelling and barbequing Christians outside of the Charismatic movement often forget about the Pentecost. However, as the Bible tells us, the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of the Pentecost is an important event in our salvation story. If Jesus came (Christmas), died and was resurrected (Easter) for our sin and justification, the coming of the Holy Spirit marks the new standing Christians now have in relationship with God.  For that reason, in Romans 8:9b Paul writes speaking of the Holy Spirit, “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.” Again in Romans 8:14 Paul writes that all who are led by the Holy Spirit are children of God. In Ephesians 1:13-14 Paul points out that the Holy Spirit is a seal of God’s ownership of us and also a guarantee of our future inheritance of everything that God has promised to give us such as the eternal life. These above verses among many point to the utmost importance of the day of the Pentecost.

The term Pentecost means “fiftieth.” It referred to the fiftieth day after the Passover festival when the Jews celebrated the Feast of Weeks-the annual harvest festival (Lev. 23:15-21). It occurred in early summer after the conclusion of the grain harvest. This festival is also called the Feast of the First-fruits, because the feast celebrated the first produce of the Promised Land, Israel’s inheritance (Deut. 26:1-11). It was an appropriate time for the Holy Spirit to come, because the Spirit is also regarded as the “first-fruits” of the salvation blessings to the believer (Rom.8:23). It is also interesting that the later Jewish tradition associated Pentecost with the giving of the law, because according to Rom.8:4 the just requirement of the law is fulfilled by those who walk according to the Spirit.