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Dear Christian Believers,
God’s richest blessings to you
through our Lord Jesus Christ
It’s been a whirlwind of activity
for me these past few months, starting with teaching and
coordinating the “Living in God’s Power “teaching
series that started on March 17th and finished five weeks
later; then traveling to Dallas, Texas and Lawton, Oklahoma
to teach and minister; then onto Florida to vacation a
few days with my son and his family plus teach fellowships
in Sarasota, Tampa, and Charleston, S.C.; then home for
3 days and off to Greensboro, N. C. to teach at a Day
in the Word, plus the Pentecost Sunday Fellowship. And
now I'm home again to catch up on my work here, which
includes getting the June Newsletter finished and out
in the mail.
Pentecost Sunday morning I was thinking
about what I would teach and share at the fellowship,
I couldn't help but think of how we take for granted great
historical days that come up each year on our calendar.
When Pentecost had fully come in Acts 2:1-4
it was a “new day” for mankind, a historical
time in Church history, and for all eternity. God poured
out HIS gift of holy spirit, eternal life, and the new
spiritual birth became available for the first time. On
the historical calendar date of June 28AD Pentecost fully
came, but for us, OUR Pentecost came when we accepted
Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives, believed that God had
raised him from the dead, got born-again of God’s
Spirit, and spoke in tongues for the very first time.
NOW, what are we going to do, that is the question. Are
we going to be excited and thankful to God for the next
few months, a year, 5 years, 10 years; 20 years, OR are
we going to lose the fire of Pentecost because of time,
and what it brings to our lives, such as challenge, disappointment,
discouragement, hurts, changes, or even worldly successes.
Have we forgotten our day of Pentecost? Is it now just
an exciting memory of the past? Is it just a ~Christian,
historical day on our calendar? Maybe it’s time
we honestly answer that question.
Acts 1:8
BUT ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost
is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Every Christian, (all that have received
Christ) have received God’s gift of holy spirit.
What ARE you doing with it? Not what you have done with
it in the past, because that is over. But what are you
presently doing with it? What are you doing with the power
we’ve received? Are we witnesses unto Jesus Christ
as he commanded in Acts 1:8? What’s
the difference between a Christian that has received God’s
greatest gift, knows about it and does nothing with it,
and a the agnostic who doesn’t believe in God, nor
His, Word, or His gift, and does nothing? ... N-O-T-H-I-N-G!
... No Difference! Our celebration and thankfulness
of any Christian holiday or event is not in observance
of a calendar day, but in the doing, the living of what
that day represents. We’ve received power - we need
to USE IT! We are witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ -
Witness! Remember the Poem, “God
Has No Hands But Ours?”
“God has no hands but our
hands with which to give them bread, He has no feet
but our feet with which to walk among the almost dead,
We say the we are his and that HE is ours, Deeds are
the proof of this, not words and these are the proving
hours.”
People these are the proving hours.
Our nation of America and the whole world are in perilous
times and under attack like never before. If ever there
were a time for exercising God’s power and being
witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ it is now. We cannot
live in Disney World, a land of make believe, and yet
far too many Christians are asleep when they need to be
awake and walking with the power of God. We are living
in the proving hours, and I pray to God for His people
to awake. I pray for His protection upon our nation and
the lives of His people everywhere. Let’s believe
to exercise the power we've been given and BE witnesses
of the Lord Jesus Christ - Ambassadors for Christ, delivering
God’s message of hope, salvation and deliverance
through Christ.
Love, John
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