6-8-2014

      Good Morning All,

         John 3:8; “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

     Do you remember that old ballad from “Paint Your Wagon?”  “A way out here they got a name for wind and rain and fire, the rain is Tess, the fire Joe and they call the wind Mariah.”  A lot of people recorded this, The Kingston Trio, Jim Ed Brown, Ed Ames, even Clint Eastwood took a turn at singing it.  It was a song that spoke of a lost love and hoping that the wind would blow my gal back to me. 

    It is interesting how different cultures have names for different natural phenomenon.  Different winds at different times have different effects.  Most of the plains dwellers know that a northwest wind usually blows cold while a southeast wind blows wet.  You never see the wind but you sure can see and feel it.  Much like our verse, we feel it, we experience it, we see the results, and we see the power that the wind can have.  That is why one of the descriptions of the Holy Spirit is wind.

    Today, most of the Christian Church observes Pentecost.  This was the day when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to lead the Church.  So in essence, today is the birthday of the Church.  It is the day that God placed his wonderful message of forgiveness and salvation, the message of hope and eternal life into the hands of his followers here on earth.  We take the message out and the Spirit goes to work and blows as the Word is preached.  Sometimes the Word falls upon deaf ears but sometimes it is heard by the heart that is broken.  It is heard by the heart that has been crushed by the cares of the world.  When this heart hears it and clings to the promise, this heart receives the wonderful promised mercy of God’s forgiveness and the hope for life eternal.

    We have the power of God’s Spirit coursing through us.  It moves like the wind; we don’t really see it but we know it moves and we experience its effects.  Yet we have God’s Spirit dwelling in us and we are new creations because of it.  We can rely on this Spirit to give us comfort when we need it, to give us direction when we need it, to bring to mind all that Jesus spoke to us, remembering the wonderful news of forgiveness that he gives to us, remembering the wonderful news of our redemption and being adopted as his sons.  This wind has a name and it is God’s Spirit and it works salvation for you.

Wondrous Spirit, you bring me to faith and you keep me in faith.  Continue to guard and protect me and all believers from the attacks of the devil.  Bring your beautiful words of salvation to all those who are broken and hurt.  Give to them the comforting words of hope in you.  Protect them and walk with them to the blessed hope and mercy that you give.  We ask that those families that are under attack may be given relief from the world’s onslaught.  Give them peace and bring them together whole and reconciled.  All this we ask in the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret