This coming Sunday is Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. It was on the first Pentecost after Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension back into heaven that God sent the Holy Spirit to the praying followers of Jesus. The Spirit made it possible for this once-timid bunch of "losers" to move into the world and communicate the Good News of a God Who is for us and has proved it through Jesus.
That continues to be the thing that makes the church the church: We're the community that in word and deed, shares the hope of Jesus Christ. Peter, who gave a great sermon on that Pentecost, writes elsewhere in the New Testament to Christians: "Be prepared always to give an account of the hope that is in you, but do it with gentleness and reverence."
In a world that has gone crazy with fear, hatred, violence, promiscuity, and war, may the Church always be so prepared!
According to Acts 1:14, Jesus' earliest followers prepared themselves to become the church and to share the Good News of Jesus by spending time in humble, submissive, surrendering prayer and worship. When we spend time with God in prayer and in looking at His Word, He pumps power, insight, courage, and compassion into our lives.
This Pentecost, we need to pray for forgiveness for our sins of selfishness and hard-heartedness. (I know that this rotten old sinner needs to do that anyway.)
We need to pray that as on that special Pentecost after Jesus' ascension, God will fill us with the Holy Spirit and we can be renewed in sharing Jesus with the world.
This Pentecost weekend, please also keep the following concerns in your prayers:
(1) Pray for the people of Chechnya. They continue to be subjected to the most oppressive and ruthless treatment imaginable, at the hands of their Russian overlords.
(2) Pray for the people of Sudan, also subjected to oppressive and violent treatment.
(3) Pray for the health and safety of the little girl our church sponsors through World Vision. Sinanzinkosi Moyo, who turned seven years old this past Sunday, lives in a little village in Zimbabwe. Pray that she will grow physically strong and spiritually strong, relying on the Lord Jesus Christ.
(4) Pray for the peoples of both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. These two nations, which share an island in our Western Hemisphere, have recently been afflicted with flooding. Haiti, the most impoverished nation in the West and among the poorest in the world, has been afflicted for decades by political turmoil, by governments which inflict torture and murder on people, and by the grim oppression of voodoo superstitions. Pray that God will help both countries to be free of their past and to be open to the freedom of Jesus Christ as they rebuild their lives.
(5) Pray for those victimized by flooding in our own midwest. Ask God to help them rebuild their lives and to sense that they are being empowered by Christ as they do.
(6) Pray for an end to the fighting in Iraq. Pray for the people of Iraq, that God will help them to rebuild their lives. Pray for the protection of military personnel. Pray for the protection of relief workers and of innocent civilians. Please pray for the safe release of Matt Maupin from his captivity in Iraq.
(7) Pray for the imprisoned peoples of China, North Korea, and Cuba. Grant that God will make a way for them to be free even in their oprression, free from sin, death, and futility through Jesus Christ!
(8) Pray for an end to the deadly impasse between Palestinians and Israelis. Ask that God will insure that the legitimate aspirations of both peoples will be met and that peace will reign between them.
(9) Pray that God will bless the people of Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Cincinnati, one of our neighboring parishes, as they dedicate a building addition on Pentecost Sunday. Ask God to help the church to use the new facility to His glory. Also ask God to protect the church from idolizing the building. Pray that God will help the people to see the bricks and mortar they dedicate as tools to be used in their mission of loving God and loving neighbor. Ask God to help them to wear the place out glorifying Him!
(10) Ask that God will protect the world from terror.
(11) Pray that we Americans will hunger and thirst for Jesus Christ. Ask God to help us to humbly submit to Christ, turn from sin, and love God and love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
Have a blessed Pentecost celebration!
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