A Fresh Wind - Blossom
Does it take extraordinary circumstances to get you to bloom?
"Death Valley Super Bloom 2017" by Rennett Stowe is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
I didn’t know this, but yesterday was the first Sunday in the denomination that pastors who have been moved preach at their new appointment. For those who don’t know, I attend a United Methodist church. Our pastors are itinerant, meaning they serve for an unspecified length, and when leadership decides it is time, they are reassigned. There is a process that considers the opinion of both the pastor and the congregation being served at the time, but leadership ultimately makes the call.
Yesterday all those who received a new appointment preached their first sermon at that new appointment. Pastor Kristen Lee’s husband was reassigned and preached at a new church. She attended that service with the family. That is important today because we had a lay preacher, Richie Cullom, out of our congregation preach. He did a good job.
Before that, though, the Children’s Moment had a really poignant point. The message Sunday was about the Holy Spirit. The Children’s Moment had a balloon in it. The point to the children was that when you blow air into a balloon, it changes its shape. When God blows the Holy Spirit into us, like a balloon, that should cause us to change.
15“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
16“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
17that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
18“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
John 14:15–18 (NASB95)
It is interesting that Richie preached Sunday because this is the conclusion of the sermon series. I like that Pastor Lee is willing to let someone else put the period on the end of the sentence she’s been preaching about for the last several weeks. Richie did a good job in that respect.
At this point, Richie put up the image that leads off today’s post. It is a super bloom of flowers in Death Valley, California, USA. Conditions to make this happen are very specific and only happen once in a very long while. However, when those conditions come about, land that is normally dry and desolate springs to life with beauty many have never seen in the region. It was a fitting comparison to the days of Pentecost when conditions were just right in the world for the once-in-a-lifetime experience of the Holy Spirit coming down and filling the people like never before. It is at this point Richie read the scripture for his message. There are no coincidences. Richie’s scripture is just a few verses beyond the passage I posted relating to the Children’s Moment. The service did not post that scripture. Their message to the kids lead me to that. Here is Richie’s scripture.
26“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
27“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
John 14:26–27 (NASB95)
As this scripture was read, it occurred to me that one of the members of the Holy Trinity is always or has always been on earth with us. In the Old Testament times, God was here frequently. After that, Jesus came in the flesh. After Jesus, the Holy Spirit descended and remains. That’s comforting.
Richie began listing the Holy Spirit's nicknames: Holy Ghost, Intercessor, Counselor, Advocate, and Comforter. There is only one verse in the King James Version that has Advocate. It is that word Richie focused on.
1My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
2and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
3By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
1 John 2:1–3 (NASB95)
Richie went into a story about the movie Field of Dreams. There’s a scene where one of the characters who cannot see the ballplayers is talking. One of the players steps away from the field, and suddenly this character can see not only him but all the other ones and says, “Where did all these ballplayers come from.” The clip wasn’t played, so that’s as close as I can come to a full quote. The point is that he couldn’t see them because he didn’t believe, but once he believed, he saw them all.
What you look for, you will find. If you want to find reasons to believe, you can find them. You can find “contradictions” and “holes” if you want to find them. Your faith is your own.
The message went into a “Divine Why” when the Holy Spirit sort of taps you on the shoulder with a calling. It isn’t a “go get ready” tap. It is an “I need you to do something now” tap. Richie likened it to a Yoda moment of “Do or do not. There is no try.” That’s a really good analogy for acknowledging the Holy Spirit and then acting on what He brings you. He reinforced this point by likening Peter’s argument to the Pharisees. His point was that Peter was completely uneducated, and the Pharisees did nothing but study God’s Word. Yet, Peter was able to out-argue them on God’s Word. How did that happen? The Holy Spirit.
10“The gospel must first be preached to all the nations.
11“When they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit.
Mark 13:10–11 (NASB95)
Take no thought for what you are to say. Richie said the Holy Spirit tells us what is next. The Holy Spirit knows the path. We should trust Him because He is bringing the words of God to us for our direction. We shouldn’t throw up our hands and resist unless and until we are told the whole plan. Trust that this one next step is the right one. After that step is taken, we’ll be given the next one, and the next, and the next. That’s how it works. Honestly, that’s best for me because if I knew the whole plan, I would likely decide I knew a better way and mess it all up anyway.
That’s ultimately the point of this series to me. Let God guide the path. Take the small steps right in front of you now. Let Him worry about the Big Picture. We just need to deal with what we have in front of us today because that’s enough worry for us to manage. We can let God manage the worry about tomorrow. God bless and Godspeed.