Hello, good people.
Already a full day. I did a small bit of sawmilling for someone who came by this morning a little earlier than expected—which caused me to abandon my old man jog. After that I checked out another job that I don’t really need but is being given an urgent rating by the customer. That job will engage the crane function of the old boom truck—removing some obsolete electric signs from two buildings. One of the sign cabinets is very irregular—about 12” high and 50 feet long.
Our recent warm weather is causing our grass to be confused—perhaps thinking it’s Spring. It’s growing pretty fast. I have Thano out trying to fire up the lawnmower. So, after sending this, I’ll go out and see what I can do to make that happen.
Please be blessed and have a great rest of your day. Ray
If the description of this setting is accurate, and, of course, I believe it is, who can disagree that this is an awesome God-made event? There is no doubting its authenticity because there is nothing human about it—except that this special group of humans are chosen to be the recipients of this special Divinely-inspired outpouring—all for the primary purpose of empowering and equipping them to be effective representatives and promoters of the Biblical Gospel. Yet I discern that some people attempt to remanufacture and/or replicate some of these phenomena on their own—rendering little more than a lot of strange antics and unintelligible noise. Of course, they cannot reproduce the audible blast of wind, or the visual appearance of fire, but they sure get preoccupied with wanting to reproduce “speaking in tongues”—even though such speaking is rarely confirmed to be a known language. This original outpouring event, by comparison, shows the surprised observers exclaiming, “…we hear them speaking of God’s mighty wonders in our own dialects!” (2:11, TPT).
It occurs to me that the valid question of Acts 2:8 (the FOCUS VERSE) is profoundly answered by Jesus in Acts 1:8. The cause and reason for this special Holy Spirit event is rooted in His familiar promise that this very outpouring would take place—“’But I promise you this—the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will be filled with power. And you will be my messengers to Jerusalem, throughout Judea, the distant provinces—even to the remotest places on earth!’” (1:8, TPT). While there is an ongoing component of this promise, it was dramatically fulfilled in part that very day with people visiting Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost from some of “the remotest places on earth!”
Peter was inspired to stand and offer a great explanation to the curious and mind-boggled observers. As he quoted from the Prophet Joel, I think the last line is highly significant—“But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (v. 21, TPT. A foot note in this Bible on this verse reads, “The Aramaic can be translated ‘Whoever calls on the name of Jesus as the Messiah will receive life’”). I think this, in a nutshell, is a great abbreviation of the goal and purpose of the Biblical Gospel—and, of course, the goal and purpose of this special Pentecostal outpouring. It’s just another way to phrase the essence of John 3:16—“…So now everyone who believes in him will never perish but experience everlasting life” (TPT). I have to conclude that the God-intended primary goal of Pentecostalism, as well as all other divinely-inspired supernatural phenomena, is, in fact, EVANGELISM—reaching and winning the lost by means of Holy Spirit-anointed representation, demonstration, and proclamation of the Biblical Gospel.