Pentecost Sunday

Today we have to say goodbye to friends with whom we have broken bread many times over the past three-and-a-half years. The Rouse family of six returns to Australia tonight to begin a new phase of life. What a gift their friendship is!

Today is also a wonderful, special day in the Christian calendar. Today is Pentecost Sunday. On this day we celebrate that the Holy Spirit descended on the early church in fulfillment of Jesus' promise to send a comforter. Do you ever wish God would write his plans for you in the sky? The believer actually has a more intimate guide in the indwelling Spirit.

All whom the Spirit indwells are members of one body, the universal church. The same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead lives in us, empowering us to love in a supernatural way when we yield to his control. He gives us power not to rule others but to forgive them, to restore relationships, to overcome evil. And he unites us as one family with believers from Australia to Africa to Austria.

Pentecost was an especially wonderful day in women's history, because everyone prophesied, from old men to young maidens. And Acts 2 says one of the signs of the last days is that such an outpouring will happen again.