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Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)

 

 

I grew up in the Church of Christ. So, yeah, I have heard this verse. I can quote it. Most of you probably can. But I wonder if I sometimes miss a word in there that changes EVERYTHING.

 

 

The word? GIFT. I wonder if we forget this word often, because I am not convinced we realize what an ENORMOUS gift this is! If so, I think our appreciation would often be much more apparent!

 

 

I have received some really great gifts in my life. I remember one Christmas in the 1980s getting a full He-Man and Castle Greyskull set. Pretty epic! I remember getting my first car given to me! I remember LOTS of great gifts. And I appreciated them SO much, but has any of us ever received a gift bigger than GOD LIVING IN US?!?!?!?

 

 

He gave himself away, freely. What a God! The Holy Spirit is available because of God’s generous efforts. I think we tend to forget that it has nothing to do with us! None of our efforts made this gift available! We are swimming in the generosity of God!

 

 

And He gives this gift for His glory! HE gives it so a lost world can see how great He really is! The Holy

 

 

Spirit has no interest in helping us achieve our manmade agendas. The Holy Spirit is all about the glory of God!

 

 

The Holy Spirit is after our HEARTS. In his book, “A Man After His Own Heart,” Charles Siebert shares a scientific yet poetic depiction of a heart transplant he observed at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Not long after, Siebert attended an annual banquet for transplant recipients and he was deeply moved by their profound appreciation for life. They spoke in reverent tones about the second chance at life they had been given. They humbly acknowledged their responsibility to honor the donor. And many of them talked about new desires that accompanied their new hearts. It is fascinating, but the medical world is seeing recipients of heart transplants wake up with new and unexplained cravings and habits. They are LITERALLY desiring the same things the donor did!

 

 

This is what Jesus was after when he went away, so that we could get this gift! He wanted to transform us at the very heart level! It is about God getting to “see His heart beat in others.” And when we take this on, we now have new habits, desires and cravings! God then can sit back and smile down thinking, “look, now they are like Jesus…they have His heart.”

 

 

Whose heart do you let lead your life? Is it your own, or is it the heart of Christ? I pray all of us can have the heart transplant we need to walk in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

 

– Pannell

 

 

 

RESURRECTION MATTERS

 

 

Resurrection matters. To be precise, the resurrection of Jesus Christ matters the most. Without the resurrection of Jesus nothing else in this world does matter. As the Apostle Paul says, ^“For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:16-19).

 

 

Why would Paul say that if there is no afterlife, then the present life we live is futile? If there is no resurrection from the dead, then does that mean all the good we have done in our lives was not good? What about the love we have for our families? What about the love of our friendships? Does the absence of resurrection from the dead nullify all the good and love we have experienced in this present life? Is it not the case that if you feed someone who is hungry, then they would consider such an act good regardless of whether or not there is a resurrection from the dead? In other words, a hungry man may not rise from the dead tomorrow, but his stomach can be filled today, and to the hungry that is a good thing.

 

 

The book of Ecclesiastes can help shed some light on the need for resurrection and the value it provides to this present life. The preacher of Ecclesiastes declares, “For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?” (Ecclesiastes 3:19-22).

 

 

As to the question of whether or not the good we do today has value, Ecclesiastes tells us to “rejoice in [our] work.” We can have joy, blessing, and goodness in this present life. However, the issue of the good we may experience in this life ultimately comes back to the issue of purpose and meaning. What is the purpose of all I do and experience in this life if everything and everyone ultimately turns to dust? What did the good I enjoy in life ultimately mean if such good ultimately turns to dust? What is the point of it all? Are we living our lives for the sole purpose of becoming dust in the wind?

 

 

Jesus’ resurrection from the dead redeems us from the dust and gives purpose and meaning to what we experience in this life. The resurrection of Jesus and his coming to redeem our present life is “training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:12-14). As redeemed children of God in Jesus Christ, we know that the good works we do and enjoy in this present age are a participation in the eternal kingdom of God that is coming into this world. In the book of Revelation, John speaks of how we “will bring into [the kingdom of God] the glory and the honor of the nations” (Revelation 21:26). The good we do and enjoy today will follow us into eternity. In other words, we are building an eternal good with an eternal purpose and meaning. Yes, resurrection matters.

                                                        

– Terry