Come, Holy Spirit!

Next Sunday is Pentecost…the birth of the Church. It is easy, at least for me, to imagine what might have happened to the church had the Holy Spirit not come. I can see the followers hiding in that upper room, not knowing what to do, scared and powerless, fearing retribution from both the Jewish and Roman leaders until all hope was lost and they simply faded away to become nothing more than a footnote in history. That is the state some of our churches today are in…lacking the power of God, content to be a memory. That is not what God has called us to be! I am certain that nowhere in Scripture can you interpret God’s will for the Church was to fail. Yet, we are failing…by every measure imaginable the church in the United States is failing to reach people, failing to impact lives, failing to witness to the risen Christ because we have failed to harness the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus sent the Spirit to us so that we might know truth (John 16:8) and have the power to reveal truth to others (Acts 1:8)! So why is the Church failing? I suppose the list is very long…far too long to explore here in any depth, but let me ask this question and you can formulate your own conclusion. Why are YOU failing? If the Church is failing, then the majority of us are failing…remember the Church is not brick and mortar, the Church is the people. So, why aren't YOU sharing the truth of Jesus Christ with power? We must own our failure if we are ever going to turn around a decline that seems unstoppable...realizing nothing is impossible for God (Luke 1:37)!