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The gift of tongues
I grew up in a Pentecostal denomination. I was a minister for over 30 years in a Pentecostal denomination. I remain immensely thankful to God for the background I have been gifted and the rootedness I have in a faith that interacts with the Spirit and looks to what God can indeed do today in the lives of people.
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The power of Pentecost — the sign of tongues
NT Wright on the power of the Holy Spirit and the sign of speaking in tongues: Some people try to sweep ‘tongues’ aside as if it was a peculiar thing which happened early on and which, fortunately, doesn’t need to happen any more. Sometimes this is combined with a sense of the need to control the emotions, both one’s own…
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The power of Pentecost
Pentecost Sunday is coming. Some thoughts from NT Wright: …when it comes to Pentecost it’s far more important that you’re out there in the wind, letting it sweep through your life, your heart, your imagination, your powers of speech, and transform you from a listless or lifeless believer into someone whose heart is on fire with the love of God.…
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The Spirit is at work because WE are there
We are called to be people who stand at the place of pain — in the cancer ward, at the asylum-seeker’s court hearing, by the graveyard full of memorials to small children or to families whose homes have been bombed by ward — so as to be those within whose own painful perplexity the Holy Spirit will plead to the…
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Divine appointments
I had a friend who loved the opportunities he found along the way. He called them “divine appointments.” He would meet someone on a trip and a conversation would spark and after awhile it was clear the Holy Spirit had set something up. What was special about this friend was he didn’t run on a clock. If a conversation began,…
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Humility is NOT worthlessness
Humility is to see things as they are. It isn’t to think of oneself as a worthless worm who God reluctantly redeemed. It is to fix our heart on God’s worth—which is the literal definition of worship—and know our worth in light of God’s worth. Jesus could be lowly and humble of heart because he knew who and whose he was. He had…
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Why we are still so LOST as an American church
I am re-reading a classic in my life: The Dynamics of Spiritual Life by Richard Lovelace. I found a used copy online and have begun a fresh journey through these pages. Lovelace, writing decades ago, gets at why we are in such a mess in our current spiritual state in the white conservative American church. We have no awareness of…
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My goal for 2022: Create more mess
I’ve spent the last 4 years in flux and transition. I had been in ministry all my adult life and even in that role I was always in flux. Urban ministry was my context and the shifts I had in how I view ministry and being the Body of Christ in that context was a big creative mess most of…
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Reading and listening that is challenging me in this new year
I’ve spent a full year away from ministry and shifting into a new phase of life. I am still in a steep learning curve, but along the way I am always finding joy.
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The key to Pentecost
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy…
Category: Holy Spirit
