The season of Lent gloriously ended with Easter morning! Celebrations by Christ- followers have been shared across the world. We move now to the season of Pentecost. I’ll be posting blogs on two word devotional meditations for Pentecost, taken from Acts 1-2. These have been printed in a pre-publication book copy called Amazed, Perplexed.
Today’s posting is the opening quotation from that book:
“The church is vigorous and flexible, for these are the days before it ever became fat and short of breath through prosperity, or muscle-bound by over-organization. These men did not make ‘acts of faith,’ they believed; they did not ‘say their prayers,’ they really prayed. They did not hold conferences on psychosomatic medicine, they simply healed the sick……we have ruefully to admit that they were open on the God-ward side in a way that is almost unknown today. No one can read this book without being convinced that there is Someone here at work besides mere human beings.”—Anglican minister and Bible Translator J.B. Philips, from the preface of his translation of the Book of Acts
Freddy Boswell 
I recently read something that Bill Johnson, Senior pastor, Bethel Church, wrote that I believe really speaks to much of the church today. Pastor Johnson said; ““The best way to create an atmosphere of faith is to start with an overwhelming awareness of need and realize the impossibility of our assignment from God. Often we get caught up with what is possible through human effort. We build our buildings and pay for great programs. While those things are good, it is tragic when they become the high point our celebration of Christian achievement. When that is the case, it makes us no different than one of the many good service clubs in our communities. We are responsible for more. We are responsible to live in such a way that the Gospel that Jesus lived, preached and demonstrated will once again take center stage in world affairs. The impossible invites the faith-full to come and conquer.”
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I love this, Tom. Thanks again for your engagement with the blog content.
Bill Johnson really hits the nail on the head here, doesn’t he? Powerful word.
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