God’s rescue mission, the ongoing story
Over the past few months we have been thinking of God’s rescue mission for mankind. We started way back in February thinking of how God came to earth as Jesus to show us how we should live in this world. Jesus was rejected and was killed, and in that death he paid the cost of our wrong doings and sin. He came back to life at the resurrection to show that the problem of sin had been dealt with and that He lives forever. We too, if we become members of God’s family and ask Jesus to become our saviour, will live with Him in eternity. He then commissioned us to go out into the world and tell everybody about this good news.
So, that sounds as though it has all been done, dusted and sorted out. We can now go out and get on with life. Well, not quite. You see God’s people have many times in history come back to God and turned over a new leaf. They have then relaxed, put God on the back burner, and they returned to their old self-centred, quarrelsome, money centred life. What is to prevent us acting in exactly the same way? Before Jesus returned to heaven He promised to be with us until the end of the age, and that promise is for all Christians everywhere. So, how on earth does that work? This month, on Sunday 8th June, we celebrate Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit but this, too, is difficult to understand.
When we ask Jesus to come into our lives and be our Saviour, our Master and Lord, the Holy Spirit comes and lives in us. Another name for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. Jesus comes and makes His home in us as we invite Him in. He gives us the power, the ability and the motivation to do what is right and pleasing to God. When we are perplexed he gives us clarity of thought. When we lack wisdom he gives us wisdom. When we are tempted He helps us to stand against that temptation and when we get low he turns our eyes back onto Jesus.
When Jesus went back to Heaven His friends were frightened people who were scared that the authorities were coming to get them and treat them like they had treated Jesus. When the Holy Spirit came on them, they changed radically. They went out into the street and told the world, including the people who had killed Jesus, that He was God who had come down and saved us from our sins. Three thousand people became Christian believers on that day and that has continued until more than two billion people now call themselves Christian. Their life is lived for God and for service to their fellow men and women. If we ask Jesus’ Holy Spirit to come into our lives he takes control. But He only comes if He is invited. And if He does come He is Lord and Master, and He gives life a purpose and a joy which nothing else can give.
Edwin Martin
Lay Leader