Pentecost

I really enjoyed this devotion from Elizabeth Sherrill over on ourprayer.org:

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
Acts 2:1 (RSV)

Today, on Pentecost Sunday, we read the account in Acts of the once confused and frightened followers of Jesus empowered by the Holy Spirit to preach, heal and carry the glad news of His salvation to the ends of the earth.

But Pentecost is not just a Sunday. Today ends the fifty-day Easter season; tomorrow begins the six-month season after Pentecost, the longest in the year and, for me, the most challenging, because after Pentecost the story is open-ended. After Pentecost the story is still being written.

For the next twenty-six weeks the Word asks what I am doing with the Spirit’s gift.
I’m uncomfortable with this second half of the year. Me, carry the sacred story forward? Me, become Jesus’ hands and feet and voice? How can I? How would I know His will? How would I find the strength?

By coming together, the Word tells me on Pentecost, with other believers. This is the birthday of the church, that great Body assembled “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues” (Revelation 7:9, RSV). Today I’m going to renew my commitment to church attendance and to joining with fellow believers wherever I can. It is when we gather all together in one place that the Spirit gives us wisdom and power. It’s from that place that He sends us out, as He sent the disciples on this day, to carry His blessings to the world.
Holy Spirit, draw us together, that when we go each to our own assignment, we may go in the strength that comes only from You.

By Elizabeth Sherrill