Reaching Out

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) 
 
Fifty days after Easter is the celebration of Pentecost in the Christian calendar. This day calls for us to observe and celebrate the miracle recorded in Acts chapter 2 of the Holy Spirit being poured out onto 120 followers of Jesus in the Upper Room, giving birth to the New Testament Church.  
 
Pentecost is fundamentally about God empowering the Church through His Spirit to restore what was dead, to revive what wasn’t alive, and to give purpose, meaning and value to people who seemed to have lost it.  
 
Once fifty days had passed since they witnessed the horrific crucifixion of their Lord, the Church came together in the midst of their pain to pray and praise God; and as a result, they received God’s power. The Bible says tongues of fire filled the room and rested on each person, and they each began to speak in other tongues and languages as the Spirit gave them utterance.  
 
The point, purpose, and plan for Pentecost was for God to empower a group of Palestinian Jews, who spoke the same language, to speak multiple languages; to empower a group from this one cultural background to be relevant to people of various and different backgrounds. And that’s exactly what this group of 120 people did.  
 
They took what happened in the Upper Room and went out to the world below. They didn’t keep their faith to themselves but shared it with everyone they had the chance to speak to. They reached out to those outside of the Upper Room so that they might become part of the family of believers as well.  
 
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said in essence that any religion that just reaches up but never reaches out is a dead religion. Real religion moves from divine encounter with God to authentic connection with God’s people, with the goal of transforming the world. My prayer is that you would have that mindset as you share your faith and your relationship with the Lord with those you come in contact with every single day.  
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