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In this series of meditations on the work of the Holy Spirit in believers’ lives, we are considering seven features about Christians which English Puritan Christians said are Spirit-prompted and Spirit-endowed and which ought to mark the lives of those who aim to follow Jesus faithfully.
This week and in the weeks following we’ll focus on seven Christian character qualities, each of which the 17th-18th century English Puritan Christians claimed is Spirit-endowed and ought to mark faithful followers of Jesus. Serious Christians, said these Puritans, measure their spiritual progress by them. The first of these marks: “Vivid Awareness of the Greatness and Goodness of God.”
Pentecost is a day for the church to loudly sings its thanks and praise.
Maundy Thursday. The name comes from the Latin, novum mandatum or “new commandment” and recalls the event of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet.
Ibis ad crucem! You shall go to the cross! With these three words Pilate condemned Jesus to die by crucifixion. In this Lenten series we have been paying visits to several places where Jesus stopped as he with his disciples made his final journey to Jerusalem to die.
It’s Passover festival in Jerusalem, the holiest season in the Jewish year. Thousands upon thousands of Jewish pilgrims have been travelling toward the Holy City to remember and celebrate God’s rescue of his people from long and heavy bondage in Egypt. As Jesus enters Jerusalem riding upon that lowly donkey, the mood of the thronging multitude turns deliriously jubilant. The people walk beside him as he rides, and laud him loudly as “King of the Jews.”
In these Lenten meditations we have been paying a visit each week to a place where Jesus stopped as he with the disciples made his final journey toward Jerusalem. Our aim in doing this is to be attentive to our Savior as he makes his way toward his God-appointed destiny with suffering and death on the Cross for us. As his church, the Body he so much loves, we want to be present to him in his sufferings, and to show our love for him. We long to be close to Christ, for we cannot get enough of his presence.
Lent is a six-week season in the Christian year that starts with Ash Wednesday, reaches peak intensity and agony on Good Friday and finishes with a crescendo of joy and triumph at Easter.
Because life is a sheer gift from God, one we never deserved. The appropriate response, therefore, is to do two things: to take delight in the gift, to revel in and to savor it; and then, in response to bless the Giver with lavish thanks.
Pentecost Sunday is a day to celebrate, with full-throated thanksgiving and joy, Jesus' sending of his Holy Spirit. And, Pentecost Monday and the entire succession of days during Pentecost season, are a time of summons and challenge. Pentecost season is a time for the church to remind believers of their daily, lifelong call to bear witness to their Lord and to engage in his mission.
“On the third day He arose again from the dead.” By these words in the Apostles Creed, Christians are declaring, forthrightly and unequivocally, a radical conviction, full of cosmic implications. He is stronger than death. His triumph over the grave ensures the defeat of any pretender to his authority and rule.
On some points of doctrine, honest Christians honestly disagree. On one point, however, all do agree: The cross lies at the very heart of the Christian message.
