The Story Continues

Paul writes to his friends in Ephesus:

¹⁷I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, ¹⁸so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, ¹⁹and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.(Eph 1)

This is one more part of the story.  

The story of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, the Disciple and us.

As I suggested in my last blog, we are all very much a part of this ancient story.

The story — the unending circle — didn’t end when Jesus ascended.  

Jesus never stopped teaching. 

The great thing, about the plot of this story, is God didn’t just send Jesus to the Jews and Gentiles along time ago.

God sent Jesus, and the Holy Spirt, for all times to all people -- to the ends of the earth.

I may have told you this story before; but it needs telling again.

During a Junior High  Confirmation Retreat, in the early 1990s, the young people were especially cautious about expressing themselves in front of their peers. So I decided to have them lie in a circle on their backs looking only at the ceiling.  That way avoiding eye contact with each other.

During the conversation one young man took the courage to speak his honest opinion:

“I don’t know why we have to waste all this time learning about something that, happened thousands of years ago, has nothing to do with my life.”

I didn’t even attempt to contradict his thought. 

It was, after all, his own opinion.

And, I for one, am of the opinion that we can never force faith on someone else.

Jesus certainly did not force.

However later that day I had the opportunity to speak, indirectly, to his comment.  I did this by simply witnessing to what I personally believed about the faith story; and how it connected with today’s world.

This old, old, story is never ending and all encompassing.  And the Holy Spirit is the inclusive glue. The existing connection between the days when Jesus walked with human feet; and spoke with a human voice.   And now, is the continued guidance of the Holy Spirit.  To keep us up to date on all that God is still doing among his people today

All we have to do is to stay tuned.

To take time, from our time-limited-lives, to listen; and keep learning.

Relationships, after all, are alway a two way street.