Boldness and bubbling over

A Bible study guide I use contained this challenge yesterday: "Thank God that the electronic media have opened the floodgates for the good news of Jesus to travel ‘to the ends of the earth.'  What could you do, say or write today?"  I figured that it was about time for another post here.

Last Sunday was Pentecost, the 'birthday' of the church, the celebration of the Holy Spirit.  So that's been the topic I've been thinking about a lot lately. It's also something I think many people, inside the church as well as outside, struggle to understand.  For a long while I did, and even now I don't understand everything.  But when my cell group this week were asked to describe their experirnces of the Spirit the word which cropped up again and again was 'gentle' and that made me think.

Because people often don't understand the Spirit, and often only see the more 'showy' aspects of his work, (such as people falling over when prayed for, or speaking in tongues, or giving prophecies), those- like me- who aren't used to this kind of thing can be a bit scared or disturbed by what's going on.  But what I found most helpful was when, a couple of years ago, someone said something about God only taking you as far as he knows you can go.  It reminded me of how God knows and loves each of us utterly.  He wants to challenge us to grow with him, but he doesn't want to hurt us or scare us. 

Those things are outward signs of what the Spirit is doing inside us, moving in and helping us become the people God longs for us to be.  Not everyone has the 'showy' gifts, but every Christian has God's Spirit in them, part of their life, as guider and counsellor, as someone who comes along side to help and encourage us. 

One of the things he does is to encourage us to put our faith first and to speak out about it.  I've been reading about the healing of a lame man by the disciples Peter and John.  They got into trouble for it with the same high priest and council who had put Jesus to death a few weeks before.  Told they could go as long as they stopped talking about Jesus, they refused.  They knew the danger they were in, but they couldn't stop.  What they were talking about mattered more to them than their own lives.

I wish I had that enthusiasm, that 'bubbling over' with excitement.  Sometimes it can misdirected and lead to insensitivity, but you often find that it's newer Christians, who still have that excitement, who bring new people in to the church.  I hope I do have the same attitude as the disciples, to an extent, - I can't separate my faith from my life, if I had to stop living my faith- which includes sharing it- it would be to take away what makes me who I am.  But I know I could use more boldness.  And that's one of the things the Spirit is there for.