dlyn

The Holy Spirit – God’s Gift to Us LUKE 11:11-13 God gave the Holy Spirit to believers to help us each become the person He wants us to be, and to enable us to accomplish the work He calls us to do. Our heavenly Father understands that we are living in a sinful world. Because we all have a natural bent away from godliness, living the Christian life would be absolutely impossible without His divine assistance. When we fail in our vocation or in our relationships, it is because we are not drawing on the inexhaustible well of supernatural power that is available within us.

This truth became clear to me, thanks to a missionary named Bertha Smith. Ms. Smith had spent 40 years in China, and when I met her, she was already in her late 70s. I shared with her something I was struggling with, and I won’t ever forget her reply. She said, “Charles, you are as good as you’ll ever be. And you’re as good as you ever have been. You won’t ever be any better than you are.” How discouraging! I wanted to walk away right then. Then she said, “But the Holy Spirit who is living on the inside of you will enable you and He will do it for you. You can’t improve your flesh.” Until then, I had always thought that if I worked hard enough, I’d be a better person. It was a real eye opener to realize that our heavenly Father does not want our good efforts. He wants our cooperation with the Spirit within us. Since we cannot improve on what is natural, God gives each believer the Holy Spirit. In Touch – Charles Stanley

This is the devotion that Kathy posted today. It is right in step with Experiencing God and the futility of running on our own power alone. We are effective only when we give Him control.

Yesterday, when I arrived at the church for my stint at manning the Food Pantry, there were 15 or 20 large boxes of food in stacks on the tables. My friend L from church was helping me so the two of us started looking around and finally found a note explaining that the donation comprises the contents of the pantry of a woman in town who passed away last week. We sorted through it and put away all that still usable. We ended up with just one box of out of date bottles and cans [ranch salad dressing must have been on sale a lot in ’02.

I can’t get it out of my mind. So much food in one person’s house. All of it was unopened of course or we could not give it out. So she must’ve also had the usual opened condiments and crackers and cereal. She didn’t have to worry about running out of ketchup though – 5 bottles were there as a back up in case she had a ketchup emergency of some kind. All different sizes and brands. She had maybe 50 of those packets of gravy mix and chili seasoning. At least 50 boxes of pudding mix and Jello. 6 bottles of maple syrup – again no 2 the same size or brand. Maybe 150 cans of various vegetables and fruits.

Why would anyone need or want so much food in their house? Was she a hoarder or just forgetful? If you have 4 bottles of ketchup already, would you buy another just because they are on sale? Could you forget the 45 boxes of Jello and decide to grab 5 more “just in case”? Though she lived right in town, I had never met her and while L is always ready to gossip, she must not have known her either because she offered no details. For some reason it just left me with a very strange feeling.

WooHoo! Tonight!