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Dear friends,  

The new life of spring and summer is a welcome change after every Canadian winter, but has been a particular blessing this year. I hope you have found some relief in the glories of God’s creation in our beautiful home of Caledon. Flowers, fields, trees, streams and animals praise and magnify God by their life and activity; and in that we can learn from them.  

After our 40 day celebration of Easter, our focus turned towards to Our Lord Jesus Christ’s ascension to His glorious throne in heaven, where He reigns as King until all things in this chaotic world are put under His authority (1 Cor. 15:27 NLT). We take heart in this good news as we celebrate the outpouring of His Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.

But it is not enough to proclaim that ‘Christ is risen.’ We must also say that we too have risen. It is not enough to believe that He ascended into heaven. We must also say that our hearts and minds have ascended to dwell with Him there. It is not enough to read the story of the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-11). We must also be invigorated with the same Holy Spirit.  

This new life into which Christ has brought us means that something of Himself and of His heavenly dwelling can be seen in you. The holiness which the Spirit implants in your heart means that something holy can grow in you.  

This global pandemic has been greatly disruptive and overwhelming, to be sure. But we must not focus our attention solely on problems of this world, nor are we to worry about how it will all turn out. We are simply to ask Jesus to give us more and more of His resurrection so that we can magnify His power from on high here on earth.

For this reason, we can bring hope into everything: into our daily life, into every conversation and relationship, into everything we do. The power that comes from God is ready to be brought into our human situation and thus transform it.  

The crowning evidence that Jesus was alive was not a vacant grave, but Spirit-filled disciples.  

I wish you every blessing for this season after Pentecost.  

Peace,  

Chris

 

Sources consulted and quoted:

  • Christoph Friederich Blumhardt, 'Christ Rising,' Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter (Plough).
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