Courtesy of Rev Geordie
Menzies-Grierson AOC UK
Quotes Of Interest ----Ministry
Minute.
Commentary on Sunday's Gospel
Quotes Of Interest
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The Holy Spirit
821. Mr. Moody, taking in his
hand a tumbler, explained that
It was full of air, and that it
was almost impossible to remove
That air. In the same way the
human heart is full of sin, and
Our efforts to remove it are
unsuccessful. Seizing a pitcher of
Water from the table, he filled
the tumbler so full of the liquid
That it overflowed to the platform. There was no longer any
Air left in the tumbler. His
moral was that when a human
Heart is filled to overflowing
with God's Spirit, there is no room
For sin in that heart.
Tyler E. Gale.
From BIBLE TRUTHS ILLUSTRATED
J. C. FERDINAND PITTMAN- 1917
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In his sermon, "A Dangerous
Pentecost," Halford Luccock tells of Lorenzo de’Medici, the great
Florentine patron of the arts who was very proud of the spectacles he staged
for the citizenry. Among his productions were several amazingly realistic
religious pageants performed in church. But one Pentecost, Lorenzo went too
far: he used actual fire to depict the descent of the tongues of flames on the
apostles. The fragile stage set caught fire and, before horrified onlookers,
the entire church burned to the ground (Marching Off the Map, Harper, 1952).
The moral is clear: pray for Pentecostal power, but don’t try to manufacture
it.
Charismatic Chaos, J. MacArthur,
Jr., Zondervan, 1992, p. 175
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MINISTRY MINUTE
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For private devotions.
Kindly Paraclete,
In Thy gracious visits to our
souls
Thou bring relief and
consolation.
Melt the frozen, warm the chill,
Bend the stubborn heart and will.
Heal our wounds, our strength
renew,
On our dryness pour Thy dew.
Amen
(from the sequence for Pentecost
Sunday)
Adapted Rev.GMG
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Commentary on Sunday's Gospel
Gospel Reading for Whit Sunday
(Pentecost)
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.....we see in the first
Christian Pentecost the joy and happiness of the Holy Ghost, the
Faith and love of the primitive
Christians, in whom the spirit of Jesus Christ has been implanted by the Holy
Ghost, in whom the peace of which the world knows nothing has be come a joyful
reality, and love to God and love to their fellow-men is the
Controlling factor in their
hearts, so that they live in peace, without contention and quarrel, with out
envy and strife, without anger and hatred, then, then indeed we see a condition
of affairs with which our own day and generation presents a lamentable
contrast.
In the thou sands of contests and
struggles that agitate the hearts of men and society everywhere there is one
cry heard over all, and that is for peace. The Pentecost peace is found so
rarely in our day ; and for that reason this festival is an admonition to
earnest humiliation and prayer that the spirit of our times may be transformed
and transfused by the Spirit of Pentecost from on high.
In the spiritual bitterness and
darkness of to-day this is the only fountain of hope and reformation.
REV. DEKAN W. PRESSEL
From HOLY DAYS AND HOLIDAYS
Compiled byEDWARD M. DEEMS, A.M.,
PH.D. 1902
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Calvin on Pentecost
John Calvin, Theologian, 1564
It was
requisite that the gift should be visible, that the bodily sense might the more
stir up the disciples. For such is our slothfulness to consider the gifts of
God, that unless he awake all our senses, his power shall pass away unknown.
This was, therefore, a preparation that they might the better know that the
Spirit was now come which Christ had promised. Although it was not so much for
their sake as for ours, even as in that the cloven and fiery tongues appeared,
there was rather respect had of us, and of all the whole Church in that, than
of them. For God was able to have furnished them with necessary ability to
preach the gospel, although he should use no sign. They themselves might have
known that it came to pass neither by chance, neither yet through their own
industry, that they were so suddenly changed; but those signs which are here
set down were about to be profitable for all ages; as we perceive at this day
that they profit us.
And we
must briefly note the proportion of the signs. The violence of the wind did serve
to make them afraid; for we are never rightly prepared to receive the grace of
God, unless the confidence (and boldness) of the flesh be tamed. For as we have
access unto him by faith, so humility and fear setteth open the gate, that he
may come in unto us. He hath nothing to do with proud and careless men. It is a
common thing for the Spirit to be signified by wind (or a blast). For both
Christ himself, when he was about to give the Spirit to his apostles, did
breathe upon them; and in Ezekiel’s vision there was a whirlwind and wind. Yea,
the word Spirit itself is a translated word; for, because that hypostasis, or
person of the Divine essence, which is called the Spirit, is of itself
incomprehensible, the Scripture doth borrow the word of the wind or blast,
because it is the power of God which God doth pour into all creatures as it
were by breathing. The shape of tongues is restrained unto the present
circumstance. For as the figure and shape of a dove which came down upon Christ
had a signification agreeable to the office and nature of Christ, so God did
now make choice of a sign which might be agreeable to the thing signified,
namely, that it might show such effect and working of the Holy Ghost in the
apostles as followed afterward.
From Commentary upon the Acts of
the Apostles, volume 1,
by John Calvin, translated by
Henry Beveridge; found at
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom36.ix.i.html
"It was King James I, I
believe, who became annoyed with the irrelevant ramblings of his court preacher
and shouted up to the pulpit: “Either make sense or come down out of that
pulpit!” The preacher replied, “I will do neither.” - Steve Brown, in
Tabletalk, August, 1990.
"Remember the days of old,
consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee;
thy elders and they will tell thee." Deut. 32:7 –
"Enquire, I pray thee, of
the former age." Job 8:8 –
"I have considered the days
of old." Psalm 77:5 –
"This shall be written for
the generation to come." Psalm 102:18 –
"Call to remembrance the
former days." Hebrews 10:32 - "To put you always in remembrance of
these things." - II Peter 1:12. [kjv]
