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E V E R Y D A Y L I G H T
Daily readings to help you see Jesus' light in your life
by Selwyn Hughes
"The Pulse Beat of All We Do"
"So [Samson] ' said, 'I will go out as before, at other times ''
But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him."
(v.20, NKJ)
-- For reading & meditation: Judges 16:1-22
We continue examining the view that the Church is a religious
institution. The dictionary defines the word "institution" as "an
establishment for the cure of souls". In a sense then, the Church is
an institution, but it is not essentially an institution. Essentially
it is a body through which life and energy must continuously flow.
And the life that must flow through the Church is the life that comes
from the Spirit. He and He alone gives life. I say "He" for the Holy
Spirit is more than an influence. He is a Person who guides,
counsels, cleanses, empowers, directs and, most of all, just abides
with us. An impersonal influence, an "it", doesn't do that. Have you
ever wondered why it was that at Pentecost the Holy Spirit did not
fall in the Temple but in a house? I have thought about this for many
years and for what it is worth my conclusion is this: if the Holy
Spirit had been given in the Temple, then His coming would be
associated with a sacred place, sacred services and sacred occasions.
The Holy Spirit came in the most common place - a home. He is not
given for special "spiritual" occasions, but for all occasions - for
all life. The Holy Spirit is not a spiritual luxury to be imported
into the unusual but a spiritual necessity at work in the usual. He
is to be the pulse beat of all we do - the Life in our living. And
when He is absent or not permitted to have full control, the Church,
like Samson in our text today, might shake itself and make a great
fuss but will accomplish nothing.
PRAYER:
Gracious and loving Father, I am so grateful that I do not have to
wander from sacred place to sacred place in search of Your Spirit.
You come down to me wherever I am and turn all my seculars into
sacreds. Amen.
FURTHER STUDY:
Acts 9:1-21; Gen. 32:24-30; 1 Sam. 16:7; 11:13
1. Why was Saul an unlikely candidate to meet with God?
2. Why was the Damascus road an unlikely place?
Additional devotionals are available from Crosswalk.com:
http://link.crosswalk.com/UM/T.asp?A1.7.26372.1.1698058
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Copyright 2002 Selwyn Hughes, CWR, Waverley Abbey House,
Waverley Lane, Farnham, Surrey, England. Come to
http://link.crosswalk.com/UM/T.asp?A1.7.26372.2.1698058
for more inspirational devotions by Selwyn Hughes.
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