© 2021 Don Pinson | [Download]
(Link not working? Right-click and select “Save As”.)

Most people live and die without ever finding the hope that they can be what God created them to be. But you can have that hope! Jesus Christ wants to step into you and live His life through you. He wants to bring you into all He created you to be. Thousands in the first three centuries found that hope. Here’s how it happened as described in the book Why God Birthed America:

“Jesus’ followers had been together a lot during those ten days after He had returned to heaven. They had opened their hearts to each other in a way they had never done before. Somehow, reflecting on Jesus’ different appearances made it easier to bare one’s thoughts – the hopes and the fears. This opening of the heart began to work a oneness, a unity among them that made them feel as if they were a real part of the others: An actual body of believers, joined together by the same thinking, moving in the same direction.

“They had decided to come together on the Day of Pentecost; a Feast which reminded them of God’s awesome power displayed when God gave the Ten Commandments. Through the prophet Ezekiel, God had promised that one day He would take away the hard heart of man and give him a teachable heart. (Ezekiel 36:26-27) Now, His awesome power was about to do just that.

“It happened on the first day of the Feast. They were gathered together as they had often done since Jesus’ return to heaven; when, all of a sudden, the room was filled with the sound of a powerful wind. Fire appeared and began to come onto each of them! It was impossible to remain still! They were stirred to cry aloud; and when they did, languages that they had never spoken before flowed out of their mouths. They were ecstatic with joy! And there was power – power to be what they had been created to be! Boldness immediately replaced fear. This must be the coming of the Holy Spirit which Jesus promised them! His power simply could not be contained. (Acts 2:1-4) Some of them began to go down the stairs and out into the street.

“Peter, the disciple who for fear had denied his Lord three times when Jesus had been on trial, now stands up and begins to address a gathering crowd. With all fear gone, He begins to explain to them that this is what God had promised through the prophets. This was the promised Holy Spirit Who could empower them to be all God had created them to be! He then points out their sin in crucifying Jesus. Without mincing words, he puts the blame for Jesus’ death squarely on their shoulders; but then tells them that it is possible for the Holy Spirit to live inside them also. This promise is also for them and their children! If they would admit they were God’s property, not their own, (and receive Christ as their personal Master) they, by the indwelling life of God, could be made into what God had created them to be! The change in thousands of lives that day was too much to keep a secret – not that they were trying to! (Acts 2:14-47)

“They were becoming what God had created them to be – a channel of His life. And over the next three hundred years, the impact of this release of Christ’s life through believers affected every part of the culture.

“Building strong families and educating their children from the principles in the Bible produced generation after generation of people who were examples of morality and wisdom in the midst of an ever-decaying Roman society. The followers of Jesus were like lights in a dark world, holding high Christ Himself as the answer to all the searchings of mankind, and the cure for all the ills in society.”

Are you His light in this decaying society?

Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you – and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.