HOLY SPIRIT
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John 14:15-27 (NRSV)
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the
Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him
nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in
you.
"I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the
world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also
will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me,
and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love
me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them
and reveal myself to them." Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is
it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus
answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love
them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not
love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but
is from the Father who sent me.
"I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the
Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach
you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave
with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid."
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Jesus said, "The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my
name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have
said to you."
- John 14:26 (NIV)
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THIS past summer, my mother died from cancer. It wasn't supposed to happen.
My seventeen-year-old daughter had already planned where Grandma would sit
at her high-school graduation. My fourteen-year-old eagerly anticipated his
grandma's watching him pitch his first high-school baseball game. My sister
and I expected more time to laugh and converse with Mom, the preserver of
the family traditions and memories.
Amid my profound pain, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, gently soothed me and
eased my sorrow. Verses from John, read long ago, were brought to my mind.
Until Pentecost, "God with us" accurately described the relationship between
God and humanity. At times, God spoke through a prophet. The Almighty
camped alongside the people. However, at Pentecost, in a lavish,
unimaginable gift of grace, the Holy Spirit filled Christ's followers. The
mighty God of the universe came to be not only with us but within us. Our
relationship to God is no longer simply fellowship but union. God
constantly, eternally comforts us with love.
Prayer: God, fill us with your Holy Spirit. Comfort us with your love.
Amen.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
God lives not just with us but within us.
-- Maureen Baird (California, U.S.A.)
PRAYER FOCUS: Those who grieve
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