Recently in our church's library, I noticed a book I read in college called "Lifestyle Evangelism". The book is long, and I don't truly remember all the details of it, but the concept was simple enough. Love God and, in the way you live your life, show who God is and how He's changed you.

Galatians 5:22 is well known to me. It lists the attributes that will punctuate my life, assuming I dedicate myself to Christ and try hard to follow after Him. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control. (Wow, as I read the list, I can only pray - Holy Spirit, give me strength to be more like you and show these attributes)

I don't think anything coule be more basic. I need to show these things far more readily, specifically Peace, Patience and Self-Control. I'm sure you have your own list. It's a tough thing to do, but it's exactly the kind of thing we need to ask the Lord to help us with, in order to display these characteristics more readily. We need them to show who God is to us and how He's made our lives better.

Let's talk about the Day of Pentecost. The Disciples finally receive the Holy Spirit and explode. Acts 2 tells the story. In it, Peter delivers a clear testimony on the identity of Christ using the words of David from Psalms (16 & 68) to clearly identify the one who rose from the grave as the Christ (the long awaited Messiah).

The message was NOT new. The words were not what made his preaching so effective that day. The POWER of the Holy Spirit speaking through him resulted in 3000 new believers on that historic day. It is the same thing as what happened with Jonah. The power which infuses the message is so much greater than the message itself. Our small words fail to encompass the grandeur of Jesus' sacrifice and the miracle of His resurrection.

How can a mind understand the forgiveness of sins without the Holy Spirit to first demonstrate the need for it. He must first convict the sinner before they can repent. (Acts2:37)

It's time for us to begin seeking that kind of power. Second best is no longer good enough. Only the POWER of God can fulfill the needs of this battered and broken nation. With one, altogether we need to cry out with a loud voice "Holy Spirit come!" This is something we cannot do alone and all our efforts, while well intended are going to fall short if we call upon God to do what He does best...the miraculous.