“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” Acts 2:1-5

When I was young, my mum suffered some pretty serious chemical poisoning from a work accident. She was sick for a while there and it wasn’t a great outlook. She faced severe joint pain, partial paralysis and the prospect of cancer as we faced learning sign language with the likelihood of it causing her deafness. One day she walked into a healing meeting at our church and after receiving prayer fell to the ground with a whizzing warmth like lightning shooting through her body. She was healed. Our life as a family changed at that point. Before then, we’d had one foot in Gods door, but afterwards we dedicated our family life to discovering God. God with us. God real to us.

It’s almost impossible when God visits to walk away unchanged. When the Spirit was given to the Church in Acts they took God to the world in a whole new way. Being his voice. His hand. Acts records the disciples ‘agreeing’ with the Spirit and being led through dreams and visions. He was active in their lives relating God to every man and woman. Pentecost wasn’t just a fortunate event (for tonnes of reasons!), it was, it is, crucial for us the church!

Last Sunday was awesome. Through our body, Edge, it was like a fire, a deep warmth, and a change was blowing through us. It wasn’t hard to believe it when Greg shared he believes God is bringing us into a new Pentecost. A new life for a new time, and what a time it is!

I wonder what Edge will look like in 6 months, a year, 5 years? How will these days where God meets us change our community? What does God have in store for Edge Kingsland?

I’m looking forward to more Sundays like the last. More everydays like Sunday. More of God in our lives.

According to the Christian tradition, Pentecost is always seven weeks after Easter Sunday. It is one of the prominent feasts in the Christian Liturgical year and commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles of Christ.

Its significance in the biblical story highlights the collaboration between God and man to redeem humanity. This transcendent encounter empowered them to communicate in ways that would amplify the voice of God in the earth.

Pentecost is our festival, our feast. The celebration of an ongoing conversation between God and man, embodied in a people who are becoming the talk of the town. The testimony of Jesus, the very spirit of prophecy.

This is a season to reflect, to open our hearts, and receive all that the Holy Spirit has for us.

The prayer of the Blessed John XXIII says it all..

“O Holy Spirit, Paraclete, perfect in us the work begun by Jesus: enable us to continue to pray fervently in the name of the whole world: hasten in everyone of us the growth of a profound interior life; give vigor to our apostolate so that it may reach all men and all peoples, all redeemed by the Blood of Christ and all belonging to him. Mortify in us our natural pride, and raise us to the realms of holy humility, of real fear of God, of generous courage. Let no earthly bond prevent us from honoring our vocation, no cowardly considerations disturb the claims of justice, no meanness confine the immensity of charity within the narrow bounds of petty selfishness. Let everything in us be on a grand scale: the search for truth and the devotion to it, and readiness for self-sacrifice, even to the cross and death; and may everything finally be according to the last prayer of the Son to his heavenly Father, and according to the pouring out of your Spirit, O Holy Spirit of love, whom the Father and the Son desired to be poured out over the Church and her institutions, over the souls of men and of nations.”

The Season of Lent is drawing to a close.
We are coming to the end of the journey that culminates in Passion Week, following the days that Jesus walked
from his entry into  Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, his death on Good Friday and Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Many events surrounded that week.
Two of Jesus’ closest friends made radical choices, with huge consequences; Judas betraying Jesus,which led to his untimely death, and Peter who even though denying Jesus, made a choice to return to him in Hope.
Lent has been an opportunity for each of us to examine the way we have betrayed, or denied Jesus, as well as making a choice to continue walking and trusting him into the future.

So we remember, and we celebrate this great occasion in our Church History and Present.

Passover Meal (thursday night)
Jews and believers in Jesus embark on a personal journey from slavery to freedom & liberation in re-living the account of the passover story ( Haggadah), an opportunity to  engage with this story & find common links within your own stories during the night. (still time to rsvp….call the office now!)

Good Friday is a pivotal day in our easter festival, so take some time to consider the crucifixion of Christ, and if you can, visit one of the many churches that will be holding meetings and events on this day, or rest with family and friends on this holiday.

And on Sunday at Edge we will continue this Easter Festival – easter eggs out in full force (for those breaking Lent!),  a fish breakfast at 9am for the earlybirds, and two  community gatherings at 10am & 6pm, where we will remember and celebrate this great time, together.

Happy Easter Edge.