BUT A POOR REFLECTION: Pentecost

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Be Inspired!

Quench not the Spirit - Wherever it is, it burns; it flames in holy love, in joy, prayer, thanksgiving. O quench it not, damp it not in yourself or others, either by neglecting to do good, or by doing evil! (Wesley's Notes on 1 Thessalonians 5:19)

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Pentecost Experience

I want to give you a Pentecost experience - well, sort of. Travel with me around the globe and hear God's people praising! We have different nationalities, different looks, different styles and different languages, but we are one in the Spirit!

The first clip comes from down under - because Australia's Hillsong is leading a revolution in church music and they want the world to know that Jesus is our Saviour!

Now let's go to South America. Salvador is singing and playing for Jesus with a Latin passion. Listen to their song of longing, based on this beautiful Psalm. But maybe you prefer to listen to Norwegian gospel from the Oslo Gospel Choir performing live in the Netherlands? If that’s too sweet for your liking, turn up the volume for some nice Christian tunes played by a band from another Scandinavian country - enjoy Finland’s heavy metal band Oratorio.

If you are still with me, let’s go to Africa and I'm sure you will fall in love with Sonnie Opute from Nigeria who is singing about the Lord with a reggae beat The Lord is in Your Heart. Amen, my brother! Love Africa and love Jesus? Then I trust you will love this song from Congo too! Alleluia Amen!

If instrumental jazz on the piano is more your kind of music – sit back and listen to this. We all know that many black people love Jesus with heart and soul. Listen to this man who sings for Jesus (and for his mother). And although the next song is played in an Opera House by Anthony Walker, it is not opera music but a smooth jazz rendition of Mary Mary's I Just Want To Praise You! (Shackles - just ignore the first beep and the test screen, it will get better...)

We started with Hillsong in Australia, but their church in Kiev, Ukraine rocks too, so let's go there now! Do you still have time left for some close harmony gospel by 4 guys from the Philippines? (Unfortunately some other people in the room just can't shut up...)

And last - hopefully not least - do you like to hear two contributions from my little country? This is a country trail band, singing in a traditional Dutch reformed church (My Jesus, I love You, I Call You My Friend!) and these Dutch brothers and sisters from Bethel Free Baptist Church are Friends of God too. Imagine what it will be like when we are all singing God's praises in Heaven! Blessed Pentecost to you all!

PS And let me know if there's some music video I really must add to this global praise selection!

God loves us

Have you ever wondered why God gives so much? We could exist on far less. He could have left the world flat and grey; we wouldn’t have known the difference. But he didn’t. He splashed orange in the sunrise and cast the sky in blue. And if you love to see geese as they gather, chances are you’ll see that too. Did he have to make the squirrel’s tail furry? Was he obliged to make the birds sing? And the funny way that chickens scurry or the majesty of thunder when it rings? Why give a flower fragrance? Why give food its taste? Could it be he loves to see that look upon your face?

Max Lucado - He Chose the Nails

Sadhu Sundar Singh

I do not condemn theologians wholesale, but it is unfortunately the fashion in Western thinking to doubt and deny everything. I protest this tendency. I never advise anyone to consult theologians, because all too often they have completely lost all sense of spiritual reality. They can explain Greek words and all that, but they spend too much time among their books and not enough time with the Master in prayer. It is not that I oppose all education, but education without life is certainly dangerous. You must stop examining spiritual truths like dry bones! You must break open the bones and take in the life-giving marrow.

Oswald Chambers

In the Bible clouds are always associated with God. Clouds are the sorrows, sufferings, or providential circumstances, within or without our personal lives, which actually seem to contradict the sovereignty of God. Yet it is through these very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were never any clouds in our lives, we would have no faith. "The clouds are the dust of His feet" (Nahum 1:3). They are a sign that God is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow, bereavement, and suffering are actually the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near us without clouds— He does not come in clear-shining brightness. (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, July 29th)