Exodus 32
"The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life."
(JOHN 6:63)
At that first Pentecost at Sinai, there was rebellion among the children of Israel. Isn't it hard to believe that the nation would worship a golden calf rather than the LORD God who led them out from bondage in Egypt? "When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Make us gods who will go before us" (Exodus 32:1). So the people fashioned an idol in the form of a golden calf, and they worshipped it."
God's anger "burned" against them, "...and that day about three thousand of the people died" (Exodus 32:28).
Fast forward some 1,500 years. The place: an upper room in Jerusalem. The day: the Feast of Weeks. The scene: Peter has just preached the good news concerning Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, to the "men of Israel" (Acts 2:22). "When the [Jewish] people heard this, they were cut to the heart... Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day" (Acts 2:37, 41). The Spirit gives life!
INSIGHT
HOLY SPIRIT, DESCEND PLENTIFULLY INTO MY HEART. ENLIGHTEN THE DARK CORNERS OF THIS NEGLECTED DWELLING AND SCATTER THERE THY CHEERFUL BEAMS.
(SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO)
READ THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
Amos 1-3
Proverbs 17
1 John 1-2
THE ODES OF CHRISTMAS [PART 1]
Would you like to know how the first Christians worshiped? What did they sing before there were Christmas carols? For the first time in 2000 years, the first Christian hymns have been set to music.
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