SCRIPTURE READING           John 14:12 _NRSVUE                     

¹² Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.

                              LEADER            The Word of God that is still speaking.

ALL:                    Thanks be to God.

 Sharing Two Devotions: I regularly use two devotional guides, The Upper Room and Walking in Grace (Guideposts). If I skip them, generally it diminishes the smoothness of my day. Almost always I find some insight in them. Saturday, I felt like they were written directly to me, so I thought I’d share them.

Upper Room, September 30, 2023: Based on 2 Corinthians 1:37, “Blessed be God, the Father of mercies who consoles us in all our affliction so that we may console others.”

Linda Chandra (Banten, Indonesia) wrote that her husband was hospitalized for kidney stones and she was hoping, praying for a miracle. Alas, the stones were large and would not dissolve. But next door was a man who was a lonely migrant with burns all over his body. Nobody visited him. So, she did! As she comforted him, she said, “I was also being comforted by God.”

Her bottom line: she had hoped for a miracle for her husband (that did not happen). Rather when she chose to comfort the lonely man in the next room, she found a different kind of miracle from God.

Saving Grace, September 30, 2023: Author Marilyn Turk wrote she was ready to give up. Within only two days, she learned one of her books was not chosen as a finalist in a context, an editor rejected her new book idea, and she was struggling to meet a deadline. “Why did I bother? Negative thoughts filled my head. Your writing isn’t good. No one wants to read it. You’re not as good a writer as… (italics were her emphasis).

She needed to quit what she called “stinking thinking.” It was like stones piling up on her shoulders; sending her into depression.

Then her husband called her to watch a bluebird that was repeatedly flying into their sliding glass door of their kitchen. Fearing the beautiful bird would hurt itself, she thought he probably thinks his reflection is a rival instead. “He is his own worst enemy,” her husband said. She opened the door so the reflection disappeared. With the threat gone, the bird flew back to his nest, safe.

The threat to the bird had never been there in the first place, just like her negative thoughts. Like the bird flying into the window, she was attacking herself and allowing fear, failure to defeat her. She ended the devotion with this insight, “It was time to change my thoughts and make that enemy (her doubts) go away.”

MESSAGE            The Church’s DNA – Multiplication     Rev. Donna Goltry

I shared the devotions because both echo the realization: when we doubt, it is hard (maybe impossible) to do good works. This brings us a deeper meaning in today’s verse:

ARE WE BELIEVING AND DOING GREAT WORKS? THAT’S THE QUESTION THAT ARISES FROM THIS VERSE OF JOHN 14:12.

John 14:12 lays out a simple path for an effective Christian life.
Believe in Jesus.
Do the works Jesus taught.
And then expect to find ourselves doing even more

But the recipe depends on one crucial extra ingredient: the Holy Spirit. It is secret ingredient to create the DNA of multiplication – multiplying the works of the Holy Spirit to bring God and Christ into ours and other’s lives.

When we read about the early church, their DNA was truly amazing. Just check out these instructions from Jesus, recited in Acts 1:4-5,

Acts 1:4-5: “While they were eating together, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised…….. ‘In only a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’”

And they waited. Then came the Holy Spirit and this small band of believers caught fire with the spirit and began spreading the messages and teachings of Jesus to whomever would listen. The results were amazing.

How many people are we talking about?

Acts 1:15 claims that while they were waiting in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit: “during this time, the family of believers was a company of about 120 persons.”

And what happened afterwards?

Acts 2:41, when this small company of believers were set afire with the Holy Spirit and began sharing with others about Jesus: “God brought about three thousand people into the community on that day.”

Now that’s a DNA of multiplication. Going from 120 to 3,000 in a day! WOW!

The early church’s DNA continued to multiply believers and doers of the good works of Jesus. The message spread like a drop of water into a pond, rippling out in all directions. Within two generations it had spread throughout the Middle East, eastward toward Persia (now Iran) and India, and all around the Mediterranean shores, including North Africa, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain. By the beginning of the 3^rd Century it had traveled all the way to Britain by craftsmen and traders along the Roman roads. When St. Augustan arrived in England in the late 6^th Century, it was already there.

Multiplication DNA is pretty straightforward to understand. Compare it to simple arithmetic.

Here’s arithmetic. Let’s add by 2s. 2+2 = 4, 4+2 more = 6, 6 + 2 more = 8. That’s like a church relying on one or a few to reach those who are looking for a church home. Growth by addition is slow growing, relying on people who come to our doorstep.

Here’s multiplication. Each and every person who believes and does good works like Jesus can be a spokesperson for Jesus. All the sudden the math changes. 2X2 = 4, 4X2 = 8, 8×2 = 16. In three iterations, it becomes 16, not. Take another step. 32, not 10. What a difference more voices and action make.

Think of the possibilities for us if we were to begin rebuilding a youth program. As a project of a few, meager results. When the whole church undergirds it with prayer and action, who knows???

But remember, no Holy Spirit, most likely no action.

And that’s pretty much where I found myself recently. All work, no spirit. I’d been overwhelmed with busyness. My devotion life stunk. Maybe I’m not alone in this respect? And I became overwhelmed with too many daily competing needs and too much negative talk around me, to the point of being practically ready to throw in the towel. That’s when I began to pray more pointedly for help.

When I did, here’s the message I received. Donna, you are ignoring your devotion time. Go back to your devotion time each day, and the rest will fall in line.

So, I did. And look how it happened. Just yesterday, it was as if the Holy Spirit was speaking to me… this is the path to take. And here is why:

For me, morning devotion revolves around journaling, pray and reading the two devotion guides I highlighted earlier: The Upper Room and Guideposts. The Upper Room is written by ordinary Christians and full of folksy insights. Guideposts is written by acclaimed authors. It is slicker, but not has necessarily better messages. You could be an Upper Room writer; try your hand at it.

After a few days of taking time alone with God for devotions, already I was rebounding. Then it hit me on Thursday when both The Upper Room and Guideposts particularly spoke to me. And Saturday’s, were they written for me? How often do we think that is the case, when in fact it is not. We are not alone and our problems, like seeking the Holy Spirit, are not unique.

We just need to pray and expect the spirit to come. Come Holy Spirit!