“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.” (Acts 20:28, NIV)
Maybe one of the greatest beauties of golf is that you and I can do what the very best do. Well, at least we can try!
It’s true that you don’t hit it 300 yards. But you hit a cart path every now and then and watch your ball roll out to incredible lengths.
It’s true that your best shots aren’t on TV for the world to see, but you’ve hit some remarkable shots through the years, and your friends got to laugh and cheer right along with you.
And while you don’t have clothing companies calling to offer you their newest duds for free, you can find most of what the pros wear in your local shop and sport those same clothes your favorites wear if you really want to.
Maybe it’s something about the blood of democracy running through us, but we take pleasure in the fact that what “the greats” have, we “average people” can have too.
That’s a long way of getting to a big, big point in regards to God’s kingdom economy. Here it is: There’s no one who must make it through without the power of the Holy Spirit. Young, old, rich, poor, popular, unknown, pastor, pew-sitter—every one of those who call on Jesus’ name receive his Holy Spirit. Amazing!
Amazing, that is, unless you find it frightening. Does it scare you to death, for instance, that God may speak to you in the same way that he speaks to the leader of your church? It certainly might, for when God sets our course, there is a measure of responsibility we simply can’t escape.
In Acts 20, where we have focused our studies this week, Paul spoke to the elders of the church of believers in Ephesus. It was a tearful goodbye, actually, but Paul used the chance to speak of the Holy Spirit’s call on his life and of the Holy Spirit’s call on the life of these leaders.
Paul, the apostle and author of Scripture, was being called to Jerusalem. He knew that trouble awaited him there and the challenges would be significant. It’s the kind of Spirit-leading we’d expect of such a leader.
But then Paul went on to identify the calling of the Holy Spirit on the elders’ lives, too. They had been given a significant role themselves, though they certainly would have thought of themselves as people inferior to Paul. Yet Paul would have none of it, because here’s what he knew to be true: The Holy Spirit’s call rests on each of us. It is not the same call, but it is the same Spirit. And we follow for his glory, not ours.
How is the Spirit leading you? You may think it is only in a small way. But with a God so big, there is no such thing as a call too small.
—
Jeff Hopper
August 1, 2012
Copyright 2012 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.