John Ortberg tells the story of a friend who made his first trip south of the Mason-Dixon Line from Chicago to Georgia. On his first morning in the South he went into a restaurant to order breakfast, and it seemed that every dish included something called grits...which, as my Tennessee friends tell me, is exactly the way God intended it. Not being familiar with this southern delicacy, he asked the waitress, "Could you tell me, exactly what is a grit?" Looking down on him with a mixture of compassion and condescension, she said, "Sugar, you can't get just one grit. They always come together."John Wesley knew there was no personal holiness without social holiness, and is poplar for having said, "The Bible knows nothing of solitary religion." We're just like grits...you can't get just one. They come together. Building relationships that are both honest and encouraging are challenging to say the least, yet this is where the greatest learning and growth occurs. The church was created by God on Pentecost as an incubator to grow baby Christians in grace-filled environment through spiritual nourishment and the exercise of a serving and mission focused community. Our inclination, however, is to pursue comfort, convenience and the applause of others and let our spirit simply atrophy. Pentecost is God's infusion of strength and power to those seeking a cure from the malaise of the comfortably numb. The question we must ask, is whether we're ready for the transfusion. The coming of the Holy Spirit provides was is still missing from many lives. Listen to this brief message and find the path to
