18 April 2013 - spirited away

18 April 2013 - spirited away

The Spirit said to Philip,
“Go and join up with that chariot.” 

We need to be ready to move when the Spirit calls.  The Father is moving to bring all of humanity to the LORD Jesus and he wants to use us as instruments.

Jesus said to the crowds:
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,

The Father is definitely drawing the court official of Ethiopia.  His receptivity is obviously supernatural.


As they traveled along the road
they came to some water,
and the eunuch said, “Look, there is water. 
What is to prevent my being baptized?” 

But without Philip he would not have been able to understand the scripture passage he was reading.  There are many such "divine appointments" which the LORD prepares day after day.  We must be attentive to the Spirit so that people like the court official whose hearts are genuinely open aren't left to struggle on their own.


They shall all be taught by God.

Just as God teaches through Jesus he teaches through his body the church.  Just as Jesus makes the Father visible to the world so the Church is called to make Jesus visible.  But to do so we must be animated by the Spirit like Philip is.  Body without Spirit is lifeless.  It has nothing to offer a dying world.  The Body of Christ most perfectly makes Jesus present in the Eucharist.  It is the Spirit that brings him to us in this way.  And it is the Spirit who enables us to recognize him in the appearances of bread and wine.


I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;


Animated by the Spirit and drawing our nourishment from Jesus in the Eucharist we move through the world with immense freedom moving from one point of the LORD's plan for us to another in ways that the world can't even understand.  And in our wake we leave rejoicing.


When they came out of the water,
the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away,
and the eunuch saw him no more,
but continued on his way rejoicing. 

The Ethiopian official has been freed to join the psalmist in his praise.


Bless our God, you peoples,
loudly sound his praise;
He has given life to our souls,
and has not let our feet slip.