As we are approaching the Holy Day of Pentecost I sometimes reflect on what goes into the Day, while there is ceremony and ritual in the other Holy Days in the bible. Pentecost largely is another day of worship like most church services. In the past it was the giving of the first fruits of the harvest symbolic of a spiritual first harvest later on. Today it’s a reminder of those days and the day when God’s people received the Holy Spirit. Today most churches who still observe it use it as another day of worship similar to the weekly worship.

This day is very symbolic of many things. Including God’s desire to have a relationship with His people. One place that we see this is Psalms 50 beginning in verse 8:

“Listen, my people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel:

    I am God, your God.8 I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices

    or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.9 I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens,

10 for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.

11 I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine.

12 If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?

14 “Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High,

15 and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

In basic language, though they offered sacrifices to the Lord it was nothing to Him outside the reason for doing it. He owns everything so it did not matter, what He did not own was our love, that has to be given freely. Once we have a love for God, all those things are done through it. Psalms 50:15 shows that the relationship is direct. Call on Him on the day of trouble and He will deliver you. Nothing else sways Him to our cause that we can do ourselves. After all, as he says, the world is mine. Even the physical offerings already belong to him. Away from ritual we come to him with our needs and praise. In doing so from our heart we develop the right relationship with our God.

Pentecost may be not as involved as other worship days but it still is us coming to Him one more day in worship and reverence. As the bible shows us, one day with Him is better than a thousand other days.

In Christ always,       

Steve Koenig

Lakeshore Fellowship