Sancte Spiritus

Jesus said to his disciples:“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
Luke 12: 49-53
This sounds like my household. According to my family I need to move away from the Christian stuff because, and I quote, "it is not attractive." It's not attractive to who - apparently to friends, family, and it has the "potential" to scare away men who'd otherwise be possible mates. Yeah, because I really don't want to marry a Catholic man (if God wants me to marry, that is). I don't want a Catholic in terminology only, in family tradition only (I've gotten enough of that from my parents). If I marry, I want a full-blooded, attending Mass at least every Sunday, let's help the homeless kind of Catholic ... oh wait, we call those kind of men priests.

Speaking of the Holy Spirit (as in the Gospel):
If there was a place to be last night it was Taper Hall 201 with InterVarsity Trojan Christian Fellowship. We typically end around 9pm, but they were still praising when I left at 9:30pm to head home. Chante spoke last night about our #3 man -- the Holy Spirit. I don't know how to express the evening: holy, awesome, awe-inspiring, FUN, Spirit-filled, great, glorious, blessed, etc. I usually take notes on wednesday nights. I stopped halfway through because it was better to just listen than to blindly jot down words without digesting them. We were addressing the baptism of the Holy Spirit as it's addressed in Acts 1:1-14, 2:2-21. The main points that Chante spoke off last night was how recieving the Holy Spirit is a GIFT God bestows on us at a moment when we are ready for it in our lives (Acts 1:4 Christ commands the apostles to wait and stay in Jerusalem to recieve the gift of the Holy Spirit); that with the Holy Spirit we recieve POWER in the Name of Christ, and it enables us to WITNESS and testify of Christ to, essentially, all the ends of the earth.

When there is a powerful message it is rare that there are few/no people tearing up by the end of the evening. I know I was, but unlike most times I haven't the slightest idea why. I don't know to what part of me the Spirit was acting on, but I know He was in the room. Chante said that God wants to give us this gift, and that we will recieve our appropriate gift if we ask, knock, seek, and remain persistent in our quest. So, I asked God that He turn an interest of mine into a gift of the Spirit. I have to wait and see.

As we were praising after Chante spoke, Steve, one of the staff members grabbed a mic and told us that the band was going to play music, but there wouldn't be any words up on the screen -- God would put the words on our hearts and that was what we were to sing. It wasn't complete cacophony, noise at all; but it did reach a fever pitch.

Regarding the question I posed at the end of yesterday's entry, I want to answer myself. According to Chante who spoke last night, there are many people who have never heard of the name and message of Christ, and I don't know why I thought there wasn't anyone left. Many are in the Middle East, in need of such hope. She also spoke of herself and her friends who were able, through the Holy Spirit, to prophesy, cast out demons, raise up the dead, and speak in tongues; beyond words.