Christmas Eve Outside Candle Light Service

Bonny Doon Church will continue their tradition of a candle light service on Christmas Eve.   We have moved it up a few hours to 5pm so since it will be fully outside this year.   We will sing Christmas Carols and receive a short message from our pastor Edd.  Please bring lawn chairs to sit with your families socially distanced from other families groups.  If you want to observe from your car, there will be a couple of places to park near the service.

We will also share the Christmas Eve Service over Zoom (message ID 5013145479) as well for people who are staying home to shelter-in-place. 

                                    https://zoom.us/j/5013145479. 

As a form of a "drive-by-pickup", there are candles in a box beside the sanctuary doors for people to take home if they would like to have a candle to light at home during the service.   

Higher Grounds closed until the New Year due to "Stay at Home" order

December 3, 2020, the state of California issued an new "Stay At Home" order requiring restrictions when ICU capacities drop below 15% availability.   

Unfortunately, our church prematurely made the decision to stop hosting Higher Grounds based on an email we received from the Santa Cruz Small Business Development Development Center with the subject "UPDATE - New Stay At Home Order for Santa Cruz County".   In this email, we were informed that Santa Cruz County is considered to be part of the Bay Area and would be required to comply with the order when ICU beds throughout the Bay Area dipped down below 15% capacity.  The Bay Area ICU capacity is currently at 25% and is anticipated to drop below 15% in mid-December.  As of December 3rd, Santa Cruz County was at 51.3% ICU capacity. 

We have continued to meet outside for outside church with the one exception of the night before when it rained.  About a week before Santa Cruz closed down outdoor dining, we could have opened for a week but knew that it would be short lived and confusing to open then close again in a few days so we remained closed.  Our hope is that we will reopen in the New Year.   

 

Spend Advent with Us!

 

For centuries, Christian's around the world have waited in anticipation to celebrate the birth of Christ, our greatest gift.  This time of waiting is referred to as Advent.  For many Advent is celebrated with calendars of chocolate and toys.   Some families celebrate the season with a Jesse Tree, a tree decorated with unique ornaments used during Advent to retell the stories of the Bible that lead to Jesus’s birth, a fun family tradition to teach children the meaning of Christmas.  Some people are even sharing their faith by participating in a digital Jesse Tree.

Our Bonny Doon Church continues to celebrated the Advent by having a church members and families read an Advent message before the congregation each week followed by lighting one of the Advent candles in the Advent wreath.  We are continuing this tradition over Zoom, online church as well.

Pastor Edd has also shared a December Daily devotional that he has written for the month of December.   If you are living in Bonny Doon, you can pick up a printed copy of the devotional in a basket hanging to the right of the the church doors.  In the devotional, Edd offers a roadmap for seeking God's presence during the upcoming holidays.   On each day of December he suggests one consider taking a few moments to read key passages of Scripture, think about how to answer the questions and perhaps even talk with family or friends about the questions.  Edd's Christmas Daily goes through to the the death and resurrection of Christ. 

Right of Entry Form Completion

This coming Saturday during our regular coffee time for Higher Grounds between 9-11am, we are hosting the County Environmental Health team to enable Bonny Doon residents to complete their "Right of Entry" forms here in Bonny Doon without having to go into town.  These forms are required for the Phase II clean up public option.  

The Central Coast Red Cross, Community Bridges representing the Mountain Community Resource Center and Valley Churches United have also confirmed that they will be attending.  Unlike the previous Disaster Recovery gathering which included FEMA, this gathering will not be split between the school and the church. It will only be at the church.

This Saturday, we inaugurate the coffee cart and espresso machine that Sebastian Little of Great Infusions made available to us after hearing that our espresso machine had been lost in the fire where it was being stored during the break we took during Covid.

With the help of Valley Churches United, we will be handing out comforters handmade by a quilting group of women from Hope Lutheran Church in San Mateo, California.  The church reached out to St. Stephen's Lutheran Church in Soquel where they connected with one of the women in our Woman's Bible Study (stared by Sherrry McDermott, and currently lead by Carol Sedar) asking if we might be able to help distribute the quilts.

Meeting Outside for Worship Now

Several weeks ago, our church has begun meeting outside for church at 11:30am, just after our Zoom virtual church service ends.  People are bringing their own lawn chairs and sitting on blankets in their own family pods.  Aaron leads worship and  Pastor Edd shares a message with us.

With Great Thanksgiving...

There are so many people and organizations to thank for enabling the Disaster Recovery event to happen Saturday.  Our church would like to especially thank principal Mike Heffner and Cyndy Cote from Bonny Doon Elementary School for making the school parking lot and auditorium available for FEMA, Red Cross and other organizations to use.  We also thank Emergency Services Manager, Rosemary Anderson for her support and coordination with FEMA Emergency Management Specialist, Colleen Zaremba.  Thank you to Hallie Green for her expertise from the Bear Creek event.  

Thank you to Convergence Church for providing volunteers, funding for lunch and gift baskets.  Hana prepared meals to the Felton Pres. Church.  Karen and Mary made up these wonderful gift baskets.  We especially thank Joby Aviation for allowing us to store lunches in their walk-in refrigerator and Paula and Jonathan Holt for meeting us Friday night and Saturday to store and retrieve them.

Thank you to our church members for serving food and helping to provide Covid checks to people attending the gathering.

Thank you to Kim Furnish for donating clothing for our neighbors attending.

Disaster Recovery

This Saturday, the church has coordinated to have FEMA, NGO organizations and county offices come to Bonny Doon to give residences impacted by the fire an opportunity to have their questions answered.  Here are some of the organizations who will be there in addition to FEMA:

• Red Cross
• CalFresh and Second Harvest
• Monterey based Catholic Charities 
• Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County
• United Policyholder

The first stop for participating in this information session will be to stop by the church (7065 Bonny Doon Road) for a COVID screening and a reminder to please wear your mask at all times while on the school and church properties and to keep a 6-foot distance from other participants.  Once you've been screened we will give you a paper wrist band to wear around your wrist so that participating agencies will know that you've been screened.

FEMA will be setup in the lower parking lot at the school.  NGO and county agencies will have tables in the school's multi-purpose room.  

Convergence Church has given us a grant to hire Hana O'Brien to prepare food for people who join us.  We will be serving Lulu's coffee at the church.  Hana was the recipient of a generous donation of high quality meat and non-perishable food to prepare meals for people impacted by the fire.   She prepared food for people in her community when she was evacuated and is sharing this with us. The food was donated by companies like Google and Twitter who had kitchens that were shutdown due to COVID when employees began working from home.   We are grateful to Joby for allowing us to store the food overnight in their walk-in refrigerators and Felton Pres. Church for allowing the use of their kitchens.

Vegetarian:

- Pesto Parmesan Tortellini 

- New York Mac Salad

- White chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies

Vegan:

- Mediterranean Couscous (contains almonds)

Everyone:

- Irish Style Beef Brisket w seasoned spaghetti 

- Tandoori Chicken w seasoned spaghetti

- Cajun Style Chicken w seasoned spaghetti 

Kim Furnish has setup a donation table of clothing that people are free to take.  Many of the items are new with tags.  Convergence Church volunteers will be available to pray with people who would like prayer support.

Financial & Tactical Help Recovering from the Fire

This Blog Post includes information about the services of Samaritan's Purse, FEMA Disaster Assistance Team, as well as a note from Pastor Edd about where you can find help.

1. Help Sifting Through Ashes
2. FEMA Disaster Assistance Team
3. A Note From Pastor Edd

Help Sifting Through Ashes

Both the Presbyterian Disaster Relief and Samaritan's Purse have trained volunteers who will help you sift through ashes.  Samaritan's Purse is working with Convergence Church to help.  Presbyterian Disaster Relief has had a table at the Kaiser Center for the past few weeks and has come up to help a neighbor in Country Estates find things as well as others.  Samaritan's Purse has  said that it is unusual for a disaster like ours not to have more people signing up for help. Please do sign up for help, they are experts at finding precious items in from the remains of a fire.

FEMA's Disaster Survivor Assistance

On Saturday and Sunday from 2-6pm FEMA’s Disaster Survivor Assistance teams will be in Boulder Creek at: Bear Creek Recreation and Community Center, 15685 Forest Hill Drive, Boulder Creek, CA, 95006. 

Edd's shared this information with our church in email this week. 

This week has been a learning experience for me. Wednesday afternoon I went up to the church to help Sue hand out meals and to meet with a person that Brandon wanted us to meet. Brandon is the pastor from Convergence Church in Capitola who has been spearheading the volunteer effort around the county and who has been working with Sue at our church to help us get food and water to distribute. The person he brought with him was from the national office of FEMA. 

One of many things we learned from Kevin was the need for everyone who has been displaced from the fire or lost something in the fire, to register with FEMA. If you do have needs now or in the future might need financial assistance, you will never get it if you do not register now with their organization. He said one of the strange things that will happen once you register is you will receive in the mail a package from the SBA, Small Business Administration. Do not laugh. The SBA is the banking wing of the government that handles the disbursements and loans in times of disasters. That includes any personal loans you may desire to receive. The loans to help you rebuild will be available and the interest rate is in the neighborhood of 1% and sometimes the loans are forgivable. This is something you should not pass up. 

And then on Thursday I gathered with a group of people on the Zoom meeting for the Red Cross. There were many different agencies on the meeting talking about the things they are doing to help people during this time. Natividad Hospital can help you get temporary Medical services to assist in paying for any medical issues you might have at this time. The Red Cross also has services that allow you to connect with a mental health professional if you are in need of counseling or other types of care services. If you or someone in your home is needing services related to Disabilities, the Red Cross has a team to help you.

The Red Cross is another place where you need to sign up in order to be given services. You can do so in four ways. You can go to the Kaiser Permanente Center in Santa Cruz. You can make a phone call to 1-800-Red-Cross and select option 4 and they will help you with immediate assistance. They have a fund that will provide $450 to any household that qualifies, to help you in the recovery or displacement. They also have vouchers for other needs you might have. You can go online to redcross.org/apply if you desire to do it yourself and answer the questions. They only want to know that you are who you say you are, lived in the effected area, and were impacted by the fire in some way. 

The Red Cross has services to help you find additional resources including moving from temporary locations to your next stage in life, i.e. transportation tickets, moving trucks, rental deposits, and the list goes on and on. 

Oh, and the fourth way to connect with them, in case you are counting, you can attend the Mobile resources event this Saturday, 26^th and Sunday, 27^th at 15685 Forest Hill Drive in Boulder Creek and sign up in person. 

Besides FEMA and the Red Cross there is ongoing assistance from Valley Churches United, that has a food pantry, vouchers to Abbotts Thrift store, gift cards, to Safeway, Target, Costco, and the like. They also can provide help with utilities and hotels. Catholic Charities can also help with past rental payments that you owe or help in finding new rental housing for people displaced. And Grey Bears also has a lot of services available besides their weekly bag of food that has been going on each Thursday at our church for years.

 

 

A Hug in a Mug.

Join us for coffee and conversation between 9-11am Monday through Saturday.   This is a great opportunity for neighbors to share information to help each other move forward after the wild fire.  We are also working with Convergence Church and the San Jose Presbyterian community to find out what people need and to do what they can to help.  We are grateful to Barry who brought up #BonnyDoonStrong stickers for "Dooners" Sept 19th and Lisa S. brought fresh baked scones.

 

Fire Relief Food Distribution in Bonny Doon

 Fire Relief Food Distribution in Bonny Doon

Starting Sept 10th, we began serving "to-go" lunch and dinner meals for up to 150 people at Bonny Doon Church.  We now are serving coffee Saturday September 19th from 9-11am as well.  Lunch is served at 12:30-1:30pm.  Dinner is served at 5:30-6:30pm.  We have a commitment to receive meals until October 2nd.  Many people have asked how they can contribute financially to support the aide being offered at the church, people can contribute here to help fund continued community fire relief efforts.  

The meals are graciously provided by a grant from Operation BBQ Relief coordinated by Convergence Church in the Capitola Mall.  Convergence Church contracted with 1440 Multiversity to prepare the meal we are distributing at our church.   Pastor Edd came up for lunch the first day we distributed food.  Sue Cannon had an opportunity to meet their Chef Kenny Woods briefly Thursday night when she picked up dinner from Felton Pres. Church.  Convergence is reaching out to churches in the Bay Area for assistance and within our Santa Cruz County to solicit volunteers.  Convergence Church has provisioned fire relief assistance like fans, filters, tents, water and sleeping bags to those impacted by the fires.

Barbara Burke helped make the connection to the pastor at Convergence when she was volunteering at Felton Pres. Church last week.  Teri P. helped Sue C. create the posters that advertise the free meals around Bonny Doon.   Barbara Burke drove the dinner up to Bonny Doon Friday night and will continue to help deliver meals.  Sue C's friend Kit from Los Gatos brought cookies and Cliff Bars. The meals are not vegetarian or gluten-free, but Kit is brought up  gluten-free chocolate chip cookies packaged in individual bags to be safe last week.  Harpreet, a friend and neighbor of Elizabeth and Sue C who was living in our neighborhood for the Spring brought up meals last week and contributed Pacific Cookie Company cookies for lunch and dinner. 

Convergence brought up sleeping bags, blankets, flashlights, batteries fans, filters, masks and these goodies for people who need them.  Past members of our church drove a U-Haul truck load of items to share with us.  Denby's niece also contributed many donations.  We have continued to receive donations from the community of clothing as well as food for chickens and pets.

Where to Find and Give Help

Pastor Edd Breeden from Bonny Doon Church is working with the San Jose Presbyterian Church to share our communities needs.  Santa Cruz Convergence Church is also collecting our needs and coordinating with other churches in the area to meet them.

Meals for People Impacted by CZU Fire

Coffee, lunch and dinner are being distributed from Bonny Doon Church Monday through Friday last week and this week. 

Billy Graham's Church was at Felton Presbyterian Church earlier this week to offer prayers.

Santa Cruz County Recovery Resource Center (RRC)

Kaiser Permanente Arena, has opened as the Santa Cruz County Recovery Resource Center (RRC) for victims affected by the CZU Lightning Complex Fire. Representatives from numerous agencies will be on hand to answer questions about disaster assistance programs and other support to help families. FEMA, CalOES, and numerous federal, state and local agencies and nonprofits will be located at the RCC.

What: Recovery Resource Center 

When: 11 a.m.-7:00 p.m., daily 

Where: Kaiser Permanente Arena, 140 Front St., Santa Cruz

Neighbors have reported that trained volunteers from the  Presbyterian Church are offering to help people go through ashes on their property to look for precious remains.  They have a booth at the resource center.

To Contribute Financially 

Our Bonny Doon Church is has two funds for fire relief we are accepting donations to provide fire relief assistance to our Bonny Doon community as well as accepting donations for the church members in our church impacted by the fire  and has received disaster relief from the Presbyterian Disaster Relief Fund.

Bonny Doon School Superintendent and a handful of local families have coordinated with the Santa Cruz County Foundation to be their fiscal sponsor for a Bonny Doon Fire Relief Fund.  Their intentions are to manage the distribution of funds through neighborhood captains.

https://www.bonnydoonfirerelief.org/

Peer-to-Peer Fire Relief

Many individuals who are providing immediate aide to people who have remained in Bonny Doon to feed animals and fight the fire are accepting help through their personal Venmo accounts.  These individuals are providing fuel, water and food.  Much of the help was offered at the airport.  If you have provided that help and not been reimbursed or if you are wanting to reimburse those who paid for supplies out of their own pockets and haven't been reimbursed up please reach out to suecannon@gmail.com

Bonny Doon Church Fire Relief

A deer forages in the smokey dusk Saturday along Smith Grade Road near Beauregard Vineyards in Bonny Doon. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)

If You Want to Donate & Help

To support the church's fire relief efforts to the Bonny Doon Community, one can donate here.  

Six families of our congregation have lost their homes in the recent fires.  We are accepting donations in support of these families and others who have been evacuated in the event you would like help them out financially.  

Our church has also applied for and will be receiving a disaster relief grant from the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. Our church session (current elders lead by our pastor who are governing our church administration) will be managing the distribution of these funds.  Our current session members include a couple of family members who have lost their homes.     

The Bonny Doon School shared this list of resources with their families they are accepting donations to help students evacuated by the fire. 

Santa Cruz County is accepting contributions of large, family-sized tents at the Emeline Warehouse, 1082 Emeline in Santa Cruz. The County asks that you do not donate food during disasters.

The Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter is in need of cat litter boxes, cat litter, dry dog, and cat food. They are asking donations be dropped off at 1001 Rodriguez St. in Santa Cruz. If you have been displaced and need pet supplies, you can come to the Shelter at 1001 Rodriguez St. in Santa Cruz for supplies as well.

You can also donate locally to nonprofit organizations serving evacuated areas:

• Davenport Resource Service Center
• Valley Churches United
• Mountain Community Resources
• Community Foundation Fire Response Fund

The Watsonville Fair Grounds are in need of volunteers to provide care and comfort to people who have evacuated their homes due to the current fire.

Give toiletries, tents, and air purifiers to the Community Action Board who are serving seniors and farmworkers in Davenport.

Here is a master document where you can find additional resources and submit individual needs or offers.

Sign up for a shift at the CAL FIRE call center on Ocean Street to answer questions that local residents may have about the fires. Shifts are two hours each, and you can sign up via this link.

Offer up a room or storage space for folks evacuating using this master doc.

The Community Action Board is currently accepting monetary donations and is seeking N95 masks, gift cards, hotel vouchers, toiletries, and hygiene items. Donate here or email rubenp@cabinc.org to coordinate drop-offs.

A House of Prayer

 

Please join us to pray for our community's at 7:45pm Wednesday and Saturday evenings until we are allowed to return to our remaining homes.  

1.  By calling in:

You can join us in singing, prayer and listen to our weekly sermon by calling:

        +1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)

You will be asked to enter a Meeting ID.  Enter this #: 501 314 5479

2.  By going over the Internet:

By clicking this link you can join our Zoom video conference which is a bit like FaceTime.

https://zoom.us/j/5013145479. 

If you are not able to join us, please leave your prayer requests in the comments below or email them to us at bonnydoonchurch@gmail.com.

We have also added them to our 24 hour prayer marathon.   People have committed to praying at a specific time of day so that we have complete prayer coverage all day long.

1:00 am: Psalm 103v1-5, Proverbs 4:20-23, Psalm 34v7, Psalm 34v5, Psalm 34v10, 34v14, 91v4,v11-12,v14-16,  3 John v2)

4:00 am: Hebrew 8

5:00 am Psalm 42:11 

6:00 am Exodus 19:4, Phil4 vs 6&7, Celtic Daily Prayer

7:00 am Jeramiah 17:14 

8:00 am Psalm  34 1John 4:14&15 

9:00 am  ps 139 

10:00 am 

11:00 am. Psalm  51 “create in me a pure heart oh Lord…”

12:00 pm

1:00 pm. Psalm  34:4 Psalm 139

2:00 pm

3:00 pm. "The Joy of the Lord is my Strength"

4:00 pm. 2 Cor 5:7 

5:00 pm

6:00 pm I Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Strengthens Me”- Philippians 4:13

7:00 pm Matt 11:28 “come unto me all you who are weary…

8:00 pm “Delight yourself in the Lord..ps37 vs4

9:00 pm

10:00 pm Luke 11:10-13)

11:00 pm

12:00 am Proverbs 3 vs 5&6

We are accepting donations in support those who have been evacuated in the event you would like help them out financially.  Our church session (current elders lead by our pastor who are governing our church administration) will be managing the distribution of these funds.  Our current session members include a couple of family members who have lost their homes.   

The Coming of the Holy Spirit

Today, the Christian Church celebrates the day of Pentecost. It was on the day of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples of Jesus, following His resurrection. 
I Judaism the Festival of Weeks has been celebrated as a Harvest Festival for centuries. It was celebrated seven weeks and one day, hence pente, or fifty, after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In the early first century the celebration took on a remembering of the covenant during Noah’s time that God made between Himself and “all flesh that is upon the earth.” He would never again wipe out all of mankind as He had done in the flood. 

After the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD which ended the bringing of offerings to the Temple, the festival shifted from its agricultural roots to a remembrance of the giving of the law, the Ten Commandments, to Moses on Mount Sanai. 

Acts: 1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, ² until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.³ He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

⁴ And while staying^[a] with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; ⁵ for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with^[b] the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.² And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³ And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested^[a] on each one of them. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

⁵ Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. ⁶ And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. ⁷ And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? ⁹ Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, ¹¹ both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” ¹² And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³ But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

 

In the passage today, the disciples have gathered together, and they are waiting for the Holy Spirit. They actually don’t know what they are waiting for. Jesus told them to wait for the Holy Spirit, the promise of God the Father. But what that would actually look like, they had no idea. But they waited for about 10 days. 
And then, as the book of Acts tells the story, “there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

The gift of tongues has created quite a stir in the Christian church over the years for many reasons. Some have and some don’t. There are even people who say in only existed in the past, during the early days of the church, and is no longer available to the followers of Jesus. But with all of the controversy, two things are true, from my perspective. It is only a gift, it is not the be-all-end-all of the Christian experience. And, it is not designed for every Christian to have the gift anyway. The apostle Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthian church, “ To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good…All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” There are a variety of gifts and they are distributed around the church as the Holy Spirit deems appropriate and they are to be used for the common good of the church. Gifts are not designed to make someone stand out and be better than another, but they are distributed to the members of the church so that the church can work together as a cohesive group to accomplish the work of Jesus Christ. 
But, back to the story. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended in a violent way, a mighty rushing wind filling the whole house where they were gathered. Each of the people began to speak and the languages were not their normal language. Yet the commotion caused a large crowd to gather around the disciples and those people were from all over northern Africa, the middle east, and southern Europe, as we know these places today. And each of the listeners were surprised because they were hearing the disciples speak in their native language about the mighty acts of God. 

It was quite an experience and over 5,000 people said they wanted to follow Jesus as the Christ on that day. 
We know the Holy Spirit is God. We believe in what we call a Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Without going into the theology of the Triune God or Trinity, let me just say, the Holy Spirit is God, along with the Father and the Son, Jesus. The Holy Spirit is given to all believers at the time they believe in Jesus as their Savior. The Father knows how to give good gifts to His children and He freely gives the Holy Spirit to us when we ask.
 
It is nice to have the experience of feeling the Holy Spirit come into our presence and touch us in some mystical way, but the joy of the Holy Spirit is all of the things He does for us behind the scenes. He is our spiritual teacher. He is the one who helps us understand the Bible when we read it. He reminds us of the words of Jesus when we need to have the spiritual help they offer. We can read the Bible and promptly forget what we have read, but when the time is right for us to know something from the Bible, the Holy Spirit reminds us of the words we have read. In this way, we have the spiritual knowledge we need at the right time in our life. 
The Holy Spirit also makes us aware of our sins, not to condemn us, but to help us. When I am aware of my sins and let God know how I feel, He does not try to make me feel bad about what I have done, but because of what Jesus has done, God forgives us, restores us, and helps us make better choices I the future. Those better choices are another thing the Holy Spirit does for us, He teaches us about righteousness, or living according to God’s agenda rather than our own. 
 
There are so many other things the Holy Spirit does for us, but it is interesting how the Bible shares that His main task is to Glorify Jesus. He gives people words and music so they can write songs for the church to sing. He helps us to see the work of Jesus in all of creation, I love seeing a beautiful sunset and remarking, “Jesus painted a good one tonight.” He helps us in our relationships with one another, so we set aside what we want and seek to help others in the body of Christ find what is best for them. 
 
What a blessing the Holy Spirit is for our lives. Often, we do not even see evidence of His presence, but He is actively at work. 
 
The Holy Spirit is available to help. The first step in having the Holy Spirit is to ask Jesus to come into your life, forgive you, and make you whole. Without Jesus, the Holy Spirit cannot do His work in your life. Then you need to ask the Holy Spirit to pour out over you. We often sing the little chorus, “Spirit of the Living God, Fall Afresh on Me.” 
 
I Bless you in the name of Jesus, with the hunger to know more of Jesus and with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Especially on this day of Pentecost. 

May the Holy Spirit have free reign in this world, to calm the disruptions in people’s lives and to bring wisdom to the research doctors and scientists so they might find a vaccine for this virus. 

Pastor Edd