From the Home Place

November 2, 2025

At 4:30 this morning the temperature is 47 degrees with a 24 mph wind gusting to 48. Because it’s a chinook wind it’s really not that bad outside today. The weather forecast is that we will enjoy a high of 72 degrees here in Lusk today. Websters defines chinook as “a warm dry wind that descends the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.” I wonder, can we get one of those for our churches?

At 48 mph our wind must be really close to the “violent rushing wind” mentioned at Pentecost. Verse 1 reads, “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.” Now, put yourself in that place, at that time. It had been 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus. You and the rest of the disciples are all gathered in “one place,” much like a modern-day church service, and all of a sudden, this gust of wind hits! The Bible doesn’t say that the disciples felt the wind, it reads, “And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind.”

Sitting here in our house this morning, I can hear the “violent rushing wind” outside. I can hear a piece of house wrap fluttering in the wind; I need to get that stapled down. I can hear a five-gallon plastic bucket blowing across the driveway, I need to get it put away. I can hear a temporary board on the north side of the house banging in the wind, I need to get that nailed down.

You see, today’s wind reminds me that there are several things I need to take care of on the outside, where I can hear the sound of the “rushing” wind. I imagine that the “violent rushing wind” of Pentecost, is very much like the wind that blew against the disciples when they were trying to get across the Sea of Galilee, and much like the wind blowing here today.

So here’s the point, we can hear the wind blowing, we can see the effects of the wind blowing, but do we get up and do the things that need to get done, or do we just hunker down and wait for it to quit blowing? You know, like we would probably do in most churches if Acts 2 was to happen again, today, during our worship service.

Pentecost is defined as, “A Christian feast on the seventh Sunday after Easter commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirt on the apostles.” As Jesus had promised, the “Helper” had arrived with the sound of a “rushing wind.” The word used in Acts 2 for “wind” is the same word used elsewhere for “breath” or “to breathe.” It would appear that on the Day of Pentecost, God breathed His spirit into the disciples. Now go back to Genesis 2:7, speaking of God creating Adam, “when God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

You see loved ones, when the Spirit moves, it’s God breathing life into His people! This can happen individually, or corporately. My question is this, “Have we become so accustomed to the wind blowing, that we don’t even notice it anymore? Just like me sitting in my comfortable house listening to the house wrap, a bucket and a board being moved by the wind, but I do nothing about it. I just continue to sit under my nice warm blanket, typing on my computer, ignoring the blowing of the wind.

Summary, today we have a chinook wind blowing across our area, so it’s going to be a nice, warm day to get some things done. But will I get outside and do the things the wind is reminding me I need to do, or will I just ignore it. If the Spirit of God blows across our congregation today, will we get up and go do what He’s telling us to do, or will we just ignore Him?

Oh, how I pray that today, the Spirit of God will breathe His life into our congregations. And then I also pray that we will get up and get to work doing that which He is telling us to do!

Praying for the wind to move us to action with you, Neal