Friday: The Key Log in the Jam
WEEK 3
FRIDAY
THE KEY LOG IN THE JAM
Acts 2:1-4
We saw yesterday that the central block in the way of the coming of the Holy Spirit was the unsurrendered selves of the disciples. Everything was ready—except them.
The day on which the Holy Spirit came—the day of Pentecost—was a day that set a favorable atmosphere for the self-offering. Pentecost was the day of the offering of the first fruits of the harvest as a symbol that the whole of the coming harvest belonged to God. Here in this group, men and women were being offered as the first fruits of the new humanity coming to harvest through the redemption of Jesus. They were the sign and symbol that all humanity—the coming harvest—was to belong to him. But would all of this amazing prospect be blocked by the refusal of the first fruits to offer themselves? That could have been, but it wasn’t. For these first fruits did offer themselves wholly and utterly. When their “all” was lifted up to meet God’s “All,” then the All of God flooded their all with light and power, with Godself, the Holy Spirit. They were drenched with God. They were so drenched they looked as though they were drunk. They were—drunk with God.
The Holy Spirit came as though, pent up for ages, he was free to come freely. Why? For the first time in history a group had been schooled three years in only one thing—in self-surrender, receptivity. For three years Jesus was getting them ready for this hour when they would take down the last barrier—the unsurrendered self. When they said yes, God said yes. And what a yes! In the flood of that divine yes all their negativism, fear, guilt, and hesitation were swept away. They were rid of everything they didn’t want and filled with everything they did want.
In a river log jam there is usually a key log that holds up the whole thing. When that log is pried loose or breaks loose, then everything breaks loose with it. The key log that holds us up spiritually and keeps life jammed up and getting nowhere is the log of the unsurrendered self. When that goes, everything goes with it. It took the disciples ten days to frame the word yes; it need take us only ten minutes or ten seconds to say it.
O Lord God, I’ve come to the very crux of the whole matter, and I do say yes with all my ransomed being. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: The key log has been pried loose; now let the glorious flow begin.