It's important that we pay close attention to the timing of events that occur in our lives. We shouldn't allow time to float by or to let things just happen. For those with a destination in mind, you have to understand the value of providential moments. We serve a God with a purpose. He uses providential moments to effect and or change our current paths permanently if we are obedient. As we get closer to the end of this year of trying times, economic challenges and multiple job losses, it's imperative that we draw even closer to God.

Often at this time of year, we put a lot of emphasis on Christmas. As merchants compete for our attention, we start becoming preoccupied with putting up the lights, trimming the tree, buying presents, and so on. In the process of it all, we can very easily forget the beautiful holiday called Thanksgiving. Proclaimed as a national Thanksgiving Day in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln, it initially was a religious holiday and, more to the point, a Christian holiday.

Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

The power of Pentecost is about...

P - ushing limits... The power of the Holy Spirit that was first manifested on the Day of Pentecost was and is all about setting new boundaries... creating new realities... as the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the deep in the Creation, so the same Spirit... the very same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead... brooded over the 120 who waited in the Upper Room for the next revelation of God.

"Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness" (Exodus 15:22).

Many people who find themselves stuck in difficult situations often feel as if they've become lost. Somehow, they've arrived in a wilderness where everything has dried up and nothing seems to be growing. Many of them have lived in this wilderness for so long that they have given up on things changing and concluded that this must be all God has in store for them.