In 1800, Alessandro Volta created the first true battery. While it was large and weak compared to today’s standards it was the real beginning of stored electrical energy. Nowadays batteries are everywhere from mobile devices to vehicles and medical devices like pacemakers and prosthetics. So much of our lives are battery-powered.
Many homes around us, perhaps yours, along with Price Hall, collect solar energy to provide for our electrical needs. Our solar panels generate so much power that we earn energy credits back that can be converted into cash back. But most of the solar power collected is either used or lost. What if you could take the one area of your life where you consume the greatest amount of electricity, your home, and run it off a battery? Or if you could run your neighborhood with batteries? All of Cape May? Wow. That would be a lot of power.
Elon Musk, of Space-X, Tesla, and PayPal fame, has a new company called Tesla Energy. This new endeavor offers a suite of batteries for homes, businesses, and utilities fostering a clean energy ecosystem and helping wean the world off fossil fuels. It’s very interesting. You can learn more at: www.teslamotors.com/powerwall.
God cares about the energy we produce, and consume! “Storehouse villages, and villages for chariots and horses. Solomon built widely and extravagantly in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and wherever he fancied” (1Kings 9:19).
Churches are storehouses. Cold Spring Church is a storehouse, and even more, a distribution point for spiritual energy on God’s spiritual network through Jesus Christ.
Notice the use of the word power in what the Apostle Paul wrote to his friends: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:18-21).
How To Replenish Spiritual Power:
Here are a few suggestions if you want to supercharge your life this August:
- Know you are loved! Remember that God in Jesus Christ loves you, forgives you, and has given you the Holy Spirit to give your life purpose and power. (John 1:14, 3:16-17)
- Read the Greatest Story ever told. The Bible may be the most widely published book, but is likely the least applied! God’s love letter is the Bible, and its written just for you! This month, pick a Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) and make a commitment to not only read it, but let it read you! Let those words touch your mind, heart, and soul. Keep a journal to capture what you discover. Share what you learn. Practice what what you see in Jesus’ life. Ask God to help the Jesus Story transform your life and see what happens!
- Get connected with others. The early disciples knew that getting together was a powerful experience (Acts 2:42-27). Attending worship is not a command, and its much more than an obligation. It’s an opportunity to hang out with neighbors like you wanting that abundant life Jesus promised. Experience God’s word read and preached. Pray together. Give together. We are all seekers. We all struggle. We all want to experience God’s grace in our life. Make August a month for gratitude. Think of worship as a spiritual locker room to receive resources and training you need to fulfill your life’s mission out in the community. Watch and wonder at what God does through you!
- Receive, then give. When Jesus called you to follow him, whether thirty years ago or 3 months ago, you are on a journey with Christ that never ends. Consider the many shops and restaurants within three miles of Cold Spring Presbyterian Church. everyone of them receives and a gives something of value. What if the raw ingredients went into the restaurant, were prepared, but only the chef and staff enjoyed a meal? What if a store owner the store shelves stocked to the ceiling, but never sold anything to customers? Or what if a person studied to be a great lifeguard, but never went out on the beach to rescue people? Likewise, God has invested in you. God believes in you. You have resources, not just to store up for yourselves, but to give away, to invest in others, to serve and provide so others may be blessed. This month, for every gift, insight, blessing you receive, pass it on. After all, if your storehouse is always full, there will be no room for what’s to come!
All these activities will recharge your spiritual batteries. Consider what kind of energy you are storing? With whom do you share? Who can access it? What does it cost? And most importantly, how is is being replenished?
Cold Spring Presbyterian Church is in the spiritual energy business and all of us have time, energy, and attention (TEA) energy to share. This August, let’s figure out how to replenish our individual and congregational energy and improve the ways we deliver that energy so that everyone in our community is supercharged with God’s Spirit and experiences the abundant life!
Thank you for the positive, powerful, energy you share!
Pastor Kevin