Devotional Thought of the Day:
¹⁸  You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me. ¹⁹  When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. ²⁰  For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Matthew 10:18-20 (NLT2)

For a Christian apostolate is something instinctive. It is not something added onto his daily activities and his professional work from the outside. I have repeated it constantly, since the day that our Lord chose for the foundation of Opus Dei! We have to sanctify our ordinary work, we have to sanctify others through the exercise of the particular profession that is proper to each of us, in our own particular state in life. . . . We have to act in such a way that others will be able to say, when they meet us: this man is a Christian, because he does not hate, because he is willing to understand, because he is not a fanatic, because he is willing to make sacrifices, because he shows that he is a man of peace, because he knows how to love.9

There is a great modern error which I want to mention: it is that the coming of the Spirit happened once for all, that the individual Christian is not affected by it.… This error asserts that the coming of the Holy Spirit is an historic thing, an advance in the dispensational workings of God; but that it is all settled now and we need give no further thought to it. It is all here and we have it all, and if we believe in Christ that is it, and there isn’t anything more.…

Somewhere in New Hampshire there is a cassette tape that would bring a smile to the baddest of Scrooges, that would make a Grinch chuckle uncontrollably. And it is the perfect illustration of Evangelism.

I may have been 5, my brother 7? When we descended the stairs on Christmas morning, there were the usual stockings filled with lifesavers books and other things. New underwear, new socks, a new shirt or two. But there were two special gifts that we had to share. A Radio Shack cassette recorder and the TOBOGGAN!!!

The first thing we were to record was what we got for Christmas. My mom wanted us to record our gifts, beore we tested the big gift out. So I started that. I would mention the lifesavers, and Steve would yell – and a Tobaggon, I say new pajamas, and a TOBOGGAN, a new hot wheels car, and A TOBOGGAN. This went on for 10-15 minutes, with TOBOGGAN becoming a comma, but louder and louder each time.

So excited was my brother about going out on the Tobaggon, that it was all he could think of! ( I knew who would be dragging it back up the hill each time… so I was excited, but I wasn’t as excited!)

Our mission, our apostolate has to become like my brother’s determination to mention the Tobaggon as the greatest of gifts he had ever received! (Uhm … Steve – it was given to us, by the way!) We have to be that excited, that we just tell people about the Lord who has come to us,

That is the impact of the Spirit (when we aren’t theologically quenching Him) as He works in our life. Showing us a fortaste of the glory of God in which we shall share, comforting us, making all things work for good for those in love with God, because we know He loves us.

That is why we don’t have to worry, because we have been so aware of the presence of God, the words come right out, as we share with people the reason we have hope – because of the love of God… because He loves US?!!!! How amazing is that?

We are as enamored with His love, as a child is with Christmas presents. The way to do this is simple, compare what life is like without Jesus to what it is now> Now you are assured your sins are forgiven, that you are no longer broken and alone, and that eternity, celebrating with God is coming…

Hear the Spirit, open your eyes and see what the scriptures reveal to youabout Jesus and you!

And may you truly be as excited about His gift, as a child receiving a tobaggon!

Quoted from Escriva, Josemaria, Christ is Passing By, in Fazio, Mariano . Last of the Romantics: St. Josemaria in the Twenty-First Century (p. 109). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.

A. W. Tozer and Marilynne E. Foster, Tozer on the Holy Spirit: A 366-Day Devotional (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2007).