Not Offended

And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me. Matthew 11:6

Christ being a stumblingblock to many who had difficulty believing this poor Galilean man was the answer to the Old Testament prophecies. While Christ's teachings offended many, the people who believe and are not offended in Him are the happiest of people, for their faith leapt over the stumblingblock of unbelief into eternal life through Jesus Christ. 

Isaiah 28:16 "the one who believes shall not be shaken"
Romans 8:33 "whosoever believeth on HIm shall not be ashamed."
1 Peter 2:7 "to you who believe this Stone is precious."
1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculliar people; that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out darkness into His marvelous light."

But to them who do not believe that Jesus Christ is God's plan of salvation, He becomes a stumbling block, a 'Rock of Offence'. 

We are not to be offended when people revile us for the sake of the gospel. When we are mocked for the choices we make in our everyday lives. When we become the joke and the punchline amongst our families and friends/former friends, we are not to be offended.
Yes, it can be painful at first. But hurt feelings need to turn to Christ for strength. And when Jesus wraps us into His loving embrace, all offenses just melt away. 
Eventually, our hearts become so filled with His love that we are not offended. We are able to love like Jesus simply because it is Jesus loving they who reject Him in us. 
Blessed/Happy is the person who is not offended by the grace which God has given them. 
Blessed am I because I am not offended by the extension of grace which God sent to the world. 
I am saved becaue the blood of Jesus Christ washed away my sins.
I have eternal life because Jesus Christ overcame death and the grave.
I have everything God promises through Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ lives in me; I live in Him; and He lives in God.

Just Because Pentecostal.....

is in the name of a church does not mean that that church is really Pentecostal. Are these fighting words? Yes. Absolutely. So, if I say that such and such church is not Pentecostal, how can I be absolutely sure I am not wrong? 
Welcome Holy Spirit
Well, let's see now. What does it mean to be Pentecostal? Factually, Pentecost is celebrated exactly 50 days after Passover. It is on this day in the Book of Acts that 120 men and women were gathered together in fellowship and prayer in an upper room in Jerusalem, waiting for the Promise of God, the Comforter, who would lead them into all the world, where Jesus Christ had said that they would go. 

And what happened when these people had assembled themselves here? Well, now, we have to go back just a bit to the Day of Passover. What happened there? The Lamb of God was slain on the cross, buried in a borrowed tomb and resurrected from the dead on the third day. For forty days He walked among the township and was seen by many people. Then He gathered His followers together, gave them a few last instructions, and told them to wait for the baptism of The Holy Ghost.

So they waited. They waited for fifty days. Until the Day of Pentecost, when God sent His Holy Spirit and baptized them with fire, giving them the power to speak in tongues, other languages. With these languages the 120 people gathered in the upper room, the men and the women, began to preach the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. And the crowds gathered because they were hearing something which they had not heard before: the language of love, hope, and peace.

Pentecost did not begin in the New Testament, though. It begins in the Old Testament, but is called The Feast of Weeks (Exodus 34:22), when the First Fruits were gathered in the fall harvest. It was also referred to as Day of First Fruits (Numbers 28:26), Feast of Harvest (Exodus 23:16). All three of these references are prophetic celebrations of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, He who is the First Fruit of the New Covenant which God has made with us. 

It is through the blood of this Lamb of God that we are saved: our sins have been washed away when we repented of them and believed on the Name of The Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation. Now we are saved. But there's more to being Christian than being saved from an eternal death. We need to be sanctified, too. 

Being saved has set us apart from the rest of the world. We need to stop living the lifestyle we lived before we came to the realization and understanding that we needed a Savior, this Savior Jesus Christ. But how do we get from a lifestyle of bad habits, wrong choices and ignorance? The Holy Spirit. He will guide us through God's Word, revealing to us how God wants to change us. That's called sanctification. Transforming us from who we once were into who we are now. 

But The Holy Spirit has another job, too. And that is to baptize us with boldness to witness, freedom to declare the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ, liberty to gather together and declare the grace of God to all nations. And for that we need the same baptism which the 120 men and women received on that Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. They turned their world upside-down. Are we? 

I want that holy anointing Isaiah spoke about. 

To me, being Pentecostal is believing in the Trinity: God The Father, God The Son, and God The Holy Spirit. You cannot have just one and call yourselves Pentecostal. John 3:16 God sent His Son. Matthew 17:5; Isaiah 42:1; Matthew 12:18; Luke 3:22; John 15:9,10. And these are just a few which reference more than one Person in the trinity. 

Jesus Only is not Pentecostal. Oneness is not Pentecostal. 

Pentecostal is believing and receiving the Holy Spirit, who is sent by God to the believer who wants to live a sanctified, holy life; who wants to walk their life's journey with and in power. The power that comes from being filled and baptized with The Holy Spirit of God. That's Pentecostal. 

Not only that, but unless you believe that Jesus Christ Is LORD, and receive God's gift of grace through His Son's death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, you CANNOT receive God's Holy Spirit. You must be born again, as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3. 

And how does such a thing get accomplished? By faith. Faith in God and God's Word. If you have a Bible, or can lay your hands on one, start with the Book of John; it is fascinating reading and will totally change your life, if you let it.