Don’t Leave Home Without Him

For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

Ephesians 2:18

Competing credit-card companies love to one-up each other by announcing the remote, exotic, or unique places on earth where their card is accepted—and where the competition’s is not. A credit card becomes like a universal economic passport. Meet a merchant in an out-of-the-way place who accepts your credit card, and you are family! You are united by financial bonds that cross all cultural and geographic boundaries.

Well, maybe not family—but that’s how the companies want us to think of ourselves if we use their cards. Go anywhere, meet anyone, buy whatever you want—your credit card is your link to the world. That may be true, but it’s a shallow form of unity: an inch deep and a world wide.

A much deeper sense of belonging is provided by another type of identity: possession of the Holy Spirit. Travel anywhere in the world, meet a fellow believer in Christ, and there is instant fellowship. Next time you make a new Christian friend, skip the formalities and polite introductions—you’re family!

To be filled with the Spirit as you travel through life gives access to the most meaningful network on earth: the body of Christ.