"Without Power"

Without power the Christian will always fall short. Without the light of God we are in darkness. That is fact in California and it is true in Pampanga. With "brown outs" you think about darkness and powerlessness a lot here in Masantol. The power went off at the church/house the other night. But not because of typical "brown out". It was only a CC Masantol "brown out". It was about a week ago we watched the wire on the transformer spark and then flame. We have our own transformer on a pole in front of the house. Just yesterday the same wire completely separated and broke off its connection. But at the same time all the neighbors still had power. It was a hot, humid and rainy night about eight o'clock. After two hours Jhek Jhek was able to have some men come and fix the wire. Amazingly they did not have a bucket truck to get to the transformer. They only had their jeep and two ladders. They had to borrow two flashlights to do their work. They used their regular household ladders to climb up the pole to the problem.
In Acts 1:8 Luke writes, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” We need His power, the Holy Spirit in and upon us. Jesus said in John 15 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." If we in any way become disconnected from Him by ourselves we are powerless. The transformer still had power. All my neighbors still had power. We were disconnected and left powerless. This certainly has much personal application to meditate upon.
Still in Masantol, power outage seems almost the norm. Many of the people are religious, yet in darkness. The Catholic Church can be heard praying each morning and evening. Over a community loudspeaker they call out the rosary. But there is no power! People continue in their sin. In II Timothy 3 Paul states that in the last days there would be those having “a form of godliness but denying its power”. My prayer is that the power of God will come to the people of Masantol. His power can transform any life!