"Honesty..........................."

Sunday evening’s service was dedicated to our annual practice of praying over our kids (more than a hundred ranging from pre-kindergarten to now attending college), the worship handled by them in various ways and a final ceremony where all walk through two lines of elders seeking a hedge around them and an inner well within them as school once more becomes a daily path they must walk. The pastor’s sermon, delivered just before that final laying on of hands, was centered on a “Christ in me” experience that brings to us the ability to recognize His voice, his tug on the anchor-line, a message that, indeed, had me initially enthusiastically voicing my amen. Toward the end, however, as men do, his theme was utilized to speak of encounters elsewhere, things that happened while visiting other un-named churches, his insinuation being that such silliness would never be tolerated in our sanctuary; and, having four decades of fellowship with this bunch, this old man tends to disagree. Inane doctrinal error is a matter of opinion, there being any number of people who would surely label us “a bit in left field”, some having voiced even stronger views. We are not immune. We are not the chosen few who left our humanity at the Cross upon being “born-again”. There is, I believe, an immersion in the Holy Ghost, a place where “two become one”, a time when even a congregation can find unity in the reality of His presence; and, therein, be convinced of the event. It is also possible, though, for us to become so emotionally wrapped up in our own spirit that we confuse it for the other. God, Himself, is the Authenticator; and that part of the equation is what many of us are not willing to admit. Just another lesson to be learned, a part of “picking up our cross” and following Him……