"Abracadabra!................."

“Prepare the heart, not the sermon… Preaching is not the performance of the hour. It is the outflow of a life. It takes 20 years to make a sermon. It is a thing of live and grows because the man grows, forceful because the man is forceful, holy because the man is holy, full of unction because the man is full of the divine unction”…..E.M. Bounds

My snow day yesterday, even with nothing more than a dusting that soon disappeared once the sun made it way over the hills to the east of us, was spent here in the house. The granddaughter has been battling a sore throat, so we elected to skip the usual breakfast at Bob’s. I actually slept until ten and Beth served up biscuits and scrambled eggs. From there, for me at least, it was a constant change of position in an attempt to escape “cabin fever”, computer to television to crossword puzzles and the second of four books recently loaned me by the Catholic fellow at school. This particular one was written by an old-time Methodist preacher and can be summed up by his words above, the message merely a continual declaration of the importance of prayer without ever really getting into the depth of what prayer really is. In truth, though, other than a few excursions into the example Jesus shared with the disciple when they asked Him how to accomplish it, in forty-one years I’ve heard only one man come close to my own theology on the matter; and, while we are in agreement concerning the experience, we part company when he explains the benefits gained from entering into such place of being one with Christ in the Holy Ghost. Maybe it’s no more than this old man wanting what’s said to be clearly defined, or at least left open for discussion, the initial quote offered here allowing me to at least better express my dissent. As stated, Pastor Bounds speaks volumes in terms of our faith being a journey; but he comes up short, in my opinion, when he leaves one with the impression that a man might possibly be transformed into “holy” because of the indwelling. He does correct himself with the last condition, declaring the vessel to be anointed only because, at the time, the Spirit has revealed Himself; but, if we are not careful, men being yet men, the seed sown is corrupted. This is, and always has been, a pilgrimage, not an immediate metamorphosis……