"Rock Bottom....."

It’s not quite five o’clock in the morning and the old man finds himself awakened, not by a dream, but a brain that simply refuses to lie dormant. Bible class last night began with some discussion on current events and then basically addressed the present state of the Church in so far as to how much it resembled that first body of believers that came out of the Upper Room. Somewhere near the end of the lesson, I suggested that today’s ecclesiastical community, as a whole, merely “reaps what it sows”, its witness to the world around it damaged by a “fractured Gospel”, illustrating my remark by pointing to Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling. Out of the same Book, some welcome it based on their interpretation of Scripture, others, in the name of Christ, angrily disrupt funeral processions with Biblical verses chanted over bull horns. Our teacher, in response to my statement and with a bit of passion, declared there to be no confusion at all, especially on this issue, the Word quite clear as to how God feels about it. Obviously he had missed my intent, there being no wish at all to deny the claim of “divine inspiration” giving us the message. My only purpose was to remind us how, apart from any true “fusion” with the Holy Ghost, the reality of His presence within us, our humanity can turn the message into a “mess”. He, alone, is our testimony and the one truth that confirms all else in our stumble down the path. Steve, in fact, would say as much in final prayer. We are, indeed, a “peculiar” people. We struggle in our faith with questions concerning His “absence” in our affairs and we predicate His existence with our own perceived definitions of who He is, what He thinks, and how He operates. Forty years ago my bunch condemned women for cutting their hair, wearing jewelry, and applying cosmetics, all based on the Apostle Paul’s epistles. There are two things that I know that I know: (a) that which entered into me March 27th, 1972 has never failed me in any way whatsoever in the journey since; and (b) while that merger changed my potential, it didn’t alter my identity as a man. It is still “precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little”, an anchor-line, irrigational well in my soul…..