"Super Glue......"

Having often expressed here my disappointment with much that has changed in Pentecost and in my church, in particular, during the last four decades, it seems only fair that this old man also share some reasons why he yet finds himself seated in the balcony for Sunday morning and evening services. I’ve previously pointed to my daughters and grandchildren being active members, volunteering and giving themselves in several ways, Christ alive in their life far beyond what happens within their attachment to this body of believers. It’s also true that, while the majority of this congregation is no longer familiar to me, having grown larger than my ability to contain everyone’s identity, there yet remains within the bulk a certain few who were there with me in the beginning. My wife’s roots go back over sixty years and my own history amounts to more than four decades. That which holds us here, though, is an even deeper connection, one that surfaces from time to time, a reality that works in our midst regardless of all our differences, in spite of our humanity as it exists, a grace bigger than our inadequacies…. Sunday evening, perched in the upper level, I found myself once again simply listening to the worship team, the songs seemingly “programmed”, an attempt to “prime the pump”, but without any real success. It happens. The Spirit comes as He determines, not through any command on our part. So it was, then, in the process of taking Communion, we experienced, not a “rushing mighty wind”, but something closer to His presence simply being “poured” into the sanctuary. You sensed the difference, His entrance as if an invisible, divine dignity had arrived and the reality of such visitation filling not just the space around us, but receiving us, at the same time, into its depths. Willingly we became one within it. Praise began to flow out of us, the Holy Ghost for thirty minutes or so working in our midst. There would be no need for a sermon afterward, person after person in the pew beginning to exhort and testify of His grace…. I once thought such experience exclusive to “tongue talkers”, having never known anything like it in my earlier brief brushes with other denominations. Years have taught me otherwise. God connects with all who come to His well, the overt manifestation of such event only a matter of how much we surrender ourselves unto it. Let me also admit here that humanity remains humanity, all not using good sense in the liberty given; so I understand why some would prefer a different scenario than what occurs within my bunch. For me, though, this is familiar territory, “home” in so far as attachments, but a place where a commitment to its overall theology left me long ago……