"Candles................."

Our teacher brought forth a great lesson last night, taking the sixth chapter of Acts and showing how Steven’s defense, as presented to the Jewish Sanhedrin, actually centered on God, through Christ, re-establishing His “temple” within the believer. I kept quiet, for the most part, reading a few verses aloud when asked, sharing a couple of remarks off topic here and there, the kind that are a part of any setting when friends get together, but offering my thoughts concerning how well Christianity, in general, responds to that particular message was left for this page, this moment. I felt no prompting in the classroom. Here, it is just me and my opinion, for what it’s worth… Why is it that the Church, in preaching the truth of Calvary and the Resurrection being about men once again knowing the Holy Spirit as an indwelling, either reduces the reality of such gift to an empty “person-less”, His identity just a doctrinal credo, or attempts to usurp for ourselves that which He, alone, is able to accomplish through us, our humanity always an obstacle to be overcome? Indeed, if this Gospel is what it claims, then the written Word, itself, is not “supernatural” in the sense that I, or anyone else, can utilize it as a weapon, a sword whereby a man can create his own structure out of denominational dogma, holding his Maker prisoner therein. The Bible is a promise confirmed by Christ “in” me, and that translates to a man walking with an inner connection to his Creator, one in which the journey is governed by a surrender to His rod and staff, His tug on the anchor-line, His anointing as it comes to him along the way. At one point last night, the teacher spoke of how our mission within the Body equated to carrying on the “life” of Christ; and I silently pondered as to why we who make such a profession are so prone to dismissing that term in so far as our merely being a vessel for the Holy Ghost. It is He, alone, that sparks our existence, breathing into us and breathing through us all that He is……