"Haven............."

”“Peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal”..... Martin Luther King Jr

Our pastor’s son, who leads worship, spoke to the congregation Sunday morning about people who get the gospel lyrics confused. One young girl had somehow misinterpreted what she had heard and was singing “Elvis is king”. His own wife, instead of “recover it all”, was substituting “covered in oil”. After service I told him of her version being my personal preference. In today’s church world, it seems to me that too many are out to conquer health, wealth, and prosperity in general without an inkling as to a need of visiting the well on a regular basis. Not just for a drink of water. Not merely to sit with your toes in the stream. While Jesus did declare a “foot-washing” would suffice for our daily cleansing, it yet remains that life, itself, in the natural requires of us at least a “Saturday bath”. As it is in the physical, so also in the spiritual. We exist in a time like no other. Global crisis comes to us, flooding our living rooms with war, famine, disease, and natural disaster. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? What can I do? Children killed in battle. Children sick and illegally crossing our borders. Eboli. Multitudes right here in America, without God, without hope. It makes my head swim, too much for one man unless carried and left at the Cross. The sermon, yesterday, pointed to “A Safe Place in Desperate Times”, an inner oasis, not given so much as a refuge where we are to run and hide, but a “refueling station” where all that He “is” is made available unto us in the next step. The question, however, becomes: Does “flow” demand immersion? Can we know an encounter with His presence without taking “a dip in the pool”? My own answer is “no” to the first and “yes” to the second. Remember: Scripture reports that God, at least once, talked through a donkey and is able, if necessary, to have dead stones give Him praise. Ankle deep, knee deep, or in over our heads brings assurance in corresponding doses, residual benefits a matter of our faith and the path before us. You’re only as “wet” as much as you, yourself, determine……