Sunday, March 29, 2015
"Submerged.............................."
For the last three evenings, our church has sponsored a yearly Youth Conference, ending with everyone congregating at a local Sports Center after Friday’s service and then a final sermon preached to them Saturday morning just before visitors depart for home. They got a late start for the festivities at the gym last night, however, the guest speaker under an anointing that took them into deep worship at the end of his message. The altar area was over-packed with kids praying for one another and anyone, with no familiarity to Pentecostal praise, observing what was being broadcast might well think it mass hysteria rather than the Spirit having His way in our midst. Does a move of God require such exuberance, such extreme manifestation of His presence in the form of tears, tongues, and total loss of serenity within the sanctuary? Nope; but neither is there a demand that all verification of “contact” be restricted to a personal inner experience hidden from all others around you. To each their own, in my opinion; and where we all seem to “miss it” is, not in the manner it happens, rather in our failure to explain it unto those who have been so blessed as to encounter it. By “it”, I mean stepping into a place where Christ “in” me becomes a reality, not just a phrase learned along the way…. I’ve often wondered why Jesus, in listing those four things with which we are to give all to our Creator, omitted spirit, but included soul. The latter, in my opinion, merely is that living, emotional part of us out of which flows our heart in all that we are; but the former is that which staggers down the path influenced by all else. It’s why we can, at times, find ourselves swimming in the depths of all that He is, the reality of His promise bringing assurance of His great patience with us in spite of the mess that we remain; and then, when the waters recede, once again re-TURN to the mess that we are. Our thinking directs us in the next step; and even with the “anchor-line” secured, the Holy Ghost “in” us, reconnected via the work of the Cross, “my way or the highway” always gets us into trouble sooner or later. How good, therefore, to surrender it all and just “know” Him in an “osmosis”, however briefly, through a merger than can be “felt” if not completely “telt” in so far as capturing it in any measure. This morning in worship, when as a body we sang “Hosanna” unto a Reality filling more than just the space we occupied, I poured out my soul unto the lyrics and what kept running through my mind was “Occupy the throne in THIS temple, Lord; occupy the throne of my heart.”…………
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Sounds like a good thing for which to ask.
ReplyDeleteHave known this pastor and this bunch for forty-three years and have watched much change take place along the way. Most of it has come through this shepherd, raised within the church from birth and significant in, not just bringing us out of what others call "old-time legalism", but also taking us from seventy or so on almost any weekend service, to two services Sunday mornings and around a thousand on most Sunday evenings. I'd tell you he is a powerful preacher, not just because of his messages, but the "anointing of God's presence" that frequently comes into our midst with healings and deliverance. These days that probably sounds like televangelism with their hands in your pockets. I know these people and have seen both the reality of it and also the disappointments along the way. We step into it with hope, not some arrogant demand of faith; and God moves as God moves, more "thick" in the sanctuary at times, worship loud on some occasions, serene and flowing on others. The pastor assumed his position through an election thirty-three years ago at the age of 25 and, along the way, he and I have disagreed about much, a few things vocalized that cut me in my heart. It hit me today in his sermon, however, that he was no more than two years older than my oldest grandson in the beginning, a year older than when I married Beth. There has never been any doubt in my mind about his love of Christ and the way God uses him and his sermon this morning involved Jesus ordaining the use of an un-weaned colt of a donkey to take Him into Jerusalem. During altar prayer, besides the above plea for God to forgive an old man's holding on to old hurt, there was also a questioning of how many times during the past few decades have I been no more than a donkey with my attitude about certain parts of the journey.......
Delete25?!? Wow! At this ripe old age, that does seem mighty still-wet-behind-the-ears to be leading if you know what I mean. Still, who's to say... Yes, interesting when you put that age in that perspective.
ReplyDeleteGlad the Spirit moves!