Yesterday I had one of those times. I was at the Fox Valley Folk Fest. I don’t normally go to those things but a friend of mine, Art was there so I stopped out to see him.
While shooting the breeze and talking politics a long time acquaintance from a previous church stopped by. Charlie. Charlie and I had a great talk not about OLD DAYS but about what God was doing right now in the Church of Jesus. We talked about our hopes and beliefs in his purposes. It went on for a half hour or so it seemed to Art.
For clarity Art knows about Spiritual Things, actually is reasonably well versed in one way. Like a lot of people who grew up in church, are well read, probably read the Bible but have no understanding of who Jesus is. He can talk the language in fact. I think he was raised catholic.
We have talked, I have been open but he has always been dismissive of the whole thing. I don’t get my Bible out and pound it. I care about his soul but I learned long ago I am not the Holy Spirit. I am just Gene. He has to be attracted by the Spirit of God and not of Gene.
Our (Charlie and my) discussion intrigued him. He started asking questions. Not about salvation. Not about who Jesus is; but about Pentecost. He focused right in on speaking in tongues. What is so tragic is that is a stumbling block for so many who know just a little bit that it keeps them away from entering in. This is true even of those who know Jesus. They are fearful of going deeper. They have put God in a box and tell him to stay in his place; they’ll just take a little, dabble around the edges and hope it’s enough. The problem is it’s not for them about salvation. It’s about experiencing all there is to know of God, Hs Gory and Grace.
I have a good pastor friend who writes a newsletter by email. He mails one every week. Many times they are scholarly. But, they are always careful, analytical, distant and keeping of God in his place. I got just one such today. He tried and failed to differentiate the Mystical (Pentecost) in the spiritual realm. Talk about the Kitty Cat on the edge of the pool trying to describe what swimming is like even though he has never been in the water.
Art called this morning. He was upset that I didn’t explain all the nuance of Pentecost to him. I only said to him, this is not something that can be explained, it never was explained in the book of Acts as many times as people experienced it over the many years portrayed in the book, it could only be ministered and experienced. His response was, if it can’t be explained then it’s not real. Poppycock.
If it could be explained it wouldn’t be supernatural now would it?
I have struggled to give a metaphor for why this can’t be explained. I think I get it. If I were a porpoise who swam at great speed thru the sea, leapt from the water, twirled, dove, did that wonderful tail thing they do, and laughed all the time as they seem to I would have a very hard time explaining to a Tiger on the seashore what it is like, how it works, what it feels like, how to do it. Unless he becomes a porpoise himself, gets in the water and lets it all fly he can’t read enough books, listen to enough tapes or hear enough explanation as to what it’s like to be a porpoise. He will be a Tiger, probably a good tiger. But without getting in the water and being born of the water and spirit of a porpoise he will be a tiger now and forever.
Unless you experience it you can never understand it, and here’s the truth, once you experience it you will never want to leave the water. Being a porpoise is like that. It’s so freeing, it’s so safe, it’s so joyful.
A tiger in water is never going to be a porpoise.
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