You sit back drinking your coffee remembering when you confessed your new found faith in Jesus to people it brought a variety of reactions. A condescending smile with ‘that’s nice’, a scoffing at religion ‘alright if you need a prop’ and derision of the church, ‘all they want is your money’. One person even warned, “Don’t get involved. Christians in my experience are either pious or poisonous.” You explained that wasn’t the case with the friendly people in the church who ran the Alpha Course.
On Sunday, several weeks later, after the service you plucked up courage to ask the Spiritual Director his thoughts on heavenly experiences. He had smiled kindly, and cautioned, “Don’t run, before you can walk. If you get too heavenly minded you won’t be any earthly use. Get to know people. You should sign up for the outreach next Saturday.”
Obediently, having joined the twenty people at the meeting point and made welcome by a motley crew wrapped up in coats, hats and scarves, you were given a hymn sheet. With cold hands, having forgotten your gloves, you stuffed that in your pocket. On arriving in town, you discovered the idea was to use a tuning fork to sing acapella outside Marks & Spencers. Not something you knew about, and you, like others seemed to have trouble in the first hymn to find the right note. The second hymn you didn’t know the tune. Before starting the third, a fine drizzle began dampening your hymn sheet, but no-one seemed perturbed by the rising wind trying to snatch away it away. When the drizzle became downpour, it was definitely the elements, not Jesus, who were reigning! The singing of “How Sweet the Name of Jesus sounds” went from lusty to rusty. In persevering to the last line, “Refresh my soul in death” you didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but knew you weren’t ready to drown for the cause! The groups’ shining faces, due to the drenching, could be seen reflected in the shop windows, but it wasn’t the radiance of the Lord they had wanted to portray.
Word: “…’The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart ‘—that is, the word [the message, the basis] of faith which we preach…” Romans 10:9 (AMP)
Worship: “Nobody” Casting Crowns 3.5 mins