ONCE AND FOR ALL

   Yesterday before the service we were in the "payer room" when the Pastor was relating an incident of that morning. As is his custom he was up very early and "was caught up in the air with the Lord" for several hours. Later as he was driving on the freeway to church someone cut him off and for a moment he "lost it".
Quickly he caught himself and asked of the Lord, "How does that happen?", meaning how does it happen that after being with the Lord you can suddenly "lose it".
   By the Spirit I immediately and emphatically responded, "Because you hate sin! God hates sin!"
   I too and too often do the same and have been inquiring of the Lord as to why and how can I flip to the fleshly thinking.
   The answer is simply that when we've been in the presence of the Lord where everything is in order and everything is beautiful anything contrary to that is greatly disturbing and we out of the "old man of the world" react with old dead habits and mannerisms and upon recognizing what we have done we are saddened at our response and often even feel defiled and not able to go back to where we had been in the Lord.
   Oh Lord, help us to once and for all put off the old man that is trapped in time and all that is of the world and to once and for all put on the new man who is not subject to time and has been created out of the veritable manifested essence of truth, holy and blameless in Christ.
   Endue us, oh Lord, with speech that is holy and divine and completed in truth and grace so that we may call to order that which is not and walk from glory to glory becoming light to the world.