MERRY MONDAY BY PARRIS
”But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away!”
2 Cor. 3:16
Years ago while attending a church growth conference in Maui, Frank and I had an unexpected encounter with the Holy Spirit. We were battle-torn from raising kids, growing churches and dealing with unhappy church folk. We had gone from being at the top of the wave of church growth to crashing and couldn’t find our footing. Faking it was unbearable and on that trip Frank spoke of resigning the church. On the last day of the conference we attended a large AG church that we knew and the head pastor introduced us to Rick and Donna Shelton who were pastors in St Louis, Missouri. I wasn’t really paying much attention to them and to be honest didn’t care to meet another pastor the rest of my life. But the conversation got strange really quick when Ps.Rick said; “Jesus had changed his life”. Donna his wife, had such an angelic look upon her face that got my attention. It was if the Holy Spirit was looking at me through her eyes saying; “I was naked and in need of him”. The Apostle Paul speaks of the veil on our hearts being taken away. Somewhere along the lines of life I lost my first love and couldn’t seem to find my way back. That precious day on that Sunday morning the veil was removed and the process back to him began. It was if I were like those in a dream.
MCClaren says, “They who behold Christ have Christ formed in them and that will be the inevitable result of all true possession of the glory of Christ. Why, if you look closely enough into a man’s eye, you will see in it little pictures of what he beholds at the moment; and if our hearts are beholding Christ, Christ will be mirrored and manifested on our hearts. Our characters will show what we are looking at, and ought, in the case of Christian people, to bear His image so plainly, that men cannot but take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus. Are our characters like those transparent clocks, where you can see not only the figures and hands, but the wheels and works? The convictions which we hold, the emotions that are dominant in our hearts, will mould and shape our lives. If we have any deep, living perception of Christ, bystanders looking into our faces will be able to tell what it is up yonder that is making them like the faces of the angels-even vision of the opened heavens and of the exalted Lord.”
That was 24 years ago. And believe it or not, I am still in search of the one who touched me. Oh it’s not a futile search of ever reaching and never quenching but one of ever receiving and forever drinking. He too can remove the veil of hurt pain or offense that has caused you to lose sight of your first love. Allow him to remove the veil that has been placed upon your heart, he will restore the years of the canker worm that has eaten away at your joy and life. Turn to him!