“Pastor Donaldson was great!" exclaimed Charley, in answer to Josh's opening question about the Sunday services. "He taught us a chorus from one of the psalms. His message was all about trusting God.”
"That seems appropriate, considering why we're here. Can you lead us?"
"Me?" Charley looked around the room and saw mostly adults, waiting expectantly.
"Sure, why not?" Pete, leaning against the wall beside her, pushed her shoulder gently. "I know you're ‘just a kid,' but you can do it. Karrie will help, won't you, Karrie?"
Karen nodded, as scared as Charley, but willing to take a place in this grown-up assembly.
"All right." Charley gave in. "But others know it, too. Debbie, you do, and Bill. Mike, too. Come on. Some trust in chariots.. " Nobody sang but her, and she stopped, flustered. "Hey, you guys, I'm not doing this by myself!"
She started again, and one by one they joined in: "Some trust in chariots, and some trust in horses, but I will remember the name of the Lord." They sang it several times, and pretty soon everyone was well into the spirit of the song. When they stopped, a roomful of happy faces regarded one another.
"That was terrific!" Josh looked around the crowded living room, smiling at them all. "Thanks, Charley, and everybody else. That's a great way to get started."
"Where's that from?" asked Evalyn.
"I know," said Pete. "But only because I cheated and looked in my concordance while the rest of you were singing. Psalm 20:7, some trust in chariots and some trust in horses."
"Or, dollar bills and Chevrolets," chimed in Mike.
They all looked at him. He felt his face redden. “Well, Pastor Donaldson said that not everybody knows what a chariot is, anymore, but everybody knows about dollars and Chevies. He said that those are the things people put their trust in now, instead of in God. We sang it that way, too."
“That's good, Mike," said Josh. "That makes it easier to understand. We probably should try to read and study the Bible that way, substituting new images that we can understand for the old King. James ones that may not be clear, anymore."
There was a pause then, as everyone prepared themselves mentally for whatever was to come next. Evalyn broke the tension.
"Does anyone know any other 'trust God’ scriptures?"
Pete spoke up immediately. "In God have I put my trust; I will not be afraid what man can do unto me."
"Another psalm, I bet," said Josh.
"Yep, Psalm 56:11. I still have my concordance out!"
"How about 'Don't trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy'? That's First Timothy 6:17," explained Harry.
"That's good, too," said Josh. "Well, that's a good quick sample of what's in scripture, urging us to trust God for all our needs. And I guess that's what this meeting is all about. We just sort of started, but let me step back and welcome you all to our first Tuesday night... I don't know; what do we call it? Small group meeting?"
Everybody looked at everybody else.
"Do we need to call it anything?" asked Ed Watters. Everybody looked at him. "I mean, here we are, and we're off to a good start without a name. If we meet every Tuesday without a formal designation, will it change anything?"
Betty felt a momentary need to protest her husband's suggestion, but she caught herself. It wasn't worth it and, after all, what did it matter?
Josh rescued her. "Good point, Ed. We're here because we're here. This is Tuesday night at Felton's. Next week, it can be Tuesday night at somebody else's."
There was a little restlessness at that. Some wanted to discuss it some more, but not enough to openly protest. Josh went right on.
"I think everybody knows who everybody else is, but let's take a quick turn around the room and introduce ourselves, just in case. Besides, I think it's a requirement of Robert's Rules of Order."
Everybody laughed at that, and they all gave their introductions: the four Feltons, Pete and Donna, Bev and Harry, Betty and Ed Watters, Debbie, Bill Deacon, Charley Stevens, and Bob Deveaux. It was the group they had selected, minus Carolyn Curry.
Josh took the lead, again. "This group is the result of a nutty idea I had - when? Let me see, it was just over a month ago. Boy, it seems a lot longer ago than that. So much has happened." He paused to regain his train of thought. "You were all there, except Ed, who's been out of town quite a bit. So you know that my scheme to write the great Christian soap opera just sort of fell apart. Nothing to do with my writing, of course!
"Well, that's okay, because something much better is growing out of it. What finally worked its way through my brain is that Christianity isn't just religion, or at least it shouldn't be. When we become Christians, we become new creatures. We can - and should - be developing whole new lives with God's Holy Spirit as our teacher and guide. Sometimes - most of the time, probably - it isn't that our previous lives were so awful, or that we were terrible people. It's that we were just muddling along by ourselves, trying to make all our life decisions on our own, and living with all the pressures of trying to guess right. In church, we were teaching and learning rules and regulations, rather than opening up the doors for the Holy Spirit to be our personal helper. It isn't that we were wrong. It's just that there's so much more."
"But how can we make the change, Pastor?" asked Bob Deveaux.
"Funny you should ask, Bob! When I started this, I didn't have a clue. What little I did learn seemed like hocus-pocus, if you tried to analyze it. You know: you say, what do I do, and the Lord immediately answers. The trouble is that sometimes He did, and sometimes He didn't, and sometimes I wasn't sure which was which,"
"But you know, now?" queried Charley.
Josh chuckled. "Well, let's say that I'm learning. As we go along, I'll share what I've found out. But it won't just be me teaching you. I have a pretty good idea that some of you know more than I do about certain aspects of this new way of living. So, we'll all share. This isn't supposed to be Pastor Felton looking for a new excuse to hold a church service. This is all of us learning, together.
“Having said that, I'm now going to give a sermon! I won't, most of the time - and shout me down or hit me with pillows or something if I do act too much like a pastor - but I did want to set the stage with some of the scriptures that seem to give us a right to look farther and expect more. I picked out some; maybe some of you know others.
“Okay, the first is in Second Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Now, this isn't really a ‘how to' scripture, but I think it's very important background for us. What it says to me is that Christians haven't just joined some new club, or learned some new rules. When we become Christians, we become different creatures than we were before. Now, I can take that on faith, but to be honest I haven't felt like a new creature. I still am pretty much me - pre-Christian me, plus some new ways of looking at things, and hopefully a better appreciation of right and wrong and the ‘correct’ way to do things. But the Bible says I'm a new creation. If that's true, then maybe my problem is that I'm just a baby new creation, and the baby new creation is pretty much the same as the grownup old creature. Maybe what I need is to grow - and not just grow in learning, but grow as a whole new organism. It isn't that my attitudes need rearranging; I need to become my new attitudes. I don't need to learn new rules; my life needs to change so that certain ways of thinking and behaving become second nature to me. Does that make sense?"
Smiles and nods acknowledged the question, but the room was quiet.
"Not clear, huh? Well, let's let it go, for now. The fact that we are all here tonight is probably the proof of what I'm saying. We're all Christians, and yet we're all seeking something more. If God put that hunger in us, then He must have a way for us to have the hunger satisfied."
"But don't you think that having others teach us is one way we grow?" asked Bill Deacon.
"Definitely, Bill. Sermons, Sunday school lessons, reading Bibles, reading books - they're all ways of gaining knowledge. But what I'm beginning to feel is that we also have access to instant knowledge. What I mean is that we don't have to wait until we read it in the Bible or hear the pastor preach it. If we need the knowledge, the Holy Spirit can give it to us immediately. But I think we have to know that we have the right to expect that kind of knowledge and direction. lf we don't know, we won't get it, or trust it when we get it. We may not ask for it if we don't get it automatically."
"Isn't it also that the Holy Spirit prompts us with knowledge we learned before?" asked Harry.
"How do you mean?"
"I was thinking about what you said about King James ideas. Most of the things we deal with today aren't even mentioned in the Bible. There's television, cars, space shuttles - well, you name it - electric can openers, hair dryers, diet cola... "
Charley started laughing.
“Laugh if you will, young woman. But how do you get an answer to what Jesus would do if it relates to inviting some friends over to watch the 'Summer Sorority Chain Saw Revenge of the Ooze Creatures’ on video cassette, while drinking diet cola and eating raviolis out of an aluminum can opened with an electric can opener?"
Everyone was laughing by the time he was half-way through his sentence. He waited for them to calm down again. “Well, of course, my point is that the Bible alone can't give us specific direction on that kind of decision, although there may be some obvious 'rights' or 'wrongs' that we could relate to. But the Holy Spirit could say to you that watching a horror movie was pretty much the same as... Well, as... "
He stopped, obviously without an idea in his head about what Old or New Testament thing it might be like. Beverly pushed against him, and he rolled over on the floor.
"You dunce!"
"Now, wait a minute," he protested, as disorder reigned. "It's that girl's fault!" He pointed a finger at Charley, who feigned innocence. "If she hadn't broken my train of thought, and got me off on the ‘sorority massacre,’ I would have had something really profound to say."
"I seriously doubt it," opined Beverly.
As the room quieted down, Evalyn spoke up. “Harry's idea gave me an idea... "
"Oh, please!" said Bev.
"No, really. It has nothing to do with sororities or chain saws. I mean his earlier thought, about the Holy Spirit teaching us specifically from what we already know. What I was thinking was that there's no way God could put down on paper every possible situation, so that all we had to do was read the list."
"It wouldn't be the Bible," Harry broke in. “It might be called 'Six Jillion Situations and How to Handle Them'."
"In twenty-five volumes," finished Pete.
"If you're through, gentlemen..." They were. "That idea was pretty much the same as Harry's, at least before he got side-tracked. But I was also thinking that there isn't always just one right answer, one thing that is always the right thing to do in a particular situation. Usually there's something a little bit different about each circumstance, and it takes some thought (sometimes a lot of it!) to make the right choice for that situation. I think the Holy Spirit could help us a lot in the times when it isn't cut and dried, or black and white.”
"I don't understand what you mean about there not always being just one right answer," said Charley.
"Okay, as an example, suppose a child does a bad thing and gets hurt because of it. Depending on the circumstances, a mother might hug him or spank him. And any one of a number of other actions might be appropriate at that particular moment. Mothers try to guess right, but we don't, always. Usually it's because we're too emotionally involved to think out the right response. Woman's intuition is great, but it doesn't always do the job."
"And you're saying that the Holy Spirit could help you make the right choice, even in an emotional situation?" asked Ed.
"That's what I think. I also thought of another example that may be clearer. Say a friend is feeling really down. Do you let her cry on your shoulder, tell her to 'be a man about it,' tell her it's not really all that bad and she'll get over it, or tell her it's all for the best? Or do you give her advice about what to do to get out of her blue funk?"
"That depends," answered Charley
"Sure, it does, but what does it depend on? Do you always know? Are you always sure? Do you see what I mean? As Christians, I think we need to be able to have the right responses to help people. Wouldn't it be great if the Holy Spirit would just whisper to you ‘let her cry' or ‘give her a pep talk'? Wouldn't that be freeing for both her and you?"
They pondered that for a minute or so, then Josh took over again. "I said when we started that there were some scriptures that give us hope that the Holy Spirit really does work like Ev is saying. Not only works that way, but really wants to work that way. One that's becoming special to me is James 1:5: if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally."
Josh glanced at Evalyn, who smiled her acknowledgment of the worth of that verse. "There's another in the Gospels," Josh went on, "When Jesus is sending the disciples out to spread the good news. Look at Matthew 10, starting at verse 16. Jesus is warning them that they won't be accepted everywhere; in fact, he tells them they'll probably be hauled in before the authorities. But look at verse 19: take no thought of how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you."
Pete had been in his concordance, again. "I like the way it's written in Luke 21:15: for I Myself will give you power of utterance and wisdom which no opponent will be able to resist or refute. That's the New English Bible translation."
"But that was for the apostles," noted Ed. "It doesn't necessarily apply to us, now."
"I think it does," replied Josh. "I mean, why not? He's given us the same charge to bring Christianity to the world, and our audience is just as tough as the one the early disciples faced. We still need all the help we can get!
"I don't want to make this sound like something that's brand new. I'm sure it isn't, to any of us. We've all asked God for help, and felt sure He gave it. We've all had flashes of intuition when we knew exactly what to say or do. Sometimes we gave God the credit, sometimes not. What I think we really need to work on is building the expectation that the Holy Spirit will be there and taking control. He clearly can operate in us and through us without us knowing fully what's going on. But I bet He can do a lot better when we're really in tune with Him, and really ready for Him to work. I know we can all have more than we have now."
"You have not because you ask not," said Ev, quietly.
"What's that, honey?"
"Oh, I was just reading ahead in ‘James.’ In Chapter 4, he's writing about how we do things the wrong way for the wrong reasons. He says we don't have what we want and need because we don't ask - don't pray. Well, I think that we don't ask because we haven't been taught that we can ask. I think there's so much that God wants to do for us that it's beyond our comprehending."
"Hey, I know a scripture song to go with that thought,” ventured Harry. "It's from 'Ephesians'."
"Well, let's learn it before we go", said Josh.
"Okay, it's Ephesians 3:20, and the words of the song are pretty close to King James. It goes like this: Now unto Him Who is able to do for you exceedingly abundantly all you ask Him to, and so much more - more than you could ever ask or think, according to the power that works in you."
"That's terrific," grinned Pete.
"I especially like it because it points out that, whatever great things we think God can do, we can't ever think big enough. He can do even greater things. And His power to do them rests in us - in our willingness to let Him work."
They sang the verse several times before the first Tuesday get-together ended, and everyone took their leave.
* * *
Debbie and Bill had stopped for coffee before he took her home. Almost alone in the restaurant, they sat across from one another in a back booth, enjoying one another's presence and talking about the evening.
"I liked it," said Bill. "They're nice people, and everybody seems to 'fit' okay - although I thought Ed came on a little strong at the start."
"That bothered me, too," rejoined Debbie. "He kind of shut off any discussion. I think we should call ourselves something."
"Or at least be democratic about what we don't call ourselves."
Debbie laughed. "Maybe so. Anyway, it went okay after that. I don't think he's been to church much. Maybe he'll mellow as we go along."
Bill nodded, and sipped his coffee. "As I said, I liked it, but I wasn't sure why Pastor started the way he did."
"You mean about 'new creatures'?"
"Yeah. I mean, I understand that all right; we are new creations once we accept Christ. But I'm not sure I get his tie-in with ‘instant knowledge’ and the difference between Bible study and the Holy Spirit telling you what to do."
Debbie was silent for a moment. "No, I don't completely get it, either, but you know what I was thinking while he was talking? 'A still, small voice.’ You know that saying, don't you? Is it scriptural?"
"I think it is, but I don't know where to find it."
"It doesn't matter, especially. I was just thinking as Pastor talked, that he pictured the Holy Spirit walking along with us, and telling us in ‘a still, small voice’ what to do and say. That way, we don't have to stop and ask Jesus, and analyze each problem before we get our answer." She chuckled. “There'd be a lot of funny pauses if we stopped and had a specific conversation about each little thing that came up before we did something about it!"
Bill smiled at her, but he still felt dissatisfied. "What I don't understand is, if we're changed when we accept Christ, why doesn't the Holy Spirit kick in automatically, right then? Why doesn't every Christian automatically get the ‘still, small voice'?"
Debbie shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe we'll find out next time."
***
As they drove home, Betty asked the inevitable question. "It was fine," said Ed, without taking his eyes off the road.
She nodded. They drove in silence. "I liked the scripture songs," she said.
He nodded. They reached home without another word spoken. As they entered the front door, she asked if they could go again.
"I guess," he said.
Betty felt amazingly grateful for that terse okay.
***
"I think we're on the right track," Harry said to Beverly, later that night, in bed. "Singing was a good way to start.”
Bev nodded. "I think so, too. Everybody seemed to join in. And the only really awkward moment was when Ed didn't want us to have a name
"And that wasn't too terrible, either. Just a little off the wall. Anyway, we got past it.”
"He seems nice enough," she said, sleepily. "A little rough around the edges, but maybe he's not used to being in a group."
Harry mumbled some indecipherable acknowledgment. His mind was elsewhere. "I was thinking that Josh got right to the heart of it tonight, building our expectations that the Holy Spirit is with us and will respond to us. He's there all the time, of course, but most of us haven't been taught to expect Him. In fact," he said, turning over and clicking off the light, "Quite a few Christians have been taught not to depend on Him. Just read your Bible, listen to your pastor, and lead a wholesome life."
Bev rolled the other way so they were warmly and comfortably back to back. "That's sad," she muttered.
He reached back to caress her leg, but she was already making soft sleeping noises. He smiled, and closed his eyes.
***
Pete and Donna had remained at the Felton's after everyone else departed. Karen and Mike went to bed, and the four adults were restoring order to the living room.
"Good start," was Pete's opinion, as he carried coffee cups to the kitchen, where Donna was loading the dishwasher.
"I think so," agreed Josh, tossing a pillow into the corner of the couch, and then collapsing down on top of it. Evalyn placed the other pillow against the opposite arm, and collapsed against Josh.
"It was fun!" she said.
The Newsoms came in from the kitchen, and relaxed in the two armchairs. "I think everybody had a good time," Donna said. "It was nice and informal, but we covered a lot of ground, and just about everybody spoke up and joined in."
They sat for a while, each reliving special impressions of the evening. Finally, Pete arose. "And so, back to reality. We better go." He retrieved their jackets from the coat closet. "Do you want me to take prayer meet tomorrow, Josh?"
"No, I don't think so. Let's go with the game plan we laid out: small group Tuesday, business the old way Wednesday and Sunday."
"Okay, if you're sure."
"l am." He was, too,
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