Have You Had A Taste?

I don't know how many times my wife has (lovingly) said to me "I can't take you anywhere."  We were at a wedding reception two Saturdays ago and I stepped out on the porch with a friend to smoke a cigar before the meal came but didn't want to be absent when the food was served. There was a frosted window with a thin clear line of glass around the border and I peaked through it to see if it was time to go in. When I focused I could see a lady combing her hair in front of a mirror! My wife is right, she can't take me anywhere. I don't function well in groups of  more than say.....two. On the other hand, one-on-one conversations are one of the great joys of life to me. Maybe that's why I do this blog? It is particularly in sharing the gospel that I want to be one-on-one and this because the person I'm talking to is more open and less defensive. I like to be able to pause at times to collect my thoughts......................................................................................................Where was I?  Oh yeah, in a blog like this the reader has no peer pressure to deal with. It's really not me and you, it's you and God. Have you ever had a taste of the gospel? Has there ever been a time when God seemed real, when His goodness, His power and His majesty temporarily overwhelmed you? Then you have indeed tasted of His glory, but only tasted! The following blog is from October 12th of 2009 and it's about my first taste of the Gospel:

Have You Had A Taste Yet?

I'm an incurable pack rat. My wife came up to me yesterday with a gray disk, about the size of a silver dollar and wanted to know if I knew what it was. It was slightly bevelled and had little holes throughout. I had no idea what it was and she was about to throw it away. What! Wait a second. If we throw this out there will be a day when I need a disk about the size of a silver dollar, slightly bevelled with little holes throughout. She'll never learn. Just throw the thing out and don't ask me about it. I have in my hands, well actually I'm typing but I have here in front of me a book that I bought from the National Record Mart on the Pitt campus in the winter of 1973. Its title is Reach Out, The Living New Testament (illustrated.) It was published by Tyndale and I paid $2.95 for it. It has just a little bit of commentary in it and was aimed at young adults. I showed up at church services in Vietnam when in a solemn and introspective mood but the thought of church never entered my mind during my last 7 months at Fort Bragg. I started at Pitt in January of 1973. It was a heady time. I read constantly, occasionally even textbooks from classes that I was supposed to be reading. I would take my latest book into the college bar and my friends and I would discuss philosophy or some other subject that we were interested in until we could no longer pronounce our words. That's when my genius really came out. I remember one night particularly well. We were discussing The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda. Here was a UCLA anthropology grad student taking lessons from a Yaqui Indian shaman on how peyote was instrumental to understanding the mysteries of life. We were absorbed in this while unaware that a couple of quarts of Budweiser did the same thing. In between this nonsense I would occasionally show up at St. Paul's Cathedral. It would be almost a decade before God opened my eyes and I could see the marvel of the gospel and the majesty of His Son, but I had a taste in 1973. Sometimes I open this book up and press the pages to my face, smelling them and remembering how that word Jesus would thrill me before I even understood. I'll read a few verses from this paraphrased translation, for it not a true translation, and be transported back for only a moment. And only a moment is what I would want for I was then lost. I was in love with me and only the grace of God kept me from facing Him until a time when He would use the words of the Bible as a mirror where I would see only corruption. There are so many mysteries that will be explained to us when this life is done but none to me as impenetrable now as why God opened my eyes! If you are firm in your decision to reject God, and you want a good excuse to bolster your case, just think of me. If God would redeem me, then there is no fairness in the world. And don't listen to the voice on the other shoulder that says If God would forgive someone like me, then there is hope for you also. And whatever you do, don't open His book!