When Vickie and I made our first trip to Africa, we got to experience life in the bush for a small portion of the trip. (Being out in the bush created many, many stories that I’ll share in future blog posts!) One thing that I will never forget about this experience was the first meal that we ate upon our arrival, curried goat. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a curried anything fan … never liked it, never will. While I know that the host family had gone to great effort to prepare a delicious meal, great as it might have been to the host family, it took every effort on my part to eat the meat. Not only was I dealing with the curry, I was challenged with dry, hard to chew meat. That goat didn’t want to “enter into the ministry”. So, in an effort to hide my struggle to eat the curried goat, I cut the meat into smaller bites hoping that this would enable me to quickly chew the meat and later grab the Pepto Bismol. With God as my witness, this didn’t help one bit. Miraculously, even the smallest of bites seemed to multiply inside of my mouth. Thankfully I lived to tell the story. Oh, and here’s one funny thing about the meal. To add to the memory, outside of the hut, I could hear what possibly was the mother goat bleating what sounded like, “You ate may baaabbbyyy, my baaabbbyyy.”
Fortunately, from time-to-time, I find some seasoned “meat” that I don’t want to disappear. I’m talking about a God-thought that was given to be chewed on and chewed on again to capture all of its flavor. This is especially true in this quote from Roberts Liardon’s The Complete Collection of His Life Teachings. If you’re like me, you will want to cut this quote into bite-size portions and chew on it over and over again in the days to come to allow its seasoned (God-breathed on) richness to provide some much-needed meat for your spirit …
“There is something in the Pentecostal work that is different from anything else in the world. Somehow, in Pentecost, you know that God is a reality. Wherever the Holy Ghost has right of way, the gifts of the Spirit will be in manifestation; and where these gifts are never in manifestation, I question whether He is present. Pentecostal people are spoiled for anything else than Pentecostal meetings. We want none of the entertainments that the churches are offering. When God comes in He entertains us Himself. Entertained by the King of kings and Lord of lords! O, it is wonderful.”
~ Smith Wigglesworth
