Just a quick question which is inspired by my recently reading Acts 19. If the apostle Paul were to visit your church as he did the church in Ephesus and ask the question, "Have you received the Holy Spirit since you've believed?" would the boys and girls in your Sunday school class or children's church or mid-week Bible club give the same answer as the Ephesians? Let's be honest. In most churches, children would echo the response of the Ephesians, "We haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." I'm talking about churches that fall under the category of being Pentecostal or Charismatic....

As a child, I'd hear from time-to-time a challenge or dare from a friend to try to prod me to do something that I was uncomfortable doing. One of these challenges was to dive off of the high diving board at our local swimming pool. From the perspective of a ten-year-old, that diving board towered ten million miles above the pool's deep-end waters. To me, that seemed so impossible. So, for many weeks, I endured the taunts from these "friends" as they labeled me as being a great big "fraidy cat" or "scaredy cat". To this day, if I close my eyes, I can still picture these kids attempting to...