Monday Morning Rant (7)

When I started the Monday Morning Rant it was my intention to get everything that was stuck in my craw out where I could deal with it. I didn’t anticipate a Monday Morning entirely devoid of irritating subject matter. With all the diverse opinion extant in the Restoration who could possibly be at complete peace?

I am! For once in my life I am positively elated by an experience so wonderful, so fulfilling that I just want to shout for joy. It involved meeting with friends from far flung locations with whom we have become aquainted. Do not expect further information about these individuals which would serve to identify them. No, unlike some, we did not meet behind locked doors, in secret. But we share the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ to the exclusion of all the stuff that has been added lately. Telling you their age would serve no purpose since they ranged from 24 to 81. They represented both sexes, some married, some single, but all deeply committed to Jesus Christ.

We met and were finally able to put faces with words and views towards the progress of the Restoration. We prayed together, sang together, shared testimonies, partook in the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, and rejoiced in the oneness that only shared belief can bring. Over arching this meeting was a sense of becoming personally acquainted with some very worthwhile people. I found myself constantly thanking God for the privilege of associating with these folks. The subtleties so often absent in cold words on a page were replaced by interpreting warm smiles, wry grins and an occasional frown to emphasize points of conversation.

We started sharing with one another in the early afternoon and carried on, some of us, until well after midnight. One of the delights was no evident desire on anyone’s part for self-promotion or insistence on some locally stimulated position or belief. The only evident agenda was the promotion of Jesus Christ and His church. I am absolutely convinced that further correspondence with these friends will be greatly enhanced by the experience.

To those who came, especially from long distances, at great inconvenience and personal expense, I offer a hearty thank you. The body was enhanced by your presence and your faith. To the locals who did the grunt work to make sure the arrangements and the planning were in place as hosts, another hearty thank you is called for. The only raised voices heard were either in songs of praise or an effort to enable those of us whose hearing isn’t the best to understand others' words.

We stopped at a branch on the way home to worship with fellow saints and heard a compelling sermon on "Establishing Zion," which seemed an appropriate finish to the weekend.

Come, rejoice with us. The Restored Church of Jesus Christ is alive and well and urgently seeking to do the will of the Master.

In His abiding love,

Jan and Cecil Moon