Traffic was at a “crawl”; “the good old days” of driving up Grand Avenue with one lane in each direction without much by way of interruption, has long gone.
This snail pace because of development all around us has become a gigantic problem that worsens each day. Since boredom set in, I began reading all of the license plates, bumper stickers and window decals; one of them caught my eye: “God answers knee mail.”
I said to myself: “I wish I could have thought of something like that!” Some people have a way of projecting a thought with clarity and challenge in just a few words. This one seemed to incorporate an entire sermon into four words.
The mind traversed more than half a century when we were kneeling to pray beside old home-made benches in the Evangelical Church in Bermuda. In those days, Prayer Meetings were conducted on our knees.
Just as quickly, my mind went to an Evangelical United Brethren Church in Milton, PA in 1955. I had gone there to preach. When it came time for the “pastoral prayer” in Sunday Morning Worship, the entire congregation went to their knees to pray. In another preaching engagement in a Pentecostal Assembly, I was asked to lead in prayer. We all gathered at the front, on our knees, and prayed. Each of these experiences left an indelible impression in my mind and heart.
Here I was on Grand Ave being made aware of the blessedness of bowing the knee before our Wonderful Lord. True, the words were a play on e-mail, but they were coming through loud and clear… we need to, if possible, get down on our knees and do business with God. Encompassed in that act is a demonstration of subservience to the Almighty.
I am oft reminded of the old deacon, addressing the young man being considered for pastor of their church. The young man asked: “How big a man do you want?”, to which the deacon replied: “We want a man who, on his knees, can reach heaven.”
The bended knee is often repeated in Scripture. In Philippians 2:9-10, we read: “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Wouldn’t it be more sensible to here and now bend the knee before the Almighty in humility rather than to be forced to do so in eternity future?
God answers KNEE-mail!
ETCetera 