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Just Like the Good Ole' Days - Or is It?

by Jerry Ousley  
2/05/2016 / Christian Living


During my Army days, while stationed at Fort Myer, Virginia as a Chaplain's assistant, we were required to spend a lot of time in our dress greens. On formal occasions that meant a long sleeve shirt with a white t-shirt underneath, dress pants, tie and jacket. But on average days we could get away with the short sleeve shirt, and no tie or jacket. However, even during the hot summertime we were required to wear a white t-shirt underneath.

Now folks, I guess I'm a little rough around the edges but before my Army days, during my Army days, and after my Army days when it was hot outside I never wore a t-shirt unless that was my only shirt. To me it's a ludicrous idea to wear two shirts when it's ninety degrees outside.

But it was a requirement and so I did it. That is until I discovered how to make a false t-shirt. Basically what I did was to take an old t-shirt, cut the neck out and about three to four inches all the way around making a sort of dickey out of the thing. Carefully putting this false t-shirt on first and smoothing it down around the edges, then putting on the outer shirt over top being careful so as not to cause the overhang around the neck to be pulled up, it looked just like I was wearing a t-shirt! I kept that thing for the rest of my Army career and no one ever suspected or knew about it, except the rest wondered how come I wasn't sweating in the middle of July!

It was a cheap replica and really I was lucky that no one ever discovered my deception, but it was not a duplicate. In other words I wasn't really wearing a t-shirt. In the same way we cannot duplicate days gone by. I've heard many teach about becoming like the very first Church. Those folks were blessed beyond belief. It was a time of great miracles. They had all things common to supply their needs and they were happy. But they were also persecuted, sought out and executed. Today we'd like to have what the first Church had minus the persecuted and executed part. We can't take the simplicity of the first Church and blend it in, stretching it to fit our modern way of doing church. We will get it wrong every time.

Trying to be like the first Church, or any church in history for that matter, will never work because we can't duplicate spirituality. We want what they had because we want to see the miracles and the blessings they experienced. But that was for them then and we are in the now. Miracles still happen today; we see people healed miraculously of sickness and disease. But it just isn't like it was then.

What we are trying to do when we duplicate the first Church or the church of one hundred years ago, or what we had even a year ago, just won't work because we can't produce the spirituality of that time in this. The Holy Spirit lives in the now. He blesses us today. We can't make yesterday return and even if we could it would still be now.

I've seen it over and over; congregations witness what has been successful in one ministry or revival. Books are written about it as to just what was done to get where they were. We can take those books and duplicate them to the "T" and still it will not produce the same results. Why is that? It's because now is the day of salvation. Now is the time the Spirit of the Lord is moving. Each movement is different and unique. We want to produce formulas that will make us spiritual. We want to suggest that people should wear the same clothes that were worn when the Spirit moved then. We want to act like they did in effort to receive what they received. But, folks, it will never work. If you've listened to me very long you know what I'm about to say We just can't duplicate the Spirit of God. It isn't in how we dress, how loud we shout, or how much we express God's blessings emotionally. It doesn't work that way.

Spirituality only comes when we are obedient to the Lord right now. As we obey Him, listen to His voice, heed His warnings giving place to His desires in our lives, will we begin to find true spirituality with God. He acts uniquely in every situation and with each individual.

So we can reminisce about the "good ole' days" there's nothing wrong with that; be we can't relive them and make them work right now. Each season is fresh and different and so is the moving of God.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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