Hold the Lines, Men, I Am Going to Shout

     Once upon a time there was a church that had as it's humble beginning a group of men and women who were emotional in their worship of the Lord.  It was nothing uncommon for there to be sounds of amen, that's right brother or praise the Lord, throughout the preaching service.  But, as the years passed, so did much of the enthusiasm during the worship service.  It finally got to the point where old brother Brown was the only person that opened his mouth during the worship service.  When the preacher said something that Bro. Brown liked he would say, "Amen", or "Praise the Lord", or some other comment.  There were those, probably their emotions were not working, who were offended by the old gentleman's comments.  They appointed a committee to go talk to the old gentleman and try to get him to be quiet during the service.  The committee found him plowing in his garden with a team and plow.  They were rather blunt in their approach and simply said, "Bro. Brown, the church has sent us out here to get you to be quiet during the worship service."
     The old man wiped the sweat from his forehead and rolled a clot of dirt around with the toe of his shoe, and then said, "Brethren, I know I bother some of the folks at church with my remarks.  But, men, when I consider all of my old black sins and how Jesus died on the cross for me I just can,t help it."  With that said, he took the plow lines out from around his waist and said, "Here, hold these plow lines.  I feel like I am going to have to shout again."
     I like that.  In this day of glass-eyed, dry-eyed religion; it is good to see someone moved to the point of expressing their feelings with some emotion.  R. G. Lee said, "We are moved more when we see a dead dog or dead cat in the highway, than when we hear of the suffering of Christ on the cross.  It ought not to be so.  It makes no difference the greatness of our sins, his grace was greater than all of them combined.  Now, that is something to shout about.  All of my sins were laid upon his back.  It should have been me on the cross.  If that does not move us and touch our hearts we need to get on our knees.