That Sweet Anointing

Sunday morning, Easter, dressed, right before we go to church, I step outside to put a new trash bag in the large, trash barrel. We had our Easter festivities the day before—a potluck dinner and egg hunt and games for the kids. We have discovered the kids love to play with water pistols. We had a generous supply of little pistols handy and two five-gallon buckets of water ready for pistol “ammo.” Immediately after the meal and egg hunt, the water began to fly among the kids and a few certain “adults” (yours truly). We had a grand good time. Back to the trash barrel. I had emptied the trash barrel the day before, and I knew we would be having guests Sunday afternoon. I wanted to get a trash bag in the clean barrel before anyone put something messy directly in the barrel. That would require a barrel cleaning. Gotta keep that thing clean or the ants have a hey-day. I pop the trash bag open to lower it into the barrel, not noticing our hummingbird feeder directly above it. My head raises up and bumps the feeder, spilling a goodly amount of the sugar water on my head. Well, we needed to leave for church, and I did not want to have to go in and go through the routine of fixing it. I just made sure the right hairs were in the right place to let it dry, while off to church we go. So, Easter morning, I go to church with a sweet anointing of sugar water on my head. I did find out that if you want your hair to stay in place, put sugar water on it. A tornado would probably not mess your hair up! Anointed with the anointing of sweetness—that was my thought as I went to church. That is what we all need. We need to be anointed with the anointing of sweetness by the Spirit of God. I thought of Jesus, how the Word says He was anointed with the Holy Ghost and power who went about doing good, healing all who were oppressed by the devil. Even though Jesus was anointed with the sweet Holy Spirit of God, doing good for all people who were sick and suffering, still, the wicked, critical religious people hated Him and opposed what He was doing. But the sweet anointing of the Holy Spirit did not cave to religious opposition. In fact, that sweet anointing went into the temple and overtured the tables of merchandising God’s people, and ran the hucksters out who were just making a living on God’s people. Jesus, anointed with the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit, turned the temple into a prayer and healing center (Matthew 21:12-15). Social clubs are for the world. The sweet anointing of the Spirit is for the church, so the world can come and be healed in spirit, soul and body by the power of God. We need that sweet anointing.

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