The Old Christian's head was bowed in a perfect portrayal of deep reverence.
He had just walked up the podium from the front row of the packed auditorium – to thunderous applause. Making his way slowly, on his face was a smile - a slightly wolfish smile for he enjoyed the applause immensely - even as he shook his head from side to side – mildly rebuking those who applauded him so...

At length his smile turned into a deep expression of gratitude and humility “Thank You Jesus” he repeated over and over.
“Lord I thank you” He started then paused closing his eyes “I thank you to have lived to see this day”  The crowd grew silent for they realised he was praying all his sermons were said to be prayers. “I am glad to have grown old in you to have aged in you mighty God!
To age in Christ – that should be the goal of every living Christian. There is no experience Lord, like aging in you” He opened his eyes:
“To stand here an old man whose vitality has gone….” He stopped and engaged the crowd. “No body gets used to aging you know! Aging is foreign to the mind – for the simple reason that the mind remains vital to the end. Sometimes I look over my shoulder when I stand before a mirror to see the old man who stares at me from the mirror. Its hard to accept that you – handsome, strong rude with life now has gone limp, now drool, and now has been humbled by life.
I am overwhelmed by your response to me but I realise that your applause is the Christ which lives in you saying to the Christ in me “Well done”.
To be relevant to the young at heart to be turned to for an opinion – when to all but the discerning eye you are a spent old shell, to be in good standing with fellow men in the things of God… This should be the desire of every age - this age, the next and all to come”
The crowd stood up to applaud
“Be watchful” he shouted over the din “If you do not know how precious you are to God, be in no doubt as to your importance to the Evil one which is why I sincerely admonish you not to listen to those who come to you with seductive doctrines. Do not be moved. Do not open up those spiritual centres or chakras as they call them - You might spend the rest of your life repairing damage needlessly done to your spirit man. And after you might have closed them, you start from where you left off. You start from Genesis and work your way to the Revelations” He wiped his brow.
Those chakras  the points through which you experience transcendental things that is out of body experiences and the like, are the forbidden fruit spoken of elsewhere. Transcendental experiences are not made up by those who experience them – make no mistake about that for even the Bible warns of familiar spirits but be warned about opening up your spiritual eye immaturely
There was a conversation long ago:
“Really? None of the fruits in the garden you may eat? God told you so?”
Compare with:
“Really? No transcendental experiences, Jesus never showed you how to have them? Psst come here! Listen carefully Jesus knows the instant you eat it you will become like him for your eyes will be opened you will know evil from good……
Of course Christians have divine experiences when under the influence of the Holy Spirit but our religion expressly forbids seeking equality with God in whatever guise – there lies the fulcrum of our religion – humility – self effacing humble behaviour. We do not want to become co-workers with God. We want to be his servants. Why? Because we love him – it is that simple!
Sure enough – if any of you here eats of the fruit in the centre of the garden and you will have knowledge of good and evil – but to what end?
Imagine this: Your four year old son or nephew understands in minute detail Einstein’s theory of relativity. He understands in depth the failures of the middle east peace process. He even hates Yasser Arafat and asks “Why can they not get a more charismatic leader?” He also hates Ariel Sharon for “masterminding the Bekaa Valley massacre. Technically perfect logic but to what benefit is knowledge espoused thus. He should be playing with his toy trains - not exercising himself in matters far too weighty and thus useless to him.
Beware of opening up your spiritual eye prematurely. Beware of seductive doctrines which seek to pale into insignificance anything the simple doctrine of Jesus could ever offer – there-in lies the paradox:
Lowly man fresh from the trauma of physical birth suddenly wishes to exercise himself in matters of God. That to me is the height of conceit. Rather than become a co worker with God why don’t you just create your own universe and save everyone from your conceit for sooner or later, you will clash with God and be thrown out headlong like someone before you.
Wide indeed is the road of conceit the road that leads to destruction.

Why was the tree of life smacked right in the centre of the garden of Eden? Obviously we were meant to eat of it but not just yet.
Jesus in characteristic love and sympathy, lamented over the abundance of the harvest and the shortage of labourers. The abundance of the harvest referred to the abundance of ignorance in the matters of God and until that ignorance was harvested and burned then supplanted with the knowledge of Christ, we have no business eating of the fruit of life.
There are battles to be fought, souls to be won over and we are not to sit pretty count our pennies and exulting over the dividends which have accrued from our belief in the doctrines of prosperity.
Pretty sitting Christian, get up and go! There are souls to be won there are too many souls exasperated in their search for the true God who are about to take a beeline to the nearest house of seduction and seducing doctrines. Win them  over, then ask for the fruit from the tree of life and if it pleases the master you will get some.
The gospel of Christ is entirely natural. It deals with the nature of things as they are and seeks to translate things to what they ought to be. A tension exists between those two states between your Israel nature and your Jacob nature.
This tension is what the precepts of Christ show us so triumphantly how to overcome.
The Gospel of Christ says to us – the world stinks but you don’t have to stink along with it. You can season the earth… nay….you must season the earth with your goodness – be a light to the world. Not because you know good from evil, rather because you love God and wish to bring others to this point where you now are asking of them only to taste of the goodness of God and see if there is anything higher or truer. Drink of the fountain of Christ and see if you ever thirst again.
Aging in Christ is to walk in faith with the one who loved you incomparably before you were born. To age in Christ is to be a partaker in the art of loving those whom you have never met but whose needs you feel. To age in Christ is to understand that all who are born are going to be sifted mercilessly by all manner of evil passions from which there is no escape, but to determine with all the might you have in Christ that you shall confront this evil no matter the personal cost.
Knowing that the perils are great yet soldiering on knowing that the consequences of failure will bear on you heavily – for iron sharpeneth iron and the more soldiers you have in your camp the better for your cause”
The old man paused, looked around slowly and deliberately then resumed
“Which is why when I look down this hall I rejoice inwardly because if one will put a thousand to flight and two ten thousand, what then shall a multitude great as you all here do?”
“We can redeem the earth” he shouted “You and I and the rest of us if we decide here and now this very moment to age in Christ and bring up our household in the way of Christ.
To age in Christ is to wake up in the morning singing.
It is to know that you are living proof of his word.
It is to draw nearer and nearer to Him.
It is to run a good race – it’s a tough race but you’re good for many more kilometres.
To age in Christ is to come to the realisation that you were fortunate to have turned your back to the world.
It is to look down from the mountain top at those caught in the mud and shifting sands and say with gratitude – there but for the grace of Christ goeth I.
It is to bask in the warmth of his afterglow. To walk with confidence in his quietness and majesty.
To age in Christ is to love God with all your heart and to love all those condemned to live I this wicked world. To love your neighbour and pray for him. – daily...
It is to be kind to one another....to be tender hearted.... forgiving each other...just as God in Christ also has forgiven you....(Eph 4:32)..he went on and on talking about the One he knew first hand…..