WORSE??!! HOW COULD IT BE WORSE!!!???

"What reason have atheists for saying that we cannot rise again? Which is the more difficult, to be born, or to rise again? That what has never been, should be, or that what has been should be again? Is it more difficult to come into being than to return to it?" --Pascal

("Wood hath hope") And if mere wood, which is here today and tomorrow cast into the fire, "how much more will the Father give The Holy Spirit to those who ask."

The Holy Spirit is actually the least evasive of all spirits, especially compared to our own spirits, which are not only prone to wander but prone to conceal their wanderings, not only from God( so we imagine) and the world, but most especially from their ourselves.

But His convicting familiarity and ubiquitous Presence not only generates contempt but willful ignorance and escapism from ultimate reality. We take for granted that that upon which we depend for our survival and well-being--ask any parent if this is not readily apparent in their own endeavors!!! (So thanks Mom and Dad--better late than never!!!)--will never leave us or forsake us even when we do as religious people have ever done whether majority or minority, in power or out of it.

When Stephen addressed the Sanhedrin, he was stoned for his trouble of bringing up not so much Jesus as for bringing the whole sad Jewish history of "always resisting the Holy Spirit", even or esp. while purporting to serve Him. He only saw and declared Jesus while actually on the killing field.

Centurion: "You're only making it worse for yourself!"

Stonee: "Worse??!! How could it be worse??!! Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah, then!!!!" (An early Jehovah's Witness) (from Life o' Brian)