Oxygen or paper bag?

Life in Jesus Christ is as an exhilarating oxygen-like experience. Yet many insist that gasping for air through their paper bag traditions is better. “Oxygen or paper bag?” I ask them. “Paper bag,” they respond.

The Reality of the Paper Bag

Paper bag breathing really is unpleasant. Breathing is difficult. Your able to function, but because the air around you is so polluted, every breath feels like breathing in sand. This type of experience is a reality for the people of Beijing. In fact, wearing a surgical mask – a.k.a. paper bag – is part of their daily routine. So much so that the Chinese government just issued a second red alert warning.

Click here for a time lapse video from CNN on the smog condition in Beijing.

Salvation’s Red Alert

In similar fashion, there are people that are in a desperate red alert of their own. They are surrounded by the smog of their life issues. But when I offer them the ultimate oxygen mask of Jesus Christ, and tell them how much better they would feel if they received the Holy Ghost, as evidenced with speaking in tongues. They look at me and say:

That may work for you, and I respect the fact that it works for you, but I am much more comfortable with this paper bag, it is my tradition. My mother used a paper bag, and her mother before her. I was raised this way, and I even attended schools that taught specifically the value of the paper bag. So you see your oxygen method just won’t work for me.

And yet they stand in front of me gasping for air.

The Apostle Paul and the Paper Bag Believers

I think the great Apostle Paul must have encountered some Paper Bag Believers too. But thankfully, they were more willing to trade their paper bags for the oxygen he was offering:

“And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve.“ (Acts 19:1-7)

Imagine the conversation this way:

“Have you received the oxygen since you started using paper bags?” And they said unto him, “We have not so much as heard whether there be any oxygen.” And then they straightway traded their paper bags for the life giving, life sustaining oxygen.

I know it’s a silly illustration, but I can’t tell you how many times someone has poured their heart out to me, and told me their life’s woes. Yet when I offer them the pure, unadulterated “oxygen” of the Holy Ghost Acts experience, they clench their paper bag tighter and say “thanks, but no thanks.”

Christ Really Is The Answer

hrist really is the answer to every one of life’s problems. And not just the Paper-Bag Christ, that hangs on church walls, and sits behind denominational curtains. But the living, breathing, devil-thumping Christ that heals the sick, delivers the possessed, and utterly transforms lives through the infilling of the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues, just like they did in the book of Acts.

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”(Acts 2:1-4)

What About You?

Are you in Paper Bag Experience? Do you know someone who is? Join the conversation and tell us about it.