Believe in Jesus, Love One Another

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

The Source of all Love

1 John 3:18-24. The Message

When We Practice Real Love

18-20 My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
21-24 And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God’s command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.

For Reflection

God is love, and we are made in love's image. We learn to be selfish. We learn to hate. But we are made to love.  So give in to loving.  The risk of loving is the sacrifice you make in response to God's love for you.  God doesn't want words of praise.  God's desire that we worship in works of praise.  Each kindness, each act of forgiveness, each action performed in humility is an act of worship honoring God.

Pray

Pray that you have the courage to love. Pray for the will and skill to love in the face of hate, in the face of oppression, in the face of prejudice,  in the face of injustices, and in the face of personal attacks.  Pray that you will measure all that you do by the fruits of your love.

Jesus and the Father's Love

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

The Source of all Love

John 14:18-24. The Message

18-20 “I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I’m in my Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you.
21 “The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said, “Master, why is it that you are about to make yourself plain to us but not to the world?”
23-24 “Because a loveless world,” said Jesus, “is a sightless world. If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—we’ll move right into the neighborhood! Not loving me means not keeping my words. The message you are hearing isn’t mine. It’s the message of the Father who sent me.

For Reflection

As we enter the Lenten season, let us spend time with the Holy Spirit. Let us judge ourselves as we follow the path to the resurrection. Over the next few weeks, let the mysterious Holy Spirit purify us so that we may experience a recreation of commitment to follow the Way of Love. We see evidence of the fruits of lovelessness all around us. Let our loving kindness displace the hate, selfishness, and injustice that plagues us.

Pray

Now is the time for prayers of lament and confession.  Pray for forgiveness and repent. Pray for the infusion of love in a loveless world.

Thankful for God's Steadfast Love

God Loves Us
God's Eternal, Preserving, Renewing Love

The Source of all Love

Psalm 40:1-10. The Message

A David Psalm

40 1-3 I waited and waited and waited for God.
    At last he looked; finally he listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch,
    pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock
    to make sure I wouldn’t slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
    a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
    they enter the mystery,
    abandoning themselves to God.
4-5 Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God,
    turn your backs on the world’s “sure thing,”
    ignore what the world worships;
The world’s a huge stockpile
    of God-wonders and God-thoughts.
Nothing and no one
    comes close to you!
I start talking about you, telling what I know,
    and quickly run out of words.
Neither numbers nor words
    account for you.
6 Doing something for you, bringing something to you—
    that’s not what you’re after.
Being religious, acting pious—
    that’s not what you’re asking for.
You’ve opened my ears
    so I can listen.
7-8 So I answered, “I’m coming.
    I read in your letter what you wrote about me,
And I’m coming to the party
    you’re throwing for me.”
That’s when God’s Word entered my life,
    became part of my very being.
9-10 I’ve preached you to the whole congregation,
    I’ve kept back nothing, God—you know that.
I didn’t keep the news of your ways
    a secret, didn’t keep it to myself.
I told it all, how dependable you are, how thorough.
    I didn’t hold back pieces of love and truth
For myself alone. I told it all,
    let the congregation know the whole story.

For Reflection

Do you feel imprisoned in your life?  Would you like to disembark this vessel of servitude to the commonplace?  Choose freedom. Choose a God-centered life.  Abandon yourself to God.  Live free in obedience to God's will.

Pray

Pray for the courage to abandon you common place life.  Pray to hear God's invitation to be God's partner and give yourself to the mission.  Pray so that God becomes the central force in your soul.

Practice Mutual Discipline

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Birthing of a New Community

Christ Creates Holy Living

Matthew 18:15-20. The Message

15-17 “If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you’ve made a friend. If he won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won’t listen, tell the church. If he won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love.
18-20 “Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.”

For Reflection

So, who is responsible for the first move? It seems to me, the responsibility for resolving issues belongs to the one who feels wronged. After all, the one who slighted or hurt you may not realize it. Thinking that because the other is the one to blame, he or she should apologize is an ineffective starting point for forgiveness and restitution.

How many attempts should one make to resolve differences? As many as it takes to achieve mutual resolution, an infinite number. After all, are not both of your souls at stake?

Pray

for the courage to take the first step. Pray that you will approach the resolution of conflict humbly, malice-free, and seeking the others best interest as your first interest. Pray so that you and God are in sync. Pray for God's whispered words of comfort and counsel.

Wholeness by Prayer and Action

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Birthing of a New Community

Christ Creates Holy Living

James 5:13-20. The Message

Prayer to Be Reckoned With

13-15 Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you’ve sinned, you’ll be forgiven—healed inside and out.
16-18 Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.
19-20 My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God’s truth, don’t write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God.

For Reflection

Bishop Fulton Sheen was once asked to open Congress with prayer.  As I can remember, he said, "There are three things a man must do for himself; blow his own nose, make his own love, and say his own prayers." With that comment, Bishop Sheen asked for silent prayer. This was not an abdication of prayer. Rather, Sheen encouraged private prayer, that if practiced, was impossible to disregard.

Sheen was a man who not only professed his Catholic faith, but also studied, explained, and practiced his faith. He was, above all, a good and righteous humble man. I tell you this because as a teen I was a TV fan.  I rarely missed one of his lectures. He was a great influence on me.

Sheen described prayer as, "taking a little rest to contact power for one's soul." We pray prayers of petition asking God to provide, to intercede. Often we ask God to change God's will. Perhaps we should ask rather for things that have spiritual worth.

We worship and praise God in prayer. But, does God need praise? I rather think not. We praise God because we need to acknowledge our gratitude and recognition for God's gifts and God's sovereignty.  This prayer strengthens our soul.

Our lives are a living prayer when our actions are offered up to God. As we understand that our lives are holy and act accordingly, we serve as prayer.

So, let us make prayer a common practice. Let us resolve to pray individually, to pray in communion with others, to petition God for our spiritual needs, to pray in praise and worship, and to live righteous lives -- a living prayer, not for God's sake, but for ours.

Pray

That you will often pray about all things. Pray to receive spiritual gifts. Pray in praise and worship. Pray that your actions will honor God.

*Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, Prayer, "Life is Worth Living," TV Show, 1953  (See You-Tube."

Gifts That Lead to Faithfulness

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Birthing of a New Community

Christ Creates Holy Living

1 Peter 1:3-9. The Message

A New Life

3-5 What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.
6-7 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.
8-9 You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation.

For Reflection

It was not easy for Christ, and it will not be easy for us. In our new lives in Christ, we will still face tribulation, disappointment, and grief. Yet, as our resurrected selves we meet these human conditions in a far different state. We face these trials with an abiding trust in God. And that makes all the difference. This is our inheritance. This is God's gift to us. This is our destiny.

Pray

prayers of praise and thanksgiving to God for his love of God's creation. Praise God for the opportunity to live our lives free from the seductions of our time in the loving and merciful kingdom of God. Pray for all who live in the name of Christ and who hope for the salvation of the world and endure tribulation to help God achieve it.

The Sower and the Seed

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Birthing of a New Community

Christ Creates Holy Living

Luke 8:4-15The Message (MSG)

The Story of the Seeds

4-8 As they went from town to town, a lot of people joined in and traveled along. He addressed them, using this story: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. Some of it fell on the road; it was tramped down and the birds ate it. Other seed fell in the gravel; it sprouted, but withered because it didn’t have good roots. Other seed fell in the weeds; the weeds grew with it and strangled it. Other seed fell in rich earth and produced a bumper crop.
“Are you listening to this? Really listening?”
9 His disciples asked, “Why did you tell this story?”
10 He said, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom—you know how it works. There are others who need stories. But even with stories some of them aren’t going to get it:
Their eyes are open but don’t see a thing,
Their ears are open but don’t hear a thing.
11-12 “This story is about some of those people. The seed is the Word of God. The seeds on the road are those who hear the Word, but no sooner do they hear it than the Devil snatches it from them so they won’t believe and be saved.
13 “The seeds in the gravel are those who hear with enthusiasm, but the enthusiasm doesn’t go very deep. It’s only another fad, and the moment there’s trouble it’s gone.
14 “And the seed that fell in the weeds—well, these are the ones who hear, but then the seed is crowded out and nothing comes of it as they go about their lives worrying about tomorrow, making money, and having fun.
15 “But the seed in the good earth—these are the good-hearts who seize the Word and hold on no matter what, sticking with it until there’s a harvest.

For Reflection

By the life and ministry of Christ, we all have been given insight into God's kingdom. Not all of those who have heard the Gospel have accepted it. Some ignore what they see and hear. Some are excited and moved to accept the Good News, but they find life in the ordinary world too seductive to ignore.

Those who hear the Gospel and see the fruits of belief and practice seize the opportunities God offers. They will, in collaboration with God, develop a community of loving relationships, trust, justice, and freedom from the commonplace. The Kingdom of God resides in the souls of believers.

Pray

for the believers whose commitment to God will help fulfill God's will for our communal life. Pray that others who hear the offer of salvation from the seductions of our material world will see the fruits of our labors and come to live with us in God's Kingdom.

Walk in Newness of Life

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Birthing of a New Community

Christ Creates Holy Living

Romans 6:1-11 The Message

When Death Becomes Life

6 1-3 So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!
3-5 That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country.
6-11 Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.

For Reflection

Are you born again?  Have you died and left your old life behind? Have you sacrificed your concept of self and committed yourself to a God-centered life? Are you living in humble service to God? Have you chosen to follow the way of Christ?  What has your faith cost you? What are the fruits of your labors of love?

Pray

that you will follow the will of God as shown to us in the life of Christ. Pray that you will recognize your human condition, confess your shortcomings and repent. Pray that you will have the courage to trust God to encourage, protect and care for your needs.

Produce the Fruit of the Spirit

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Birthing of a New Community

Freedom in Christ

Galatians 5:22-26 The Message

22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.
25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

For Reflection

Live life exuberantly as God would have you live it.  Christianity is not just a philosophy or theological position.  Christianity is a living practice of love in holy collaboration with God.

Pray

Laugh, play, sing, and love in the hollow of God's hand. Pray that you walk in collaboration with God.

Keep Focused and Pure

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Birthing of a New Community

Freedom in Christ

1 Corinthians 5:1-2,6-13 The Message 

5 1-2 I also received a report of scandalous sex within your church family, a kind that wouldn’t be tolerated even outside the church: One of your men is sleeping with his stepmother. And you’re so above it all that it doesn’t even faze you! Shouldn’t this break your hearts? Shouldn’t it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn’t this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with?
6-8 Your flip and callous arrogance in these things bothers me. You pass it off as a small thing, but it’s anything but that. Yeast, too, is a “small thing,” but it works its way through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast. So get rid of this “yeast.” Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast. So let’s live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread—simple, genuine, unpretentious.
9-13 I wrote you in my earlier letter that you shouldn’t make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous. I didn’t mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. Or with crooks, whether blue- or white-collar. Or with spiritual phonies, for that matter. You’d have to leave the world entirely to do that! But I am saying that you shouldn’t act as if everything is just fine when a friend who claims to be a Christian is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can’t just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior. I’m not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don’t we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers? God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and, if necessary, clean house.

For Reflection

The Church has always had to deal with embarrassing situations. While repentance and forgiveness are paramount to resolving issues, there are times when some issues are not resolvable. Under these circumstances, there is a danger that the church will appear to condone the deviant behavior and the congregation faces a dilemma. Excommunication fixes the congregational problem.  But for the deviant individual, who by his action chooses to be an outsider, it seems that it does not help.

We remember, however that judgment is the Lord's to deliver, not ours.  In the excommunication, we recognize that God will take care of the lost souls.  Furthermore, God understands our shortcomings.  As humans, we can never resolve all issues.  So we do the best we can to serve God and the common good and rely on God's mercy.

Pray

Pray for the souls who have lost their pathway to righteous living. Pray for the church as it struggles with the temporal issues of our time. Pray that you will continue to live a righteous life humble service to God.

Rescued From Death

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Birthing of a New Community

Freedom in Christ

Romans 7:15-24. The Message

14-16 I can anticipate the response that is coming: “I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. Isn’t this also your experience?” Yes. I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.
17-20 But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
21-23 It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
24 I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?

For Reflection

Paul is trying to understand the difficulty of deciding a course of action that represents righteousness.  Following the law seems to work successfully for a while.  But, the longer Paul practices the law the more he realizes that there are many situations that the law either does not address or conflicts with another law making compliant action challenging.

Paul's dilemmas are similar to ours.  Sometimes the choices we are presented do not satisfy our spiritual need and no matter which choice we make there are downsides.  To make matters worse, a decision may result in an unintentional consequence.  His conclusion seems to be that spiritual legalism just doesn't always work the way one expects that it should.  The law alone cannot make you do good.  Only living in the Holy Spirit can help us live a righteous life.  Sin is part of our human condition.  As such, righteousness can be achieved only with the aid of the Holy Spirit.

Pray
for the Holy Spirit to fully occupy the entirety of your soul.  Pray prayers of thanksgiving for the grace of God and for God's unmeasurable capacity for forgiveness.  Pray that you will seek comfort from the perils of human folly in the abiding love of God.   

You Shall Love Your Neighbor

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Birthing of a New Community

Freedom in Christ

Leviticus 19:13-18. The Message

13 “Don’t exploit your friend or rob him.
“Don’t hold back the wages of a hired hand overnight.
14 “Don’t curse the deaf; don’t put a stumbling block in front of the blind; fear your God. I am God.
15 “Don’t pervert justice. Don’t show favoritism to either the poor or the great. Judge on the basis of what is right.
16 “Don’t spread gossip and rumors.
“Don’t just stand by when your neighbor’s life is in danger. I am God.
17 “Don’t secretly hate your neighbor. If you have something against him, get it out into the open; otherwise you are an accomplice in his guilt.
18 “Don’t seek revenge or carry a grudge against any of your people.
“Love your neighbor as yourself. I am God.

For Reflection
To react defensively is a knee jerk response.  We normally have to fight the tendency to have a negative rather than a reasoned response as a first reaction. We often tend to demonize the people with whom we disagree. Somehow it seems easier to see people in a single dimension which is identified with an idea or action with which we disagree.  But, people with whom we disagree are not always evil, because they advocate an alternative to what we may.

It is important that we judge.  But human judgment is unwise without God as the basis. That we rush to retaliatory action against those with whom we disagree is equally unwise.

There are lots of "don'ts" in these passages that warn us of retributive action.  However, all of the warnings boil down to only affirmative action, "Love your neighbor as yourself."  From this perspective, you will always find a creative solution to the disagreement.

Pray

for the wisdom to find innovative solutions to disputes.  Pray so that your action will reveal the justice in a God-centered life.  Pray for the courage to act in love even in the face of violent conflict.  Pray that you will follow the Way of Christ.

Christ, the Wisdom. of God

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Birthing of a New Community

Freedom in Christ

1 Corinthians 1:18-25. The Message

18-21 The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It’s written,
I’ll turn conventional wisdom on its head,
I’ll expose so-called experts as crackpots.
So where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated, truly intelligent in this day and age? Hasn’t God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense? Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.
22-25 While Jews clamor for miraculous demonstrations and Greeks go in for philosophical wisdom, we go right on proclaiming Christ, the Crucified. Jews treat this like an anti-miracle—and Greeks pass it off as absurd. But to us who are personally called by God himself—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God’s ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one. Human wisdom is so tinny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can’t begin to compete with God’s “weakness.”

For Reflection

In today's world, by God's standards, we seem surrounded by crackpots.  They are quite persuasive.  Their use of fear as a motive for action is compelling, especially for those who are not confident that God is really in charge. Because they are not as compelled by common place seductions, the ideas and action of those who are authentically centered in God are often seen as naive and are summarily dismissed as absurd or dangerous.

But, that's the way it is with God.  Universal human wisdom is not God wisdom.  Criticism is the price we pay for being authentic Christians. Thinking and acting in a way that is different from common practice takes courage and a strong commitment to and trust in God.


Pray

Pray for courage in the face of pressure to conform to the commonplace. Pray for abiding commitment to God's will for you and for all of humankind. Pray that you will listen to the Holy Spirit who resides in your soul.  Pray often and be embolden in God.

Led by the Spirit of Christ

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Birthing of a New Community

New Birth Brings Freedom

Romans 8:12-17  The Message

^12-14 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
^15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him! 

For Reflection

One can not serve two masters.  If one chooses to serve God, allowing one's self to follow a path other than the one suggested in the life of Christ will surely result in idolatry!  Live for an adventure into rightness with God as your guide and protector.  Live so that you can show others the vibrancy of a life in Christ.

Pray

Celebrate life.  Smile because you recognize the beauty of living in God.  Laugh because you are free to enjoy your human existence. Stick worry in the trash can and weld a lid on your past.  Live your new life in Christ joyously. Make living a prayer that honors God.  Go forward as a God collaborator.

The Spirit Brings Life

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Birthing of a New Community

New Birth Brings Freedom

Romans 8:1-11  The Message

The Solution Is Life on God’s Terms

8 ^1-2 With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

^3-4 God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.
The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.
^5-8 Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.
^9-11 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!

For Reflection

Be assured.  God has taken up residence in your life.  Otherwise, treachery, injustice, poverty, broken relationships, lying, and all other manners of self-indulgence would not bother you. Now that you know better how to escape this human condition, you have a choice.  Choose the God-centered approach in all things. The result of denying God's Spirit in your soul is a raging unease and experiencing painful consequences of your folly.  Choosing to be God-centered may result in a struggle with the common world, but you will find comfort and peace in the midst of turmoil.  Be not afraid, God is with you and will lead you toward still waters and restore your soul. 

Pray

Sing songs of praise.  Give thanks to God for the freedom to live as you were intended to live, free from the seduction of sin.

The Cost of Being a Disciple

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Birthing of a New Community

New Birth Brings Freedom

Luke 9:23-27,57-62  The Message

^23-27 Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat—I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? If any of you is embarrassed with me and the way I’m leading you, know that the Son of Man will be far more embarrassed with you when he arrives in all his splendor in company with the Father and the holy angels. This isn’t, you realize, pie in the sky by and by. Some who have taken their stand right here are going to see it happen, see with their own eyes the kingdom of God.” 
⁵⁷ On the road someone asked if he could go along. “I’ll go with you, wherever,” he said.
⁵⁸ Jesus was curt: “Are you ready to rough it? We’re not staying in the best inns, you know.”
Jesus said to another, “Follow me.”
⁵⁹ He said, “Certainly, but first excuse me for a couple of days, please. I have to make arrangements for my father’s funeral.”
⁶⁰ Jesus refused. “First things first. Your business is life, not death. And life is urgent: Announce God’s kingdom!”
⁶¹ Then another said, “I’m ready to follow you, Master, but first excuse me while I get things straightened out at home.”
⁶² Jesus said, “No procrastination. No backward looks. You can’t put God’s kingdom off till tomorrow. Seize the day.”

For Reflection

This story is Luke's version of a story also told in Matthew.  A Scribe approached Jesus just before this story. " “Master, I will accompany You [as Your student] wherever You go. ”Jesus replied to him, “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

Neither of the followers of Christ had sufficient passion for Christ's mission to practice the Way.  Each had an idolatry with which to deal.  The scribe was interested only in Christ as an academic pursuit, perhaps lifting his reputation.  The second disciple put his worldly inheritance ahead of his commitment to practice "The Way." Each was unwilling to bear the cost of discipleship.

What has your faith cost you?   To what extent is your willingness to bear the cost of your faith a sign of your commitment to Christ?

Pray

that you will continue to make God the center of your spiritual, moral and physical existence. Pray that you will be willing to pay the price your faith demands.

Power and Strength through Weakness

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Birthing of a New Community

New Birth Brings Freedom

2 Corinthians 12:7-10. The Message

7-10 Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,
My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

For Reflection

We all have had to overcome some impediments to our personal effectiveness.   Most of the time it is easier to blame something, even God.

Quit whining!  Try to see those stumbling blocks as opportunities. Have unreasonable trust in God. Give yourself over to God.  miraculously, that which you thought would do you in is the very thing that gives you an advantage.  Let God's presence in you leak out all over so that all will wonder at
about and envy your spirit.

Pray

Celebrate the person you are.  Pray that you will let God take charge of your life.

Becoming an Heir in God's Family

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Birthing of a New Community

New Birth Brings Freedom

Galatians 4:1-7 The Message

4 1-3 Let me show you the implications of this. As long as the heir is a minor, he has no advantage over the slave. Though legally he owns the entire inheritance, he is subject to tutors and administrators until whatever date the father has set for emancipation. That is the way it is with us: When we were minors, we were just like slaves ordered around by simple instructions (the tutors and administrators of this world), with no say in the conduct of our own lives.
4-7 But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, “Papa! Father!” Doesn’t that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you’re also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.

For Reflection

What is this "inheritance"?

Those who believe in God and accept the will of God are the adopted children of God.  As God's children, humans have been freed from religion so that we might experience our heritage.  "For the promise to Abraham and his offspring (which was conveyed to us)  that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith." (Romans 4:13 ).  "...we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God."  (Romans 5.2 ). "Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession." (Psalm 2:8).  "So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s." (1 Corinthians 3:21–23 )

Everything that is belongs to God, and we are God's children.  God asks us to accept our family status and become the stewards of our heritage as God's will directs.  God, who dwells in us, will protect us from idolatry (in my opinion, the foundational sin) and give us the riches of his grace; kindness, patience, glory, wisdom, power, and mercy. Our inheritance is not only a hopeful expectation for the after-life but also, a heritage which honors God in the here and now.

Pray

Give thanks to God for the heritage of eternal life.  Thank God for including our children in God's inheritance.  Thank God for the Holy Spirit who resides within us now as a guarantee of all that is to come.  Pray that you will steward this heritage in ways that honor God.