#listen the church wants you to consume as much of jesus's body as you possibly can

[alilaro]

to partake in the consumption of christ. to cannibalize his flesh and drink of his blood as god himself watches in horror of his own creation

#im having a moment dont look at me #listen the church wants you to consume as much of jesus's body as you possibly can #im obsessed with the symbolism of consumption #about to pull an ouroboros #or a saturn devouring his son

[angelthefirst1]

The three missing weeks after Grady, Beth's funeral and Daryl's delusion all in 1018.

Okay so I've taken my time with posting any analysis of 1018, mainly because I was trying to figure out exactly what's being repeated (beyond the obvious Alone and Still repeats) and also understand the weirdness of the episode and how the loops will play out going forward. Since I first watched 1018, I realised they are showing us a representation of the three missing weeks after Grady, and Daryl's mindset (He goes a little cray cray) during his second search for Beth (her body anyway) This episode will have future and past fulfillment when/if we finally see the missing 17 days and the attempt at Beth's funeral-during which her body is going to go missing... Emily's song Omaha hotel holds clues about Beth's (attempted) funeral and the outcome. Go listen to the song if you haven't...

The group is going to take Beth to a church-most likely this one...

To give her a proper funeral-which as Daryl knows, Beth found it beautiful that someone dressed the walkers up (as dolls he says) to give them one. So...the group will want to do this for Beth.

She will be left in a car park (probably left in a car for a bit) to “watch the bugs fly around in the parking lot lights”. They will change her into a nice dress with flowers and make her all pretty, repeating what happened with the funeral home walkers-they get dressed up and even had makeup on. They could possibly put her in a coffin like Daryl was in the funeral home... As they go to dig the grave a massive storm will roll in (there has to be another storm, because it will be fulfillment of the music box "waking up" or playing again, and the storm from 510) During this storm walkers will come, taking the groups attention and Beth will "Step away for a minute" leaving before they can bury her. Daryl will try to track her, thinking she's a walker, but her footprints will be washed away in the storm, causing a repeat of this moment...

The map Daryl is using to find Rick will be repeated as Beth's "footprints" being washed away, causing him to scream and start to lose it. The rain and it pouring/flooding with water is symbolic of Beth's return representing Jesus the the living water.   Daryl in 1018 is screaming one minute in the rain, and smiling the next. 

Showing him both losing Beth in the rain and finding out she's alive on two different timeliness. Carol will most likely have played a role in going with Daryl to search for Beth after her "funeral", repeating their search from Consumed. The going fishing/fish symbolism in this episode is a play on the biblical concept of fishing for men (finding/saving the lost) As others have already mentioned, I also believe Leah to be either in part a hallucination or completely.

But Daryl did not have a romantic relationship with her.

Just as the 'oh' funeral home scene hinted at a potential romance, we never actually got to see it. Only a hint of it... They have repeated that here, and it's almost as if Daryl is on the outside looking in at his own past story. But this is Beth's story not Leah's and they haven't repeated almost every major Beth scene only to give it to Leah now... There is WAY to much weirdness in this episode for everything to just be as we see it, they are misdirecting us. 1018 heavily repeats both Daryl's search for Sofia and Rick losing Lori. This is about Daryl losing his future wife...Beth not Leah. Rick hallucinates Lori in this white dress next to some graves...

This will be inverted with Beth in her funeral dress, walking away from her grave, and just like Rick, Daryl can never quite reach her, even though she is alive. Rick started going crazy after losing Lori, when Maggie (Beth's sister) delivered or “birthed” baby Judith. Lori dies and Judith became Beth's...

Do you see the twist from this scene with Leah, talking about losing her son whom her sister gave birth to, or birthed? When Rick is outside the prison because he keeps seeing Lori he says to Hershel he has "Stuff and things to do" so he won't come back. Same as Daryl says to Carol when she tries to get him to stop looking for Rick, Daryl says "I've got stuff to do", once again hinting that this is some kind of mind trick, with Daryl seeing Leah not the real Beth...

Just like Rick was seeing-not the real Lori... The same episode Rick loses Lori, shows Maggie and Glenn in the watch tower messing around and Daryl crassly yells to them "Are you coming?"

They have actually used this with Daryl and Carol in the beginning of 1018, twisting it with Daryl saying "You want to come right?" And "I didn't say you could come". 

Daryl even closes the one eye, because of the glare. Exactly the same in 304 and 1018.

Now don't freak out this will find fulfillment in the future with Beth and Daryl, and yes...most likely on a motorcycle. I don't usually get crass but that's what they are repeating and lining up for the future here, so I wanted to point it out. The previously on clip from 1018 shows Daryl say "We just got Maggie (and little Glenn) back"

Around the same time Rick loses Lori and he is having his breakdown, Maggie and Glenn get taken by the Governor and as soon as they get back, that's when Rick starts "seeing" Lori. Fulfilling the "We just got Maggie (and little Glenn) back line". In 304 Daryl jump starts his bike while Axel looks on saying it needs a tune up. Repeating the beginning of 1018 when he can't start the bike. 

Another call back is when Daryl and Carol come across a dead deer in 1018, it's bitten in an almost identical way to a deer that is shown in the opening of 304 (The episode Lori dies)

Carol also gets lost in the tombs during this episode, and eventually gets an empty grave with cross allocated to her, even though she isn't dead. So Leah could well be symbolic of both missing Carol and Missing Beth combined. And the cabin crosses a reminder of them both...

The repeating themes from around the time Rick loses Lori are very obvious if you go re-watch that story line. One particular location that they visit on the way to rescue Maggie and Glenn from the Governor is a cabin, that very much reminded me of Leah's cabin...

It’s next to a river...

And has taxidermy fish on the walls, and pots and pans too.

But most significantly is a dead pet dog inside...

Before they see the dog, they smell him and Daryl says "What's that smell?, it's got to be a dead fox or what's left of one" Leah wears a dead fox around her neck and has a pet dog, so this repeating could actually point to Leah being a walker/hallucination...

I have been trying to remember any past fox symbolism in this show to explain Leah's fox fur, but couldn't think of any other instances, so this is a really interesting clue to the fact that Daryl mistakes a dead dog for a dead fox. The dead dog is on a blanket similar to the one Dog sits on when Leah has Daryl tied up. And it's collar looks to say Hunter!

The owner in this cabin also has a shotgun like Leah and points it at Rick and Daryl when they first enter.

He gets killed almost straight away because he keeps marking noise and drawing walkers. The very next scene shows Andrea standing in front of a painting with a boat, repeating the boat symbolism from 1018. And the clock just happens to say 10.10

Daryl is also seen collecting fire wood, just like in season three with Rick and Glenn...

When walkers come, Leah shoots some of them (Lori shoots some in season 3) and motions Daryl to follow her somewhere safe, repeating this moment with Beth and Hershel from the episode Rick loses Lori...

The scene where Daryl gets knocked down and his ears start to ring is pivotal because it's a repeat of Daryl's other great search-his search for Sofia.

During which he falls down into a river and starts hallucinating his brother Merle..

So while 1018 is showing him searching for and losing Beth's footprints in the rain and screaming in anger about it, the moment when he gets knocked down by a bolt of lightning and his ears start to ring, the story becomes a weird mix of Beth and Leah. This is a representation of Daryl passing out after falling and some kind of injury, just like he did when searching for Sofia. Repeating but inverting his search for Sofia, where he fell into a river bed, had a head injury/concussion, hallucinates about his brother and finds Sofia's doll not the real Sofia... So Leah could also be a representation of finding Sofia's doll. The doll represents a walker, just like Daryl said in the funeral home. Sofia was lost on a road/highway, goes into water in a river but disappeared and was then found dead coming out of a barn. Beth however is the opposite, in that after her funeral she will end up in a body of water/river because of heavy rain, then the barn in 510, she is represented as being alive coming out of it.

And lastly Daryl says to Beth in Alone "Go up out off the road, I'll meet you there". Which is where they could well meet again-on a road. (Saying meet you up the road, also indicates a lengthy time period) All this would in fact make Beth, Sofia 2.0 but with the opposite outcome. In 1018, once Daryl falls down and his ears ring, he is effectively passed out and dreaming from that point on. We see him then pick up his crossbow and smile in the rain, because what comes next indicates he finds Beth (Leah) When Daryl hallucinates Merle, he tells him that he is looking for a girl and Merle says "You got a thing for little girls now?" and "You going to die out here looking for her?" Merle gets mad that Daryl isn't looking for him. They have switched it in 1018, in that Daryl is looking for his brother Rick now by a river and hallucinates a version of Beth (Leah) who gets mad that Daryl keeps looking for Rick.

Merle, during the hallucination also mentions Daryl's Chupacabra (a mythical blood sucking dog) he apparently saw, which could be a representation of Leah as the dead fox/dog/walker or him seeing Beth and thinking Beth is a walker. 

Merle questions whether Daryl really saw this Chupacabra because Daryl apparently ate some special mushrooms...

So I see these possibilities... Daryl is reliving his search for Beth in his mind because he is injured causing him to hallucinate Leah, as a less painful substitute. Like Rick hallucinates a dressed up version of Lori to cope with the pain. Daryl has been poisoned or eaten something/drank something (like the mushrooms) to make reality and fantasy mix, causing a repeat of the Merle/walker situation. Where Leah may be real but Beth memory's are mixed with reality. Just like Merle was not real but the walker was. Leah is a walker (dead fox/dog) who looks like Beth to Daryl, and while trying to put her down he is knocked out, starting a weird mixture of memory's. I will leave it here for now, there is always more I could go into but this is way long enough for now...

Beth is coming!!!

#team delusional #team defiance #bethyl #beth greene #beth is alive

[naturalhairhairgrowth]

Is Religion Even Necessary?

So you have heard them all, Catholic, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, New Age, etc. etc., a denomination of this, a denomination of that. Every religion at war with each other, fighting over who’s religion is the right religion. So much confusion! There is only one GOD Almighty and not all of these people holding different beliefs could possibly be right, let’s be honest. Every single one of us have blood flowing through our veins, two legs, the same types of day to day challenges, etc. and we will all be headed to the same place after leaving this earth just like we were all put on this same earth together. We all came into this world the same way, from the same GOD Almighty, and we will all go out the same, to either one of two places created by GOD Almighty, Heaven or Hell. (Where will you go?) So let’s get to the truth of the matter. If all religions take away from the Holy Bible, then why not just rely on what the Holy Bible says? Why make our own rules and traditions? Religion is a social-cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that relates humanity to supernatural, transcendental, or spiritual elements.

So let’s examine things for a moment. Since all religions take something from the Holy Bible then let’s look at the Holy Bible. The KJV (King James Version) Holy Bible to be exact; said to be the best translation, closest to the original, with nothing added or removed as most other translations these days have. There is either scripture missing or added with words that give the scriptures a whole new meaning entirely. Who said we wanted ‘your’ opinion sir, just give it to us straight, right. The Holy Bible gives us the daily instructions (commandments from GOD) that we need to be 'truly’ good people, so the world flows smoothly. Yet people believe religion is necessary for that; have they not taken a look around the world and seen that their way isn’t working?

People have formed the Christianity religion, so most people look at the Holy Bible as a Christian religious book, but is this a fact? You will find that the Holy Bible doesn’t mention anything at all about needing to belong to a certain religion or following traditions of men. It speaks against that in fact. (Mark 7:7-9, Colossians 2:8 KJV). Being a Christian simply means to be Christ-like, an actual follower of Jesus Christ; nothing about the religion and traditions they have formed which in most cases do not even match up with the Holy Bible. Must be why most self-professing Christians blend right in with the world. Jesus Christ and His disciples didn’t form any religious group. They simply went around preaching “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17 KJV), baptizing, healing the sick, casting out devils, etc. They taught the 'Word of GOD’, Who by the way is the Creator of all things, as if His Word isn’t sufficient enough. The bible says “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Revelation 22:18-19 KJV. Sounds like serious business. These people may want to think twice about removing and adding words to scripture.

It’s broken down quite simple. Jesus Christ came and died for our sins because all sin has to be paid for, requiring a sacrifice. All we are required to do is show 'in action’ we believe in Him by being baptized in water (full body immersion, not sprinkled) where we will receive the Holy Spirit, which without we cannot get into heaven, according to John 3:5 KJV. We then must walk in “newness of life”; meaning, turning away from sin and walking how Jesus commands us, according to Romans 6:4 KJV. The scripture is clear in Revelation 14:12 KJV. “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus”. So who made up this thing that “we don’t have to keep the commandments anymore”, or that “it’s ok to sin”, or “once saved, always saved”? The oh-so-famous sinner’s prayer is nowhere in the Holy Bible. Yes, that’s right folks, saying a simple prayer will not, I repeat, will not save you!

Have you ever met the over-righteous religious person who has their nose stuck up in the air like they were born perfect and never made a mistake in life? How about the religious person who goes as far as hating others because they see they are in a certain type of sin? How about the religious self-professing Christian who looks no different from the rest of the world; watches worldly TV series, listens to vulgar music, parties, drinks, uses drugs, uses foul language, thinks their own personal opinion on scripture matters, etc. etc. How about the religious person who believes because they show up to church on Sunday (not even the true Sabbath according to GOD -Exodus 20:8-10 KJV) that they will make it to heaven, as if heaven is earned by how many church services you show up to or claiming to be a “good person” in your own eyes. Most of these people never even pick up a bible and read it! These types of people are called hypocrites and satan loves them because they cause others confusion and discouragement; mission accomplished, satan just caused another to walk away from the gospel of Jesus Christ, causing them to lose Salvation.

Let’s look back at the person calling themselves “a good person”. Can you imagine two criminals in court giving the judge their own personal opinions as to why they are a good person and should get away with a crime. That wont work in court with a judge, they will have to pay for the crime; neither will it work with GOD when we face HIM on judgement day. You don’t say the judge isn’t loving because he punished a criminal, you respect his judgment. So why do people say GOD isn’t loving because HE will do the same? HE is the Ultimate JUDGE, THE JUDGE over the judge. We have to play by HIS rules just like we have to play by the rules of this land. So remember; be baptized, receive the Holy Spirit, turn from sin and repent, obey GOD and Jesus, and walk in His ways to make it to heaven.

Too many people are too busy following passions and obsessions in this world; TV series, video games, celebrities, careers, movies, worldly music, school, night life, sports, activities, relationships, etc, etc. Sure, SOME of the things mentioned are fine to do, but for most it totally consumes their entire life, this is all that’s on their mind 24/7 making no time or consideration for their relationship with their Creator. The list goes on and on, satan has thousands of ways to distract us and keep our attention and focus off of GOD and Jesus Christ our Saviour.

The Holy Bible says clearly that satan is the deceiver and the author of confusion (“For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” 1 Corinthians 14:33 KJV “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:9 KJV) and he has been appointed hell, he is extremely angry, hates GOD’s creation and wants to take as many of us down with him as he possibly can. What better way to do that than confuse people with a bunch of different religions, leading them away from accepting Jesus Christ. Again, sin has to be paid for, and without Jesus Christ as your Sacrifice you have to do the time, and follow the one you followed in this world (satan) to the same place he is going, hell. So it’s time we wake up, stop being lazy, and read the Holy Bible. There are thousands and thousands of accounts of the Holy Bible being true with prophecy coming to pass, people having near death experiences and actually going to heaven and hell, people having spiritual experiences, seeing Jesus and spirits, receiving healing and miracles in the Name of Jesus Christ, experiencing GOD working in their daily lives, etc. etc.

So now we can see clearly that religion most definitely in fact is NOT necessary. Tell satan he can keep his confusion, GOD’s Word is sufficient for you, that he might be getting over on the majority of the world but no longer over on you! How wicked satan is to deceive us in such a way; not to mention all the other things he puts us through constantly: fear, worry, depression, suicidal thoughts, illness, death, anger, sadness, the list goes on and on. According to 2 Timothy 1:7 KJV “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” Wow, what a wicked devil, is there really any wonder he’s headed to the lake of fire. We can say Thank GOD Almighty for that and mostly Thank GOD and Jesus Christ for His Sacrifice, the Ultimate Love.

#Truth #Jesus Christ #KJV Holy Bible #GOD #Jesus #religion #false religion #false doctrines #doctrines of men #REAL Christians

[pope-francis-quotes]

18th November >> Let us ask for the grace to open our eyes and hearts to the poor in order to hear their cry and recognize their needs. #WorldDayofthePoor @Pontifex 

Pope Francis

Messages

World Day of the Poor

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

SECOND WORLD DAY OF THE POOR

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 18 November 2018

This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him

1. “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him” (Ps 34:6). The words of the Psalmist become our own whenever we are called to encounter the different conditions of suffering and marginalization experienced by so many of our brothers and sisters whom we are accustomed to label generically as “the poor”. The Psalmist is not alien to suffering; quite the contrary. He has a direct experience of poverty and yet transforms it into a song of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. Psalm 34 allows us today, surrounded as we are by many different forms of poverty, to know those who are truly poor. It enables us to open our eyes to them, to hear their cry and to recognize their needs.

We are told, in the first place, that the Lord listens to the poor who cry out to him; he is good to those who seek refuge in him, whose hearts are broken by sadness, loneliness and exclusion. The Lord listens to those who, trampled in their dignity, still find the strength to look up to him for light and comfort. He listens to those persecuted in the name of a false justice, oppressed by policies unworthy of the name, and terrified by violence, yet know that God is their Saviour. What emerges from this prayer is above all the sense of abandonment and trust in a Father who can hear and understand. Along these same lines, we can better appreciate the meaning of Jesus’ words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3).

This experience, unique and in many ways undeserved and inexpressible, makes us want to share it with others, especially those who, like the Psalmist, are poor, rejected and marginalized. No one should feel excluded from the Father’s love, especially in a world that often presents wealth as the highest goal and encourages self-centredness.

2. Psalm 34 uses three verbs to describe the poor man in his relationship with God. First of all, “to cry”. Poverty cannot be summed up in a word; it becomes a cry that rises to heaven and reaches God. What does the cry of the poor express, if not their suffering and their solitude, their disappointment and their hope? We can ask ourselves how their plea, which rises to the presence of God, can fail to reach our own ears, or leave us cold and indifferent. On this World Day of the Poor, we are called to make a serious examination of conscience, to see if we are truly capable of hearing the cry of the poor.

To hear their voice, what we need is the silence of people who are prepared to listen. If we speak too much ourselves, we will be unable to hear them. At times I fear that many initiatives, meritorious and necessary in themselves, are meant more to satisfy those who undertake them than to respond to the real cry of the poor. When this is the case, the cry of the poor resounds, but our reaction is inconsistent and we become unable to empathize with their condition. We are so trapped in a culture that induces us to look in the mirror and pamper ourselves, that we think that an altruistic gesture is enough, without the need to get directly involved.

3. The second verb is “to answer”. The Psalmist tells us that the Lord does not only listen to the cry of the poor, but responds. His answer, as seen in the entire history of salvation, is to share lovingly in the lot of the poor. So it was when Abram spoke to God of his desire for offspring, despite the fact that he and his wife Sarah were old in years and had no children (cf. Gen 15:1-6). So too when Moses, in front of a bush that burned without being consumed, received the revelation of God’s name and the mission to free his people from Egypt (Ex 3:1-15). This was also the case during Israel’s wandering in the desert, in the grip of hunger and thirst (cf. Ex 16:1-6; 17:1-7), and its falling into the worst kind of poverty, namely, infidelity to the covenant and idolatry (cf. Ex 32:1-14).

God’s answer to the poor is always a saving act that heals wounds of body and soul, restores justice and helps to live life anew in dignity. God’s answer is also a summons to those who believe in him to do likewise, within the limits of what is humanly possible. The World Day of the Poor wishes to be a small answer that the Church throughout the world gives to the poor of every kind and in every land, lest they think that their cry has gone unheard. It may well be like a drop of water in the desert of poverty, yet it can serve as a sign of sharing with those in need, and enable them to sense the active presence of a brother or a sister. The poor do not need intermediaries, but the personal involvement of all those who hear their cry. The concern of believers in their regard cannot be limited to a kind of assistance – as useful and as providential as this may be in the beginning – but requires a “loving attentiveness” (Evangelii Gaudium, 199) that honours the person as such and seeks out his or her best interests.

4. The third verb is “to free”. In the Bible, the poor live in the certainty that God intervenes on their behalf to restore their dignity. Poverty is not something that anyone desires, but is caused by selfishness, pride, greed and injustice. These are evils as old as the human race itself, but also sins in which the innocent are caught up, with tragic effects at the level of social life. God’s act of liberation is a saving act for those who lift up to him their sorrow and distress. The bondage of poverty is shattered by the power of God’s intervention. Many of the Psalms recount and celebrate this history of salvation mirrored in the personal life of the poor: “For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; and he has not hid his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him” (Ps 22:24). The ability to see God’s face is a sign of his friendship, his closeness and his salvation. “You have seen my affliction, you have taken heed of my adversities… you have set my feet in a broad place” (Ps 31:7-8). To offer the poor a “broad space” is to set them free from the “snare of the fowler” (Ps 91:3); it is to free them from the trap hidden on their path, so that they can move forward with serenity on the path of life. God’s salvation is a hand held out to the poor, a hand that welcomes, protects and enables them to experience the friendship they need. From this concrete and tangible proximity, a genuine path of liberation emerges. “Each individual Christian and every community is called to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor, and for enabling them to be fully a part of society. This demands that we be docile and attentive to the cry of the poor and to come to their aid” (Evangelii gaudium, 187).

5. I find it moving to know that many poor people identify with the blind beggar Bartimaeus mentioned by the evangelist Mark (cf. 10:46-52). Bartimaeus “was sitting by the roadside to beg” (v. 46); having heard that Jesus was passing by, “he began to cry out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me’” (v. 47). “Many rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more” (v. 48). The Son of God heard his plea and said: “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “Master,let me receive my sight” (v. 51). This Gospel story makes visible what the Psalm proclaims as a promise. Bartimaeus is a poor person who finds himself lacking things as essential as sight and the ability to work for a living. How many people today feel in the same situation! Lack of basic means of subsistence, marginalization due to a reduced capacity for work, various forms of social enslavement, despite all our human progress… How many poor people today are like Bartimaeus, sitting on the roadside and looking for meaning in their lives! How many of them wonder why they have fallen so far and how they can escape! They are waiting for someone to come up to them and say: “Take heart; rise, he is calling you” (v. 49).

Sadly, the exact opposite often happens, and the poor hear voices scolding them, telling them to be quiet and to put up with their lot. These voices are harsh, often due to fear of the poor, who are considered not only destitute but also a source of insecurity and unrest, an unwelcome distraction from life as usual and needing to be rejected and kept afar. We tend to create a distance between them and us, without realizing that in this way we are distancing ourselves from the Lord Jesus, who does not reject the poor, but calls them to himself and comforts them. The words of the Prophet Isaiah telling believers how to conduct themselves are most apt in this case. They are “to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke… to share bread with the hungry and bring the homeless and poor into the house… to cover the naked” (58:6-7). Such deeds allow sin to be forgiven (cf. 1 Pet 4:8) and justice to take its course. They ensure that when we cry to the Lord, he will answer and say: “Here I am!” (cf. Is 58:9).

6. The poor are the first to recognize God’s presence and to testify to his closeness in their lives. God remains faithful to his promise; and even in the darkness of the night, he does not withhold the warmth of his love and consolation. However, for the poor to overcome their oppressive situation, they need to sense the presence of brothers and sisters who are concerned for them and, by opening the doors of their hearts and lives, make them feel like friends and family. Only in this way can the poor discover “the saving power at work in their lives” and “put them at the centre of the Church’s pilgrim way” (Evangelii Gaudium, 198).

On this World Day, we are asked to fulfil the words of the Psalm: “The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied” (Ps 22:26). We know that in the Temple of Jerusalem, after the rites of sacrifice, a banquet was held. It was this experience that, in many dioceses last year, enriched the celebration of the first World Day of the Poor. Many people encountered the warmth of a home, the joy of a festive meal and the solidarity of those who wished to sit together at table in simplicity and fraternity. I would like this year’s, and all future World Days, to be celebrated in a spirit of joy at the rediscovery of our capacity for togetherness. Praying together as a community and sharing a meal on Sunday is an experience that brings us back to the earliest Christian community, described by the evangelist Luke in all its primitive simplicity: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers… And all who believed were together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:42.44-45).

7. Countless initiatives are undertaken every day by the Christian community in order to offer closeness and a helping hand in the face of the many forms of poverty all around us. Often too, our cooperation with other initiatives inspired not by faith but by human solidarity, make it possible for us to provide help that otherwise we would have been unable to offer. The realization that in the face of so much poverty our capacity for action is limited, weak and insufficient, leads us to reach out to others so that, through mutual cooperation, we can attain our goals all the more effectively. We Christians are inspired by faith and by the imperative of charity, but we can also acknowledge other forms of assistance and solidarity that aim in part for the same goals, provided that we do not downplay our specific role, which is to lead everyone to God and to holiness. Dialogue between different experiences, and humility in offering our cooperation without seeking the limelight, is a fitting and completely evangelical response that we can give.

In the service of the poor, there is no room for competition. Rather, we should humbly recognize that the Spirit is the source of our actions that reveal God’s closeness and his answer to our prayers. When we find ways of drawing near to the poor, we know that the primacy belongs to God, who opens our eyes and hearts to conversion. The poor do not need self-promoters, but a love that knows how to remain hidden and not think about all the good it has been able to do. At the centre must always be the Lord and the poor. Anyone desirous of serving is an instrument in God’s hands, a means of manifesting his saving presence. Saint Paul recalled this when he wrote to the Christians in Corinth who competed for the more prestigious charisms: “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Cor 12:21). Paul makes an important point when he notes that the apparently weaker parts of the body are in fact the most necessary (cf. v. 22), and that those “we think less honourable we invest with the greater honour, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require” (vv. 23-24). Paul offers the community a basic teaching about charisms, but also about the attitude it should have, in the light of the Gospel, towards its weaker and needier members. Far be it from Christ’s disciples to nurture feelings of disdain or pity towards the poor. Instead, we are called to honour the poor and to give them precedence, out of the conviction that they are a true presence of Jesus in our midst. “As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40).

8. Here we can see how far our way of life must be from that of the world, which praises, pursues and imitates the rich and powerful, while neglecting the poor and deeming them useless and shameful. The words of the Apostle Paul invite us to a fully evangelical solidarity with the weaker and less gifted members of the body of Christ: “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together” (1 Cor 12:26). In his Letter to the Romans, Paul also tells us: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly” (12:15-16). This is the vocation of each of Christ’s followers; the ideal for which we must constantly strive is ever greater conformity to the “mind of Jesus Christ” (Phil 2:5).

9. Faith naturally inspires a message of hope. Often it is precisely the poor who can break through our indifference, born of a worldly and narrow view of life. The cry of the poor is also a cry of hope that reveals the certainty of future liberation. This hope is grounded in the love of God, who does not abandon those who put their trust in him (cf. Rom 8:31-39). As Saint Teresa of Avila writes in The Way of Perfection: “Poverty comprises many virtues. It is a vast domain. I tell you, whoever despises all earthly goods is master of them all” (2:5). It is in the measure in which we are able to discern authentic good that we become rich before God and wise in our own eyes and in those of others. It is truly so. To the extent that we come to understand the true meaning of riches, we grow in humanity and become capable of sharing.

10. I invite my brother bishops, priests, and especially deacons, who have received the laying on of hands for the service of the poor (cf. Acts 6:1-7), as well as religious and all those lay faithful – men and women – who in parishes, associations and ecclesial movements make tangible the Church’s response to the cry of the poor, to experience this World Day as a privileged moment of new evangelization. The poor evangelize us and help us each day to discover the beauty of the Gospel. Let us not squander this grace-filled opportunity. On this day, may all of us feel that we are in debt to the poor, because, in hands outstretched to one another, a salvific encounter can take place to strengthen our faith, inspire our charity and enable our hope to advance securely on our path towards the Lord who is to come.

From the Vatican, 13 June 2018

Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua

Francis

[seekfirstme]

The following reflection is courtesy of Don Schwager © 2021. Don's website is located at Dailyscripture.net

Meditation: What is the greatest act of love which one can give for the sake of another? Jesus defines friendship - the mutual bond of trust and affection which people choose to have for one another - as the willingness to give totally of oneself - even to the point of laying down one's life for a friend. How is such love possible or even desirable? God made us in love for love. That is our reason for being, our purpose for living, and our goal in dying.

God is the source and origin of love - divine and human

Scripture tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8) - and everything he does flows from his immense love for us. He loved us so much - far beyond what we could ever expect or deserve - that he was willing to pay any price to redeem us from our slavery to sin and death. That is why the Father sent us his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave up his life as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. In this great exchange - the Father giving up his Son to death on the cross in order to give us abundant everlasting life and adopt us as his beloved sons and daughters in Christ (Romans 8:14-17).

God's love has been poured into our hearts

It is for this reason that we can take hold of a hope that does not fade and a joy that does not diminish because God has poured his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:5). God's love is not limited or subject to changing circumstances. It is an enduring love that has power to change and transform us to be like him - merciful, gracious, kind, forgiving, and steadfast in showing love not only for our friends, but for our enemies as well. God's love is boundless because he is the source of abundant life, perfect peace, and immeasurable joy for all who open their hearts to him. That is why Jesus came to give us abundant life through the gift and working of the Holy Spirit.

A new way of loving and serving one another

Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment - a new way of loving and serving one another. Jesus' love was wholly directed toward the good of others. He love them for their sake and for their welfare. That is why he willingly laid down his own life for us to free us from sin, death, fear, and everything that could separate us from the love of God. Our love for God and our willingness to lay down our life for others is a response to the exceeding love God has given us in Christ. Paul the Apostle states,

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?... For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:35,38-39).

Friendship with God

Jesus calls his disciples his friends. Jesus not only showed his disciples that he personally cared for them and sought their welfare. He personally enjoyed their company and wanted to be with them. He ate with them, shared everything he had with them - even his inmost heart and thoughts. And he spent himself doing good for them. To know Jesus personally is to know God and the love and friendship he offers to each one of us.

One of the special marks of favor shown in the Scriptures is to be called the friend of God. Abraham is called the friend of God (Isaiah 41:8, James 2:23). God spoke with Moses as a man speaks with his friend (Exodus 33:11). Jesus, the Lord and Master, calls the disciples his friends rather than his servants.

What does it mean to be a friend of God? Friendship with God certainly entails a loving relationship which goes beyond mere duty and obedience. Jesus' discourse on friendship and brotherly love echoes the words of Proverbs: A friend loves at all times; and a brother is born for adversity (Proverbs 17:17). The distinctive feature of Jesus' relationship with his disciples was his personal love for them. He loved his own to the end (John 13:1). His love was unconditional and wholly directed to the good of others. His love was also sacrificial. He gave the best he had and all that he had. He gave his very life for those he loved in order to secure for them everlasting life with the Father.

Love to the death

The Lord Jesus gives his followers a new commandment - a new way of love that goes beyond giving only what is required or what we think others might deserve. What is the essence of Jesus' new commandment of love? It is a love to the death - a purifying love that overcomes selfishness, fear, and pride. It is a total giving of oneself for the sake of others - a selfless and self-giving love that is oriented towards putting the welfare of others ahead of myself.

Jesus says that there is no greater proof in love than the sacrifice of one's life for the sake of another. Jesus proved his love by giving his life for us on the cross of Calvary. Through the shedding of his blood for our sake, our sins are not only washed clean, but new life is poured out for us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. We prove our love for God and for one another when we embrace the way of the cross. What is the cross in my life? When my will crosses with God's will, then God's will must be done. Do you know the peace and joy of a life fully surrendered to God and consumed with his love?

The Lord Jesus tells us that he is our friend and he loves us whole-heartedly and unconditionally. He wants us to love one another just as he loves us, whole-heartedly and without reserve. His love fills our hearts and transforms our minds and frees us to give ourselves in loving service to others. If we open our hearts to his love and obey his command to love our neighbor, then we will bear much fruit in our lives, fruit that will last for eternity. Do you wish to be fruitful and to abound in the love of God?

"Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing that we do your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Prayer of Ignatius Loyola) "

The following reflection is from One Bread, One Body courtesy of Presentation Ministries © 2021.

THE SPIRIT IS A MOVIN’ (ON)

“The circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were surprised that the gift of the Holy Spirit should have been poured out on the Gentiles also, whom they could hear speaking in tongues and glorifying God.” —Acts 10:45-46

We are two weeks away from Pentecost, a world-changing, life-changing outpouring of the Holy Spirit. God wants to pour out His Spirit on “all flesh” (see Jl 3:1), including on those like Cornelius who have never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel. If we refuse to receive the Holy Spirit in our churches, Jesus will still pour out the Spirit on the streets, in the ghettos, and in the jungles.

If the USA won’t open up to the Spirit, maybe China will. If the priests and ministers stifle the Spirit, Jesus will pour out the Spirit on transformed prostitutes and recovering alcoholics. We can get in on the worldwide movement of the Holy Spirit, or we can let life in the Spirit pass us by.

Let’s open up and receive the Holy Spirit now. “Now is the acceptable time! Now is the day of salvation!” (2 Cor 6:2) “Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest, and in our hearts take up Thy rest.”

Prayer:  Lord, may the Holy Spirit descend upon all who listen to this message (Acts 10:44).

Promise:  “Love, then, consists in this: not that we have loved God but that He has loved us and has sent His Son as an Offering for our sins.” —1 Jn 4:10

Praise:  “Tell me, if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how is it that some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?” (1 Cor 15:12) Lord Jesus, I trust in You.

Reference:  (For a related teaching on Don’t Stifle the Spirit, order, listen to, or download our CD 56-3 or DVD 56 on our website.)

Rescript:  "In accord with the Code of Canon Law, I hereby grant the Nihil Obstat for One Bread, One Body covering the period from April 1,2021 through May 31, 2021 Reverend Steve J. Angi, Chancellor, Vicar General, Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio August 5,2020"

The Nihil Obstat ("Permission to Publish") is a declaration that a book or pamphlet is considered to be free of doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat agree with the contents, opinions, or statements

[dailyaudiobible]

04/24/2021 DAB Transcript

Judges 2:10-3:31, Luke 22:14-34, Psalms 92:1-93:5, Proverbs 14:1-2

Today is the 24th day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it is great to be here with you as we bring to a close another week and we get to share together. So, let's dive in and take that next step. As we end our week, we’re just getting going in this brand-new territory that we entered yesterday known as the book of Judge. And like I said the book of Judges does take us into new territory. It takes us forward after Joshua but the complexion changes. The people are in the land and they have what is been promised and they get comfortable and that they have not done what God said, which was to force everybody out of the land otherwise it would become a thorn in the side, a stumbling block, and their gods would become a temptation. And…and we see that that's the truth in the book of Judges. So, let's dive in. Judges chapter 2 verse 10 through 3 verse 31 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for another week that we've been able to spend together day by day step-by-step moving through the Scriptures, allowing them to wash into our lives and hearts and plant seeds, the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. We are so grateful, as we mark this time. Even as we draw closer and closer to the end of another month, we look back and see such profound things that You have begun to shift inside of us, and we are grateful. And, so, we mark this time with gratitude as we seal this week, close the books and step forward. And this day and this week become a part of our past, a part of our history, a part of our story. And yet, we look forward to the next chapter, the next week, the next month, all that You are doing in and among us. So, we stay open to You and Your leading. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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But yeah, there are…there are sections in there that allow us to take that journey a little deeper, like the Community section where the Prayer Wall lives or like the Shop where there are resources to just take this deeper in whatever way that you like. And, so, definitely check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible thank you humbly. If having the Scriptures read fresh every day and this showing up, showing up in the app or on the web or wherever you listen, showing up consistently every day, if that is life-giving and makes a difference in your world than thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you're using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app, the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

This is Saved by His Grace in Happy Valley. Brian I just finished listening to today's podcast, the 19th of April and your comments about God crying or Jesus crying over Jerusalem and what might have been truly impacted me. I look back over my life and think what might have been had I not defied Him so often. And yet He's been patient and loving enough that even now that I'm 80 he is creating a new creature in me and I am so thankful for that. Brian thank you for your…your ministry and think Jill for her readings and China before her and Ezekiel. And then of course Walta called in and was talking about how we allow discouragement to stop us from our mission, which kind of fitted in there 'cause I just started a business to help families record and save their history for future generations and no one seems to think that's important, and I do get discouraged. And then of course God’s Smile called and that just was the whipped cream on top of the sundae. As other people have said, every time I hear her voice I break into a smile. She truly is God's smile for us. I love this community and I ask God to bless you in everything today. Amen.

hey DAB family today is April the 19th. At the end of today's broadcast there were two women one who is giving praise for the message of Yeshua in us and the other who was lamenting the tragic suicide of a church member. These two messages seemed to encapsulate the struggle that so many of us are facing in these darkened times. Just yesterday I wrote in my journey how lately all I want to do is die and how I spend so much time imagining ways of ending my life. It's been a lifelong struggle raging in me, one that's fueled by nothing less than the sin of idolatry. We’re reminded in John:15 to love one another, to show our love by laying down our lives for our friends. And who is Jesus but our greatest friend. It's pure idolatry that leads me to believe my life is my own to take. In Job 1 we are reminded that the Lord alone gives, and He takes. So, bless it be the name of the Lord. This my life my right mentality that deludes our society is simply one of the flaming darts friary arrows of the enemy throwing at us every day by any means possible. After all what message does each successful suicide send to the world except that there is no hope and that the promise of God’s grace sustaining us through this life is just a lie. So, friends I'm asking you for your forgiveness for not loving you the way that I'm commanded to do each time that I give free reign to these selfish idolatrous thoughts and I ask for God's forgiveness for the vanity of my darkened thinking and may He for…forbid that I should ever leave this life by my own hand. May He forgive me for my lack of faith and the idolatry of thinking that my life is my own when He alone has given it and He alone has the right to take it away. Even if I do in fact have that right to choose then Lord, I reject that choice right here and right now and choose instead to give you my life in full trust and believe that Your love for me endures forever and that Your grace is more than sufficient to shine through the darkness that seeks to consume me. I pray for myself and for anyone who is plagued with these same daily struggles. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi DAB family it's Hallie from Michigan. I'm going to go with a Hallie Heart because I was born on Valentine’s Day and my grandma always calling me that. After listening to the April 17th, I heard Chad and Simona and I want to lift them up in prayer. Dear Lord, my God please let Chad feel Your presence. He is filled with anxiety, fear, and depression like so many of our Christian men today. Society wants to silence them because they stand for good, and our society is evil and doesn't want to be reminded of it. God, You made man in Your image and stand for what is right. Please help them disregard what the enemy is saying and not waiver from the cross of righteousness. Please let them continue to speak out about what is right and keep on speaking the truth even if their own family turns against them. Please do not turn their course from truth and light. Please use this to prepare Chad to be a warrior for You. Give him the strength and the heart of seven men. Lead him out of the darkness with his light shining as bright as a bonfire. Also, Father we heard from Your beloved daughter Simona from So Cal who has long suffered. She is keeping the faith and You just want…we just want to lift her up to You. She understands that we're nothing without You and she has an 8-year-old who she wants to see grow and come to love You too Father. Please Lord come to her and let her feel Your power rush through her and heal her body completely with Your divine intervention. Please let her have many milestones with her child and time to instill her faith in her child. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Hello DAB family this is Gigi from Gville calling in. I'm asking for prayer from my mom. She's 69, recently widowed, and feels a new calling on her life to step into something that God has prepared for her and it's scary, but God has just been lifting her up and her faith has been growing and she's been getting stronger and she's been really being renewed every day. So, it's been awesome. But the enemy has been coming against her with her sleep. She used to struggle with insomnia, and it's just been hounding her, just three hours a night, not been able to really be consistent and also being attacked by a lot of fears and doubts even though she's been experiencing so much overcoming power. It's just been a real like continual battle in her mind and not being able to sleep makes it worse. So, if You guys could all join me in prayer for her. Thank You, Lord, that it says that faith works by love and that Your love never fails. So, we are praying right now that You would reveal Yourself in a deeper new way to mom, that she would understand Your love in…in ways that she never has before and that her faith would become effectual in that understanding and that…that she would be able to…to move her eyes off of the waves and off of the fear enough off of the doubt and have her eyes fixed on You and on the one thing, on Jesus and His faithfulness. And thank You Lord that You are overcoming in her and I pray she be protected in her sleep. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Good morning DABbers this is Brave from New Jersey. Today is April 20 and I'm calling to report a praise report for my daughter, my prodigal who's 18 and who has ran away out of the house sometime back in the winter time. She's returned home physically and she's with me now. I praise God for that, and I would like to ask the family to pray for her for full restoration of her life back to her Father and that Lord will restore her fully and bring her back to His Kingdom and heal her completely. This is my prayer to you family. Thank you for holding her up for me. God bless you.

Hello, my family this is Prodigal no more actually. God gave me a new name this weekend and I'll tell you a bit about it. But Thursday night I was supposed to be at a John Eldridge site boot camp. And instead, I was sitting here with a bottle of vodka and I had my good old Glock out again because I had just gotten news that I’d been financially crushed and was probably gonna lose…well…be on the street. And, so, I wasn't…just wasn't…I just had no hope of the future. So, right before I was going to do the final act my…my wife called, my estranged wife called and said, “where are you? Why aren't you at this boot camp?” Because somebody had called her and said that I was not there. I told her why and she said, “don't you dare do that. Get up there.” Because this was the first night. So, I drove up the next morning.  I didn't expect much but when I got up there my life totally changed. The Lord shredded me. Halfway through the day one of the guys quoted, speakers quoted, “this is your beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” And that's a phrase I had never heard in my 68 years on this earth, and it totally shredded me. So, long story short he totally unwound my life, totally stripped me down, told me why I was the way I was and why things happened. And, so, real quick, He spent two nights talking to me nonstop and the second night He gave me a new name. And my new name is Lazarus. So, from now on family I'm Lazarus. Jesus loved him Jesus wept for him Jesus raised him from the grave and Jesus made him the most dangerous man on earth. So, look out Satan and I'm now back, I'm strong and powered by your prayers and your love. God bless you family. I just wanted to give you a celebration for a change. God bless.

[bibleteachingbyolga]

What Christian father lacks the deep desire to see his sons become men who are wise, godly, strong, selfless, mature, and responsible?

I have prayed that my son would become a man consumed by a passion for the supremacy of Christ so that he pours himself out in sacrificial love for others. Ultimately the Lord does this, not us. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1). “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6). God builds. Fathers labor, plant, and water, but God alone gives growth. Even still, God calls Spirit-filled fathers to faithfully bring up their children in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). Loving fathers want to do everything in their power to help their sons become mature men.

But our world is confused on adulthood generally, and manhood in particular. The fog of confusion inevitably seeps into churches. The fog clouds our parenting. I tremble at the possibility of failing to give my son the opportunity to realize his potential as a mature and godly man. But the Lord is our Shepherd. By grace, I’m witnessing him build my boy into a man, in part through an approach I have learned from the Scriptures, the church, and other Bible teachers.

Acknowledging that my son (now 15) and I are still very much in the process of launching him well into manhood, and that we cannot be sure now whether his current trajectories will hold over decades, and that the specifics will undoubtedly be different for different families, here are a few principles guiding me in raising a man, under the three broad steps: aim, ready, fire.

Aim: Clarify the Goal

First, we take aim. We clarify the goal. What are we praying and working toward for our boys? For us, that has been mature Christian manhood. Even if God doesn’t save our son under our roof, we can pray that our efforts set him up for responsible manhood in common grace, with seeds planted to bear fruit if the Lord eventually converts him (Matthew 11:25–27).

Define what manhood is and when manhood happens. We have tried to clarify what manhood is so that our son can aim at it. What is manhood? In a two-part series, Albert Mohler gives a clue reflecting on the question, “When does a boy become a man?” Mohler answers that a boy becomes a man when he reaches a level of maturity spiritually, personally, economically, physically, sexually, morally, ethically, relationally, socially, verbally, and in worldview, character, and biblical knowledge.

Much of what Mohler points to, however, is adulthood in general rather than manhood in particular. So, taking Mohler’s reflections with John Piper’s definition of manhood (What’s the Difference? 23–47), we might summarize when a boy becomes a man this way:

A boy becomes a man when he becomes mature enough to embrace and enjoy the sense of responsibility to lead, provide for, and protect women and children in ways appropriate to a man’s differing relationships in order to fulfill humanity’s God-given commission.

As an (important) aside, the definition of womanhood completes this concept of manhood. To build again on Piper’s definition, I would describe mature womanhood this way:

The essence of mature femininity is the freeing disposition to support and strengthen worthy leadership from men (and reject or redirect unworthy leadership) in ways appropriate to a woman’s differing relationships in order to fulfill humanity’s God-given commission.

The definition of manhood above has been my goal as a dad: help my son reach a level of maturity to embrace and enjoy this sense of masculine responsibility. How do I help him get there? Through preparation and commencement.

Ready: Prepare for Parting

To help prepare our boys for manhood, we can communicate the calling, instruct him for it, and lean on the help of others.

First, communicate the goal and a time frame. Communicating the goal has first meant making sure our son understands the definition of mature masculinity. In other words, have we clarified a goal for him?

As time progresses, we have reminded our son that God is growing him up to be a man and that he should aim to be a man when he comes of age. The Bible doesn’t provide a set age for this, and American culture is unclear on when a boy becomes a man. Is it at 21, when he can drink alcohol? At 18, when he can vote? At 16, when he can drive? Earlier does allow for some overlap in the home, in which we have affirmed his manhood but still have immediate influence on his development and decision-making.

Once my wife and I decided on a target age (for us, 13), we reminded him regularly, and especially each birthday, that he only had so much time before he would become a man (and that he had a lot of work to do to get there). If we determined that he wasn’t prepared at 13, we would have slowed the process and delayed entrusting him with more freedom and responsibility. Age 13 may or may not be a wise target for your son. It does seem wise, however, to have some intentional and communicated time frame. Targeting a specific age gives both you and your son a sense of clarity and urgency for cultivating the right maturities.

Teach and train him in knowledge and practice. Having established a target time frame, we instructed and trained our son for this calling. Leaning heavily on counsel from Vern Poythress, we pursued and encouraged specific growth and development in a handful of key areas. For example, we sought to train our son in knowledge of the Bible and the gospel, memorization of Bible verses (Psalm 119:11), and a grasp of our church catechism for basic theology.

We also repeatedly encouraged him to seek God through the disciplines of Bible reading, sermon listening, and repentance and gospel restoration. We exposed and called him to serve others by serving some of our homeless neighbors, helping other kids in the church, and leading in prayers in the home and in smaller group gatherings. We called him to develop physically with running, push-ups, and chin-ups. We studied financial stewardship. We reflected on basic objections to Christianity. We also taught him the goodness of God’s design in human sexuality.

Lean on the community. Another essential piece has been the local church. Our sons need the social skills of interacting with others from all walks of life, so we must lean on our churches to help in raising them.

Furthermore, our sons will learn how to lean on the community as they see their fathers getting help. Our church encourages and prays for adult members to build meaningful friendships with the children of the church for present and future discipleship. There is a wealth of wisdom and grace poured into the lives of our church families. To benefit from the church family, my son came up with several questions to interview some men he admired. He asked them questions like, When did you become a Christian? When did you feel like a man? What prepared you to lead a family? What helped you grow spiritually?

As sons hear the call, receive training in the knowledge and practice of maturity, and spend meaningful time with other men in the church, they will continue (by the grace of God) to mature in masculinity. Once ready for manhood, we now have an opportunity to clearly communicate their arrival.

Fire! His Turn to Step Up

To launch a son into manhood with clarity, we can now affirm his manhood, cut the cord of childhood, and partner with him in ministry.

Verify and affirm his manhood. For a father to clearly affirm his son’s manhood, we must first discern it. In a sense, the testing is going on for a year or so (or even longer) before the formal declaration of manhood.

I watched my son read his Bible and interact with family and friends. We conversed about many topics. I asked him questions about the Bible, basic theology, and personal purity. I observed his disciplines. We tested him physically in running and basic upper-body strength. I asked the other men who met with him how their conversations went and what they observed of my son. Once satisfied, we scheduled a time to declare and celebrate his manhood (again, inspired by Poythress) with our family, the men who invested in him, church family, friends, and neighbors.

Cut the cord of childhood. Once we declared our son to be a man, it has been up to us to live consistent with that reality and calling. Though he is a man, he has still been dependent on us. While he lives in our house, we have let him make as many decisions as possible. We switched our approach definitively from parental control to parental influence and guidance.

Partner in life and ministry. At this point of responsibility, we gave our son the opportunity to publicly profess faith in Christ and join the church. As he joined the church, we reminded him of his responsibilities as a member and of his accountability to church discipline (Matthew 18:15–17). We have encouraged our son to continue to engage the men and members of the church as he did in childhood. The difference now is that he does so as a man in discipling, accountability, and service. Like other members in the church, we share life and Jesus with one another and partner together to love our neighbors.

Sons of Clarity and Confidence

Even though the specific applications will look different for other families, I advise fellow parents to consider intentionally cultivating mature manhood in their boys through a clear aim, persevering and patient preparation, and a definitive declaration and commencement.

If we continue without clear direction, our boys may grow up confused and unprepared for manhood, leaving us disappointed with missed opportunities and untapped potential. But if we move forward deliberately, then our boys can grow up with clarity and confidence. If the Lord graciously saves them, then they will be set up for a life of joy serving our King and his kingdom.

[johnhardinsawyer]

What is Acceptable

John Sawyer

Bedford Presbyterian Church

3 / 7 / 21 – Third Sunday in Lent

Psalm 19

John 2:13-22

“What is Acceptable”

(God’s Zeal of Approval – Again and Again)

Living in a house with a three-year-old has made us very aware of the things we say.  I mean, it’s not like my wife and I were cussing like sailors before we had a child, but it is like we live with a little sponge who soaks up every word we say, and then has the ability to repeat any of it at any time, whether we are expecting it or not.  “Where did he hear that?” we sometimes wonder when our son says something surprising.  “Well, he probably heard it from us.”  So, we try – we really do – to only use “acceptable” language around our house – the kind of language that – I hope – my grandmother would find acceptable.

The last verse of today’s reading from the Book of Psalms – talks about using words that are acceptable to God, but also about having thoughts and feelings that are acceptable to God.  In the original language, the Psalmist is hoping that any “speech,”[1] any words that are uttered by the mouth and any inner “musing” of the “mind and heart and human will”[2]will receive the “goodwill, favor, and acceptance”[3] of God.  Another possible way of translating these words that I find beautiful, is that the Psalmist is praying that the “music which resounds”[4] within us will be acceptable – almost like praying that our inner soundtrack will be suitable for God to listen to. . .  perhaps when God is working out, or on a long drive, or just listening in on what we are thinking and feeling.

Now, there are likely plenty of moments when our inner soundtrack – perhaps, our inner monologue – is playing just what God wants to hear – thoughts and feelings that are loving and helpful and selfless and all of those good things.  But I know, from personal experience, that there are plenty of moments when my inner soundtrack is playing exactly what God does not want to hear.  All of us think and say the wrong things – the things that reveal who we really are:  fallen and sinful people who are just about helpless when it comes to thinking and saying the right things.

Jesus knew this side of human beings all-too-well.  In the Gospel of Mark, he says “. . . it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come.” (Mark 7:15, 21)  All of these evil intentions do make it hard to say and think the acceptable things.  

But, just in case you’re wanting to try to do and say the acceptable things, and are wondering how we are supposed to know what is acceptable to God, Psalm 19 gives us some guidance by talking about a deep awareness of God and a humble respect for God’s teachings.  As the psalm begins, we are given a vision of the heavens and are reminded of just how glorious and miraculous God’s creation is.  It is good to be aware, the Psalmist seems to be saying, of just how great God is and how signs of God’s power are all around for us to see.  And then the Psalmist gives us a description of what God teaches – God’s law, which is perfect, and sure, and right, and clear, and pure, and true.  

As Jesus teaches, the whole law can be summed up in two great commandments:  “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength” (Mark 12:30) and, “. . . love your neighbor as [you love] yourself.” (12:31)  Love God.  Love neighbor.  These two commandments are the very definition of what is acceptable to God.

Now, Psalm 19 reminds us that even when we are aware of God’s greatness and the sweetness of God’s law because of the great benefits to doing what is right, there are also great challenges.  “Clear me from hidden faults,” the Psalmist writes, “because I know they’re in there – resounding within me.  Keep me free from proud thoughts, O God, because, Lord knows, I have them.” (Psalm 19:12-13)[5]  As Eugene Peterson translates this passage:

God’s Word warns us of danger

and directs us to hidden treasure.

Otherwise how will we find our way?

Or know when we play the fool?

Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!

Keep me from stupid sins,

from thinking I can take over your work;

Then I can start this day sun-washed,

scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.[6]

In today’s first reading, Jesus is trying to do just that – scrub the grime of sin out of the Temple in Jerusalem.  You know, there is something that has always struck me as a bit wild about this story of Jesus cleansing the Temple.  Here is Jesus – the sweet and gentle Jesus who welcomes children and feeds the hungry – grabbing a piece of rope and whipping people and animals into a frenzy, pouring out coins and flipping tables over.  Just what is going on, here?  And. . . is it acceptable?

There are a few things you need to know about this story.  First, it takes place during the celebration of the Passover – when the entire city of Jerusalem is filled with people from all over who have come to celebrate the festival.  Second, they have traveled from up and down the country to see family (remember what that was like), to take in the big city, and to make a sacrificial offering at the Temple.  And, third, in order to make the traditional offering of a cow (if you could afford it), a sheep (if you couldn’t afford a cow), or a dove (if you couldn’t afford either)[7] the people have either brought one of these animals with them or, they are prepared to purchase one when they arrive.  The ancient laws say that the animals brought for sacrifice need to be without blemish.  I would imagine, though, that traveling for several days from the far reaches of Judea or Galilee with an unblemished animal increases the chances of it becoming a bit blemished in transit.  So, over the years, ingenuity and capitalism have found a way to corner the previously untapped market on unblemished animals in Jerusalem and have built it into the thriving marketplace that greets Jesus when he arrives at the Temple – the Temple that has been under construction for forty-six years.[8]

There is a problem, though, because the people selling animals and exchanging one kind of currency for another – a practice that props up the institution of the Temple, (and keeps the Capital Campaign going, if you will) – is taking advantage of the pilgrims who have simply come to worship and make an offering.  This is, in part, what makes Jesus so mad.  He is angry at a practice that seems to put up a barrier between God and God’s people.[9]  And so, Jesus causes a scene and turns the tables over.

It seems strange to ask the question if Jesus is doing something acceptable – because, I mean, it’s Jesus and we love Jesus, so, of course it’s acceptable.  But, would we accept it?  Because, on reflection, I admit that Jesus’ actions here are a bit uncomfortable for people like me.  I mean, at a distance, I am cheering Jesus on, but I could also imagine Jesus coming into our own sanctuary all hot and bothered about how much of a processing fee the credit card company charges for online giving and seeking to shut down the website.  For the record, the church does pay a processing fee, and it is low, but still. . .

“Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”  Jesus shouts angrily.  His disciples remember the words of Psalm 69 – a Psalm about being persecuted – in which we read, “. . . zeal for your house has consumed me.”  (Psalm 69:9)  This zeal – this passionate devotion to God – has filled Jesus to overflowing and it spills over onto the moneychangers and those who will end up persecuting and killing Jesus, because of what he starts in the Temple.  The zeal of Jesus begets the zealotry of those who will eventually kill him.  Anger begets anger. . .

Is anger acceptable?  Anger is definitely human and Jesus was human.  Anger is natural and there are times when it can be quite constructive, but we oftentimes use anger in destructive ways.  The angry meditations and feelings that resound in our hearts about the pandemic or partisanship or poverty or power are only natural.  But, what is the line between righteous zealous anger, like Jesus, and unrighteous zealotry?  One kind calls people to greater faithfulness and a deeper awareness of God and respect for God’s law of love, but the other kind kills people in the name of God or burns crosses on front lawns, or storms supposedly sacred spaces with idolatrous ideologies and deadly results.

When Jesus cleansed the Temple, he revealed the things that anger God – a disregard for true and humble devotion, a disrespect for the poor, a dishonoring of the sacred space within the human heart and on God’s holy mountain.  But the only person to die from what Jesus did in the Temple was Jesus, himself.

Jesus has a way of turning the tables on us – of showing us what a passion for the poor and downtrodden, the oppressed, the blind, the lame, the prisoner, and the sinner can do. . . even sinners like you and me.  You see, Jesus is quite capable of flipping tables, but the good news is that he is always more willing to set a Table than he is to flip them.  The One who is always telling us “this is my body, broken for you” is the same one whose words and meditations got him killed by people like us.  The Temple of his own body was broken. . .  but God raised him up again on the third day.

As I said a moment ago, it is good to be aware, of just how great God is and how signs of God’s power are all around for us to see – even in the cross and the empty tomb.  It is good to be aware of what God teaches – God’s law, which is perfect, and sure, and right, and clear, and pure, and true – revealed in the loving person of Jesus Christ.

And so, in the words of today’s psalm, “Let the words of our mouths and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our strength and my redeemer.”  (Psalm 19:14)  Our words and our thoughts matter to God – words and meditations that are centered not just around the greatness of God – because a lot of people think God is great – but firmly anchored in God’s ultimate law of love:  love of God, love of neighbor.  This is what sets Jesus and his table-turning tirade apart from what you and I – and so many angry people – usually do.  Jesus shows us that there is a difference between righteous anger and being angry because we think we are right.  We are not as great as God.  We need God’s help to love one another.  We need God’s help to channel our righteous anger in ways that are truly loving and helpful.

This is what is acceptable.  May it be so, with God’s help.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

------

[1] F. Brown, S. Driver, and C. Briggs, The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Peabody:  Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1997) 57.

[2] Brown, Driver, and Briggs, 523.

[3] Brown, Driver, and Briggs, 953.

[4] Brown, Driver, and Briggs, 212.

[5] Paraphrased, JHS.

[6] Eugene Peterson, The Message – Numbered Edition (Colorado Springs:  NAV Press, 2002) 703.  Psalm 19:11-14.

[7] See Genesis 15:8 and Leviticus 1.

[8] See John 2:20.

[9] And, perhaps he is seeking to fulfill some ancient words of the prophet, Zechariah, who spoke of a day when no one will be trading goods in the house of the Lord.  See Zechariah 14:21.

[boothanita]

Reiki Master In Pune Wondrous Cool Tips

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Quantum Reiki Healing

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What's A Reiki Session

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#Reiki Master In Pune Wondrous Cool Tips #Reiki Healing Greenville Sc

[pharmy]

The Blue Parakeet

The Bible Reading Landscape in Canada

In 2013, the Canadian Bible Engagement Study found that weekly Bible reading had fallen by half since 1996: only one in seven Canadian Christians read their Bible at least once a week. The study found that, rather than a lack of time, there are several reasons that influenced the poor number -

Many Christians believe that the Bible has irreconcilable contradictions

Many Christians believe that the Bible is irrelevant to modern life

The study concluded that there is a lot of work that the Church has to do to engage the Christian community on fostering a Bible reading habit, educate on the Bible’s reliability and applicability of the Bible, as well as encourage reflection and discussion about its teachings.

While the church has some responsibility, I believe Christians should take initiative and be active in discovering how the Bible can be meaningful in their own lives. It starts by reading it from front to back. However, I admit that extracting meaningfulness and living out the Bible’s message can be difficult.

What really is “reading the Bible”?

When I read the Bible, there are passages that challenges me to question how I am really reading the Bible and how I can live it out in my life. The Bible is God inspired, in that the authors were lead by the Holy Spirit to write the words that God want his people to hear. Surely, when it is written in the Bible, God wants me to listen to the words He had spoken through the authors. But that can be challenging to me. Let’s take Leviticus 19 for example.

“Be Holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (19:2). I know it is difficult to be Holy like God, but yes, I do agree. But the following are like rocks on the road that makes me trip.

You must observe my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God (19:3)

Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material (19:19)

Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it (19:26)

Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head (19:27)

I have broken all these rules many times in the past. I don’t keep the Sabbath (Friday night sundown to Saturday night sundown), I wear cotton-polyester shirts, I sometimes eat medium rare steaks, my mom and barber cuts hair from the sides of my head. I can see why many Christians believe the Bible is irrelevant to everyday life; what we are reading here are remnants of commands that God had given to Israelites many, many years in the past. They should not be relevant today! Right?

We chance upon passages that we believe are no longer relevant to our times and we want to dismiss them and explain them away. However, is that right to do so? Scot Mcknight has written a book about this very problem called The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible.

The author starts by describing the different ways we read the Bible. One of these ways include reading the Bible as a collection of laws. It becomes a measuring stick to evaluate whether we are good people, causing us to become pompous, self righteous and arrogant against those who try but fail to follow the Bible. That is not the purpose of the Bible. Moreover, it is impossible to follow each and every commandment written. When one tries to explain away commands  (for example kill magicians [Exodus 22:18]), the Bible no longer retain meaning as a lawbook.

The author believes that reading the bible as a story is a more appropriate way. When we actually read the Bible from cover to cover, we would discover it can be divided into 6 plots

God and creation (Genesis 1-2)

Adam and Eve created as one body, however, they shattered this union by sinning (Genesis 3-11)

God’s covenant community is restored to God, self, others and the world after a struggle for unity (Genesis 12-Malachi)

Jesus Christ who is the story and in whose story we are to live, returns us to unity through his incarnation, death, and resurrection (Matthew to John)

The Church as Jesus’ covenant community (Acts to Jude)

The consummation, when all designs of our Creator God will finally be realized forever (Revelations)

The author calls this The Story in the Bible, a complete and unifying narrative that holds the Bible together. Each book in the Bible expresses one or more of the above plots. God had inspired all the different authors in the Bible across its entire history to provide interpretive retellings of the same Story that would speak to God’s people in that particular era in which the book was written.

 Discerning the Bible’s messages

A simple example of reading the Bible as story is when we read the passage of Matthew 4:1-11. Before the start of Jesus’ ministry, he was tempted by the devil for 40 days in the desert. Reading through it, some of us, including myself, were taught and believed that Jesus had provided us with a method to respond to temptations to sin by quoting the Bible at Satan. While this is a good attempt at interpretation, we are only imparting what we believe into this story. The lesson of quoting verses was not mentioned anywhere in this text (as opposed to Jesus’ parables where he explains the meanings of his stories). Rather, if we take a step back, we would see this story sharing similar elements to previous books in the Bible.

Jesus’ temptation is an alternate retelling of Adam and Eve’s temptation by Satan in the Garden of Eden. Jesus is recast as the second Adam and acts as a foil to Adam. Jesus becomes the perfectly obedient son of God who resists Satan’s temptations.

Jesus’ temptation is an alternate retelling of Israel’s wilderness wanderings. He is recast as the second Moses. Unlike Moses, Jesus resisted temptations and was able to leave the wilderness in contrast to 40 years of wandering.    

Jesus’ temptation can be interpreted as an updated version of older stories where we see an example of the perfect person who can lead us through the wilderness and restore our broken relationship with God. Much different than what we initially believed.

Using this Bible reading foundation, the author goes through several detailed examples to show how reading the Bible as a story helps us to understand the meaning behind passages that we believe are irrelevant and not applicable to modern life. One example that allowed me to see this reading-Bible-as-story principle in action is how Paul determined how to apply the act of circumcision decreed by God in the past to the Christian community in his time.

God commanded to Abraham (a Jew) that the males of his generation and the generations thereafter should be circumcised (Genesis 17:9-14). Those who are not circumcised would break God’s covenant. Therefore circumcision had been a big deal for the Jewish community. The time after Jesus’ ascension into heaven, there were many non-Jewish converts to Christianity. There was a huge debate in Acts 15 whether to circumcise these non-Jewish converts. To end the debate, Paul reasoned that while circumcision is a command that would last forever, it was not necessary for converts. But how did he come to this conclusion?

Paul believes circumcision is a physical act that shows you are part of God’s people. However, being circumcised does not mean you would enter into a relationship with God where you follow his commands wholeheartedly. He argues using Deuteronomy 10:16 and Jeremiah 4:4, taken from the Old Testament, that circumcision is not merely surgery on the body, but is a matter of the heart (Romans 2:28-29). Moreover, he goes on to say that baptism fulfills and replaces circumcision. Paul believes the rite of baptism serves the purpose of physical circumcision (Colossians 2:11-12). Instead of a physical cut by human hands, baptism is an act of circumcision of the heart by the spirit to mark you as part of God’s people, through death by sin and raised to new life into the Eternal Kingdom.

In this example, Paul, as a leader in the early church, had the problem of discerning whether what was meant for Israelites in the past (circumcision) was to be applicable to the changing times (the growth of non-Jewish converts in the church). He had to understand what was written about circumcision in the past (a God given command), understand the union-nonunion-union Story of the Bible, and discern that circumcision is still very much a requirement in his time as was in the past to be God’s people; however, this temporary requirement to enter into a covenant community was eventually fulfilled spiritually by baptism, which is only made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Where will God Lead Us?

Essentially, reading the Bible and locating what was read in the context of the Story would help us interpret and understand odd passages in the Bible. This method would help us discern how the ancient Word and expressions of faith in the past can be modernized to live out in today’s world.

I admit this approach of reading the Bible requires hard work. Even the author shares that it is time consuming and will take practice to apply it to your Bible reading. Jesus’ temptation and Paul’s decision regarding circumcision may at first seem straightforward, but the waters are muddied when faced with contentious issues such as abortion, homosexuality or assisted death where there is no straightforward answer in the Bible. As these issues become more widely discussed, what answer could we conclude from the Bible and how can we live that out in our society today?

I appreciate that the author was careful not to tell us “answers” or expert opinion on the mentioned contentious issues. He does guide us on one appropriate way on how the read the Bible so that we are equipped to start thinking about these issues and discerning the answers ourselves by relying on God’s spirit, the Story, and the tools of history and language. The Blue Parakeet is an interesting book and it spurred my interest in learning more about other methods on reading the Bible. In the meantime, through reading the Bible in this way, I pray that I can hear and understand what God is saying in the past so I can know what God is saying to me in the present. Then I would be able share this message to others and live out the message in this world.

[stars-forever-dwell-blog1]

Blinded by the Light: Part Eight

“It was the beach, you understand? The beach? It was too beautiful, too much input, too much sensation. I tried to keep it under control, but it just keeps spilling out and spilling out and spilling out. You see, she’s on an island, and that island is – is perfect. I mean real perfection, you know? I’m not just talking about, ‘Oh, that’s nice.’ It’s the real fucking deal, okay? Perfect. It’s just like a – a lagoon, you know. A tidal lagoon that’s sealed in by cliffs, totally fucking secret, totally fucking. . .forbidden. And nobody can ever, ever, ever, ever go there. Ever. But a few people went, once upon a time – men and women with ideals, you understand? I’m not just talking about the usual traveling fucking wanks. Do you believe in that place?”

“No. But I guess you’re going to tell me that I should, right?”

“It doesn’t even fucking matter what I think anymore. It’s up to you. Ideals, eh? We were just fucking parasites! See, I was the one that was trying to find the cure. Procurer of the cure. And I said to them, ‘You’ve got to leave. You’ve got to leave this place.’ But they wouldn’t listen.”

-The Beach

                                                      *     *     *                                                      

So there I was, suddenly, in the upper-middle class suburbs of Calgary, living with my friend Caitlin, her brothers Joe and Rory, and her mom, Janice. It was September. There was running water for showers and teeth brushing and hand washing, lights that turned on for reading, electricity for listening to music and emailing people, a fridge full of food, and no hippies. People were normal. They went to work. They listened. They could carry on conversations. Their clothes actually fit them and they weren’t tie-dyed. They were honest. They weren’t on drugs or lost or trying to manipulate one thing or another out of you.

Looking back, I can honestly say that I don’t know where I’d be today if it weren’t for the endless generosity, warmth, caring, compassion and understanding of Caitlin and her family.

I stayed there for a month, and in that time, Caitlin and I talked for hours on end ‘til the wee hours of the morn almost every night (Gemini and Virgo), at first mostly about Arael and what an idiot he was, but then as time went on we talked about him less, and more about everything else under the sun. She would leave me little notes telling me how beautiful I was; once she made a list of “Ten Things I Love About You,” and left it for me when she went to work. Another time she compiled a list of nice things people we mutually knew said about me and wrote them all down. She was endlessly supportive of me, and constantly telling me how beautiful, smart, worthy and generally awesome I was. And in her love, I bloomed like I hadn’t in longer than I could remember. She was a true friend. There’s this song by Dar Williams I started listening to around this time called The Ocean, and parts of it still make me think of Caitlin and smile. It spoke to me of chasing after Arael to his town on the shores of the ocean, how I tried and tried to make him smile, how I thought he and I were soul mates who would get married someday, but the anger and hurt he carried went deeper than I could ever touch, and were, really, provoked by me, because for a short time I filled the role of the woman in his life – and nothing I did could change that. It was his issue that I never learned the origins of.

I remember when I was living in Marcia’s house of madness, she had this certain book on one of her shelves that for some reason called out to me to pick it up. I did, and read the intro and a bit of it until I knew the premise of it. It was called Away, and it was about a woman named Mary who is walking along the shore one day, and sees a beautiful man lying unconscious in the waves. She rushes out to save him, but once she returns to shore, she is. . .away. She, Mary, is gone, which is a more common occurrence than you might think if you know anything about the Faerie folk. In her place is someone else. I don’t know why, but this story haunted me. I even dreamed about it, and looking back, I wonder if Mary and I were so different.

But over time, the song’s meaning changed for me. It became about Caitlin, moving away from the ocean, the ocean being a metaphor for the watery, unstable, wishy-washy beliefs and reality I had been living with and in for the past year and a half. how I was always bringing my brain to the ocean, trying to find some grounding/earth (Virgo again) but never achieving any, never being able to admit that maybe what I was seeking wasn’t to be found amid the waves or in the sand. I had yet to learn I am an earth-bound mountain spirit, not an ocean dweller. Eventually, gradually, as my heart healed, this song became a cry out to Caitlin, from my heart to hers, wanting her to see the deep beauty, kindness and generosity I saw in her, but she could never see in herself. She was never enough for herself, no matter what she did. I don’t know if she ever knew how much she changed my life.

When I went to your town on the wide open shore

I must confess I was drawn, I was drawn to the ocean

I thought it spoke to me

It said, “Look at us, we’re not churches, not schools, not skating ponds, swimming pools,

But we have lost people, haven’t we, though?”

Oh, that’s what the ocean can know of a body

And that’s when I came back to town

This town is a song about you

You don’t know how lucky you are

You don’t know how much I adore you

You are a welcoming back from the ocean

I went back to the ocean today

With my books and my papers, I went to the rocks by the ocean

But the weather changed quickly

The ocean said, “What are you trying to find?

I don’t care, I’m not kind, I have bludgeoned your sailors

I’ve spat out their keepsakes.”

Oh, it’s ashes to ashes, but always the ocean

But the ocean can’t come to this town

This town is a song about you

You don’t know how lucky you are

You don’t know how much I adore you

You are a welcoming back from the ocean

And the ones that can know you so well

Are the ones that can swallow you whole

I have a good, and I have an evil

I thought the ocean, the ocean thought nothing

You are a welcoming back from the ocean

I didn’t go back today

I wanted to show you that I was more land than water

I went to pick flowers

I brought them to you, “Look at me! Look at them!

With their salt up the stem”

But you frowned when I smiled

And I tried to arrange them

You said, “Let me tell you the song of this town”

You said, “Everything closes at five

After that, well you’ve just got the bars”

You don’t know how precious you are

Walking around with your little shoes dangling

I am the one who lives with the ocean

It’s where we came from, you know

And sometimes I just want to go back

After a day, we drink til we’re drowning

Walk to the ocean, wade in our work boots

Wade in our work boots, try to finish the job

You don’t know how precious you are

I am the one who lives with the ocean

You don’t know how I am the one.

And at the end, the song became a question. Would I go back? Back to the ocean, or stay in the mountains? Would I cling to what I knew now had been the wrong thing for me, or would I step out into the new, the next chapter?

I spent a lot of my time emailing people and talking about the past year and a half, and the future. This one girl I had met who called herself Nej (her name, Jen, spelled backwards) or Neige, and I sent volumes of emails back and forth. She called me Gem, because my legal name is Megan, or Meg, and also in reference to the Lauryn Hill lyrics, “Don’t be a hard rock when you really are a gem, baby girl.” We had met and connected because we both wrote poetry and relished words on our tongues like the finest wine. She was this funky, petite, fiery and watery Chinese girl with a major wanderlust and this writer’s passionate flame burning that drew in me in like a moth. The last time we emailed, she said she was catching a ride to the southern U.S. for the winter. I have no idea what happened to her after that. I still think about her sometimes, but I never learned her last name, so finding her would be next to impossible, I think.

I remember the immense feelings of peace and relief I felt staying there. I would sit for hours in a chair by the bay window in our bedroom and look outside, a mug of chamomile tea in hand. First watching the leaves falling, then the first snowfall. My heart began to stir inside my chest for the first time in over a year. I began to feel again, and it was beautiful. I spent tons of time thinking – just thinking, writing in my journal and just relishing the feelings of safety and warmth that I hadn’t had in forever. Asking important questions of myself: Is it possible to live a life free of the negative influences of greed, indifference and ignorance that are so prevalent in our society – while still living in society? Can I walk that fine line between the grid what lies beyond it, for all my life? Can I not be consumed? Can I retain my individuality, my purity of soul, my ethics and beliefs? Is true freedom possible while choosing consciously to live in a culture that is so mentally enslaved? Can I do it if I get a job, rent an apartment, pay my phone bill? Can I be, as Buddha (or was it Jesus?) said, in the world but not of the world? What is real freedom, anyway?

I met Caitlin’s friends, who wore bright scarves and had a clarity in their eyes that I had sorely missed, went to funky cafes and galleries, and explored the city. With rest comes clarity of thought. Calgary is beautiful in the fall, and it was such a magical, cozy, happy, deeply beautiful month. Even now, it’s the only city I would ever consider living in, and I always have a blast whenever I go there.

Still, despite all this goodness, it hurt that I left B.C., the place where I thought I would find utopia. I still wanted things to work out there, though I somehow knew that going back to Salt Spring wasn’t going to happen. That time was over.

So as the month was drawing to a close, Caitlin and I started discussing what I was going to do. She had offered for me to live at her family’s place, get a job, that whole thing, and a part of me really wanted to. She was going back to B.C. for a month to travel around a bit, then stay with some family in Vancouver. Her family was still struggling through her parents being separated and trying to work things out, and she just wanted to be away, I think.

I was torn; being a shy, awkward person, I really didn’t feel very comfortable with the idea of living in her house if she wasn’t there, despite how awesome her family was, and how comfortable they had made me feel, despite said shyness and awkwardness. But going back to BC obviously made me really wary. Looking back, I think I really wanted to stay in Calgary, but I caved and went back to BC with Caitlin, mostly because of my shyness. And it was a mistake. Big surprise.

We went back to Duncan, which was the town Arael was from, on Vancouver Island. I think that was mostly Caitlin’s idea, though I wasn’t really sure why she wanted to go back. Maybe for closure, maybe she still liked him, I don’t know. She and I had made other friends there as well, so that was the surface-reason why we went, I guess.

I ended up dating a guy there named Mika, who was totally bad for me, and the pseudo-relationship died pretty fast. He was still a virgin and I told him I’d recently had sex for the first time. He really wanted to have sex, and at that time I honestly had zero interest in it. I think I was still processing the experience of my first time, and I made it clear to him that I didn’t want to, at least not yet. But he wouldn’t leave the subject alone, and it got really annoying really fast. Seriously, some guys. If a girl says Stop and you give her some lame excuse like, “But I can’t control myself around you!” you’re just being sleazy and disrespectful. Just so’s you know.

Anyway, Mika had anger issues. His father had anger issues, and his father’s father had had anger issues too. His grandfather had abused his father, and his father had never hit Mika or his siblings, but he was always on the verge of it, as Mika described it. And I could see that in Mika too, and it scared me. His father was a long-distance trucker, so he was gone for the whole time I lived at Mika’s place. One day, Mika told me that if his dad came home unexpectedly and found me there, he would throw me and all my stuff out the front door. Kinda glad I never met him, i must say. So when things ended, after my weird co-dependent all-consuming sadness stopped being an issue, I was actually relieved and over it pretty fast.

Caitlin only stayed in Duncan for a week or so, then she headed off to Vancouver to stay with her aunt and uncle. She became her cousins’ nanny for awhile, and stayed there for a few months. Her parents ended up getting back together, which I know made her and Joe and Rory really happy.

In the meantime, I had ended up crashing at my friend Jai’s place with his brother Kailo and their dad, a really nice guy. Jai had a crush on me, but I didn’t feel that for him, so it was a bit awkward. He took it really well though, and we stayed friends. Again, I was feeling lost and confused. I talked a lot with Jai and Kailo’s dad, and he suggested that I try to go on welfare if I didn’t want to work, and get my own place. That was my tentative plan, but something in me was not cool with going on welfare for no good reason. I was young, healthy, and capable – not a sponge, thank you very much. I really wanted to stay in Duncan because there was this farm there called Sungoma; I’m not sure if it still exists, but it was so cool. Whoever owned it had built a bunch of random small outbuildings scattered around the property. Some of them were on stilts, some were treehouses, and you could rent them out by the month and live in them. There was a communal kitchen and showers. I wanted to live in a treehouse – again. But there were no vacancies, and they didn’t often come up, not surprisingly. My dream was to live in a treehouse and work at Coffee on the Moon, the local funky coffee shop, but they weren’t hiring. So my options were limited.

I don’t remember the exact moment I decided to leave BC and the dream, but I remember calling my dad from a payphone on a cold, rainy late November day and telling him I wanted to come back to Winnipeg, and asking if he would buy me a plane ticket home, one way. I think I was just tired. The dream lay scattered in bloody shards around my feet, and I was too far gone to even be heartbroken or sad about it.

So I took the ferry to Vancouver and stayed with Caitlin for the night before my flight left, feeling completely in a daze, not believing that I was willingly returning to the city I had sworn a year and a half earlier that I would never move back to again. But I think something deeper in me, wiser, more self-preserving said, “You need to rest.” And I heeded it – so I guess I wasn’t as completely stupid as I thought.

That night with Caitlin was awkward, and at the time I was too distracted to analyze why, but later I figured out that she was changing too – she wasn’t satisfied with the flaky hippie life either – and at that point, she saw me as still fully immersed in it. But I was changing too, though it would take me awhile to sort out the dichotomy in my mind and my heart.

So I was at the Vancouver International Airport the following morning, and I remember looking down at my feet and thinking, This is the last time my feet will be on BC soil; the soil of what I thought of as my homeland. It was a heartbreaking, eyes-look-your-last moment, full of confusion, bewilderment and exhausted pain. I spent some time looking at the mountains of Whistler in the distance, drinking in the sight, quenching my soul for the long, mountainless, prairie-filled months ahead. My sketchy plan was to go back to Winnipeg, get a job, stay with my mother, make some money, then go overseas and live happily ever after – or something.

*     *     *

So what remains to be said? I think I’ve shed it all; I haven’t talked about absolutely everything that happened. Some of it is just too personal or special for me to share. And a couple things that are downright embarrassing. . .But I feel good about what I’ve shared. So how to end it?

There’s a book and a movie based on the life of Christopher McCandless called Into the Wild. It’s an incredibly sad story. To sum it up, Chris was an intelligent guy who, after he graduated college, secretly sold his car and donated all his money and savings for law school to Oxfam International, and disappeared. His family had no idea where he went. He changed his name to Alexander Supertramp and worked odd jobs around the States, saving up to live his dream: to disappear into the Alaskan wilderness and live off the land. Away from the things of man. He made it to Alaska, and did walk into the wilderness, alone. He had barely any supplies with him. He found an abandoned school bus and, using a few books he had on wilderness survival and edible plants, lived there in total isolation for three months, then decided he was ready to go back to civilization. But upon walking out, he discovered that the route he had taken to come into the woods was now impassable; the river had swollen and was running too fast for him to swim out. So he returned to the bus for another month or so, and in the end he died of starvation. He was found two weeks later by a hunter, curled up inside his sleeping bag, weighing only 67 pounds.

The school bus is still there, and Chris’ parents have turned it into a monument to him. They keep it stocked with supplies and food for other travelers who might want to walk into the wild, like their son did.

This story really haunted me when I first read it, and later when I watched the movie. Maybe because I’ve been closer than the average person to doing what Chris did. Because I have tasted that feeling, but I lived through it to move on with my life, to tell that part of my story.

I think people maybe find it romantic what he did, but I personally wasn’t overly impressed. I found him to be hypocritical in his beliefs; he was so adamant about leaving behind everything to do with society, yet he had no qualms about living in an abandoned school bus. And yet on the other hand, he refused many people along the way who wanted to give him money and supplies, even leaving behind winter boots and hunting gear in some cases, because he wanted to be entirely self sufficient. I personally find that incredibly stupid. You’re going into the Alaskan wilderness, man. Why not accept the help you’re offered, and work your way up to living completely off the land? Why not be smart about it? I guess I just have no patience for flaky people who don’t really know what they want or what they’re doing. I dealt with them every day for a year and a half in BC when I was a neo-hippie, and I’m not impressed by any of it. Someone who goes into the woods to live, and is truly clear-headed, capable, conscious, conscientious and mature about it? That would impress me.

Now for some random last-minute stuff.

Hitchhiking

I would never do it now, today. Not for any reason. And I don’t recommend it. On Salt Spring during the protest, one of my friends was hitching one night, and she got picked up by two loggers. They figured out she was one of the protestors, and they drove out into the middle of nowhere and raped her. She never went to the police because she didn’t want it to interfere with the protesting. Seriously. I would have let those guys burn. But back then, I believed that everything my sister did was perfection, foolproof. She told me to send out positive vibes into the universe, and you would always get good rides. And nothing bad ever happened, I have to admit – but I don’t think it was necessarily for the reasons I believed it was then.

She did give me some practical advice as well. Talk, she said. Talk a lot. Make yourself a human being, a person, in the driver’s eyes. They will have a harder time thinking about hurting you if they see you as a person, not just a body, an object. Ask them questions about themselves. And, when all else fails, and you’re in the car alone with a guy who seems creepy – ask him about his mother. I always carried a knife up my sleeve as well, even though it’s been proven statistically that if a “normal” person like me (who has no idea how to fight with a knife) carries one, that person is more likely to get hurt than the person they might be trying to fight off. And seriously, if I stabbed the driver, what would happen? We would end up in the ditch, which would also obviously suck. But my knife served more of a psychological purpose for me: it made me feel badass and tough, and that shows on a person.

There was one time when I truly believe that the driver who picked me up wanted to do something horrible to me.

I was on Vancouver Island; I don’t remember where I was going, but it was a long journey, which 99% of the time means getting several different rides, because most people are only going a short distance. So there I was, in the middle of nowhere, and a guy pulls over to pick me up.

I always would do an intuitive scan of every person who stopped for me; a few times I turned down rides. I would always make very direct eye contact as well, which serves two purposes. One: it tells them that you see them, and you’re not a timid person. Two: you get a feel for a person by looking in their eyes.

So this guy seemed okay, maybe a little stiff and awkward, so I got in the passenger seat, and off we went.

I started my usual banter, asking him where he lives, where he’s going, how his day is, all that small-talk crap. He answered everything I said in short, curt monosyllabic replies. He wasn’t being rude or antisocial; I got the distinct impression he was nervous as hell. He would look over at me every so often with a jerky motion, eyes wide behind his glasses. He didn’t blink much, and he was starting to creep me out. I got the sense that he was having an internal debate with himself about whether he wanted to do something to me or not. Of course I could have been totally reading it wrong; for all I know he was high on acid or just really, really socially awkward.

So after about fifteen exhausting minutes of me babbling on and on in my one sided conversation, I pulled out the big guns. I asked him if his mother lived on the island.

Again, a one syllable reply and a wide-eyed, jerky look.

At this point I was trying to figure out a way to ask him to let me out, since there was nothing around; we were in the middle of nowhere, so there was no tactful way of asking him to let me out. I couldn’t very well say, “Oh look, here’s my stop!” when there’s nothing but grass on either side endlessly in every direction. And I instinctively knew that to throw tact to the wind could be dangerous.

All of a sudden, he pulled the car onto the shoulder of the highway and said abruptly, “I’m going to let you out here.” That was it. There was no driveway, nothing. No reason for him to stop. But he wanted me out of his car for whatever reason, and I was more than happy to oblige him.

As he drove away, I thought to myself that he had chosen not to do whatever it was he had been wanting to do, and had removed the temptation by getting me out of his car. Before I stuck my thumb out again, I sent a silent thank you to the universe.

Mushrooms

I’ve done mushrooms three times. The first time was when I was in high school, with my sister in Whistler, and it was perfect. Magical.

The last time I did them was on Hallowe’en night in Victoria in 1999, when I was a sort-of street kid. I was on the beach in Beacon Hill Park, Mile O, with a group of people, only a few of whom I knew, and none of them very well. It was pitch black, minus our driftwood fire, and there are some parts of Victoria that are really creepy. Hallowe’en. Samhain. All Souls Night. When the veil between the living and the dead is thin. Communication is open. The energy is crackling and otherworldly.

So all of these components added up to create a really bad trip for me. I got so deep, so lost inside myself, I couldn’t even talk. Paranoid. It was horrible. I never did them again. But I learned a few important things from that experience.

Don’t do hallucinogenics unless you’re with someone you trust – someone you can talk to about anything, in case you start getting stuck in your head.

Don’t do hallucinogenics unless you’re somewhere where you feel safe – and somewhere where you are safe.

Be aware of when you do them. Mushroom trips vary depending on whether it’s daytime or nighttime.

Don’t try and do “normal daily activities” while on hallucinogenics. It will just stress you out and probably make you paranoid.

Would I ever do them again? Maybe. If the right circumstances presented themselves.

The Home Underground and My Drum

I love Peter Pan. I love the idea of never growing up. Of, yes, becoming an adult, in that one is responsible and not denying what is – but not losing the childlike part of oneself. To be childlike, not childish. My sister and I both have “Second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning” tattooed on our upper left arms. So I must say that I am drawn to people with a certain twinkle in their eye, the smell of wild woods on their skin and skeleton leaves in their hair. To big trees with vines, pirates and cutlasses, mermaid song and the Neverbird.

During my second summer in BC, I landed in Tofino for a couple weeks, and I loved it. It’s strange that I would love it, because it really is very hippyish in a way. But there’s something about it that drew me in. I felt very at home, very comfortable. Something about it felt right, and I still feel that way now, which is really weird.

I had driven there with a couple cool girls, and we became a little traveling family. That’s the thing with traveling; the people you go with become your people. You bond quickly. And we met some boys there on our first day; they told us they were building a home underground, a house in the woods. I thought to myself, Yeah, they’re just going to string a tarp between some trees and lay down their sleeping bags. Whatever. And I more or less forgot about it. A few days later, when they saw us in town and exuberantly told us that the Home Underground was finished and they wanted us to come stay with them, I wasn’t excited at first. So we all drove out there and hiked to the beach, then into the woods. And I must say I was blown away.

They had found an ancient dead tree with a massive trunk – ten people holding hands could barely reach around it kind of thing – and hollowed it out. They built a huge wooden bed frame and a table inside with driftwood from the beach. They made a mattress and piled sleeping bags on it. They gathered mushrooms and berries from the woods and made epic meals for us all. It was seriously amazing. I stayed there for about two weeks, living in a tree in an ancient rainforest with the ocean and the beach just steps from our “front door.” I am one of the luckiest people alive.

Since there were a bunch of us girls and guys, there was, of course, sexual tension and some minor drama. One guy got a crush on me, but I wasn’t interested. He had a small drum, not a djembe, and it was beautiful in its own way. He had decorated the skin with tribal patterns, and when I was leaving town, he gave it to me. I was overwhelmed with gratitude. He gave me his drum. I still have it, and I plan to reskin it. For a long time it sat at my mom’s place with one of her plants sitting on it, but I have it again now. I needed time away from it. I needed to break from the person I was back then. I needed to change.

My Journals

I have always written in journals, and I keep all my old ones in a Rubbermaid. And it’s full. It was sitting in my sister’s loft for a couple years, but recently I brought it home. Looking through them is always emotional. The thing I’ve noticed most about the ones I kept during my time in BC is that they’re not honest. It’s like I’m trying to convince myself of something. I would always show up at the page wanting to vent, to spill, to overflow, but as soon as my pen hit the page, that glazed we-are-one crap would take over, and it’s just all a bunch of fakeness. There is some beauty and honesty in there, but I think it snuck in in the moments when I wasn’t paying enough attention to smother it, like a tiny shard of crystal or a beam of sun.

Epilogue

In the movie The Beach, near the end when all the hippies run from their island home, shattered and heartbroken amid gunfire, the narrator / main character Richard has this to say of Sal, the founder of the hippie commune in Thailand:

“Game over. But she was never gonna leave. She believed in it all way too much to ever change. So that’s exactly where we left her.”

I have learned a thing or two about “happily ever after”; that in the movies, in that scene where someone rides off into the sunset and the credits roll, their struggles and questioning and pain aren’t over – it’s just that the audience’s time of watching it all unfold has ended. That character’s life goes on. You know that expression “Wherever you go, there you are”? Though I still have some serious beefs with Buddhism, that saying often pops into my head when I look back on my time in BC. Wherever you go, there you are. My problems, my anxiety, my depression, my low self-esteem and self-doubt followed me across the country and across the ocean, and I knew it would all follow me back to the prairies too. And I was finally done trying to outrun it.

It was winter. The stage was set. Running and being fake had failed me. There was nowhere else to turn but within. For the descent.

Inanna was ready to face Ereshkigal.

[heartchangingreflections]

Be Still and Know that I Am God

   It is a real challenge for me to find time to sit still before God and study his word. Many Christians can relate to the struggle of finding alone time with God."Why is finding time alone with God so important?", a friend of mine answered during a small group at my church."I go to church every Sunday and Wednesday, community group on Tuesday night, and worship band on Thursday night! Why is it so important that I should do more than I already am? I barely have enough time to even read a single Bible passage, I'm too busy with work, school, family, and church of course. How can I find time with God when my life is filled with other things?"   

The leader of my small group, after listening to my friend respond to a question regarding the importance of daily scripture reading said, "In all honesty, it comes down to what you value. Spending time with God, alone, meditating on his word, first flows from prayer in having the desire to find time with the Lord. On a more practical scale, as an example in my own life, I have had to give up going to sleep earlier so that I can go and spend time reading the Bible. Sometimes if you feel like your life is too busy, sacrifices are required in order to spend more time doing what you really care about.   What type of sacrifices are required in order to find time with the Lord?  

Going back on my premise of how challenging it is to find time with God, I myself have had to make sacrifices in order to find that cherished time studying his word. The sacrifices in my life have come in forms of the already mentioned staying up late at night after a long day of tackling practical responsibilities, giving up time with loved ones, even choosing to miss a day of work in order that I may slow down to be reminded and enamored by the saving grace of Jesus Christ. What would it take for you in your life to find that precious time with God? Would it be an increase or decrease in value to your life if you gave something up to find more time?   

Once a human chooses to believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and have asked for forgiveness of their sins, they automatically are impacted with the greatest responsibility and calling God can give someone. God's calling for his children is to lay one's life down for the Gospel, and to Love and sacrifice as Christ did. Does that mean that we have to all go to third world or non-believing countries to eventually be put to death for our faith? For some maybe, but for most sacrificing for the Gospel means that we have the responsibility of living out a relationship with God in our everyday lives. Romans 12:1-2 says, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." We are to present ourselves as holy and blameless, devoted to worship and adoration of what he has done for us.  How is it that many Christians, myself included at times, struggle or have struggled with this amazing calling?   

We live in a crazy time where living a busy life multitasking everyday is normal! Pressures are all around us to spend and consume our finances from jobs that we have worked so hard for are crushing. Many wives and husbands have strained relationships because of financial or other stresses. Most kids at a very young age are taught to go to school, to eventually go to college, to get a degree in order that they may be able to spend the rest of their lives working a job where the only earn so much per year, and that doing so is the "meaning of life". Many people miss out on great opportunities in life, simply because of their inability to slow down, and allow their Creator to speak into their life's situations. The consumption of time from everyday life, and the pursuit of money, often becomes the struggle for many people who struggle in their relationship with the Lord. Money can easily become an idol in the lives of people who struggle to understand that their finances are a blessing from God. Many people spend day after day stressing and overthinking about how to obtain more and more financially, instead of slowing down and allowing God to fill their financial needs. Emotionally strained parents who fail to love each other as Christ calls them, sadly set up a ungodly examples for their kids to possibly repeat the same flaws within their own future relationships. Common struggles like these, among many others,  tend to come from a lack of trust in God.   How can going through certain struggles be from a lack of trust in God?

Well think about it for a second.

God calls us to trust him in Proverbs 3:5, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart,    and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him,    and he will make straight your paths." This is a direct message that God shares with us. Not only can this verse provide comfort, but hope as well that God would provide for our lives. I know for myself being honest, if I am not devoting time to God, may it be 30 minutes, to a couple of hours a day, I, being a sinner, tend to forget passages like this. It is easier for me to focus on moving forward in life practically, and going to my job everyday to earn a living, coming home tired everyday as a result, than to take time to simply talk with God. It is more tempting to to pursue things that give me instant gratification, than to pursue a God that can give me Everlasting Joy for all eternity!! Think about that?! Wow that hurts thinking about the struggles that I face of putting other things before building and growing in an intimate relationship with our Father.    

What must I do in order to have change? First finding the desire to spend time with God by communicating to him through prayer. The desire for intimacy must come from within, through the Holy Spirit gifted to us, we alone cannot do it alone. Secondly, sacrifices must be made in order that we can spend time daily. Maybe this means you have to give up particular comforts like watching TV, or going out with friends. Maybe you have to make more difficult decisions, like a job change. How crazy is that? It's something I am going through right now, simply because of how difficult my current job makes it in order that I may be still, and rest in God's presence. What does change look like for you in this area? Ask to pray about this with someone else. Reflect over your own relationship with the Lord. Would you want a deeper and more intimate relationship? Does your current life situation reflect the life he calls us to in his gospel?   

To end on an encouraging note with a verse that I remind myself of every day, from Acts 17:24-27, "The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.  And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us."    

My prayer for everyone of us is that we would be still, and seek God, in order that we may grow in our understanding of just how powerful and mighty he is. May we go through our everyday reminded that he is the one who blesses and provides for us, and can save us in every difficult situation.

With Love, ~Justin

#faith #love #christian #god

[tpanan]

My Thursday Daily Blessings

October 25, 2018

Be still quiet your heart and mind, the LORD is here, loving you talking to you...........

Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Roman Rite)

Lectionary: 475

First Reading: Ephesians 3: 14-21

Brothers and sisters: I kneel before theFather, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work within us, to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33: 1-2, 4-5, 11-12, 18-19

"The earth is full of the goodness of the LORD."

Verse before the Gospel: Philippians 3: 8-9

Alleluia, Alleluia

"I consider all things so much rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him."

Alleluia, Alleluia

Gospel Reading: Luke 12: 49-53

Jesus said to his disciples: "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?

No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."

**Meditation:

Do you want to be on fire for God? Jesus shocked his disciples when he declared that he would cast fire and cause division rather than peace upon the earth. What kind of fire did Jesus have in mind here?

The fire of God's purifying love and cleansing word The image of fire in biblical times was often associated with God and with his action in the world and in the lives of his people. God sometimes manifested his presence by use of fire, such as God's revelation to Moses through the burning bush in the wilderness which was not consumed by the flames (Exodus 3:2). God assured the Hebrew people of his continual presence, guidance, and protection for them through the wilderness for forty years with the pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day (Exodus 13:21-22). The prophet Elijah called down fire from heaven to reveal God's presence and power and to purify the people of false idols (1 Kings 18:36-39). The image of fire was also used as a sign of God's glory (Ezekiel 1:4, 13) and holiness (Deuteronomy 4:24), his protective presence (2 Kings 6:17), and his righteous judgment (Zechariah 13:9) and holy wrath against sin (Isaiah 66:15-16).

Fire is also a sign and symbol of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matthew 3:11-12 and Luke 3:16-17). When the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the disciples at Pentecost "tongues of fire" appeared above their heads (Acts 2:3). We can see from both the Old and New Testament Scriptures that God's fire purifies and cleanses to make us clean (sins washed away) and holy (fit to offer him acceptable praise and worship), and it inspires a reverent fear (awe in God's presence) and respect (obeying and giving God his due) for God and for his holy word.  

Loyalty unites - division separates Why did Jesus link fire from heaven with costly division on the earth? Did he expect his followers to take his statement of "father against son and son against father" and "mother against daughter and daughter against mother" literally? Or was he intentionally using a figure of speech to emphasize the choice and cost of following him above all else? Jesus used a typical Hebrew hyperbole (a figure of speech which uses strong language and exaggeration for emphasis) to drive home an important lesson. We often do the same when we want to emphasize something very strongly. Jesus' hyperbole, however, did contain a real warning that the Gospel message does have serious consequences for our lives.

When Jesus spoke about division within families he likely had in mind the prophecy of Micah: a man's enemies are the men of his own household (Micah 7:6). The essence of Christianity is loyalty to Jesus Christ - the Son of God and Savior of the world - a loyalty that takes precedence over every other relationship. The love of God compels us to choose who will be first in our lives. To place any relationship (or anything else) above God is a form of idolatry.

Who do you love first and foremost? Jesus challenges his disciples to examine who they love first and foremost. A true disciple loves God above all else and is willing to forsake all for Jesus Christ. Jesus insists that his disciples give him the loyalty which is only due to God, a loyalty which is higher than spouse or kin. It is possible that family and friends can become our enemies if the thought of them keeps us from doing what we know God wants us to do. Does the love of Jesus Christ compel you to put God first in all you do (2 Corinthians 5:14)?

The Gospel message is good news for those who seek pardon, peace, and the abundant life which God offers us through his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus offers true freedom to those who believe in him - freedom from slavery to sin, Satan, and the oppressive forces of hatred and evil that can destroy body, mind, and spirit. Do you listen to the voice of your Savior and trust in his word? Commit your ways to him, obey his word, and you will find true peace, joy, and happiness in the Lord your God.

**Prayer:                                                                                                                        "Lord Jesus, may the fire of your love consume me and transform my life that I may truly desire nothing more than life with you. Fill me with the power of your Holy Spirit that I may always seek to please you and do your will."

Sources:

Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

**Meditations may be freely reprinted for non-commercial use - please cite: copyright (c) 2018 Servants of the Word, source: www.dailyscripture.net, author Don Schwager

[seekfirstme]

The following reflection is courtesy of Don Schwager © 2020. Don's website is located at Dailyscripture.ServantsOfTheWord.org

Meditation: What is the greatest act of love which one can give for the sake of another? Jesus defines friendship - the mutual bond of trust and affection which people choose to have for one another - as the willingness to give totally of oneself - even to the point of laying down one's life for a friend. How is such love possible or even desirable? God made us in love for love. That is our reason for being, our purpose for living, and our goal in dying.

Scripture tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8) - and everything he does flows from his immense love for us. He loved us so much - far beyond what we could ever expect or deserve - that he was willing to pay any price to redeem us from our slavery to sin and death. That is why the Father sent us his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave up his life as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. In this great exchange - the Father giving up his Son to death on the cross in order to give us abundant everlasting life and adopt us as his beloved sons and daughters in Christ (Romans 8:14-17).

God has poured his love into our hearts

It is for this reason that we can take hold of a hope that does not fade and a joy that does not diminish because God has poured his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:5). God's love is not limited or subject to changing circumstances. It is an enduring love that has power to change and transform us to be like him - merciful, gracious, kind, forgiving, and steadfast in showing love not only for our friends, but for our enemies as well. God's love is boundless because he is the source of abundant life, perfect peace, and immeasurable joy for all who open their hearts to him. That is why Jesus came to give us abundant life through the gift and working of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment - a new way of loving and serving one another. Jesus' love was wholly directed toward the good of others. He loved them for their sake and for their welfare. That is why he willingly laid down his own life for us to free us from sin, death, fear, and everything that could separate us from the love of God. Our love for God and our willingness to lay down our life for others is a response to the exceeding love God has given us in Christ. Paul the Apostle states,

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?... For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:35,38-39).

Friendship with God

Jesus calls his disciples his personal friends. Jesus not only showed his disciples that he personally cared for them and sought their welfare. He personally enjoyed their company and wanted to be with them in a close and intimate relationship. He ate with them, shared everything he had with them - even his innermost heart and thoughts. And he spent himself in doing as much good for them as he could. To know Jesus personally is to know God and the love and friendship he offers to each one of us.

One of the special marks of favor shown in the Scriptures is to be called the friend of God. Abraham is called the friend of God (Isaiah 41:8, James 2:23). God spoke with Moses as a man speaks with his friend (Exodus 33:11). Jesus, the Lord and Master, calls the disciples his friends rather than his servants.

What does it mean to be a friend of God? Friendship with God who is our everlasting Father and with his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ entails a personal, close, and loving relationship and a union of heart, mind, and spirit with the One who created us in love for love. Such a relationship with our Father, Creator, and Redeemer involves loyalty, respect, and obedience. But it is even more than these because God has chosen to love us in the same way in which the Father and the Son love and serve each other - a total giving of oneself to the other in a bond of affection, esteem, and joy in each others company.

Jesus' discourse on friendship and brotherly love echoes the words of Proverbs: A friend loves at all times; and a brother is born for adversity (Proverbs 17:17). The distinctive feature of Jesus' relationship with his disciples was his personal, loyal, and sacrificial love for each one of them. He loved his own to the end (John 13:1). His love was unconditional and wholly directed to the good of others. His love was costly and sacrificial. He gave the best he had and all that he had. He gave his very own life for those he loved in order to secure for them an everlasting life of union and love with the Father in heaven.

Love to the death

The Lord Jesus gives his followers a new commandment - a new way of love that goes beyond giving only what is required or what we think others might deserve. What is the essence of Jesus' new commandment of love? It is a love to the death - a purifying love that overcomes selfishness, fear, and pride. It is a total giving of oneself for the sake of others - a selfless and self-giving love that is oriented towards putting the welfare of others ahead of myself.

Jesus says that there is no greater proof in love than the sacrifice of one's life for the sake of another. Jesus proved his love by giving his life for us on the cross of Calvary. Through the shedding of his blood for our sake, our sins are not only washed clean, but new life is poured out for us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. We prove our love for God and for one another when we embrace the way of the cross. What is the cross in my life? When my will crosses with God's will, then God's will must be done. Do you know the peace and joy of a life fully surrendered to God and consumed with his love?

Love that produces abundant fruit and joy

The Lord Jesus tells us that he is our personal friend and he loves us wholeheartedly and unconditionally. He wants us to love one another just as he has loved us, wholeheartedly, without reserve, and full of mercy, kindness, and forgiveness. His love fills our hearts and transforms our minds and frees us to give ourselves in loving service to others. If we open our hearts to his love and obey his command to love our neighbor, then we will know his love more fully and we will bear much fruit - especially the fruit of peace, joy, patience, kindness, and goodness - the kind of fruit that lasts for eternity. Do you wish to be fruitful and to abound in the love of God? Trust and obey him and he will fill you with his overflowing love.

"Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing that we do your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord."  (Prayer of Ignatius Loyola)

The following reflection is from One Bread, One Body courtesy of Presentation Ministries © 2020.

THE GOD OF LIFESTYLE

"It is the decision of the Holy Spirit, and ours too, not to lay on you any burden beyond that which is strictly necessary." —Acts 15:28

The elders of the church of Jerusalem and the Holy Spirit decided Gentile Christians did not need to be circumcised, but rather had to change their lifestyle, "namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from illicit sexual union" (Acts 15:29). Meat sacrificed to idols was a major item in the marketplace. Therefore, to abstain from this was, in part, an economic decision. The Gentiles were also told to change their eating habits and their attitude toward sexual relations. In other words, the Gentiles were required to make lifestyle changes in the areas of money, food, and sex. This is comparable to telling a modern person, even a Christian, to stop buying certain foods, to quit eating meat or drinking caffeine, and to quit watching prime time TV with its pornographic innuendoes.

When the letter containing these rules was read, "there was great delight at the encouragement it gave" (Acts 15:31). If a similar letter requiring lifestyle changes was read at your church, would the people be delighted or defiant? Lifestyle is the false god of the modern American church. Our comforts, pleasure, and entertainment mean more to us than loving God. That's where our time and money goes, and God gets the leftovers, if there are any. Repent!

Prayer:  Risen Jesus, may I repent of living for selfish pleasure.

Promise:  "This is My commandment: love one another as I have loved you." —Jn 15:12

Praise:  St. Isidore was canonized in 1622. He's in good company: St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Philip Neri were declared saints at the same time.

Reference:  (For a related teaching on Following the World (Spiritual Adultery), order, listen to, or download our CD 53-1 or DVD 53 on our website.)

Rescript:  †Most Reverend Joseph R. Binzer, Auxiliary Bishop, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, September 24, 2020

The Nihil Obstat ("Permission to Publish") is a declaration that a book or pamphlet is considered to be free of doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat agree with the contents, opinions, or statements

[dailyaudiobible]

02/02/2019 DAB Transcript

Exodus 15:19-17:7, Matthew 22:1-33, Psalms 27:1-6, Proverbs 6:20-26

Today is the 2nd day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is great to be here with you at the crossroads, right? We’re ending a week even as we’re beginning a month and even as we pass these thresholds in time that help us be aware of the transitions of our lives this is happening to us spiritually. Now that we've come this far in the Bible we are transitioning, spiritually, and may that continue every day of the rest of this year and for that matter every day for the rest of our lives. So, here we are at the end of week and we've been reading from the Common English Bible this week, which is what we'll do today, and we’ll pick up the story of the slaves who have been set free and what happens next for them from the book of Exodus. Today, Exodus 15 verse 19 through 17:7.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for bringing us through another week of the rhythm of having Your word in our lives every day, we thank You for bringing us into this brand-new month. And here we are, it's all out in front of us. So, come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth, let us live this month of February walking with You every moment because we have a choice every moment, but we need Your Holy Spirit's counsel. So, come Holy Spirit into this month and all the territory that we will journey through as we continue this adventure through the Scriptures. We need You and we need each other and You have provided both. Thank You. So, come Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to stay connected in any way that you can, any way that you want to.

Check out the Community section of dailyaudiobible.com for all kinds of links to different social media, places to interact.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link that is on the homepage. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

So, I heard that lady talk for…this is Rebecca from Michigan…the lady talk about wishing for a baby for two years and got one. She’s feeding a five-month baby. And I’ve just wished for a husband for years and I’m almost 53 but…and I told myself, “God that I know had a baby at nine years old”, but I remember I was sitting at church and talking to God about, you know, something that happened in my past that maybe nobody would be interested in me or want me. And God told me, “I don’t hold the past against anybody. People hold the past against…it’s usually you’re holding the past against yourself __ yourself.” So, I don’t know if you guys know. I have a kid out of marriage 33 years ago. __ and this year she’ll be 33. And the father told me have an abortion or put her up for adoption and he is into drugs and alcohol and his mom tried to warn me of him, but that’s a long story. So, yeah, I hold the past against me. He said that I needed a tragedy to happen to me that’s why he did what he did to me. And I met him at a Bible college. So, yeah, I want prayers that God will show me His grace in this area of my life. Thank you.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family it’s Monica from Kentucky and I want to pray to God and praise Him for the Prodigal. Dear heavenly father, thank you for the life of Prodigal. Lord, thank You that He heard You through the DAB. God, thank You for the way that the DAB family came together in unity and prayer and petition for the life of Your son Prodigal. Lord, whatever You reveal to Prodigal on the feast of the Epiphany, cleanse that revelation deep in the heart of our brother and Your child Prodigal. God, even prophets like Jonah and Elijah wanted their lives to end while they walked the earth, but You gave them exactly what they needed just like You’ve given Prodigal exactly what he needs to sustain him. Inspire prodigal to repent daily and seek You daily and know that when we are stripped bare You provide what we need cause You are all we need. Help us all to know this regardless of our circumstances in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hello, this is Joyce from Virginia calling to pray for Margo the missionary from Australia. Join me in prayer family. Precious Father, Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, we thank You for our sister Margo for the love she has for You, for her sweet Spirit, for Your willingness to follow where You lead. Surround Margo with Your love and comfort as she navigates this transition in her life. Help her to sense Your presence close to her Lord. I pray that You would arrange personal connections for Margo at every stage of her journey, connections that make her feel at home. And Lord, remind Margo of Your word, that everyone who has left __ or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for Your name’s sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. In Jesus’ name. Amen. God bless You sister. Call in to let us know how You’re doing.

Hi, my name is Tyler from Canada in Kelowna BC. I’m just currently in the ICU in the hospital because I have a medical device inside my body that may be infected and causing all sorts of problems to me. I’m a quadriplegic a __ two, three quadriplegic, which means I can only move my left arm a little bit and everything else is paralyzed. And I’ve been this way for 14 years but just recently this device has started to cause a lot of problems in my body and I’ve gotta go into surgery again. And I probably, you know, I might not make it because this has almost killed me about three times since June of this summer. And it might do it again, so, I mean, I just need prayer for this situation because I’m kind of scared honestly to die even though I’m a believer. I sometimes struggle with my security of salvation even though I’ve been preaching this stuff to other people for years. But anyways I do want to go over my two minutes. So, family please, I need prayer for possibly whatever’s going on in my body, which means if the device has to come out, which I cannot live without and that the doctors revive and then secondly just assurance of my faith in God and just having people around me who can assure me of that. And just God reaching out to me and just really assuring me. So, __ to be on this show. I love the show and listen to you regularly. Thank you.

Help me dear Lord to stay in your spirit to walk in your ways and always to fear it the sound of your voice please help me to hear it I long for your presence and I long to draw near it help me stay sheep-like I need your direction and when I make choices please guide my direction I can’t allow anything to break this connection so safeguard my heart and keep it free from deception and when there’s temptation Lord help me look away help me stand fast in my faith and to pray every day but if I get week Lord help my feet walk away I want the things that I do to match the things that I say the demons are out there I don’t want them back they’ve had me for years now and I’m finally on track all that they need is one tiny crack they’re watching and waiting and I know that’s a fact but God’s on my side and their time is short I can’t win the fight without God’s support they tremble in fear but will not abort they’ll fight to the end I’ve read the report but they read it too that’s why they tremble God’s word is alive it’s not just a symbol it quickens the spirit it strengthens the heart the word can break the works of the flesh all apart I now can see clearly how much I’m in need I’m begging for mercy so I can stay free alive in His spirit I serve Him afresh as daily I’m learning to die to the flesh

[email protected]. Like to give a shout out to Alfio from Delaware and to Walta The Burning Bush that will not be Consumed. Know you’re both in my prayers every day. And once again Brian, thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flowin’ ya’ll. All right. Bye-bye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family, this is Amy from Indiana. I have listened to the Daily Audio Bible for a while and I’ve never called in before and I wanted to, and I just felt that I needed to. I need prayer, but I just want is hope the Lord. We have been struggling financially for about a decade down. Every time I try to find a job, things just don’t seem to work out and we wake up most days we’re negative in our checking account and I’m just feeling such a sense of hopelessness in my heart and I’m trying so hard to trust God and not lose my faith in Him but it’s just been really, really hard for us. So, if you could just pray for me, especially for my faith that I would lose hope, that God sees us and He knows us, but that I could find something that could help us financially because I know that this isn’t sustainable for us to live this way. And this has been such an incredible source of encouragement for me and when I feel the enemy whispering to me I really try to get on here and listen to this and fill my mind with the truth. So, thank you for taking time to pray for us. I appreciate it so much.

[darinb]

Success 2- Steps to Spiritual Success

Spiritual success doesn't just happen, but today we want to look at the first step to reaching it.

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."

-- Colin Powell

Spiritual success is something we all want, but strangely it seems to elude most of us. I have discovered some massive secrets to attaining spiritual success, and over the next few weeks I want to share them with you.

Last week we agreed that the world’s measure of success is different to God’s. Spiritual success is independent of money, fame or prestige.

 Why is it that some people come to Christ and grow like crazy, while others have been Christians for years or even decades and seem to have barely grown at all? Why do some seem to do lots of incredible things for the Lord while others spend years sitting in a pew doing and being involved in very little?

 CHOOSE SPIRITUAL SUCCESS NOW!

 Why does it seem Christianity works for some people but not others? I’ve had many people say to me, “Tried Christianity, and it didn’t work for me.” Listen, Christianity is not a product, and we are not just consumers.  Christianity is a person, and every, and I mean every, single person who truly invests in Christ will find He will work for them. The thing is, we concentrate more of what we can get from church than what we can give. We tend not to invest, we tend to consume!

 To achieve spiritual success, the first requirement is that you choose to invest in it!

 Deuteronomy 30:19

(ESV) I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,

 You may be visiting Church today, or you may be a regular attender, but if you know me at all as a pastor, I want to see you grow strong and powerful in the Lord. I’ve asked God for a church of leaders. My passion is to see you became all you could possibly be in the Lord. But to do this, we have to start somewhere.

 Some of you may be content to just float along and never achieve any spiritual success, but I believe most of you want to achieve something great for God, right? Wouldn’t you love to know that you’ve brought people to Jesus, spoken into people’s lives and seen amazing change, prayed and seen God move mountains?

 Age doesn’t hold you back, education isn’t stopping you. Where you live, how you speak, none of that is holding you back from spiritual greatness. All that is required for your breakthrough to become a spiritual giant is your making the choice to pursue God, and following through to actually do it!

 EMBRACE  DISCIPLINE

 We live in an instant society. More than ever before, we want everything right away, no delays, no waiting. Open up the internet and you will read about how you can make $10,461 in7 days or less doing basically nothing! On TV you see how you can stand on a vibrating board and lose 10kg while you watch TV. I heard they just invented a microwave TV, so you can watch 60 Minutes in just 2 Minutes! In 21st century Australia, we want a pill or magic bullet to solve every problem.

 Remember once upon a time we used to write a letter, fold it up, put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it , go to the post office and mail it, and some days later your friend would get the letter, open it and finally read it? Today we call that “snail mail”.

 Then came the fax, which could send said letter down a phone line in maybe 2 Minutes. But that wasn’t fast enough, so we got email, which send said letter in seconds. But even now that’s not fast enough (and a fax seems like a dinosaur), now we have instant messaging, where we can send said letter in real time and get an instant reply!

 No success in life is achieved without discipline. In sport, business, ministry and even family, if we are to be truly successful, it takes effort and discipline. And so it is spiritually.

 We always want the fast, easy, no nonsense way to achieve success. But to know spiritual success as a follower of Jesus Christ, there are some things that need to be part of your life on a regular, and yes even daily, basis. These are nonnegotiable. They are not optional, not for some and not for others. They are for everyone. They are the disciplines of the Christian life, and yes, they take, time and effort. Yet within the spiritual realm, they are the fast track to spiritual success.

  SOW WHAT?

 Mark 4:5-8

And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

 Jesus goes on to explain the metaphors later in the chapter. The first seed is people who hear about Jesus and the devil snatches it away, and they never make a commitment to Christ. The second accept Christ, but it is a shallow, possibly emotional response. As soon as things get tough, they turn away, often saying things like, “Tried Christianity, but it doesn’t t work.”

 The third is where so many believers are today… The Word grows in them, but gets choked out by life, pressures, the drive to succeed in a worldly way. How does this happen? It starts when Christians ignore the basics of the faith. They let their discipline go, and stop praying, stop reading the Word and stop attending church, or simply attend but never commit to anything.

 The fourth seed is shown into good ground, and it is fruitful, yielding far in excess of what was shown, 30, 60 and 100 fold. Does it magically produce this? Nope, the Lord bestows the growth. And what is the main difference between the third and fourth seed? Effort, discipline, the pulling of weeds!

 I’m not much of a gardener. I don’t invest enough time into my garden. I’ve grown some plants and some trees, but if I neglect my garden, I grow a whole stack of weeds without even trying!

 And that’s the thing… if you do not get serious about your walk with the Lord and obtaining spiritual success, you will grow fruit by default, but it will mostly be weeds. Do you want to be fruitful or weedy in your life?

 READ THE DIRECTIONS!

 If you want to become a big fat zero for Christ, if you are happy and content with all of your life, if you can’t really be bothered stepping out in faith, just stay where you are. You’re welcome to fellowship here, come and sit and get what you want to get you through the next week.  Next year, more of the same. Year after that, same old same old.

 But I believe most of you have higher aspirations than that. You want to grow and achieve spiritual success in your life, and you want God to use you in an amazing way to impact and change the world, right? If that is you, then it all starts here… it all starts with personal discipline, and God’s Word…

 2 Timothy 3:16 (ESV Strong's)

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

 The Bible is God’s directions for life. Like any man, I have trouble reading directions. I usually try and fix something or assemble something, and if I run into difficulties, I finally read directions. But honestly, some directions these days are ridiculous… take these for example…

 On packaging for an iron: Do not iron clothes while on body.

On Children's Cough Medicine: Do not drive a car or operate machinery after taking this medication.

On a child's Superman costume: Wearing of this garment does not enable you to fly.

On a bottle of laundry detergent: Remove clothing before distributing in washing machine.

On a muffin packet: Remove wrapper, open mouth, insert muffin, eat.

On a can of air freshener: For use by trained personnel only.

On a toilet cleaning brush: Do not use orally.

On a can of Spray paint: Do not spray in your face.

On a blowtorch: Not used for drying hair.

On a box of fireworks: Do not put in mouth.

On a Swedish chain saw: Do not attempt to stop chain with your hands or genitals.

In a microwave oven manual: Do not use for drying pets.

On a Japanese food processor: Not to be used for the other use.

 The directions given by God are to be obeyed for maximum results. So how do you do this?

 1.      GOD’S WORD IS TO BE STUDIED

 Reading the Bible is fine, but God’s Word is not like some novel. It is God’s instruction manual for life, and if we are wise we will not just read but study it. You can do this anywhere, any time. You could join a connect group and study with others.

 Ezra 7:10 (ESV Strong's)

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

 The thing is, the Bible is not just a book, it’s life in the Spirit. This book is not passive, it is active. There are thousands of testimonies of people who opened a bible in their hour of need and God spoke to the, through it. And this same Scripture can speak to you if you listen…

 Hebrews 4:12 (ESV Strong's)

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

 2.      GOD’S WORD IS TO BE CONSUMED DAILY

 We all want the fast, easy track to spiritual greatness and success, so here it is… read the Bible every day! Wait a minute, that’s not so easy! Well, it’s a lot easier that spending years wasting your life, isn’t it?

 Matthew 4:4 (ESV Strong's)

But he answered, “It is written,

“‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

 Let me ask you, how often do you eat? Do you eat once a week? Once a month maybe? No, you eat every day, often several times a day. In the same way, nothing substitutes reading the Word of God every day. Nothing. If you want to be spiritually successful, this is the fast track! As you eat every day to live, so you need to eat of God’s Word daily to live and be successful spirituality.

 That’s why God sent manna in Exodus 16 and it was to be consumed daily. Ever wonder why He did that? So that the people learned to live daily on the provision of the Lord. It wasn’t enough to save up old experiences, He wanted them to experience Him and His love every day.

 Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV Strong's)

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

 I was talking to someone in our church last week who told me that God is speaking every day to her from her daily readings. This really works folks, so if you’re not reading the Word every day, you are missing out!

  3.      GOD’S WORD IS TO BE MEDITATED ON

 Joshua 1:8 (ESV Strong's)

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

 Successful? God says you need to meditate, or think about His Word day and night to be successful. So we do not just read it and put it down, we think back on it every day. Our team that went to the Philippines often discussed what the daily bible passage was all day, and that’s meditating. Like a cow with multiple stomachs we regurgitate and chew over what we have eaten again and again.

 Then what happens is that in many situations of life you face, the Word of God hidden in your heart pops out and is exactly what you need at the time.

 Psalms 119:9-11 (ESV Strong's)

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.

With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!

I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

 As you think about and even memorise the Word of God, you will be amazed at how often these verses spring to mind, just when you need it. Try it, I challenge you to try it. It really is true!

 4.      GOD’S WORD IS TO BE OBEYED FOR SPIRITUAL SUCCESS

 We do not read just to tick off a box on the Bible reading plan. We do not read out of interest or curiosity or to gain knowledge. We read to live, and to live God’s Word means obedience!

 James 1:21-25 (ESV Strong's)

Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

 If you want to be a spiritual success, obedience is mandatory. As I said last week, why should God roll out His perfect plan for your life if you want even obey step 1?  So many Christians cry out for God to lead and guide them, yet when He reveals what they need to do, they don’t even obey!

 If you’re not being obedient, don’t expect God to lead you, it’s that simple!  And if you’re not reading God Word, how can you expect Him to lead you anyway! When the Psalmist writes,

 Psalms 119:105 (ESV Strong's)

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

 He is working on the assumption that you read the word and let it shine.

 THREE WORDS FOR SPIRITUAL SUCCESS

 Let me give you 3 words that will give you the spiritual success I hope you are craving… READ YOUR BIBLE

 Psalms 19:7-8 (ESV Strong's)

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving (Gk: transforming) the soul;

the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;

the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;

the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;

 If you are someone who is not really interested in changing or being transformed, then you probably aren’t interested in the Bible or in spiritual success. The Word of God is for people who have some sense of desperation about where they are in life. It is for people who don’t have the purpose in their lives they wish they had. It is for those who aren’t content to be controlled by their passions, who don’t want to be victims of circumstance, and who want their relationships with those they love to become even better.

 The Bible is for people who want direction in life, who want to know how to live, and who want to go to heaven. It is for people who want to know God. The Bible is for people who don’t have all the answers and want something better. It’s for those who want to change the world around them for God.

 SPIRITUAL SUCCESS REVOLVES AROUND READING GOD’S WORD

 Honestly, if you say you’re serious about your relationship with God, if you say you’re serious about changing and about impact the world for Jesus, then daily Bible reading isn’t just desirable, it is mandatory!

 That’s why I wrote the Bible Reading program. If you’re not reading the Bible daily, come and join us in this reading plan. It covers the whole Bible only reading 2 chapters a day, usually less than 7 Minutes. The plan has all of the highlights of the Bible without the less exciting bits, and if you follow it it will transform your life!

 People complain that they have no time to read the Bible. Well, turn off TV, there’s a couple of hours, get off Facebook, there’s another hour or two, or ten! You make time for what is important, and if you show God that His Word is important, you will see results.

 And if you’re really desperate… put the Bible on your phone and when you go to the toilet, sit and read. The Lord will not be turned off by the smell, trust me!

 If you don’t read much, download the Gideon’s Bible app. It’s free, and you can do the entire ESV Bible as audio.

 I use to have a computer with very limited hard drive space. When I tried to add a program, a little message would pop up saying, “No more memory available,” and before I could load the program I would have to remove some other program.

 Wouldn’t it be great if, when the devil comes with his temptations to attack your life, a little sign appeared saying “Memory full. Heart and mind are filled to capacity with the things of God.”

That’s why I am so pumped about you reading God’s Word daily! Not because I’m sadistic, not because I want to clutter or control your life. I tell you this because I want to protect and empower you, and fill your hard drive with God things. As Philippians says,

 Philippians 4:8 (ESV Strong's)

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

“Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely,

 After all, the best defense is a good offense. So instead of being open and vulnerable to the attacks of the devil through our minds, let’s fill our minds with thoughts of God, thoughts of heaven, and meditation on His life-changing Word.

 We need to commit ourselves to reading His Word, then patiently wait for the harvest that it surely will bring…

 James 5:7-8 (ESV Strong's)

7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

 Christian, I’m sorry but there is no excuse for us.  Either we get serious about reading God’s Word, or explain to Him why we cannot be bothered. I love You, Lord, I desire You with all my heart, but don’t ask me to put any effort into the relationship.

 Actually, try this excuse with your wife or husband and see what type of response you get.

 Today’s challenge is this… will you commit to reading God’s Word every day for the next month?

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