Who keeps you intentionally focused on God?

Is it not interesting that we are drawn to a community if believers by a need to find a higher power, by the need to find God. We are drawn into the community because of our desire to seek out God and find how he can have significance in our lives. We are usually drawn to the scriptures to study and prayer, to a life that exemplifies the life of Christ. We search with all of our being to be like the one we are seeking after…

But then we join the community and the fire seems to go out of our souls…
We start to read our Bible less and less…
We stop praying all the time…
We lose the connection we fought so hard to get with the God who never stops fighting for us…

What is it that we do to keep our selves intentionally grounded in the Word and in God?
Go to church on Sunday? Take communion weekly? Listen to the Bible being read to us, and only the portions picked by those who devised the Revised Common Lectionary? Is this really keeping us intentionally grounded in God or a ploy used by the Devil to make us think we are being disciples, when we are really no where close to sitting at the feet of Jesus?

We all need a way to be intentional about sitting at Jesus’ feet and learning from our Lord and Savior. We all need a way to keep us grounded in the Word of God. We all need to be reading our Bible daily, not weekly or weakly as the case may be, or just listening to someone read the passages for the week while we gather with the community to do our weekly job of being a christian. Jesus did not come to make us christians, He came to help us see the way to live, to redeem us to the relationship God created us for. He does not want us to live one way Sunday morning and another all week long. He is calling us to a deeper relationship, a discipleship.

We have to be intentional about changing our lives to match what Jesus calls us to be. We have to intentionally enter relationships with others around us that we can trust to keep us grounded in the Word and in God. We need a group of people, that will be there to lift us up in prayer, to read the scriptures with, to hear our confessions and give us absolution, to confess to us to get absolution, to support one another in our daily lives and walk.

Do you have this group? Do you have 2 people who are always there that you can open your soul to? Do you have 2 people that can look at the blackness in your being and still say that God forgives you and loves you and so do I and I will walk with you and journey as we strive to sit at Jesus’ feet and be the disciples that will change the world? Are there 2 people you can call on and meet with weekly, to read and discuss the scripture?

If not I challenge you to find these people. Start a weekly meeting, and read the scripture, pray togehter and open your souls up to each other. Create the relationship that will bind you together and lead you to be the disciples that God has called you to be. This group will guide you into a deeper relationship with your creator that will enliven your life.

I am taking up this callenge and I challenge you to do the same. Relationships take work, and it takes more than 1 day a week. And sometimes you need support. Live in the relationship that Christ has called us to, and do not fear, but know that love will abound.

Prayer from Merton

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

What is life?

The Message version of Colossians 3:3 says: “Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God.” This is where our life is. This is our life. That fact that God is our life through Christ. He has hidden the word He wants to speak through us to the world around us deep with in us and hidden it even from our selves. How is it that we might grasp hold of this word and unite it with the fire of our soul to feed ourselves and the world around us. What is the life we pretend to have? What is the word that God is trying to speak to you and through you to ignite you and the world around you?

Your real life, is Christ in and through you. Live that life to the fullest so that every one comes to see the fire they might have.

Shocking Poem

I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven’s door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor.
But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash.
There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money! twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.
Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.
I nudged Jesus, ‘What’s the deal?
I would love to hear Your take.
How’d all these sinners get up here?
God must’ve made a mistake.
‘And why’s everyone so quiet,
So somber – give me a clue.’
‘Hush, child,’ He said, ‘they’re all in shock.
No one thought they’d be seeing you.’

JUDGE NOT.

Remember…Just going to church doesn’t make you a Christian
any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.

Every saint has a PAST….
Every sinner has a FUTURE!

3 days

This is the holiest time of the year. The time when we remember the last supper of out Lord. The time he was handed over by Judas, because he was in charge. Jesus said at dinner one of you will betray me, or one of you will hand me over. He knew it all along, and who it was. Judas did his part. But we remember the meal, and the walk to the garden, and the praying and watching with Jesus, and the sweat running as blood, and asking for this cup to be removed. Jesus shows his humanness, and his wanting to not do things the way God wants them done. Do we ever do this? But Jesus says “not my will but yours be done.” This is a far cry from the Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? My God, My God why have you forsaken me…. My God My God why have you left me here in this mess? Have we ever cried this out to God wondering how we got into the place we are? I wonder did God really forsake Jesus? Did he ever truly leave him? He could have at any point removed himself from the cross, right? He rose from the dead to give us life, and bring us all grace, so did God ever forake him?

I wonder this after a Maundy Thursday service which had too much mention of Easter for me. I am vert traditional when it comes tothe 3 days, and think there is a reason for the one service over 3 days model. Thursday starts, Friday picks up the middle, and Saturday night completes. Thursday is a celebration that ends up going bad. It is the party at your house and the cops are called because your friends are out on the lawn and disturbing the neighbors. Or the cake arrives from the bakers, and the name is spelled wrong and the guest of honor has a hissy fit…

I find it interesting that the title of the day Maundy Thursday is something of a command. “1440, from M.E. maunde “the Last Supper,” also “ceremony of washing the feet,” from O.Fr. mandé, from L. mandatum “commandment,” in reference to the opening words of the church service for this day, Mandatum novum do vobis “A new commandment I give unto you” (John xiii.34), words supposedly spoken by Jesus to the Apostles after washing their feet at the Last Supper.” (Taken from http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Maundy+Thursday).

Jesus commands us to love one another, this new commandment, but is it not interesting that very few celebrate this day? This is the day that Jesus gave us that very foretaste of the coming kingdom, yet we can pass over it like any other day. And tomorrow is much the same, in Good Friday. We go about out day not even thinking about it. We have church on Sunday, and we had Passion Sunday most places last week, and missed the triumphal entry of Jesus as king, and we skip over Palm Sunday because our lives are too hectic, and we can not possibly go to church more than 1 day a week. Do we remember what Jesus did for us? Do we remember what happened tomorrow as he was nailed to a tree? He died so that you might be free, and to repay him, we go about our day like nothing happened. We need to remember the walk. I received this from a friend. I thought it was a great look at what Jesus did and wants from us:

HE WALKED

He could hear the crowds screaming “crucify, crucify”.

He could hear the hatred in their voices, these were His chosen people. He loved them, and they were going to crucify Him. He was beaten, bleeding and weakened. His heart was broken, but still He walked.

He could see the crowd as He came from the palace. He knew each of the faces so well. He had created them. He knew every smile, laugh, and shed tear. But now they were contorted with rage and anger. His heart broken, but still He walked.

Was He scared? You and I would have been. So His humanness would have mandated that He was. He felt alone. His disciples had left, denied, and even betrayed Him. He searched the crowd for a loving face and He saw very few.

Then He turned His eyes to the only one that mattered. And He knew that He would never be alone.

He looked back at the crowd, at the people who were spitting at Him, throwing rocks at Him and mocking Him and He knew that because of Him, they would never be alone. So for them, He walked.

The sounds of the hammer striking the spikes echoed through the crowd. The sounds of His cries echoed even louder, the cheers of the crowd, as His hands and feet were nailed to the cross, intensified with each blow.

Loudest of all was the still small voice inside His heart that whispered “I am with you, my son”, and God’s heart broke.

He had let His son walk.

Jesus could have asked God to end His suffering, but instead He asked God to forgive. Not to forgive Him, but to forgive the ones who were persecuting Him.

As He hung on that cross, dying an unimaginable death, He looked out and saw, not only the faces in the crowd, but also, the face of every person yet to be, and His heart filled with love.

As His body was dying, His heart was alive.

Alive with the limitless, unconditional love He feels for each of us.

That is why He walked.

When I forget how much My God loves me, I remember His walk.

When I wonder if I can be forgiven, I remember His walk.

When I need reminded of how to live like Christ, I think of His walk.

And to show Him how much I love Him, I wake up each morning, turn my eyes to Him, and I walk.

— Author Unknown

Pondering the will and ways of God…

Who will make it to heaven, or who will be in hell? Is this something that any of us can say we know for sure. Is there anyway to know that the person who cuts us off in traffic will get what they deserve? And just what is it that they deserve?
It seems interesting that we say we follow God and do what He has called us to do when we do not love our fellow man, women and children. We are called to love the person, and not necessarily like what they do. We are called to love, and give as Jesus gave to us. As we await the birth of the savior of the world, we need to reflect on who we are, and whose we are.
What is it about Christmas that gives us the power to go on. What is it about Christmas that shows us love? With the commercialization of the holidays, it seems harder and harder to find the real meaning behind the child in the manger. It is harder and harder to see what God is pointing us to…
The beginning of the story of Christ is not the manger, Christ was with God at the beginning, and the point of the baby in the manger is not the fact that we get stuff. It is the birth of our savior, have we gotten him a gift? Have we even tried to give him what he deserves?
It is hard to think about this, and even harder to do it.
The point of Christmas is not the baby, the point of Christmas is “the end” of the story, which is not the end, but merely our beginning…

It is not in the presents, or the feeling or the snow, to quote Go Fish…

Christmas is about the Cross and what Christ has done for us. Love as you have been loved. Live as though no one is watching…