Concerns

Do you have some concerns today? I would be willing to bet that you do. What do you do with them? Most of us worry in some way. We think that we are actually in control of all the the circumstances in our lives. When we do this we actually disconnect ourselves from God and let our ego (edge God out) take over, with all of its wants and desires. Disconnected for me means that we forget that we are completely taken care of by our Creator. Our Creator would not set us on this earth and then just let us try to make it ourselves. Our Creator reminds us of this:

"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met."

Matthew 6:30-33

We are so afraid that we will miss out on something, that we actually miss out on something. We get so concerned about the cares of this life and how much we need to have or acumulate that we miss our life in God. We work so hard on searching for our purpose that we miss our purpose. Our only job in this life is to live a God realized life. If we do that and steep ourselves in God reality and allow God to have the initiative, and let God give the provisions - our purpose will actually chase after us.

There is a story of a young cat who went to cat happiness school. After he finished he was walking in an alley chasing his tail. An older and wiser alley cat saw him and asked him what he was doing. He told him that he had just finished happiness school and was taught that happiness was located in his tail and if he could just catch it he would find happiness. The older wiser cat said that he had never been to school, but he knew that happiness was located in his tail. However he found that if he just did the things he needed to do everyday and trusted that happiness followed him wherever he went. The implications are obvious in this silly story. We need to just trust God and ourselves, steep ourselves in God and live like God - with as much kindness, caring, love, beauty, receptivity, forgiveness - as we can. When we do this, when this becomes our focus, our purpose and happiness will chase after us. So today do not worry about your concern. Focus on living in peace and kindness with all. Be connected to God and watch what happens as your purpose reveals itself and chases you, rather than you chasing it.

Namaste'

Passion

What is your passion? What gives you boundless enthusiasm? What is the object of such enthusiasm for you? Is there anything? Is God your passion? If there is any relationship that you could have passion about God would be the one.

Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them." Matthew 22:37-40

When God becomes the passion of your life all things begin to fall into place. When God becomes our passion, the thing that we have boundless enthusiasm for, we begin to have our lives molded in the shape of God. We love, we have compassion, we are kind, we look for the beauty in things, and we live out the image of God within us. Let this be the pursuit of you life, the object of boundless enthusiam for you. You will find that your life begins to make sense, that things that you once thought impossible will become possible. You begin to look for the positive things in life and focus less and less on things to worry about. Be passionate about God. Let God be the boundless enthusiasm that you pursue in your life.

When you are passionate about God, your purpose in life will come after you. You purpose will find you, you will not have to go seek it. Purpose will chase after you. Let it. Respect yourself by having boundless enthusiasm for God. You are created in God's image and if you do not respect yourself, you are not only disrepecting the most beautiful creation of God, but the Creator itself. If you disrepect yourself how can you connect and let purpose chase you? Have passion, have it to find God. Respect yourself and all life with love and service then watch the words of Jesus come true in your life.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33

Namaste'

Submission

What a difficult time that we have with this word. Submission means the act of submitting to the power of another or the state of being submissive or compliant; meekness. However this is exactly how we are asked to live our lives if we are Christ followers. This does not mean a life of codependency, allowing people to have their way with us and never having limits or boundaries for people who would hurt us. No, this is a way of life that submits to the belief and conviction that God is in control. It submits to the belief that even the most horrid of circumstances in our lives are being used to teach us something about how to live. Life gives exams and if we do not pass those exams it will give them again. For example, people get married again and again only to find themsevles in the same situation. They did not understand the exam the first time. People have problems with other relationships and jobs over and over, probably because they did not pass the exam the first time. Our crosses to bear are there to teach us something. If I learn from them I "pass" the exam and learn how to not get myself in that situation again.
However most of us attempt to "run our own lives." We actually think we can control everything that is going on in our lives, so we try. When we do we complain about the life exams we are given by God. We fail to act in submission and allow things to be perfect as God designed. Rather we complain, shake our fist at God, and say to ourselves this can't be right I must do something. This does not take away the emotions and the pain that makes some of our crosses hard to carry. Sometimes we must drag them or sometimes we collapse under the weight of them.
However, will we find submission and know that God is working all things for our good? Will we be able to have the mind of Christ and allow God to have God's way. Will we trust that even though it appears that we do not have what we think we need right now, maybe we do not need it right now or at all, or it will come only when we truly need it? This is submission - to allow God to have God's way and trust that it is as it should be.

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11

Namaste'

Grasp

We have grown up with being taught things like "grap all you can," and "get the most out of life, you have only one." I do not disagree with these sayings, but maybe there is another way to go about living them out.

If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you'll lose it, but if you let that life go, you'll get life on God's terms. Luke 17:33

So are you trying hard to grasp and cling to life on your terms. Jesus reminds us that we will lose it if we try and do that. Imagine for a moment that you place your hand in a pool of water. How would you keep water in your hand? If you cup your hand you can fill your hand up with water and have as much as you like. However, as soon as you attempt to grab the water what happens? The water no longer stays in your hand, you lose it. This is how our life works. If we would like to grasp and cling to our life, our life comes to ruin. In actually attempting to hold onto the things in our life we actually lose them.

Think about it for a moment. What happens between a parent and a teenager when a parent attempts to grasp or hold onto to them very tight by making extreme rules and constantly staying on them because the parent is worried? The parent "loses" their child. The teen attempts to get as far as they can from the parent, they distance themselves. Think about it in a marriage. When one of the partners is attempting to make sure they are loved and desperately "hold" and "grab" the other partner through questions and constant worry, does that partner come closer or move further away? We can give example after example of how attempting to grasp and hold things on our terms actually causes the loss of them. Think about it at work. You so deperately want to grab for that promotion that your anxiety becomes a hinderance. You begin to make mistakes because you are worried about making them. Your boss picks someone else. So today try to just cup your hand around the things that are important to you. Allow them to move freely. Allow God to move them freely. Life on God's terms is one of peace. Avoid extremes in your life. Avoid being prideful and thinking that you always have it right. Avoid being extravagant and trying to grab all you can, there is no way to hold it all and keep it. Allow yourself to "let go and let God."

Namaste'

Prayer

Our life should be a prayer to God. Our prayers to God should be less and less about us and what we can get, and more and more about what we can give and how we can be light and love to the world. The following prayers are examples of this life principle.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light;and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand;to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

Saint Francis of Assisi

"Father, forgive them; they don't know what they're doing."

Jesus Luke 23:34

We must learn how to give our lives away in the service of others. Our prayers should be about the ways that we can give peace, love, hope, light, joy, and forgiveness to those around us. These two prayers are wonderful examples of how to let go of the need to be "right" and instead show kindness. I challenge you to write them down, print them off and place them somewhere that you will see them and pray them daily. Let them become the focus of your thoughts. Look for the ways that you can forgive, show peace, show love, give joy, give hope and give your life away to others. Watch how your life changes when your focus becomes that of giving. See how much you recieve out of giving yourself away. What is the worst that can happen if you try for a week? The only thing that can happen is that someone will be made happier because of your kindness. Remember that people are always trying to do their best, even when it does not live up to an expectation that we may have. Forgive them as we wish to be forgiven because sometime we all do not know what we are doing.

Namaste'

New

I will continue on the theme of inner change today. When we come to have an encounter with the eternal and everlasting God, Jesus, this is just the beginning of change. We need to do more than just have that one experience of decision to believe. We need to change our old personality into a new one. We must change our inner person so that we can live a concious and creative life.

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.” Matthew 9:17

Our lives will not be "preserved" in Christ unless we take our decision and place it into a new life. To make a decision to become a Christ follower and try to live the life that we have always lived, with no work on changing the inner person, is like trying to place new wine into old wineskins. To take our new life, our "new birth," and attempt to keep the same inner life will lead to our spiritual downfall. We "burst" with the pressure of trying to keep rules that we do not understand or own for ourselves. We are attempting to just follow the crowd and we live in the unconscious obedience that we talked about yesterday. How many people do we see walk away from their life of faith because of the hypocrisy within their own life? You see people blame the hyprocrisy of people in the church for the reason they leave or do not live a life of faith. However, they are really saying that the life of faith is a life they find too much pressure in because they have refused to take the inner journey that is required to find their life in God. They really do not want to let go of their ego. When we do not take the journey to really become a disciple - one who embraces the teachings of Jesus - and do not want to embrace, really know, the teachings of Jesus the Christian path and way of life becomes one of anxiety and not joy.

Find the joy in taking an inner journey to really be born again. Be a follower of Jesus that truly embraces his teachings. Do not live in unconscious obedience, but be conscious of become new in every way in your life. Be new everyday. Place your life in a new skin.

Namaste'

Unconscious Obedience

Our life is not one that is to be lived with unconscious obedience. What the heck does this mean you may be asking yourself? When we are called to join the kingdom of God this does not mean that we are following a list of rules that leads to an ethic obedience. Our life is not to follow some moral requirement that lead to the identification with the collective body of people, or church. Our life is to be lived from consciousness, from awareness. This involves the changing of our inner person. It requires the wrestling with pain and frustration at times. People who are ready to live at this kind of consciousness are ready for the kingdom of God. People who want to find a moral way to behave so that they can be pleasing to God and others are not ready for the kingdom or salvation. Read the following verse in light of this:

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:13-14

But the Message version is even more telling in light of the above:

"Don't look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don't fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention."

Matthew 7:13-14

Entrance into God’s kingdom means the destruction of the old personality, the ability to let go of something that we all hold onto so dearly – our self – our ego. This can be a violent fight at times. Jesus comments on this in Luke 16:16 - "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it." This is also what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 10:39:

"If you don't go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don't deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me."

What makes it so important to God that we lose ourselves and have this struggle? I think that because without it we will never find the creativity that God has placed in us from the moment we were created. We never find our creativity- our life. This requires a person to recognize their own need, even despair. When we do we are ready for the kingdom and to allow God to work. Those who feel that they are self-sufficient, those whose life are one-sided only - thinking of self; will remain caught up in their ego and miss the kingdom of God. They cannot see that the kingdom of God is right here and right now. They miss the creativity that is placed in them to be used right now for salt and light to those that need their talent – whatever that may be.
Be aware of your need for God. Be aware of the inner journey that needs to be taken. Be aware of your need, even your despair. “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” Do not live in unconscious obedience never owning the reality of the kingdom of Jesus that calls us to have life and have it more abundantly.
Namaste’

Different

We all have to live different than the rest of the crowd around us. This requires us to let go of habits that have been with us for all of our lives. This can cause us great anxiety because we find safety in going with the crowd and following the habits that are expected of us. However, Jesus looks at us and loves us. He wants us to take an inner journey that will require us to be different than the crowd of others.

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'"
"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."
Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Mark 10:17-22

Notice that Jesus looked at the man and loved him. He loved him so much that he asked him to look at the path he was following and if he really desired a different path then he had to do something different. This man had to let go of no longer following the crowd that knew the commandments with no inner reality of them. God looks at us and God loves us. God wants us to not just blindly follow the herd of others. William Wordsworth said that “habit rules the unreflecting herd." Jesus is asking this man, asking us, to reflect on our lives and not let habit rule us. An inner journey requires us to reflect and break away from the crowd and become an individual. To become a whole person using all the gifts that God put in us when we were created. This can create much anxiety, but it can also create much freedom and peace.

Look at, reflect on, your habits today. Are the habits you have leading to your individuality or helping you get along with the herd? Jesus may be challenging you to give up some of these habits because he looks at you and loves you. Will you walk away sad because you are unwilling to reflect and would rather keep the perceived secruity that can be found in the crowd? Will you reflect and change those habits and find the freedom that is in Christ and the joy of living the life that you were designed for?

Namaste'

Wholeness

It is essential that we work towards being whole and complete people. When we are not whole and complete people the things of this world - worry, money, things, anger, ego, pride, etc. - can over take us and make our life more difficult than it needs to be. You see evil's intention is to destroy wholeness. Jesus told us that the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10) So evil is antiwholeness and opposed to God's kingdom which is all about life. As long as we have inner conflict about our lives, we are not whole, evil is given the oppoutunity to overtake us. We do not have life. However, when we are whole and working towards that wholeness, evil cannot be given the chance to overtake us.

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. Philippians 4:6-7

Here we see what happens when wholeness is complete. We become settled down and we see everything coming together for good. Even if the outside world become adverse and hard, we can follow our inner values, our wholeness, and find blessing despite circumstances. This to me is the meaning of the Beatitudes found in scripture. Read them here again in the light of being a whole person, full of life, having faced the inner struggles of life and allowed God to displace each of those worries.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 5:3-12

Namaste'

Real

Real change is not about just following rules. The change must be something that comes from the inside of us. Many today would like to have as many rules as possible in the hopes to change people and their hearts. However, rules have never really changed anyone. The reality is that the experience that we all have teaches us the "why" for the rules.

"You cancel God's command by your rules. Frauds! Isaiah's prophecy of you hit the bull's-eye: These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn't in it. They act like they're worshiping me, but they don't mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy." Matthew 15:8-9

The reality is that moral change really happens, real change happens, when we understand the meaning of God's commands and change our hearts to match. It does me no good to be nice because I am commanded to be nice. Does anyone really believe us when we do this? But when this kindness flows out of our heart, not because we are just following a rule we and others are truly changed. Real has to be just that - real - being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verifiable existence. Following a rule does not make change real. Owning for ourselves the moral nature of that rule and doing things because we understand the true reasons for acting and behaving in certian ways makes it real. Make it real today. Begin to challange yourself about why you follow certain rules. Begin to think about the reasons why you may do that. Do you really own the inner moral reason, or are you following the rule because it just seems like the right thing to do and it make me feel righteous? Our goal in life is to be like Jesus and I truly do not think he followed any rules. I think that Jesus followed his inner moral compass that broke many of the "rules" that the religious leaders had. Jesus did not do this to just be a rebel, but to show the true and real spirit of God.

Namaste'

Experience

Many of us are waiting for the kingdom of God to come someday. We think it is an experience that we will have sometime in the future. When Christ returns we will experience the kingdom at that time. However, when asked about this Jesus had an answer that many people would scoff at today.

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."

Luke 17:20-21

The kingdom of God is already here. It is within us. I must say at this point that some translations translate the word for within as among.

Jesus, grilled by the Pharisees on when the kingdom of God would come, answered, "The kingdom of God doesn't come by counting the days on the calendar. Nor when someone says, 'Look here!' or, 'There it is!' And why? Because God's kingdom is already among you."

It is like I always say here in this blog - God is right here right now! So I like both translations and say that the kingdom of God is within us and among us. The kingdom of God is not something that we can get by book knowledge, it is something that we have to experience for ourselves and have a sudden insight or "aha" moment about. Jesus calls the the kingdom of God a mystery in Matthew 13:11 when asked why he teaches in parables. He says to his disciples:

"Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given."

The Greek word for this is "mysterion" which is something to be known, but it was an iniatiated knowledge, knowledge that a person could only get by their own individual insight and experience. This kind of knowledge could not be communicated through an ordinary educational process. We must experience the kingdom of God within us! We must take an inward journey to look at how we can be kind, loving, creative, and all the wonderful characteristics that are true of the kingdom of God. All the things that Jesus came to show us about what the kingdom of God should look like - right here and right now. Get all the knowledge that you can. Read and study. Begin to apply these things and experience what can happen to your life when the kingdom actually is realized within your own journey. There is no set time for the kingdom to come because it is already here. We cannot see it at times because we are still waiting for God to show himself, but God has. We are still waiting for God to change things, but we are the agents of change. Experience the kingdom of God and discover the mystery. It is a wonderful journey.

Namaste'

Oneness

We should be whole and complete people. We are no longer two different things operating. We have a tendency to seperate ourselves into a physical and a spiritual being. However, if we are Christ followers this was the prayer that Christ himself prayed for us, to be living in oneness.

I'm praying not only for them But also for those who will believe in me Because of them and their witness about me. The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind— Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, so they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me. The same glory you gave me, I gave them, so they'll be as unified and together as we are—I in them and you in me. Then they'll be mature in this oneness, and give the godless world evidence that you've sent me and loved them in the same way you've loved me. John 17:20-23

The goal is for us to become one heart and one mind, just as Christ is with the Father. We need to to be connect to Christ in the same way, so connected that we are one. This includes both our physical and spiritual part of our lives. These things are not exclusive of each other, but need to be one with each other. When we are one, both in spirit and mind and in community, we let the world know that God is real! Oneness is so important to let people know that God is real. How can people know that God is real if we let our spiritual life be seperate from our physical life? If we do not act in loving and kind ways because we think that it is not possible now, how will people know that God is real? When we do not have oneness with the spiritual reality and the physcial reality God cannot be found. We are God's and we need to be one with God so that God can come into the physical world and be known. You see God loves Christ. Christ is one with God and loves us. Christ loves us. We need to be one with Christ and love others. When we are one with Christ and our behavior matches our beliefs people see and know God's love. Our selfishness is removed and anger is gone. All of the sudden there is no justified resentments, we no longer look for opportunities to be offended and we just love. Peace comes into our life instead of chaos. Love is all around us and there is no lovelessness. We are one. When we are not one, where there is dichotomy, division, struggles begin there. Be one today and everyday. Jesus said that "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matthew 7:13-14)

Namaste'

Within

God is working deep within each of us. Whenever something happens that may knock us away from peace, we all have the decision to say to ourselves - "I can choose peace rather than this." How can we do that? I say that despite how we may feel sometimes about the circumstances that are going on around us, we can know that God is are work deep within us. What is going on around us has little to do with what is happening in us.

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Ephesians 3:20

So there are times when our emotions and thoughts may want to tell us how circumstances in our life are not fair, or all wrong, or never going to work out. However, we have the God of the universe, the Creator of everything, spirit working deep within us! This God can do anything. Not only can God do anything, but more than we could ever imagine. The most amazing thing is God does this gently and deeply. We must take time to be quiet and still to know this working and allow God to do this gentle pushing. Change and peace takes place by being aware of our thoughts and feelings about things around us and allowing God's Spirit to work. Peace is there and we can always choose it rather than this. Remember that today. Remember that God is working deeply in you. God is gently with you and we must slow down enough to be able to notice this gentle and quiet working.

Namaste'

Hope

Many people are talking about this word these days. Hope, exactly what does it mean? Well here are some definitions to get us thinking. Hope is to wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment, or a wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment. So how often do you hope? I do believe that hope is crucial if we are going to be complete, fulfilled human beings and Christians. To hope for something does not mean to just wish it to be true. It actually means to be confident that what you are wishing for will come true. It is that inner knowing (that I have written about in a previous post) that it will happen. Paul himself wrote in the book of Acts:

I saw God before me for all time. Nothing can shake me; he's right by my side. I'm glad from the inside out, ecstatic; I've pitched my tent in the land of hope. I know you'll never dump me in Hades; I'll never even smell the stench of death. You've got my feet on the life-path, with your face shining sun-joy all around. Acts 2:22

Wow! Where have you pitched your tent? To pitch it in the land of hope would mean that there is no way someone could make you think or believe anything other that what you know. When we begin to think this way the things we hope for happen. In psychology we call it a self fulfilling prophecy. You see you think that people will not like you so you are quiet around people, even though you want to get to know others. You tell yourself you are just shy or scared and that people will approach you. However, what happens is that people do not approach you because you do look shy or scared and people talk to the ones who approach them. You begin to believe that people are not fair and that they are mean. So you begin with the thought that you want to meet others, but you could never do that - and guess what - that is what comes to pass. You fulfill it.

Hope is something different. It is acting on the knowing that what you wish to come try will. When you think like this you begin to act on the belief and the knowing. You might that it is hard to get to know people, but you hope - or know - that you can so you step out and approach people. Guess what happens - they talk to you and like you. This can be applied to most every area of our life. Hope gets us to act. Hope gets us to believe and know. Hope is where we should pitch our tent! Hope today and know that what you wish for will come true and act on that belief.

Namaste'

Alignment

We have all had the experience of trying to line up a screw with the threads and it just will not go in. We can try and try to screw it in, but if it is not lined up, if it is misaligned, it will not work. Our life works much the same way. When we are not lined up with God, when we are not aligned, our life does not work very well. We need to be in alignment - the process of adjusting parts so that they are in proper relative position - we need to be in the proper position with God.

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!

Romans 8:15-17

You see that we are misaligned, much like screw we try to make work and can't, if we do not know and understand that we are a child of God. We need to understand that we are created in the image of God. If we are children of God, created in God's image, then what do we have to fear? Fear and worry come when we are not aligned properly. If we are not aligned in the proper way, life does not work. Our worry and fear begin to destroy our relationships. We begin to lose trust of those around us. We do not feel or see to much "success" because all we can see is what we do not have or what may go wrong. Our alignment is all off and life becomes a frustrating, hopeless, angering task like that screw that will just not go in. When we are in alignment with God our thoughts go from:

"I cannot do anything right" to "When I make a "mistake" it is an opportunity to learn."

"No one will ever love me" to "I am a child of God loved by the Creator of the universe."

"I will never be able to....." to "God's spirit is within me and I have all I need to accomplish it."

We can clearly begin to see how our thoughts lead to being in or out of alignment with God and how each of these thoughts lead to actions that either move us forward or make things difficult.

So today when you notice what you are thinking ask yourself this question - "Is this a match or no match to being in alignment to God and what is true about me as a creation of the most high God? Is this thought in or out of alignment? If you can pratice this it will become quickly apparent if you are in alignment and give you clues to why life may not be working the way you like. Align yourself today and know exactly who you are and let your beliefs and convictions take over and rule fears and worries.

Namaste' (If you are curious about this word I have a post on it in the month of November)

Loving without Attachment

We are are so attached to other people's opinions. I cannot tell you how many people I see that are so totally attached to the idea that "other people have to love me." People attempt suicide over the idea that someone does not love them. We demand it from others. We end marriages and relationships because we tell ourselves that we are not being loved in the way that we "should" be and that if someone really loved me they would change! The most amazing thing to me is that we demand that people love us "just as we are," with all our faults, warts, mistakes. We just want someone to let us "be ourselves," but we are unwilling to do the same for those we supposedly love.
Anthony de Mello in his book, The Way to Love, has two powerful affirmations that can help us love without attachment. Tell yourself these two things and see your response:

1) "I am really not attached to you at all. I am merely deluding myself into the belief that without you I would not be happy."
2) "I leave you free to be yourself, to think your thoughts, to indulge your tastes, follow your inclinations, and behave in ways that you decide are to your liking."

Powerful words that most of us will have a very hard time with at first. However, this is really true and selfless love. Jesus told us this very same thing:

"Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that's charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.
"I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You'll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we're at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.
"Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don't condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you'll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you'll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity." Luke 6:31-38

Jesus tells us here not to expect anything back for our love. We are told that "anyone" can give and help and expect something back for their love. We are commanded to something much higher here. To love without attachment, to love people with no expectation that they will love us back in the way we think they "ought to."

You see, we all do this! We all expect to be able to jump on others faults, criticize them, and expect them to change. We tell ourselves (because we are so attached to our selfish ways) that if they do change then this is proof that they love us. We also say to ourselves and others that if they love us they will love us without having to make us change. What hypocrites we are! We do not need someone else to act in a certain manner to "be o.k," or happy. God loves us. We are just fooling ourselves. We also do not need someone to only accept us as we think they should to be happy. All this kind of attachement leads to "boomerangs" coming back to hit us and causing us great emotional pain.

We need to love without attachment. Allow people to be who they are - to pursue their tastes, own inclinations and likings - and not jump on them for faults or failures. We need to love without the expectation of some reward and return of love. When we can truly love without attachment our life is given back to us with bonus! It is so counter intuitive, but it works. We are drawn to those who love us without condition. Those individuals that allow us to pursue our own taste, inclinations and likings. It is the way of Jesus, it is the way of love, it is the cross - to love without expectation of a reward. Imagine if we could offer it to everyone around us - especially those closest to us - how would our relationships change? If someone offered it to you how would it change you? How would you see them? Practice loving without attachment and selfishness. Allow others to pursue their likings and inclinations, to have their own thoughts and feelings without criticism. Know that your worth and love comes from the Creator of the universe! Watch how your life transforms when you give up your attachments.

Namaste'

Ego

Ego is the self, especially as distinct from the world and other selves, and I would include God. All of our problems entered this world as soon as we took on an ego and told ourselves that we were seperate from God and that we are our posessions, others people's opinions, and what we do for a living. This idea that we carry around with ourselves about who we are has been around since the beginning of time.

The serpent told the Woman, "You won't die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you'll see what's really going on. You'll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil."

When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she'd know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.
Immediately the two of them did "see what's really going on"—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves. Genesis 3:4-7

We think that we can solve everything in our lives by making sure everyone is happy with us, gaining enough money or possessions, and have a career that is fulfilling. Think about it, we all have said something like - "If I could just win the lottery," "If only I could make them like me or if my spouse would just....," or "If only I could find another job." If we could just find these things we would be happy, or at least this is what we tell ourselves. However this is the source of all of our problems. We try to do things in our own power and strength, for our own good not thinking of others. This is the complete opposite of the way that Jesus came to show us how to live. We are exposed as people who are not very good problem solvers and we attempt to "cover" ourselves from God. The reality is that we have to get back to being fully exposed before God. We must go back to the time when we were completely connected and did not question what God was doing and we just accepted things as they were and are. In this place there is no concept of problems in our mind. This is the practice of our faith. To allow God, Jesus, to redeem all of us - the whole person so that we are completely connected to God. It is the "working out of our salvation" and the process of sanctification to be set apart and holy.

Set aside your ego today. Allow someone else to have the advantage. Have the mind of Christ that we celebrated all weekend and watch fear leave and ego die.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33

Namaste'

Everyday

So today is Easter. Before I go on in this post I want to say that I love Easter and what it helps us to remember. On this day everything seems brighter. The songs at church, even though they have been sung a thousand times before, seem to mean something more. People come out to church and to celebrations their one time a year. Why is the question that I always ask myself. What is so powerful about this day that people come to church, families get together, and things seem different for just a moment.

The angel spoke to the women: "There is nothing to fear here. I know you're looking for Jesus, the One they nailed to the cross. He is not here. He was raised, just as he said. Come and look at the place where he was placed.
"Now, get on your way quickly and tell his disciples, 'He is risen from the dead. He is going on ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there.' That's the message."
The women, deep in wonder and full of joy, lost no time in leaving the tomb. They ran to tell the disciples. Then Jesus met them, stopping them in their tracks. "Good morning!" he said. They fell to their knees, embraced his feet, and worshiped him. Jesus said, "You're holding on to me for dear life! Don't be frightened like that. Go tell my brothers that they are to go to Galilee, and that I'll meet them there." Matthew 28:5-10

For this moment people begin to believe, if only for this moment and this day, that there is nothing to fear. When we realize that there is nothing to fear we are full of deep wonder and joy. We waste no time coming to hear this message and tell it to others. I would love for each one of us to have this wonder and joy each day. The wonder and joy that there is nothing to fear because we have a God that loves us and cares for us. Everyday we can realize that there is nothing to fear because Jesus lives everyday and the Spirit is with us everyday. My dream is that we all could share in this everyday. That everyday would be less and less about the mundane chores of life, and more and more about seeing God in every little thing we experience. Christ came to reedeem all back to God, to himself. Everyday we have nothing to fear. Those moments you experienced wherever you worshiped today that told you, "there is nothing to fear here," take them with you everyday. Christ is alive and there is nothing to fear here everyday for it is Easter everyday.

Namaste'

Expectation

Can you imagine today if you were a follower of Jesus? He was just killed yesterday and mourning has set in. All hope seems lost. The man that you have been following that said he was bringing the kingdom of God was killed. The man that you have given you life to for the last three years is no longer there to guide you. What do you do now? What a hopeless feeling there must of been among those who loved Jesus and really knew him.
We find ourselves here many times in this place don't we? We have all the evidence, at least the evidence that we can be aware of, that God is no where to be found. We feel and think that God is gone from our presence and we have no expectation that God will be back. We feel lost, alone, and scared. I wonder what would happen if we could be expectant? I wonder what would happen if we could believe that God is sill right here, right now even when we "think" God is not. One man took that belief and put into action.

There was a man by the name of Joseph, a member of the Jewish High Council, a man of good heart and good character. He had not gone along with the plans and actions of the council. His hometown was the Jewish village of Arimathea. He lived in alert expectation of the kingdom of God. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Taking him down, he wrapped him in a linen shroud and placed him in a tomb chiseled into the rock, a tomb never yet used. It was the day before Sabbath, the Sabbath just about to begin. Luke 23:50-54

Can we live in "alert expectation of the kingdom of God." God is always here. God is always at work, even in those times that we sense all hope is gone. Remember that our thoughts and feelings can tell us things, but what do we believe. A belief is different than a thought. A belief is a thought that we have had over and over again until we actually believe and act on it without thinking. We own it, we know it. Live each day in alert expectation of the kingsdom of God. Believe and know that God and his kingdom is here.

Namaste'

Crucify

When they got to the place called Skull Hill, they crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his right, the other on his left. Luke 23:33

What more can be said on Good Friday. Amazing that we call it Good Friday. Calling the day of the Crucifixion ‘Good’ Friday is a designation that is peculiar to the English language. In German, for example, it is called Karfreitag. The Kar part is an obsolete word, the ancestor of the English word care in the sense of cares and woes, and it meant mourning. So in German, it is Mourning Friday. And that is what the disciples did on that day—they mourned. They thought all was lost.
I’ve read that the word good used to have a secondary meaning of holy. There are a number of cases in set phrases where the words God and good got switched around because of their similarity. One case was the phrase God be with you, which today is just good-bye. So perhaps Good Friday was originally God’s Friday. But I think we call it Good Friday because, in pious retrospect, all that tragedy brought about the greatest good there could be.

Take this day and remember that Christ actually lived out what he taught and he calls us to the same: to crudicy ourselves, our ego, and find our life in God. Meditate on the following verses today:

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Matthew 10:39

Give away your life; you'll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.

Luke 6:38

Namaste'

Peace

There is so much anxiety today, or at least there seems to be. Is there really any stress or anxiety? I mean really, can someone go out and get a bucket of it and bring it back and say "here it is, I got a bucket full of it!" However, we all feel it and perceive it as attacking us and just as real as going to get a bucket of water. Let me first say that I think it is real. It is real in the sense that things happen that are beyond our control. Jesus experienced it when he went to pray in the garden before his death. In Luke 22:44 it says, "And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." So anxiety, pain, and anguish are real. When they are how do we find peace?

I'm telling you these things while I'm still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I'm leaving you well and whole. That's my parting gift to you. Peace. I don't leave you the way you're used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don't be upset. Don't be distraught. John 14:25-27

We realize that we are not alone. We realize that God's presence is right here and right now. God in the form of the Holy Spirit is here. Jesus has redeemed all things back to himself and like he says here, "I'm leaving you well and whole." We are not abandoned. Much of our anxiety comes from the beliefs we have about being alone, that God is somewhere far off not paying attention to us. Somehow we have been left to figure this all out with no help. How our thoughts and feelings decieve us. Reality is that God is everywhere all the time. Will we believe that and be convinced that this is true? Can we sense and know that there is another reality at work other than the one that would like to present us with anxiety and worry? If we can there is great power for peace. Not peace that would make us feel excited or happy, but peace that gives us calmness and assurance. We can use our beliefs and convictions to tell our thoughts and feelings that lead to anxiety to go and sit in the back of the bus while we let our beliefs drive the bus. This is faith. This is the faith of someone growing, maturing, in relationship with Christ and beginning to transcend - or settles down from - the circumstances of life that so many people let drive their lives.

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Philippians 4:6-7

Namaste'

Return

We all start out with God. We come into this world created by God, from God, and birthed into this world. We come connected and some where along the way we decide to forgot and lose the connection to God.

So the father divided the property between them. It wasn't long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.
"That brought him to his senses. He said, 'All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I'm going back to my father. I'll say to him, Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.' He got right up and went home to his father.
"When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: 'Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son ever again.'
"But the father wasn't listening. He was calling to the servants, 'Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We're going to feast! We're going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!' And they began to have a wonderful time.
"All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day's work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, 'Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.'
"The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't listen. The son said, 'Look how many years I've stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!'
"His father said, 'Son, you don't understand. You're with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he's alive! He was lost, and he's found!'" Luke 15:11-32

The son that left had want he needed to begin with, but thought that he could do better. He left his home and as the father says, "he was lost." I find it interesting that this can perfectly describe our lives. He come in with the total faith of a child. Jesus reminds us that we must have faith like a child. They totally believe that things are just fine. No anxiety. No worry. No doubt about being taken care of. They know that they are home. But at some point in time we decide to leave and take what has been given to us. We find all the things we do not like - fear, worry, anger - and we attempt to bargain our way back home to God. However, God wants none of that. He is just like this father that says "I am not listening to that, I am just glad you are home."

Interesting to me also that the older brother who stays home, actually become lost. He become angry and bitter. He forgets he is home too! I pray that we all remember that we are home or we remember how to get back and expereince the love of God with no condition!

Namaste'

Home

When we hear the word "lost" what do we think about? Many people think about those "poor sinners" who need to be saved. There is something in me that has always resisted this idea; the idea that we are all just shaking our fist at God, an enemy of God's, and we need to be convinced that we are seperated from God. I think more of someone who has no place to live and no place to call home. People who are no longer in the possession, care, or control of someone or something, but they want to be accepted and cared by someone or something.

By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends." Their grumbling triggered this story.
"Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, 'Celebrate with me! I've found my lost sheep!' Count on it—there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue. Luke 15:1-7

For me the lost sheep used to have a home, but it wondered away. It forgot and was no longer accepted and cared for by the shepherd. The sheep is the shepherd's "old friend." You see the pharisees actually had it right. Jesus does treat us like old friends. He created us and we were placed here by the wonderful Creator. Then "all we like sheep go astray." We all get lost and forget that we were once cared for, loved, accepted, and contolled by a loving caring God. Let us help people get back home. People are not our enemies. They are not God's enemies. As a matter of fact, all people were once a part of God's flock and they were part of our family. Let's welcome them home.

Namaste'

Selflessness

To be selfless is so hard for us. To truly have selflessness we must be having, exhibiting, or motivated by no concern for oneself, we must be unselfish. This means that how we think of ourselves - defining ourselves by the objects we own, the job we do, the people who love us, the approval we need - means nothing. It means not defining ourselves by these things anymore and be motivated by something other than our needs.

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion. Philippians 2:5

How often are we setting aside our own privleges in life? How often are we truly becoming slaves to our fellow human beings. Imagine if we all could do this? Imagine if Christ followers actually set aside their "privilege" and were motivated out of something other than needing to change someone to make themselves feel better. What if we could just serve people how would that change the world? The bigger question is really how would that change us?! You see that being selfless and having selflessness, it does help others and they get to be served, but the real change comes with us. We are able to really to find our self when we lose our self. Jesus put it this way to us - "If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself." (Matthew 10:39)

And so many of us struggle to find ourselves by asserting our rights and demanding that people do things our way. We expect that our privilege is to be recognized and respected by all. We cling to our perceived advantages in life and attempt to get others to submit to them. We do it with our children when we make them follow certain rules that are there just to make us feel better and in control. We do it with our friends when they don't call us or care for us when we thought they should. We do it with our spouses when we demand that our needs be met before we will listen or meet theirs. Do not cling to what you think your privileges are today, lose your life by not identifying yourself by those things. Take on a different form. Selflessness, I wonder how it could change the world? But really the most important question is I wonder how it could change us?

Namaste'

Consciousness

Consciousness is a sense of one's personal or collective identity, including the attitudes, beliefs, and sensitivities. How conscious are we in our life with God? How much are we having an awareness of our environment and and our own existence, sensations, and thoughts? We are encouraged to have live a life that is totally aware:

Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God.

I Peter 1:18

We are on a journey. How are you traveling? How aware are we that we are actually on a journey? What do we actually believe, think about, feel, and make decisions? Many people have no idea of taking this life journey with this kind awareness. Many think that we can mindlessly go through life with no awareness of our inner self. We accept our doubts blindly and never doubt our doubts. We actually believe our doubts and they drive our feelings, our decisions and our actions. Our doubts come from our own ego's and fears about what could happen and how hard things can be; and who wants to do hard things when easy things are available. We travel on this journey of life with no awareness, or deep consciousness, of God. We doubt that we can do something great. We doubt that we could find a different job or career. We doubt that church or people could actually help us. All these doubts serve to make us feel stuck and scared.

Doubt your doubts today. Are your doubts really real? Or are doubts just that - doubts - our fear wanting us to remain stuck. Doubt them all today so that you can see that on the other side of doubt is great hope, confidence and reason to move forward with faith in a God that you are now aware and deeply conscious of.

Namaste'

Attention

Where do we place out attention each day? What are the things that consume our thoughts? What are the things that consume our time? What are the things that capture our attention and therefore rule out lives? We all worry about what we need to do to "get ahead" or "stay ahead." We place our attention on these things and get caught up in fitting into the culture of the world that says that we are good enough if......... So what is the "if" that we keep focusing our attention on? That "if" that we tell ourselves that when or if we could just get there or get that then we would really be able to change and life would be fulfilling? However, what we place our attention on will dictate how we live our lives and what change will happen for us.

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-2

We need to fix our attention on God in every single aspect of our lives. Every act that we perform each day - from our sleeping, to our eating, to our just walking around - is a spiritual act. We do not need to be so focused on what the world system has to offer us that we begin to measure ourselves by obtaining the "if" and place all of our attention there. We need to take the inward journey and find the maturity that come from attention on God and gives love, compassion, kindness, patience, and peace. When we place our attention on things outside of us and God to find change and happiness, we are pulled down to a level of immaturity that is filled with anger, frustration, worry, bitterness, and self-pity. Place your attention on God today and let God bring out the music that has been placed there by the Creator. Let the change happen from a connection to God and give no attention to the culture around you that says you are only good if....

Namaste'

Do not Die with Your Music Still in You

Here's a piece of bad luck I've seen happen: A man hoards far more wealth than is good for him And then loses it all in a bad business deal. He fathered a child but hasn't a cent left to give him. He arrived naked from the womb of his mother; He'll leave in the same condition—with nothing. This is bad luck, for sure—naked he came, naked he went. So what was the point of working for a salary of smoke? All for a miserable life spent in the dark?
Make the Most of What God Gives After looking at the way things are on this earth, here's what I've decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that's about it. That's the human lot. Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what's given and delighting in the work. It's God's gift! God deals out joy in the present, the now. It's useless to brood over how long we might live.

Ecclesiastes 5:16-20

We will all leave in the same condition that we entered this world - naked and with nothing. If this is our lot in life what are we to do with that? I would say that we need to make sure that we leave "it all on the field" as my coaches used to say. Too many of us try to be safe. We work hard, store up, and make the "safe" choices in life. We take the sure thing. We tell ourselves that the sure thing is working everyday, storing up treasures here, planning for the future, and saving our selves up for some "rainy day" in the future that might come.

Yet each one of us has been given music to play by our Creator. We have a service to perform for others, our music to play. Many of us never play this music. We know it is there, we hear it deep in the background of our mind and our life. We know that we are playing the wring notes right now, but are too fearful to play what is really inside of us. We are instead worried about how long we will live, what we have, and how we can keep from taking any risk. Our music never gets played. I do not want to die with my music still in me. I want to play every last note that my Creator has given me to play. This is my service to God and to others. To have my light shine by playing my music. What is your music? Are you playing that music or are you playing it safe. Are you hoping that you never have to get on the field and leave it all there or are you begging to get in the game and leave it all there? Do not die with what God has place in you still in you.

Namaste'

Congruent

How congruent are we in our lives? True spirituality comes from being real and honest. The real and honest behavior is not for show. I can stand up and say that I love others and that I am compassionate with others. However, if I go out and drive to home and curse at someone under my breath, give them the finger, or call them a name because someone was driving in a manner that I did not like - am I really loving and compassionate? Congruent means "coinciding exactly when superimposed." So if we superimposed our private lives over our public persona how matched up would it be? Jesus reminds us to be congruent.

"Watch yourselves carefully so you don't get contaminated with Pharisee yeast, Pharisee phoniness. You can't keep your true self hidden forever; before long you'll be exposed. You can't hide behind a religious mask forever; sooner or later the mask will slip and your true face will be known. You can't whisper one thing in private and preach the opposite in public; the day's coming when those whispers will be repeated all over town."

Luke 12:1-3

We all get found out one day. I am not saying here that we should all be perfect. I am saying that we should practice being aware of how we are in both "public" and "private." When I am alone in the car, in line at the fast food counter, or at the store by myself in a long line - how will I act and respond? Will it be different if I knew someone was looking? Would it be different if I was standing with my friends or my family members? Do I get to be loving and kind one place and not another and tell myself that I am those things? This is the inward work of our spirituality and the more congruent our lives are in this manner the more joy and peace we have. The less congruent, or in alignment, these things are the more anxiety, fear and frustration we will have. Become more aligned with God today. Treat others with the congruent behavior of what you tell yourself you are. Remember whose and who you are. Practice being in alignment and notice when you get out of alignment. This is hard work. It requires honesty and feedback from others that we actually allow in and listen to. Salvation is here and it lives in you if you allow Christ to take you on this inward journey.

Namaste'

Freedom

Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. Galatians 5:1

Christ offers us freedom. Salvation is freedom. Salvation is freedom from being harnessed by any rules that say that for God to love you you must................ Paul is dicussing with them rule keeping systems, the specific one he discusses is about circumcision. Paul tells them that the moment that any of us submit to a system that is about keeping rules to be accepted is at the same moment saying that Christ's gift was squandered. I think about this often with people that I see. We are so bound up in what is right or wrong, what rule to follow, that we miss the total freedom that Christ offers. We no longer have to be cound by the guilt and shame of rules that we cannot keep. We can be free to enjoy the love and kindness from our Creator. This allows us to keep the heart of any rule. We begin to act out of love and compassion for others because we see that they have the same struggle against guilt and shame. We see them in their own prison telling themselves that they are not loved until.........................

Sometimes people get really scared of grace because they think that people will take advantage of it and say to themselves, "God loves me no matter what so I can do whatever I want." If people do say this then they do not really "know" God and the love they are given. They do not really understand this kind of grace and kindness. They are not able to be thankful for it, give it to themselves and show it to others. No, a true understanding of grace and God's love leads to a life that is free from guilt and shame that binds us into a life that serves others, is kind to others, show compassion to others, and does not engage in behaviors that would cause pain to others. When we act out of guilt and shame, out of a rule keeping system, we actually end up in a self defeating cycle. I call it "I'm a turd cycle." You see if we think we are a turd because we can't keep a rule then we act like a turd. We do not keep the rules. Then we have consequences like a turd, people do not like us, think we are a liar, do not trust us - etc. Then if we have those consequences we feel like a turd which just confirms the thoughts that we started with. The cycle goes on and on until Christ's grace and freedom enters the picture. Do not let anyone take your freedom today. Let God love you!

Namaste'

Spiritually Alive

Are we truly spiritually alive? Can we say that we see God at work everywhere in everything? Are we aware of our own spirituality? Are we aware of God's presence in every moment and in everything we encounter? Do we see each act that we do everyday as a spiritual act? To be truly spiritually alive we must understand that Jesus came to show us that everything is spiritual. God came in the form of man to show us that salvation is about the awareness that we and everything is spiritual. For when we realize this, the scales fall from our eyes and we come to see that God is everywhere and working in everything and we can "let go" of the worries and fears that we tell ourselves control things.

Spirit can be known only by spirit—God's Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God's Spirit is doing, and can't be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah's question, "Is there anyone around who knows God's Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?" has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ's Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2:14-16

We know what is going on, God is working at his pleasure. I have heard it said before that "none of us is doing anything, we are all being done." Salvation is the acceptance of this spiritual reality. It is accepting that God is in control, doing each day what is set in front of me to do, understanding it all as spiritual acts of service, and allowing God to do the rest. Salvation becomes more than making it to heaven when this life is over. Salvation becomes about the peace that is realized in this life that I no longer have to manipulate or control anything. I am saved from myself and from making a life of worry, fear, anger, broken relationships, and frustrations. I am saved into a life that is full of the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) I love the message version the best:

But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

So are we spiritually alive? To me this is the same question we ask when we ask someone "are you saved?" See God everywhere today. Find salvation, it is right here and right now! Christ came to redeem us right here and right now. God is not waiting for us to get to heaven and neither are the people who need to know that salvation is available right here, right now.

Namaste'

Energetic

Today think about being energetic. Think about being energetic in goodness. I love this phrase from the book of Titus.

God's readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation's available for everyone! We're being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness. Titus 2:11-14

I love the phrase because it concludes this passage that is reminding us that God is available to everyone! If God is available to everyone then we can spend our lives in goodness - showing love, kindness, compassion, seeing the beauty and God in everyone - to help them see and know God. It is so hard at times to not be selfish, it is so subtle, but God came to us and show us how this works. Christ show us how to be loving and kind in our actions. Christ showed us how to not be selfish, yet allow people to choose their own path.

God is always ready to give and to forgive, is that really public knowledge today? I do not think it is when we as Christ followers are not acting in energetic goodness. People do not see God as giving and forgiving, they see God as judgmental, angry, and selfish. They probably think what I have thought before - "If that is Christianity I do not want any part of it." Tell everyone by your life that God is a giver and a forgiver. Be energetic in your love, your kindness, your humility, and in your care for others. Love people so much that you can allow them to make their own decisions, yet be there for them if they come back needing help. Do not be attached to the outcome of your actions. Do not worry if someone will make the decisions you want them to make because your are energetic in doing good. Just do good and allow God to work as God will. Detach from the need to have a certian outcome and just trust. Be energetic in goodness and that is all. This will be for your deliverance!

Namaste'

Teach with Your Life

What is your life saying to others? What are you teaching them about who God is and how God works? We teach people everyday with our lives about who God is. We were created in God's image. What image are we showing? There is good in us, God's spirit is there, but are we showing that with our lives, or are we continuing to show how our ego, our sin, is controlling our lives? It all is a matter of what we believe about ourselves and if we are practicing our spiritual disciplines to allow God to be seen.

Everything God created is good, and to be received with thanks. Nothing is to be sneered at and thrown out. God's Word and our prayers make every item in creation holy.
You've been raised on the Message of the faith and have followed sound teaching. Now pass on this counsel to the followers of Jesus there, and you'll be a good servant of Jesus. Stay clear of silly stories that get dressed up as religion. Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever. You can count on this. Take it to heart. This is why we've thrown ourselves into this venture so totally. We're banking on the living God, Savior of all men and women, especially believers.
Get the word out. Teach all these things. And don't let anyone put you down because you're young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching. And that special gift of ministry you were given when the leaders of the church laid hands on you and prayed—keep that dusted off and in use.
Cultivate these things. Immerse yourself in them. The people will all see you mature right before their eyes! Keep a firm grasp on both your character and your teaching. Don't be diverted. Just keep at it. Both you and those who hear you will experience salvation.

I Timothy 4:5-16

So have we totally thrown ourselves into this venture with God? Do our lives teach love, patience, faith, gentleness, kindness? Are we really cultivating these things in our lives and immersing ourselves in them? When we do we expereince salvation and so do the people around us. They know love, they know peace, they know God! We know the same things. Practice your spiritual disciplines today - reading, prayer, meditation, loving, kindness - not because we earn God's love for it. Do it because you experience salvation and so do the people around you. This is why God "saved" us - to experience salvation and teach others with our life of salvation so they can experience it also!

Namaste'

Take Heart

Be patient today. Take heart today. Be confident and courageous. Hard words when we feel pressured and hurried to make sure that things are happening in a certain way. We begin to become frustrated and ask God "why are you doing this to me?" The actual case is that God is not doing anything bad to us, we just do not think it is going like we think it should go. We begin to want to take control of whatever situation we are in. We want to forget about God and we attempt to make it happen our way.

I'm sure now I'll see God's goodness in the exuberant earth. Stay with God! Take heart. Don't quit. I'll say it again: Stay with God. Psalm 27:13-14

When we attempt to have things happen our way rather than staying with God, we have a very hard time seeing the goodness of our Creator. We must be sure that we will see God's goodness in the manner that God will show it to us. It is much like planting a tomato seed and having to let the plant grow. When the plant comes up from the ground after many days of waiting and we want there to be tomatoes, we would all say that it is not time yet. We would have to be patient and wait. But if we go and water it more, pull at the leaves, give it more fertilizer, and more sun we will kill the plant not hurry it's growth. We end up having to start the whole process over again and it will just be that much longer before we have tomatoes.

Wait on God today and take heart. To take heart means to have courage and to be confident. So as confident that you are that tomatoes will come when you allow the process to happen, be that cofident that goodness will come if you allow the Creator to create out of process. Stay with God and do not try to make this move faster or different because then you miss the goodness and peace that is coming.

Namaste'

Best

Do your best. To accomplish everything that has been talked about in these inspirational devotional pages, it can all be summed up in this - do your best. This means that in each moment we can only do our best. When we are tired, we can only do our best being tired. When we wake up and are energized and inspired, our best will be different. We will get angry and act in ways that we have not planned. We still can remember that we can do our best and learn from that experience. This is what I call practice.

Repeat these basic essentials over and over to God's people. Warn them before God against pious nitpicking, which chips away at the faith. It just wears everyone out. Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won't be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple. Stay clear of pious talk that is only talk. Words are not mere words, you know. If they're not backed by a godly life, they accumulate as poison in the soul. 2 Timothy 2:14-16

We can only do our best in each moment to recognize our thoughts, control our emotions, and die to our self. These ideas are not ideas that we can do a few times and then say that we know how to do them. No, these ideas are life long practices that become a part of our life the more we do our best in each moment and practice. It has required me to be more honest with myself and those around me. It required me to realize that the life Jesus has called us to is not a path of easy health and wealth, but one of self sacrifice and humility that leads to one of an unexplainable peace and joy that has nothing to do with circumstances. I am still practicing. Let us not be posion to the soul as Christ followers. People want to find a peace and joy that trancends circumstances. This only happens as we do our best, give ourselves and others the grace to do their best, and allow God to work as only a brillant Creator can.

Namaste'

Empowered

Paul writes to the Corinthians:

God's Way is not a matter of mere talk; it's an empowered life. 1 Corinthians 4:18-20

I love this! Too many of us, me included, at times merely talk about God's way and never really live a life of empowerment. We never really allow God to invest us with power, equip us to be light, supply us with ability, or enable us to overcome. We think we know it, but we just talk about it. We must take an inward journey so that we can be empowered because if we are we can empower others to take than same journey with their Creator. We are all slaves to our selfish ego and need to be empowered to be a slave no longer. The Bible is full of promises and words that were to people who were enslaved. Paul was a prisoner most of his Christian life. The words of God, the words of the Bible, are not to people who want to just live better lives. They are words to people who realize that they are a slave and desire true freedom and empowerment from this enslavement. To be able to let go of the things of this world, stop interfering with others choices and lives, to not worry about others opinions, and lose your life to find God's life. Change your inner life and your life changes.

Today look at the promises of God again through the eyes of a slave. Read what we are asked to do to feel and recieve empowerment from the Creator. Allow God to invest, equip, supply, and enable you with what is needed to be free - truly free.

Namaste'

Salvation

What I'm getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you've done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I'm separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God's energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.

Philippians 2:12-13 (The Message)

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Philippians 2:12-13 (New International Version)

Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Philippians 2:11-13 (New Living Translation)

I have put three versions of this passage to really help drive home the point that Paul is making to us. I am finding that putting energy in my life of salvation, working out my salvation, and letting others see the results of my salvation is hard work. Everyday I struggle with putting to death the ego I have. I find myself being selfish, or maybe more and more aware of how it is working in me. I must become more aware of it so that He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. (John 3:30) That is what salvation means to me. It is not only a saving of my soul from damnation, but truly is Christ at work in me redeeming every part of me - my emotions, my relationships, my physical body - every part to be more like Christ who is God. I find that the more I practice at putting myself aside, the harder my ego struggles to remain in control. My ego want to be the one who tells me how I should feel about myself. The ego wants to continually assert itself and manage my life based on others opinions, my work, and the things I have. I obey God with a deep reverence, hope and fear because as I do I am allow God, who is in the process of redeeming everything back to Himself, to be the One that has power over me to do what is pleasing and will give my Creator the most pleasure.

I am hoping to find others who are willing to take this journey with me. I hope that others who count themselves as Christ followers are willing to work out their salvation and make it something that impacts their day to day lives. People who are willing to make an inward journey of transformation so that Christ can really be seen by those who need to know love, joy, kindness, hope, beauty, peace, and grace. This is a hard journey that requires a true look at ones self and be willing to set selfishness and ego aside, so that God's image can be seen by all. God's true image of love, peace, joy, hope, creativity, receptivity, kindness, and abundance. This is a journey that many people who call themselves Christ followers are not willing to take. Many just want to make sure that their "ticket is punched" and entry into heaven is assured. This is not Christ's call. Christ call is to come be light to a world - die to self, be humble, show love, show kindness and compassion - a world that cannot see anything but darkness - hoplessness, anger, hate, destruction, sadness. This can only be done by becoming light ourselves and this is the work of salvation, the results of salvation, and the energy salvation. This is an inward journey that needs to happen before the world can see light. When this is not done, the world remains dark. My challange is that you take this journey and not worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? Let's look at ours.

Namaste'

Stability

We all want stability in our lives. Most of us think of stability in a way that our lives will never experience trouble or turmoil. We think that our lives, and the lives of friends and family around us, are stable if a storm never comes and there is never a bad circumstance to face. We spend our lives attempting to avoid "bad things" and circumstances from happening. However, we have never been promised that this would be the case. As a matter of fact we have been told just the opposite. Jesus told us that "in this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
So where does stability come from if it does not come from avoiding negative happenings in our lives? I believe it comes from the way in which we process those happenings and if we are truly living out the way of Jesus.

"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock."
"But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards." Matthew 7:24-27

Jesus words that he has spoken to us are not just things that we add to our life, they do not just improve our already good life. Jesus is telling us here that his words, God's way of living, is the foundation we build our lives on. I love the phrase here "work these words into your life." We are actually expected to live the words, put them into action. If we just read them and tell ourselves that we know them, but never really "know" them and act them out, our lives will fall apart when negative circumstances come. You see, Jesus is telling us that stability is not about avoiding storms, but stability is really about the things we are applying in our lives when they do come. If we are using Jesus to just better ourselves, an add on to our already good life, we are using Jesus for our own gain. Our life is built on sand and when storms come we collapse into depression, anger, and sadness because we truly do not know. If we are truly living the way of Jesus, we are making application into our lives of God's words - loving others, giving your life away, being humble, forgiving, seeing good, etc. - our lives are built on rock and when storms come we are not moved. We are stable in "knowing" of God because our life is God's life. We begin to accept storms as a reality of life and in this new belief we find stability. We never forget whose we are, where we came from, and negative circumstances have not bearing on our real life of eternity.

Remember this today. Take time to apply Jesus' words in your life. Love, forgive, see beauty, practice kindness, anchor your thoughts in positive things, and believe the best. When a storm comes it is not scary at all.

Namaste'