Wilderness

Ever felt like you were walking on the path of life by yourself? At times we all feel alone and left out in the wilderness to find our own way. When we are alone like this it is very hard to see God in anything. We complain, we get worried, we get frustrated, we get overcome with fear. This is why I love the story of Israel coming out of slavery and being in the wilderness. They had the same worries and fears, yet God was all around them. God provided for them, but it was hard for them to see exactly how God was working.

God spoke to Moses, "I've listened to the complaints of the Israelites. Now tell them: 'At dusk you will eat meat and at dawn you'll eat your fill of bread; and you'll realize that I am God, your God.'"
That evening quail flew in and covered the camp and in the morning there was a layer of dew all over the camp. When the layer of dew had lifted, there on the wilderness ground was a fine flaky something, fine as frost on the ground. The Israelites took one look and said to one another, man-hu (What is it?). They had no idea what it was.
So Moses told them, "It's the bread God has given you to eat. And these are God's instructions: 'Gather enough for each person, about two quarts per person; gather enough for everyone in your tent.'"
The People of Israel went to work and started gathering, some more, some less, but when they measured out what they had gathered, those who gathered more had no extra and those who gathered less weren't short—each person had gathered as much as was needed.

Exodus 16:11-18

Sometimes the things that seem so common in our lives, a quail flying over and dew covering the ground in the morning, is proof of God's presence with us. We are all much like the people here that need some kind of proof that God is there, some kind of miracle that lets us know that God will never leave us. It is hard for us to see the "coincidences" of our lives as God "showing up." God is always there, God is right here right now as you read these words. God has not gone anywhere, but our thoughts and our perceptions and our realizations do move. We seem to forget that God is everywhere and if we count ourselves as Christ followers, we have said that we realize that God is there for us. Remember today. Begin to notice that those things we call coincidences are really God's perfection showing up. Leaving ten minutes late for work and being mad about it, but then you pass a wreck that just occured - coincidence? Thinking of someone you would really love to talk to and then they call or email you - coincidence? If you feel like you are in the wilderness today, remember that God is right there in every situation and that the things that are happening are signs that God is there, it is just a matter of where you place your attention and your thoughts. Choose this day to place your attention, your thoughts, on seeing the "coincidences" of your life as situations that God is "perfectly aligning" because that is the real meaning of coincidence or coincide. See how God is showing up today as you walk in the wilderness.

Namaste'

Treasure

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.
“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!

Matthew 13:44-46

What is God's kingdom worth to you? It is all about what you believe about this kingdom. If God is the great bell-boy in the sky and only gives gifts to those who tip enough, the kingdom of God is probably not worth all that much. If God is the caring Creator of the universe, the lover of our souls, beautiful, loving, kind, expansive, creative and we get to be those things also when we live in connection to our Creator, then the kingdom of God is worth everything to you. I had someone say to my yesterday that they have really practice the things we have talked about as far as noticing what they think and changing it to really believe and know something different about God and it has changed their life.

Are you ready to give you life away to the call of God? That call is not to change everything about your life all at once - to become a missionary, to go to another country, to quit your job and become a full time minister - it is about giving your inner life to God in complete surrender and allow God to change you from the inside out. Are you going to find the treasures that are a part of God's kingdom? When you do what will you do with them? Some of these great treasures are Surrender, thankfulness, realizing our connnection to God, allowing, knowing, practice, love, forgiveness, kindness, and joy. Meditate on these things. Begin to know these things and you will "sell all you have" to have God's kingdom.

"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Matthew 10:39

Namaste'

Light

How do we live our life? Is our life one full of light and hope or one where darkness and worry prevail? What are you full of - light or darkness? If we are full of light we will live with the knowing that God is for us. God is beauty, love, kindness, expansive, and creative. If we know this we will look for the beautiful things in life, be kind to those around us, love those who need forgiveness, look to expand our lives for the good of those around us, and be creative with our lives and use the talents we have been given. Our whole life and body will be full of light. However, we can also be full of darkness. We can look for what we can get out of life and others, rather than what we can give. We can distrust those around us and believe that we live in a harmful universe. This leads us to anger, hatred, bitterness, and selfishness. This leads to a life and body that is full of darkness and depression.
If you have ever entered a dark room and turn on the light, light fills the whole room, darkness cannot stay. The same is true of thoughts and feelings. Fear cannot be in the same place as hope. Worry cannot be in the same place as faith.

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first. I John 4:18-19

Today see what comes out of your life. Are you full of darkness or light? Are you able to examine your thoughts and take them captive? Once you take your thoughts captive are you able to believe and know something different about God and your connection to God - Are you able to change the thought? Does this bring light? Does it fill you with hope and love rather than fear and worry? Try it, practice it? What could be the worst thing that would happen? Maybe your inner life would be filled with light and life casting the rest of the world around in light and life.

"No one lights a lamp, then hides it in a drawer. It's put on a lamp stand so those entering the room have light to see where they're going. Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don't get musty and murky. Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room." Luke 11:33-36

Namaste'

Vomit

What comes out of you when you get squeezed? What comes out of you when people, places, things do not turn out or do not do as you would like them to do? What do you vomit up?

After that, Pharisees and religion scholars came to Jesus all the way from Jerusalem, criticizing, "Why do your disciples play fast and loose with the rules?"
But Jesus put it right back on them. "Why do you use your rules to play fast and loose with God's commands? God clearly says, 'Respect your father and mother,' and, 'Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.' But you weasel around that by saying, 'Whoever wants to, can say to father and mother, What I owed to you I've given to God.' That can hardly be called respecting a parent. 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."
He then called the crowd together and said, "Listen, and take this to heart. It's not what you swallow that pollutes your life, but what you vomit up."
Later his disciples came and told him, "Did you know how upset the Pharisees were when they heard what you said?"
Jesus shrugged it off. "Every tree that wasn't planted by my Father in heaven will be pulled up by its roots. Forget them. They are blind men leading blind men. When a blind man leads a blind man, they both end up in the ditch."
Peter said, "I don't get it. Put it in plain language."
Jesus replied, "You, too? Are you being willfully stupid? Don't you know that anything that is swallowed works its way through the intestines and is finally defecated? But what comes out of the mouth gets its start in the heart. It's from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing. That's what pollutes. Eating or not eating certain foods, washing or not washing your hands—that's neither here nor there."

Matthew 15:1-20

We all like to use the rules to suit our own wills, our own egos. We all like to tell ourselves that we can follow a few of the rules and "act like they're worshiping." We all would like to say to ourselves "I would never do..........." However, if we say we are a Christ follower it is much more important to pay attention to what comes out of our mouth and what comes out in our actions, than the rules we are telling ourselves we will follow. Jesus tells us here that it is not what you put in your body that pollutes it, but what we vomit up. When someone does something that offends us - calls us a name, cuts us off in traffic, yells at us, does the opposite of what we asked - what comes out of us? If anger, hatred, worry, bitterness, and frustration come out this is the beginning of all arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, and lies. Things that we do not want to happen to us in our lives start to happen, not because someone else did not follow the rules, but because we have not practiced on changing our hearts. We like to believe what "suits our fancy." It is safe to us, it brings us comfort. However, if that is the case have our hearts really changed?

I have used this example before. If I have an orange and squeeze it what comes out? Orange juice is what comes out, not apple juice or grape juice. There is no way for me to put some other kind of juice in the orange. An orange is an orange and what is in it comes out when it is squeezed. The same is true for us, we are what we think about, we become that which we meditate on. So who are you, what comes out when the circumstances and people of life squeezed you? What do you vomit up? We all, myself included, vomit up anger, jealousy, frutration, and worry at times. We are not yet holy. Yet we can work each day in our thought life, to take captive our thoughts and change our beliefs, to change how we see circumstances and people around us. If we do this what comes out is quite different. We must change the heart with the help of God and be open to the possibility that "I am more than capable of........"

Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. I hope the test won't show that we have failed. But if it comes to that, we'd rather the test showed our failure than yours. We're rooting for the truth to win out in you. We couldn't possibly do otherwise.
We don't just put up with our limitations; we celebrate them, and then go on to celebrate every strength, every triumph of the truth in you. We pray hard that it will all come together in your lives. 2 Corinthians 13:5-9

Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it's all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Allow Christ to truly take over and examine you today. Allow the examination of your weaknesses to make your stronger. Change your thoughts and change your life. Focus on the inward person and allow God's life to come out!

Namaste'

Apprentice

Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of skilled crafts practitioners. We all are being trained to be a new generation of skilled Jesus followers. How do we best practice and train to be like Jesus?

"We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father, who sent me. Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God's messenger. Accepting someone's help is as good as giving someone help. This is a large work I've called you into, but don't be overwhelmed by it. It's best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won't lose out on a thing." Matthew 10:40-42

What makes us a true apprentice of Jesus - the smallest act of giving or receiving. Jesus says that by giving ourselves away and receiving from others we will not lose out on a thing. Many of us fear this at times. We think that if we give someting away - our money, our time, our energy, our things - that we will lose out on something in the future. Jesus reminds us here that that will not be the case. It is not the case because many of us refuse to also receive from others. We will not take others praise, or money, or allow someone to purchase that dinner for us, or give us something just because. When we do this - not receiving - we may be keeping someone else from receiving the blessing of giving. They may need to experience giving themselves away to be connected to God. They may be giving in order to say how thankful they are to God.

Give and receive in your life today. Allow God to work in both the giving and receiving of things. Be thankful for both the ability to give and the ability to give. Detach yourself from the things, the money, the time, and find out that they are not that important. What is important is the giving of your life and the receiving of life from others. This is being a true apprentice of Jesus and do not fear that you will lose a thing, instead know this -

"Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?" Matthew 16:26

Namaste'

Become

As Jesus left the house, he was followed by two blind men crying out, "Mercy, Son of David! Mercy on us!" When Jesus got home, the blind men went in with him. Jesus said to them, "Do you really believe I can do this?" They said, "Why, yes, Master!"
He touched their eyes and said, "Become what you believe." It happened. They saw. Then Jesus became very stern. "Don't let a soul know how this happened." But they were hardly out the door before they started blabbing it to everyone they met. Matthew 9:27-31

Become what you believe! I love this statement by Jesus. What do you believe about Jesus? What do you believe about what God can do? Is Jesus loving? Can God forgive? Is God caring? Can Jesus give you a life of abundance and happieness? Is God angry and judgemental? Is Jesus unforgiving and unkind? You will become what you believe. I love the saying that "what you think about is what you get so be very careful about what you think about." There is also one that says "when you change how you look at things, things change," and "change your thoughts, change your life." You will become what you believe. If God is unforgiving and judgemental I will have a tendency to live my life out of fear and anxiety, attempting to make sure that I never displease God. If I believe God is loving, beautiful, caring, and kind then I will live my life in confidence, peace, caring and love myself. You will become what you believe, so what do you believe? What do you believe about God? This will shape your life.

So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesus arrives. Don't lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn't know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, "I am holy; you be holy." I Peter 1:13-16

Put your mind in gear it says here - I would say look at what you believe it will shape your life. What thoughts are you thinking about yourself, God and others? It will shape your life. Be shaped by God's life. What do you believe about how Jesus lived? It will shape your life right now. What do you believe about how Jesus taught us to treat each other in relationships? It will shape how you treat others and how you live your life. What do you believe about how God loves? You will become what you believe. It was said of Franklin D. Roosevelt that he had "a remarkable capacity to transmit his cheerful strength to others, to allow those who hear it to begin to feel it and take part in it, to rejoice in it - and to return it tenfold by their own confidence." Will you believe that God is loving and allow this cheerfulness and love to become you so that you can return it tenfold to those around you? FDR made people believe that all things were possible and when they believed they would become what they believed and this country changed. What do you believe about God? Believe that God is love, is beautiful, is abundant, is expansive, and is kindness and become what you believe.

Namaste'

Instrument

How often to we wish that someone else would recieve that judgement of God? How many times are we so self righteous that we think that other people deserve God's anger and wrath. We do not want to show others love when we feel this way, we want to show judgement and tell them how wrong they are. We tell ourselves that we need to tell them this to save them, but really it is just to make us feel better about ourselves. We feel like we are to be an instrument of God letting others know that God's judgement is coming and look forward to this judgement coming so we can be proven right. Jonah felt this way when he was asked to go and preach to Nineveh.

Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, "God! I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That's why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!
"So, God, if you won't kill them, kill me! I'm better off dead!"
God said, "What do you have to be angry about?" Jonah 4:1-4

God said, "What's this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can't I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don't yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?" Jonah 4:10-11

Jonah wanted judgement to visit these people and he ran from God because he knew God would forgive if they repented. Sometimes we do this as a Christian or as a church. We really do not want to get to know others and care about them. We need to keep others "different" from us to protect our own ego, to tell ourselves that we are better than. We do not become love and peace to the world. The church and Christians are known as judgemental, angry, and uncaring. All because we want to judge when God does not. All because we want to feel good by protecting ourselves rather than loving as Christ. We do what Jonah did, we become angry when God forgives those who we feel should be judged. We sit in our righteous rage and justify our name calling and hatred of others using religion. God always understands that we, and others, just don't know what we are doing sometimes. If we can recognize this ourselves, God easily forgives because God is love.

Don't run from others today. Get to know them, love them. Practice the way of Jesus who said:

Here's another old saying that deserves a second look: 'Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.' Is that going to get us anywhere? Here's what I propose: 'Don't hit back at all.' If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously. Matthew 5:38-42

Show love to those around you, even those that have hurt you and see what God can do. Do not return anger for anger or evil for evil. Take the anger and respond with kindness. Understand that this person is just like you. Be an instrument of God and allow God to show up. Be an instrument of God's love. We are all sinful, angry, ego driven, thankless people at times. Give them the chance to be loved just as you were given the same chance -

Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. Romans 5:6-8

What music will you play?

Namaste'

Life

Jesus told us that he came to help us pursue life. Are we pursuing life? Are we really ready to give up our own pursuits and egos to follow God? It is not an easy calling, but is one of perfect peace if we are willing to allow Christ to live life in us and through us.

When Jesus saw that a curious crowd was growing by the minute, he told his disciples to get him out of there to the other side of the lake. As they left, a religion scholar asked if he could go along. "I'll go with you, wherever," he said.
Jesus was curt: "Are you ready to rough it? We're not staying in the best inns, you know."
Another follower said, "Master, excuse me for a couple of days, please. I have my father's funeral to take care of."
Jesus refused. "First things first. Your business is life, not death. Follow me. Pursue life."

Matthew 8:18-22

Here we are reminded that Jesus wants nothing to get in the way of our walking on the path with him. If we are still connected to our self and looking to follow God only to get something in return, we all too often are dissapointed. We usually expect that God is the Cosmic Bell Boy and if we just offer enough tips to him - our good behavior, our giving of money, our reading of the Bible, our going to church - that we can get what we want. Jesus reminds the religious scholar here that truly following God cost us something. We can no longer identify ourselves through the things we have or the people we want to approve of us. We must let go of that ego that wants to look and feel good. Jesus reminds another follower that the purpose of his life is to be about the business of life. Pursue life Jesus says! This is were life is -

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. Matthew 10:38-39

Are we ready to set self aside and pursue life? Are we ready to allow our ego to die and Christ to live? Can we trust in Christ to take care of us, to give us life?

Then he got in the boat, his disciples with him. The next thing they knew, they were in a severe storm. Waves were crashing into the boat—and he was sound asleep! They roused him, pleading, "Master, save us! We're going down!"
Jesus reprimanded them. "Why are you such cowards, such faint-hearts?" Then he stood up and told the wind to be silent, the sea to quiet down: "Silence!" The sea became smooth as glass.
The men rubbed their eyes, astonished. "What's going on here? Wind and sea come to heel at his command!" Matthew 8:23-27

The wind and the sea are at God's command. Remember that our God, the Creator of the universe, has everything at command. Yes we can completely trust Christ. The question is are we going to trust were we find life. Do we find it in our daily pursuits to gather and accumilate? Do we find it in the daily connection in God? Do we find life in asking God to meet our needs? Do we find life in letting go of self and meeting the needs of others? Find life today. Let someone in line ahead of you. Help someone who you otherwise would ignore. Give someone a gift and let their joy be yours. Give yourself away today, in some small way. Practice it each day. Pursue life! See if life does not come to you as you lose your life and find the life of Christ.

Namaste'

Imitate

Be imitators of God and love. To imitate is to have an advanced behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's. God is love and love is the true encourager. Love strengthens all those around us. Love strengthens us. Love becomes the measure of our spiritual connection to God. Love becomes the way that we can measure our motives. We can only get the kind of love God has from Christ. For us to obtain this love, we need to live in connection with God, not just use our intellect and knowledge to know about God. We need to use our spirit to examine our lives and know love. If we really know love, we think in loving ways, we then act in loving ways, and we actually become love in the presence of others. Love is all they feel from us. I can know about love and define it and tell others all kind of ways that they can go about loving others. However, if I am not able to do it myself do I really know love? I can know about how to play football, tell you all the reasons that football players do what they do. But do I really know how to play football? What happens when I go out to get on the field and the reality of being in pads and being hit comes? I must practice to develop my skills so that I will really know how to play. It is then that I truly understand what it is like to play. Do we really know what it is like to love, to truly love?

My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.
My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.
To Love, to Be Loved.God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.
We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.
If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both. I John 4:7-21

Begin this year in love and love others. Love all those around you and be a true imitator of God.

Namaste'

Trust

Trust is defined as firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing. As we begin a new year it is always time for reflection. Do we really trust God? Do we rely on God's integrity? "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."(Romans 8:28) Do we rely on God's ability? "I can do everything through him who gives me strength."(Philippians 4:13) Do we rely on God's character? "But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love."(I John 4:8)
As we begin this new year, this time of reflection on the past and what to do with our future, I want to encourage all of us to do just one thing - trust. Trust that God displayed a true nature in Jesus Christ. Trust that Jesus came fully as God and man to show us how to live a life of purpose and how to treat others. Trust that Jesus came to love us. Trust that God has always loved us and always will. Trust that God will finish the work that was started. Trust.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:5-6

Namaste'

Belief

Today take God and believe. Believe that you are taken care of and that there is absolutely nothing for you to worry about. Believe that the Creator does all to take care of His children. Believe that God is never gone away from you no matter the circumstances of your life. I like to call it a "knowing." To know is more than just believe. To know is to be absolutely confident, to never doubt - to regard as true beyond doubt. Know that you are already accepted by your Creator. Know that Christ came to redeem all things to himself and if you believe and know this there is nothing for you to doubt.

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 2:13-14

When you can begin to know this - no never doubt it again - your life becomes God's and there is nothing that is out of your reach! Remember Jesus told us:

"If you can't believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I've been doing. You can count on it." John 14:11

You have what you need to fulfill the dream that God has placed in you. That dream and inspiration that you have come to you every day, that voice that says "you were made for more than this" is God's voice letting you know that you have a purpose. God is there to fulfill it in you because your life is no longer yours, it is God's. Know this!

Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. Galatians 2:19-21

You do not have to strive, you only need to know and trust. Your ego is not important and you no longer need to impress anyone, even God. It is finished. Go and live your life confidently. Henry David Thoreau wrote this:

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours."

Advance confidently and live the life God has purposed you for! Know that God is there and will bring to pass what you need when you need it and not before or after you need it. Stop relying on others to tell you that you are good or ok. God has already said it, finished the work for you. Live your life knowing that it is all perfect and as it should be. This is faith and belief. Then we can do as the writer of Hebrews wrote:

So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into "the Holy Place." Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The "curtain" into God's presence is his body.
So let's do it—full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching. Hebrews 10:19-25

Namaste'

Problems

I am in need of forgiveness. I forgot that I was connected to God. I forgot the statement from a Course in Miracles that says "you do not have any problems, you only think you do." I became worried, forgot to be thankful, took my ego back on and told myself I was what I have. I began to tell myself I must accumilate and that I did not have enough. In this moment I began to get scared, began to worry, began to blame, took my revenge and became angry. I did not know what I was doing in that moment. I am in need of forgiveness. It happen so quickly, and I was able to recognize it just as quickly. I am no better than anyone who reads the pages here. I could learn just as much from anyone who reads these pages if they were to talk to me as they can learn here. I am just trying to be better than I used to be. Dr. Wayne Dyer has said that "true nobility is not about being better than anyone, it is about being better than I used to be." I know today that I am better than I used to be.

I learned in that moment how I can hurt others because I lose my connection to God. I know that I still worry and get scared and it turns to anger. I learned that it is all in my mind. This morning as I wake up nothing has changed in the physical world, but my thoughts have changed and I am no longer worried, scared or angry. I have solved the problem. I re-establish my connection God's spirit and the problem is solved. I hope that today I can live with this verse in mind:

Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
Philippians 4:8-9

Today I will look for ways to be an instrument of peace today. I can choose peace rather than this today. I need to sow love rather than my anger. This can only be done be living in connection to my God and God's spirit. I have been making the wrong kind of choices in my mind and telling myself what the world ought and should be, rather than focusing on what I have thankful for and allowing God to work. The way of Jesus is just that - a way, a path - I got off the path. I do everyday. I am a human being in need of forgiveness. I forgive myself. I learned so much from the experience and it is why I needed to go through it. It is all between me and God anyway.

Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. Colossians 3:15-17

Namaste'

Rest

Jesus offers us real rest. We all find our lives, both the physical and the spiritual, hard and tiresome at times. We all work so hard to keep up, do the right things and somehow make God and others love us. However, Jesus reminded us of this:

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

What does Jesus mean when he asking up to take his yoke upon us? We have to remember that Jesus was taught and trained as a Jewish Rabbi. When children were brought up in the Jewish faith they where taught to memorize the entire Old Testament. If they could do this and prove that they were worthy enough to keep studying they would be chosen by a Rabbi to come and study under them. If they were not "worthy" enough to be chosen by a rabbi, they returned to the family and worked in the family business. If you took on this task of learning under a certain teacher or rabbi, you were said to be taking on his yoke. You would learn that teacher's teaching about the scriptures and you would pass on his teachings, his yoke, to the future generations. Jesus is telling us here that his teaching is easy and that the burden of learning it is light. I love the Message translation of the above verses:

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

I love the phrase "Learn the unforced rhythmns of grace." Jesus' teachings are unforced, his love has a rhythm that is easy to catch onto. We need to keep company with Christ and learn how easy living in conncection to God can be. It is not a life of religion and rule keeping to make God love us. It is not a life of striving, trying, and motivation. It is a life of love, ease, and inspiration. Motivation being that I know that if I do not do something good things will not happen. Inspiration being that I know that if I do certain things good thins will happen. Are you getting inspired from your connection to God or are you being motivated? Motivation is a tiring process. I must figure why I must do something and make sure that I do it to avoid negative things from happening. Inspiration is a restful, freeing process. I do what comes naturally, what God has placed in my heart and I act on it and find joy, peace, and rest.

Walk with Christ today. Allow God's love to do it's work of unforced rhythms. Try not to get in the way or swim against the current of the unforced rhythms of grace. When we swim up stream, against the current, we are tired and worn out. Go with God's rhythms. Allow. It is peaceful and easy to float with the current down the stream. Realize God is right here right now. Recognize that you are a spiritual being and God is working all things for your good. Take on the Christ's yoke and simply love God, yourself and others. (Matthew 26:36-40) The rest of what you need to do will fall into place if you rest there and allow.

Namaste'

Warmth

This word is calling me today. At times we all need to feel the warmth of something. The warmth I am talking about today can be defined as affectionateness: a quality proceeding from feelings of affection or love. This is what we get from God. We get a love that is warm that totally surrounds us like that blanket on a cold winter night. The world is around us with the cold air, the ice, the cold rain - the anger, the hate, the sadness - and we all are looking for somewhere to get warm. God offers that to everyone. He came as the light and light creates heat. He came with his love and loved us despite our being of no use to Him. When we are cold God is love. When we feel in darkness God is light.

God makes a huge dome for the sun—a superdome! The morning sun's a new husband leaping from his honeymoon bed, The daybreaking sun an athlete racing to the tape. That's how God's Word vaults across the skies from sunrise to sunset, Melting ice, scorching deserts, warming hearts to faith. The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together. The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road. The life-maps of God are right, showing the way to joy.The directions of God are plain and easy on the eyes. God's reputation is twenty-four-carat gold, with a lifetime guarantee. The decisions of God are accurate down to the nth degree. Psalm 19:4-9

We live in a spiritual world that God has created. We live in God's superdome. We have warmth of light and love. We have clear directions that give us joy. We can trust in God and the decisions that are made completely. We all to often opt out of this spiritual world and being spiritual beings for the cold world of ego and the physical world that we can see, touch, taste and we leave the superdome. We rely on others to show us the way, on others to tell us how to feel, and on other things to help us find warmth. We are left disapppointed, cold and depressed.

Remember today that you are a spiritual being having a temporary human experience and that warmth is available to you. The world may be cold, but God is light and love - God is warmth. Accept this warmth from God, wrap up in God's spirit. You are loved. You are in the light. Then turn around and be this warmth to someone who needs it. You are love. You are light. They will be warm, but so will you. Jesus said:

"Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can't believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I've been doing. You can count on it." John 14:11-13

Namaste'

Beauty

Jesus once again addressed them: "I am the world's Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in." John 8:12

"When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
"As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. John 12:45-47

"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in an essay on beauty, "There is no object so foul that intense light will not make beautiful." Jesus is our intense light. Jesus tells us that he came into this world and gave it light. He comes and God makes us beautiful! We no longer have to trip and stumble in the darkness of our own thoughts, our own worries, or our own lives! We take on the light of Christ and everything becomes beautiful. Do we allow Christ to illuminate our thoughts which will then effect our view of the world and those around us? We no longer have to worry about being foul or ugly. God came to give us light and make us beautiful.

If we have that light in us then we need to give this light to others. We cannot hide this light and God has placed us on a hill, on a stand to be seen by eveyone else who thinks they are ugly or foul. We can let them know that God thinks they are beautiful, we get to bring out the "God colors in the world." What is this light? I think it is our love, it is "because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." Romans 5:5 Do we love? I think that they way we show that we love God is not by building bigger buildings or having some huge ministry, but by loving each other - no matter who they are. Jesus reminds us that he came to the world, not to judge it, but that they world may be saved through Him, through the love that He shows. God loves us. God is love. We need to love. This is the light of God. This is our light.

Love others today. Bring out the God-colors in this world today. Be light to those around you who only see darkness. Prompt them to open up to God and His light by your love. Let them know that they are beautiful and that no matter how foul they feel they are, there is no amount of "foul" they can feel that intense love will not make beautiful.

Namaste'

Be

Let's not act lets be. What do I mean by this? I think that many times we spend time in our life acting the part of Christian, never really being Christian. We act kind, loving, nice, and caring but never really are that way. When we are alone we are angry at the driver that is not driving the way we think that they should, the waiter that does not serve us the way we think they should, or we get angry with our family. We try to live these virtues by living out rules and not breaking them. Really we should be living and being these virtues. There are no rules to make us, or anyone else live them out. We must be willing to change our thoughts and lives so that we actually become kind, loving, nice, and caring. This is a much deeper issue than just acting and trying, this is about becoming and being.

So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. Colossians 3:13-15

We need to dress in what God has given us. This is more than just acting and following rules, this implies a way of being. We are to be as Christ is, we are to think and act like God as much as we can. Christ came to show us how to bring heaven to earth. How do we do that? Christ came to teach us how to be like him, not through rules, but through a changed heart. Imagine a place where there are no rules to keep people in check, but that people live out of who are are, out of a way of being that requires them to not worry about rules. You can live in this freedom. When you come to be loving, kind and caring there is freedom.

Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him. 2 Corinthians 3:16-17

Be free today. Learn to be love and kindness to others. Begin to do things because your have changed your thoughts and your heart, not because following the rules will change your heart. Connect to the God who came in flesh and become love.

Namaste'

Choice

Everyone has the choice - everyone. Christ came to redeem and reconcile all things to back to God. Everyone is forgiven. Heaven is full of people who are loved and forgiven. Hell is full of people who are loved and forgiven. The world is full of people who are loved and forgiven. It is a REALITY that Christ work on the cross has allowed everyone to be forgiven and loved.

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
18-20He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
21-23You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got. But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God's side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. You don't walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message.

Colossians 1:15-23

The question is not that some people get forgiven and some people do not, the question is which reality do you choose to believe? God has forgiven us, there is nothing else for us to do. However, most of us walk around thinking that we must still make a payment of some kind to have God love us and forgive us. We do not realize that the bill is already paid. We must accept this reality and live in it. It is a choice we make each day. Will we live in the reality of the grace of God or in the world's reality that says we must earn love by hard work, making others like us, and gaining stuff?

Pick God's reality today and everyday. Live in the knowing that God loves and forgives you. Act on that reality and become aware of how to serve others. Give your life away because if you accept the reality of God's love there is nothing for you to earn anymore.

Namaste'

Embraced

We are loved. God has embraced us. Sit for a moment and just read those lines again. Let them sink in. Imagined being embraced by God. I am not talking about being hugged or held close in someone arms. I am talking about being totally surrounded and enclosed by God's spirit. Close your eyes and imagine God's spirit embracing you as you think about how much you are loved. You are loved - embraced - so much so that nothing can seperate you from God!

So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one. None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. Romans 8:31-39

I am overwhelmed at the last line of this passage! Absolutely nothing can get between me and God's love because of the way that Jesus has EMBRACED us! I am totally surrounded by Jesus and his love. If the Creator is embracing me, what could possibly harm me? I may feel hurt, harmed, or suffering but when I realize that I am embraced by God's spirit, God's love, God's very presence what is there to worry about? We need to remember that we are always embraced and loved. We are always connected to God. God is right here right now. Nothing seperated me from God's love except my own thoughts and beliefs that I am.

Remember today that you are loved, embraced, and totally surrounded by God. Remember today that when you feel disconnected that God is no further from you than a thought, a quick awareness that God is surrounding you.

Namaste'

Realize

Do we realize that God is everywhere? Do we feel alone and that God has left us? Do we feel like God is so far away and that we will never be able to connect? Can we begin to know that God's spirit is everywhere?

They were calling out to each other,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!”

Isaiah 6:3

Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you're there! If I go underground, you're there! If I flew on morning's wings to the far western horizon, You'd find me in a minute—you're already there waiting! Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I'm immersed in the light!" It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you. Psalm 139:7-12

These are two examples of how the writers of the Bible knew that God's spirit was everywhere! When we feel disconnected from God who moved? I would say no one has moved. God is right there and so are you. We do not realize that God is right there. We see God as this person who sits somewhere far away, watches us, judges us, extends His hands when he his ready, and comes only when we envoke his presence. However, God is right here, right now. God's spirit is with you as you read this, in your house, your office, in those around you, and with your thoughts. God's spirit is in me, in, in nature, the whole earth is full of God! We can attempt to escape God, but we cannot. We really just choose to make a decision to notice be aware of God' spirit. As David writes in the Psalm above God is everywhere and are we going to realize this and allow God's spirit to change us? I challange you to read all of Psalm 139 today. God knows you. God is as close as your breath. God is as close as your thoughts. God is everywhere you go everyday. The earth is God's and God lives here! Can you realize this today? Connect with God and worship today in each and every place and moment you have.

God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration." John 4:24

Namaste'

Confidence

What does your confidence lie in today? There is something that you are depending on, relying on, to feel confident and good. What is that? Is it your job? Your friends? Your family? Other people's opinions of you? The money you are making? The giving of a gift to someone? We all believe in something. We all look outside of ourselves to find confidence and strength. However, where do we really find this kind of confidence and strength? I think that it really comes from within and remembering that God's spirit resides in us and that spirit is not one that wants us to define our confidence by what is outside us.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News. For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News. And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this Good News.
That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.
Hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me—a pattern shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus. Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you.

2 Timothy 1:7-14

Jesus came into this world so that we no longer had to find confidence outside of ourselves. God has given us a spirit of power, love and self discipline. Are we connecting to that or are we living with a spirit of fear, anger, and confusion because each day we are relying on the stuff outside ourselves to feel good? You see, when we begin to understand that before the beginning of time God planned for us to be connected to spirit, to show us grace, we did nothing to make God love us, and that it is up to the Creator of the universe to guard our lives, we begin to have confidence in who we are! We are God's children, protected by this all powerful spirit. How could anything else make us confident? God will care for us now and for all eternity! We must realize that we are spiritual beings and this life is but a brief appearance for us that is guarded by a loving, caring God (spirit), who came in human form to show us how to live our lives in confidence. We love. We forgive. We trust. We become patiently relentless. We know that when we live our lives in complete abandon to God we can be confident because it is not our life to guard - it is God's.

Let God guard your life today. Let your confidence be found in living each moment knowing that you are connect to God through spirit. Notice when you become disconnected and begin to experience anger, fear, or frustration. Where did you put your trust in those moments? What were you confident in, hoping in? Notice that your ego probably took over and tried to tell you that what others said was more important, or if something did not happen the way you thought it should "everything" was bad. Reconnect then. Remember who you are and who is really responsible for you. Feel the real power and freedom of love and self discipline rather than being a prisoner to your ego and the world.

Namaste'

Patiently Relentless

This is how our life should be - patiently relentless. We should pursue after our goals, hope for the best, want to teach our children about life and how it works, and desire joy, peace, and happiness. We can be relentless in those pursuits. We can work on them daily, take action on them daily, and plan for the future. When we do this we must also be patience. We must realized that these pursuits will not happen on our time schedule. We must accept that it is much like growing a garden. We plant the seeds. We tend to the garden daily, doing what is necessary - providing water when there is no rain, fertilizing the plants, pulling the weeds that can choke out the grow of the plants, keep bugs away that could eat the leaves and destroy the growth that has taken place - then we must sit back and be patient. If we attempt to give too much water, too much fertilizer, pull on the plants to make them grow faster, too much pesticide to keep the bugs away, dig around the plants too much - we end up destroying the plants and the end result of fruit because we are just relentless - impatiently relentless.

When we are impatiently relentless we are trying to make life and growth happen at a different pace other than God's. We are attempting to speed things up, make others in our lives learn things before they are ready, make things happen before their appointed time. We have a hard time sitting back and allowing God to do what God does - create, love, and nuture. We become angry then, want to assert our rights, push people along, and live in frustration and depression. However, when we can be patiently relentless we tend to others and step back and allow them to figure things out, we help others along their path without pushing them in the direction we think they should go, we do not interfere with God working in their life. We do the things that are placed in front of us each day to do so we can reach a goal, but we must patiently wait for the fruit of that labor to show up and trust that God will make it show up - but only on time - the time appointed.

Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven't stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you'll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us. Colossians 1:9-12

We do not need to "grit our teeth" in inpatience. Rather we need to allow things to happen patiently "knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." James 1:3-4

Be like Jesus in you daily life. Jesus never ran anywhere. He took his time getting to a man that he loved.

"Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, but oddly, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for two more days. After the two days, he said to his disciples, "Let's go back to Judea." John 11:5-7

Jesus raised him from the dead - he was relentless - but he sure was patient. Can we allow things to happen as they need to? Can we enjoy the moments that we are in? Can we just enjoy the act of being a "gardener?" Be patiently relentless as you tend to your lives and others.

Namaste'

Flexibility

Flexibility is one of the characteristics needed to have a happy and fulfilling life. Flexibility is the ability to adapt to different circumstances. If we are unable to adapt to the ever changing circumstances of our life, it is easy for us to find ourselves coming to the "breaking point." The world is full of troubled circumstances at times. We all need to be able to adapt and change with where God may take us. We often may miss where God is working in our lives because of our own refusal to be flexible in our thoughts and in the circumstances that are presented to us on the path of life. We may so hold to old patterns of thinking, old ways of doing things, stay where we feel safe rather than risk a new change and miss out on opportunities that God has placed in our path. We all have "rules" in our head that we just cannot "break" and we are going to stand firm on this way of thinking.
Imagine a tree that is inflexible being blown by very strong winds. If it does not have the flexibility to bend and give as the winds are blowing it is snapped off and broken. It is why bridges are built with space in mind for the give and take of the weather and the weight of vehicles. If it was not flexible it would collapse. This does not mean that we are totally like jello, because if that were the case, bridges would collapse also, trees would just fall over. No I mean that we can take the circumstances of life and move with them. We adjust our thinking, our ways of living, our relationships, and our behaviors as it is necessary to stay connected to God. If we stick so hard to rules in our head and rules in our heart with no flexibilty we may be broken when a life storm comes along.

One Sabbath, Jesus was strolling with his disciples through a field of ripe grain. Hungry, the disciples were pulling off the heads of grain and munching on them. Some Pharisees reported them to Jesus: "Your disciples are breaking the Sabbath rules!"
Jesus said, "Really? Didn't you ever read what David and his companions did when they were hungry, how they entered the sanctuary and ate fresh bread off the altar, bread that no one but priests were allowed to eat? And didn't you ever read in God's Law that priests carrying out their Temple duties break Sabbath rules all the time and it's not held against them?
"There is far more at stake here than religion. If you had any idea what this Scripture meant—'I prefer a flexible heart to an inflexible ritual'—you wouldn't be nitpicking like this. The Son of Man is no lackey to the Sabbath; he's in charge."

Matthew 12:1-7

Allow your heart to be flexible and molded by the Spirit of the living God, not the rules of men or your ego. Today be able to take time and think when something comes your way that may make you angry or upset. Challange your thinking and see if it is flexible or rigid. Be mindful - are there any other explanations, is there another way to think and act about this rather than the way I do it everyday? Then you may be like a tree that is blown and gives enough not to break and continues to stand and live on. Remember that clay if flexible in the hand of its creator.

Still, God, you are our Father. We're the clay and you're our potter. Isaish 64:8

Namaste'

Purpose

We are encouraged to give up ourselves, our will, to God. Most of us will have reservations about this process. I believe that finding God’s will is a much different process than most of us imaging that it is. Most us think it is about finding what God wants us to do for a living, the mate that is perfect for us, or the “right” place to live or go to church. This is not what it means to live in harmony with God’s will. We could actually find all those things and tell ourselves that we “are in God’s will” but still harbor anger, hate, worry, bitterness, judgment, unkind actions towards others, etc. We tell ourselves, “Why is this happening to me, I am doing God’s will.” We have very little peace. This is because obtaining peace has nothing to do with the circumstances of our lives or being in the right place doing the right things.
Being in God’s will has everything to do with having the “mind of Christ.” Peace has everything to do with our mindset and alignment with our Creator. Do we tell ourselves that we are not in God’s will and therefore lack peace because of things or circumstances are not working out? Is it really because things are not working out and we are not in God’s will, or because we do not have the mind of God and we are not thinking like our Creator. For example, if I do not like my job is it because I am not in God’s will? If I was I would love my job. However, could it be that because I am not in God’s will that I do not love my job? This means that because I do not view life with a God mindset and eyes it does not matter what I do or where I go - I will never find happiness, peace, or God’s will.
So can I look at what makes me unhappy about my job and look at it differently, with the mind of Christ? Can I serve my job instead of expecting it to serve me, love my boss instead of look at them with contempt, and see every opportunity to show kindness versus the need to be right? This would place me in God’s will and God’s purpose. We can apply this to any circumstance in our life. This can be done by confessing and realizing our faults. Confession is not about letting God know how we have wronged God, but really about opening our own minds up to the need for change ourselves. We must begin to see when we are out of alignment with God when we attempt to “swim up stream” against the flow of what God is doing in our lives. We will find purpose in our lives if we:

Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18

Remember that your purpose in life is not connected to what you do for a living, the mate you have, or having the right place to live. Your purpose is really about are you living and thinking like Christ. Are you showing kindness and caring to those around. No matter what you are "doing" you are giving your life away.

Namaste'

Inner Sweetness

The thoughts you have from moment to moment can give your soul rivers of living water or dry your soul out as parched as a desert.
The problem is very simple. Peace and inner sweetness can be destroyed by a restless mind. God can only come to the quiet mind. In 1 Kings 19:12 (The Message) it says

Then he was told, "Go, stand on the mountain at attention before God. God will pass by." A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before God, but God wasn't to be found in the wind; after the wind an earthquake, but God wasn't in the earthquake; and after the earthquake fire, but God wasn't in the fire; and after the fire a gentle and quiet whisper.

This verses talks about that God was not in the loud, raging things that we would think. God was actually in the whisper. I have heard it described that the Hebrew word for whisper actually means silence. That God’s voice is actually silence! Can God speak in the midst of such inner confusion as you permit by that endless, hurrying parade of thoughts going through your mind? Be quiet and God will soon be heard. So if the problem is very simple so is the solution.

“Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalms 46:10)

Peace can be cultivated, but only by being still and not restless. It is only by simple acts of obedience, or willingness and discipline, that we can find this place of peace. Peace is not a gift given to those who happen to be the most holy of us. Peace is the end result of the process of giving ourselves, through simple obedience, to the process of looking at our thoughts moment by moment, finding time to be still and quiet each day, and allowing ourselves to die to our ego. We all will not receive a thing if we continue to focus on and listen to our own restless thoughts. We can have the faith to listen to God and the thoughts of peace given. We can slow down each day and sit in meditation and first begin to notice how busy our mind is and learn how to slow it down. We can become aware of the thoughts that flood our mind about ourselves and what we think we should have or need. We can become aware of the lies that are in each of our thoughts we have that things are “never” or “always.” We can sit quietly with our thoughts and begin to turn off the ego and turn on to God thoughts. We can do this by practicing obedience daily with a “quiet time.”
This is much different that the quiet time that most Christian’s have grown up thinking about. This is not a time to fill my mind with my own restless thoughts of how my day will go and how I can evoke God into my day with prayers of please and help. Rather, it is a time to sit and be still before God, in a quiet place, to meditate on your thoughts and examine them one, by one. As I Corinthians 10:5 says,

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

This is the practice of our spiritual life. We look at every thought in the silence voice that is God and allow the Creator to examine us and cultivate thoughts that will lead to peace no matter the circumstances in our lives. This type of meditation will also allow us to find out how to treat ourselves and others with love, which is the real way to cultivate peace. God is love.

Namaste'

Forgiveness

This is a very difficult subject for most all of us. However, I believe that to live in connection to God and to have the mind of Christ we must practice forgiveness. There are three things that we must do in order to completely practice forgiveness. First we must not blame. When we are unable to forgive someone who we percieve as having wronged us we need to look at our decision to blame them for our unhappiness. The idea that we must assign responsibility to someone else for our life circumstances is the product of an attitude of blame. We must be completely honest with ourselves and take total responsibility for everything that we are in our life right now to rid ourselves of blame. I think Jesus said it like this:

Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, 'Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt? It's this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor. Matthew 7:1-3

The second thing that we need to do is rid ourselves of revenge. We live in a world that endorses anger and revenge. Revenge is the acting out of the thoughts of blame. Blame is how we think, revenge is how we act. Blaming fuels our anger and revenge is the explosion of that fuel. We need to be gentle with ourselves and with others who may decide to not be so gentle. Scripture says it like this:

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1

Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 4:31-32

Finally, we must reduce our judgements as much as we can. Judgement means to view the world as YOU are, rather than how it really is. This may be impossible to avoid completely, because almost every thought has a judgement attached. For instance, even if I say "It is a beautiful day," that is my thought about the day. However, we can reduce our negative judgements. We must remember that when we judge someone or some event in our lives, we do not alter anyone or anything. Just because I do not like someone does not mean that they will change. When I judge I do not define another person, I just define myself. Our judgements just describe our likes and dislikes. Again Jesus tells us:

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 6:36-38

When we can do these three forgiveness can happen. The ideal is this for me. Think about Jesus hanging on that cross - spit on, made fun of, his clothes being gambled over, given vinegar to drink, a spear thrust in his side - and what does he say?

"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Luke 23:34

Jesus knew the soldiers were just following orders, the mob was being a mob, and people really did not understand what was going on here. That is how we need to see others in our life. Don't blame, seek revenge or judge them for their actions. Remember that they are just doing their best and really do not know how or what they are doing is hurting others. We want this variance from others - are we willing to give it? Jesus had every right to be angry, blame, judge and seek revenge. However, God picked kindness and gave his life away. Pick something different today, give your life away and see if you don't have a changed life when forgiveness enters your spirit.

Namaste'

Balance

We have the tendency to take things to extremes. We have the tendency to see our lives as either "all good" or "all bad." We say things to ourselves and outloud to others like - "I will never get things right," "It always happens this way," " They are always so selfish," and "Nothing ever goes right." When we do this to ourselves we cause ourselves more pain than what is really happening. When you really look at life, your life, how many things can you truly classify in those types of extremes - always, never, nothing - most of life is really one of balance between extremes. There are people, places, and events in our lives that are not the way we would like them at times and just the way we would like them at times. However, we use those times (good or bad) to define our whole life, who we are as a person, and what will happen in the future.

We all want things to be good all the time. We want people around us to be good always. We never want to hurt. We never want to be without nothing. This leaves us dissapointed - a lot!
Life is really lived and lived well in balance. Realizing that things are what they are - sometimes good, sometimes bad. We do it well sometimes and other times we make mistakes. Things that happen to us are left up to expereince and perceive. We make our own expereince of life and it can be one of pain and anger or one of hopefulness and joy. If we do not have a thought life that is in balance and rather focuses on extremes our life will be one that will see more pain, anger and hoplessness. If our thought life is in balance we can see more hopefulness, joy, and happiness. Albert Einstein is credited with saying that everyone has to make the choice to decide if they live in a hotile or a friendly universe.

I personally choose to believe that I live in a friendly universe ruled by a loving Creator. Are there things that happen to me that I do not like, do not understand - of course. Can I overcome them - transcend them - by living in connection to God through my thoughts and live a life that is in the middle of God's will - most definitely!

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.
Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

Philippians 4:6-8

I think that Socrates said that the unexamined life is not a life worth living. Examine your life today. Do you live in extremes? Does your thought life have more always and nevers than you would like? Examine your thought life, catch yourself feeling a way that you do not like and aske yourself, "What was I just thinking." I guarantee that you will find some extreme. Get silent with God and let the Creator diplace your worry by changing your thoughts. Live a life of balance.

Namaste'

Mindfulness

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes." Matthew 6:34

How often do we spend the day we have, the moment we have right now, thinking about tomorrow? How many times I have missed the wonderful moment I am in because my mind is in the future that I have absolutely no control over. The reality is that we are promised only one thing and that is the moment that you are currently living in. I love the statement Jesus gives us at the beginning of this verse, "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now." God is always at work, the spirit of the Creator everywhere. In each moment there are no accidents or coincidences, only God at work in the present moment.

We are so scared of missing out on something that we do miss out on the current moment. We are so worried and concerned about what may or may not happen that we attempt to control it through our thoughts about the future. This is really only worry because there is absolutely nothing that can be done about this afternoon, until this afternoon get here. We are so scared that we may miss something if we do not think ahead, that we do miss something. We miss God working right now! Mindfulness is a psychological practice, and I believe a spiritual one also, that says I must be aware of this present moment. When I eat, I know that I am eating. When I am sitting I know that I am sitting. When I am walking I know that I am walking. How aware are each of us of the activity that we are currently doing at this moment? How many of us are reading this, but thinking about what we have to do next, rather than just being in the moment aware that we are reading?

I know of no other way to be connected to God except in this moment. To know that God is within me, around me, and everywhere. When I am mindful I see God in everything and everyone. I take time to actually "be" where I am, rather than be physically present, but my mind somewhere else. This helps us to become aware of how we are actually acting, thinking, and feeling in each moment. This actually gives us the opportunity to change. If I am not aware that my tire is flat on my car and drive on it because I am just concerned about getting to the next place I need to be - so I miss out on a moment to be mindful and aware of now - I drive on a flat tire. What happens? If I drive on it long enough the tire will shred, tearing up the wheel and fender, allowing the metal to contact the ground and do more damage to the entire car. At some point I will have to notice what is happening, it can't be avoided.

Isn't this how we live our lives at times? We have an issue, we have something we need to be aware of at this moment. It could be something to enjoy or something to attend to, but we miss it because we are so concerned about missing something that may happen later. We are left wanting and waiting with things becoming worse or with us telling ourselves that we will never gain happiness, but it just passed us in that moment. There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way.

What I'm trying to do here is get you to relax, 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 yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don't be afraid of missing out. You're my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself. Luke 12:29-32

Practice being mindful today. Take each moment in. When you eat lunch be aware of each bite, know you are eating. When you walk be aware that you are walking. When you are talking to your friend or family member, give them your full attention and really hear what they are saying. Imitate Christ and be in each moment with each person, each event and see if the worries of this life fade and get taken care of despite your "letting go."

Namaste'

Protection

On Sunday I had the wonderful experience of raking leaves in my yard. Yes I am being sarcastic! I love my yard in the spring and summer. It is full of blooming trees and flowers. The trees cover the house in shade and keep us cool and the air conditioning bill to a minimum. However, when fall and winter come around I really start to dislike my yard and all the trees. I even said to my wife a few times on Sunday, "I hate leaves." I thought to myself what is the point of having all these leaves fall off every year just to grow back and have it happen again?

Deciduous trees drop their leaves in order to survive the harsh conditions of winter. Stems, twigs, and buds are equipped to survive extreme cold. Tender leaf tissues however, would freeze in winter, so plants must either protect their leaves or shed them. The evergreens — pines, spruces, and hemlocks – are able to survive winter because they have developed a way to protect their foliage. Their needle-like or scale-like foliage is covered with a heavy wax coating and the fluid inside their cells contains substances that resist freezing. Fallen leaves are not wasted, they decompose and restock the soil with nutrients. The rich layer of decomposing leaves protects the roots of other plants on the forest floor and absorbs and holds rainfall.

There is actually a reason for the falling leaves, not just so I can be punished by cleaning them up every fall. It is a way for the trees to protect themselves, nourish the ground around themselves, and keep water close to them. Many times we view our lives this way don't we - "why is this happening", "this is a lot of trouble," " what did I do to derserve this." We have a tendency to look back on our life and look at our current situations and tell ourselves that things should not be happening like this. When really whatever has shown up in our lives is supposed to be there, it has a reason or a purpose. When there are times in our lives when we are alone or feel alone maybe we are learning how to take care of ourselves. If we are divorced our ex-spouse showed up at the right time to give us the beautiful children we have. If we lost a job it is because we needed to find something better and just did not know how to get out of the job we were in. Whatever comes into our lives is like falling leaves - there to nourish us, protect us, and help us to grow.

There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: A right time for birth and another for death, A right time to plant and another to reap, A right time to kill and another to heal, A right time to destroy and another to construct, A right time to cry and another to laugh, A right time to lament and another to cheer, A right time to make love and another to abstain, A right time to embrace and another to part, A right time to search and another to count your losses, A right time to hold on and another to let go, A right time to rip out and another to mend, A right time to shut up and another to speak up, A right time to love and another to hate, A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

When you look back at your life see all the events of your life as having shown up when and how they were supposed to. See them as the opportunities that you had to go through to grow. And the evidence for this is that you went through it. It cannot be changed except in how you think about it. It is like the blessing of the falling leaves in my yard. If they do not shed their leaves I would not have the beautiful yard I have in the spring and summer and my house would not receive the protection it does then. See those times as a times of protection and perfection.

"I've also concluded that whatever God does, that's the way it's going to be, always. No addition, no subtraction. God's done it and that's it. That's so we'll quit asking questions and simply worship in holy fear. Whatever was, is. Whatever will be, is. That's how it always is with God."

Ecclesiastes 3:14-15

Namaste'