Tag Archives: Holy Spirit

May 23, 2018 · 9:41 am

Diversity of Work

Once St. Anthony was asked, “What good work shall I do?” And he answered. “All works are not equal, the scriptures said that Abraham was hospitable, and God was with him. And, Elijah loved quiet, and God was with him. And, David was humble, and God was with him. What therefore you find that your soul desires in following God, that do, and keep your heart.”

—-Abba Anthony of the Desert

All followers of Jesus feel the need to work to achieve the tenants that Jesus revealed. Many times, we ask ourselves the nagging question – Where do I fit? Often we come to the conclusion that our work is not good enough. We all search for that “work” that all Jesus followers must do. Many of us were trained from a very early age that we must discover the “way” to follow Jesus and be a part of his work. The Abba tell us that there is not just one work but many works that meet that goal.

And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues.

1 Corinthians 12:28

The monk and the apostle Paul tell us that God has given us what we need. Anthony pointed to three very well known epic biblical characters and the diversity of the work they performed. In doing so, he quickly says that God was with them all. He used the hospitality of Abraham, the silence of Elijah and the humility of David to accomplish the work of the God. They were all different, maybe radically so, but God was with them. He created them and He used them. Paul in his Corinthian letter sets forth the concept of gifts for ministry. The message is, not all ministry is the same. We are designed by God and equipted by him.

Paul strongly points out to a very diverse and sometimes very divided church at Corinth that there is a place for all. Even more importantly, there is not a superior way of serving God. We are all equipped to be up to the task. The key is for us to embrace ourselves as God has equipped us and serve as we are gifted. Perhaps just as important is to relish in the way God has created us.

God has blessed you just as you are created. Please don’t allow the world to convince you that you have nothing to offer, or that your gift is not worth sharing. God is the one who determines such things. There are many people in the church and outside of the church that will be more than happy to devalue you so that you will not even try to offer your service.

Prayer

Lord, I know that you have created me as a person of great value. Let me discover that I have something to offer and my offering will be blessed by God.

Amen

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March 15, 2018 · 6:00 am

Lent Day 26

March 15

Receive Life

John 5:31-47

‘If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved.He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.

‘You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?’

Prayer Thought

Lord, we search for life and liberty in so many places when it is right in front of us.

He [Jesus] did not say, ‘You will never have a rough passage, you will never be over-strained, you will never feel uncomfortable,’ but he did say, ‘You will never be overcome.

——-Julian of Norwich

Church defends decision to refer to Jesus with gender-neutral pronouns (pinknews.co.uk)

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March 14, 2018 · 6:00 am

Lent Day 25

March 14

God Remembers Us

Isaiah 49:8-15

Thus says the Lord:
In a time of favor I have answered you,
on a day of salvation I have helped you;
I have kept you and given you
as a covenant to the people,
to establish the land,
to apportion the desolate heritages;
saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out’,
to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’
They shall feed along the ways,
on all the bare heights shall be their pasture;
they shall not hunger or thirst,
neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down,
for he who has pity on them will lead them,
and by springs of water will guide them.
And I will turn all my mountains into a road,
and my highways shall be raised up.
Lo, these shall come from far away,
and lo, these from the north and from the west,
and these from the land of Syene.

Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the Lord has comforted his people,
and will have compassion on his suffering ones.

But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me,
my Lord has forgotten me.’
Can a woman forget her nursing-child,
or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.

Prayer Thought

Lord, you are a God that always remembers his people. May we be a people that always remember our God.

To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!

—Cesar Chavez

Christian groups troop to Senate vs landmark SOGIE bill (rappler.com)
Church should not ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’ by making radical changes, Archbishop says (telegraph.co.uk)

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March 12, 2018 · 6:00 am

Lent Day 23

March 12

Be Glad and Rejoice

Isaiah 65:17-21

For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice for ever
in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,
and its people as a delight.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,
or the cry of distress.
No more shall there be in it
an infant that lives but a few days,
or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;
for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

Prayer Thought

Lord, we want to bathe in the newness that you create by the touch of your hand.

Letting go of our suffering is the hardest work we will ever do. It is also the most fruitful. To heal means to meet ourselves in a new way — in the newness of each moment where all is possible and nothing is limited to the old.

—–Stephen Levine

You may not understand His plans, but the results will prove that His way is right (helpfulinspirationalblog.wordpress.com)

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March 4, 2018 · 6:28 am

Third Sunday of Lent

March 4

Christ Died for Us

Romans 5:1-2,5-8

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

Prayer Thought

Lord, who can imagine the love that you bestow upon us.

“Forgiveness is most Christlike when it is given to the undeserving.”

― Jim George

US presidents lead tributes to ‘America’s pastor’ Billy Graham (rappler.com)
The prayer answering God (I) – Muoka Lazarus (vanguardngr.com)

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March 3, 2018 · 6:00 am

Lent Day 16

March 3

God Delights in Love

Micah 7:14-15,18-20

Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock that belongs to you,
which lives alone in a forest
in the midst of a garden land;
let them feed in Bashan and Gilead
as in the days of old.
As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,
show us marvelous things.

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over the transgression
of the remnant of your possession?
He does not retain his anger for ever,
because he delights in showing clemency.
He will again have compassion upon us;
he will tread our iniquities under foot.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea.
You will show faithfulness to Jacob
and unswerving loyalty to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our ancestors
from the days of old.

Prayer Thought

Lord, sin can be a heavy weight when we bear it forever. Allow me to cast my sin far away.

“No hell will frighten men away from sin; no dread of prospective misery; only goodness can cast hell out of any man, and set up the kingdom of heaven within.”

―Hugh Reginald Haweis

Shaping the spiritual battleground: Sunday reflection (hotair.com)

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February 21, 2018 · 6:07 am

Lent Day 7

February 21

Receive Forgiveness

Luke 11:29-32

29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, ‘This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. ³⁰For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation. ³¹The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here! ³²The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here!

Prayer

Lord, help us to take sin serious this and every day so that we are moved to repent and be forgiven.

Renewing Covenant (andrewjware.com)

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February 14, 2018 · 5:00 am

Lent Day 1

Related image February 14

Reconciled to God

2Corinthians 5:20 – 6:2

²⁰So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

6As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. ²For he says,
‘At an acceptable time I have listened to you,
and on a day of salvation I have helped you.’
See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!

Prayer Thought

Lord, help me to see that this is the time of my salvation.

Facing Adversity as Christians (standupforthetruth.com)

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February 7, 2018 · 2:36 pm

The Power of Love

To love is to be transformed into what we love. To love God is therefore to be transformed into God.

In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human success, but rather on how much we have loved.

—–John of the Cross

‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

——Jesus

One of the hottest topics of all time is love. Love is so special that people die for it, kill for it, steal for it and mourn for it. John of the Cross teaches that love is transforming and far and away the most important attribute in the twilight of life. Jesus and Paul command us to love with all our being. In doing so we discover what is good.

Love is almost always defined as physical attraction. We fall in love as a result of attraction, then we discover a greater love as we develop a relationship with our partner. This Greater Love can be compared to the love that Jesus, Paul and John of the cross are referencing. There’s no singular word to describe the love that is spoken about in Scripture.

The word that is used to refer to the type of love that Jesus and these great men are speaking of is agape. This love has no real translation in our English language. We can refer to it as love of God for man or man’s love for God. This love is one that transforms and comes to be the only love that really matters. Agape eludes definition and stretches our minds to imagine what God is really like.

Agape love transforms and brings about changes in us that we can scarcely imagine. People from all walks of life have made horrid mistakes and come to understand the love of God, and their lives are radically changed. Dishonest people turn to honestly. People who live very negatively learn to see what is good and right with the world. Those who understand this type of love learn to see God and other people. That is transformation.

We all want to leave a legacy. A legacy is something of value that outlives us. If a person loves this way, they leave a legacy. Their legacy shows a glimpse of the Almighty to those they touch. That glimpse can touch the lives of people and change them in ways that are unimaginable. May we all strive to be people that show the love of God to all persons.

That is the power of love!

PRAYER

Awaken and enlighten us, my Lord, that we might know and love the blessings which You ever propose to us, and that we might understand that You have moved to bestow favors on us and have remembered us.

O Lord, my God, who will seek You with simple and pure love and not find You are all he desires, for You show Yourself first and go out to meet those who desire You?

My spirit has become dry because it forgets to feed on You.

Amen

—–John of the Cross

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December 5, 2017 · 10:51 am

Thanking God for Jesus

Tuesday, first week of Advent

OPENING PRAYER

Lord Jesus, you show us the loving face. Help us to love you in return.

SCRIPTURE

At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

Then turning to the disciples, Jesus said to them privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.’

Luke 10:21,23-24

THINK ABOUT IT….

How wonderful it must have been to hear Jesus speak those words! God has revealed something special to them, not because they were great students are especially smart, but because God wanted them to know who Jesus was.

God still wants us to know who Jesus is. That’s why we have the Bible. That’s why we have the church. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we know that Jesus is Lord of Heaven and Earth and it’s not because we figured out something or because we have use our brain power instead, it’s because the father wants us to know who Jesus is so that we can be saved from sin and death.