Category Archives: SPIRITUAL INTEREST

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Awakening

My spiritual journey is an honest one at least as much as is possible within me. I am a seeker of God and a follower of his way. God has healed me and renewed me. My life is changed because of God, and I owe him a debt of gratitude.

Father God blesses me at his table of grace and fills me with his ever-deepening love. I have received God’s unmerited favor. I experience his unadulterated peace and holy presence. To be God’s child is lovely beyond loveliness. I find myself safe and secure in my Father’s house.

I have had to look at what I believe and sort through a lot of it. The truths found in the Bible shaped my thinking. Some doctrines strike me as absolutes that do not bend or alter for true Christ followers. They are the foundation on which the church has built its belief. Most or all of these tenants establish the Church’s theological backbone.

These constitute Christianity’s common core beliefs, the structures on which the biblical mandates are formed and erected, the absolutes that are ‘must haves’ according to the Word of God. Christianity is centered and built on the authority of the Bible and the divinely inspired words of its text. Without these as central, core beliefs, the bible is little more than a good book.

*Excerpt from my upcoming book, written at the Vina Monastery, Abbey of New Clairvaux, a Trappist, Cistercian monastery.

I’m not settled on a book title yet but am narrowed down to two at the present time.

  1. THE CHURCH REVISITED: A Contemplative Montage: Moments with God at Vina Monastery: In search of authentic Christianity across the Church divide.

2. THE GOLDEN SILENCE: Moments with God at Vina Monastery: In search of authentic Christianity across the Church divide.

 

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God’s Up To Something

Daughter One and I talked until two a.m. one night when I was out for a visit with them in Colorado. Our conversation covered a range but mostly we talked about people and concepts that relate to faith and how God works in a life. Her trust in God is growing, so we both contributed well-thought-out concepts. I delighted in the conversation. It was the stuff of real life.

She shared a story with me about a sermon that had impacted her. A minister in her church had preached about the need to extend grace to others. He asked those in the congregation to stop for a moment and pray, to specifically ask God to reveal to them someone whom their attitude wasn’t quite right towards. The sermon stopped, and everyone prayed. My daughter began to pray. She asked God to reveal to her if there was anyone she had a wrong attitude towards. Nothing came.

She kept on praying in the quietness. Suddenly a person came to mind. At that point she recognized her wrong attitude toward this person. Then she thought of what it would be like to be the parent of that person, with the feelings a parent has for their child. Her heart grew tender within her and tears came. She found her thoughts softening towards him and wishing more for him; asking God to work in his life and bless him.

That’s it!” I exploded, as excitement coursed through my being, “That’s how God sees all of us. That is how he sees each one of us. He sees who we are and what we can become.

God loves us with great grace. The more we love God, the more he gives us eyes to see people as he sees them.”

By then both of us were in tears. I continued on.

God waits for us to come to the end of ourselves, to the end of our self-sufficiency.

We have to get out of the way. Then he can do his best work.”

I know this is true. I have seen it happen many times over, in my life and in others’ lives.He is the potter and we are the clay. He molds us and makes us according to the vessel he sees in us. And God don’t make junk. God sees past our broken pieces, our not-so-desirable traits, to the person we will become through the transforming process as we are being refined in our heart, mind, and soul.

I see this same desire in her. She is wanting ‘more’ of what God is doing, and going to do, in her life and that is a wonderful place to be.

I invite you to visit my other blog at blogger.

MeridianWoman@BlogSpot.Com