Category: Love

Wise and Gracious: a Guide

Through my penetrating Spirit you shall bring delight, joy, hope, strength, determination of purpose.

Meditation Thought: “ Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Colossians 4:5-6)

Conduct yourself according to My Word and you shall conduct yourself wisely. Speak My Word and you shall speak graciously. You cannot use My Word as your guide if you do not know My Word so thoroughly that you are able to understand it and to use it.

Saturate your mind and your heart with My Word, for as the Word penetrates into your very being, it transforms you through the power of the indwelling Spirit.

The truth of My Spirit – the power of My Spirit – the grace of My Spirit – the forgiving nature of My Spirit: the Love of My Spirit – shall be as the most delicate, enhancing flavoring to be savored by both you and those who know you.

Through my penetrating Spirit you shall bring delight, joy, hope, strength, determination of purpose.

Freedom from Fear; Joy Released

You are free of that you feared.

Meditation Thought: “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.” (Colossians 1:21-23)

Little child, do you tremble because you have done wrong and you fear the consequences? You would undo what you did – but you cannot… you shrink from the future, knowing the past makes it unattractive.

And then, One comes before you, taking the consequences, intervening on your behalf, deflecting the pain you were sure would come. You are free of that you feared.

The relief! A chance to start anew! Will you thank the One who rescued you? Will you share the good news that there is an Intermediary who will arrange pardon for your sentence?

Will you have faith, believe that your Friend is true to you, and desires above all else to help you discover life’s purpose and joy?

Will you come into intimate fellowship with this Person who reveals to you your Father and His love, who brings light to remove the fears and the stumbling that exist in darkness?

If you choose, by faith in His Word, by pleasing to do His will – He who is the Image of the Father, for He is One with the Father – to conform yourself to His personality and teachings, then are you the expression of the Father on earth, with the dross of self-will and evil removed from you by the sacrifice of your Friend’s pain substituted for your pain: your appreciation of His stepping in to take the consequences of your unwise choices is the healing of His pain, the releasing of joy in His heart!

No Anxiety

…the key to releasing faith that works, converting it from passive faith of possibility into active faith of moving mountains. 

Meditation Thought: “Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6)

If you already have everything you desire, how can you need to seek? To ask? To question? To move on? Life is movement; death is still.

It is good to need to request, for in the process the relationship is strengthened. Always – in heaven and on earth – appreciation is heart-warming, and creates an atmosphere of acceptance on both sides.

When we can turn in prayer for everything in our lives, confident that our prayers are heard and answered, then we are not anxious, but thankful. We are able to be thankful before our petition is granted.

The appreciation for what we already have, and the confidence that our Father desires good to continue and increase in our lives by His power and grace, is the key to releasing faith that works, converting it from passive faith of possibility into active faith of moving mountains.

Eternal Love

Expand your concept as love working in you, love turning everything touched by you into a more accurate image of God and His Kingdom.

Meditation Thought: “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13

Love is at work in you, both to will and to work for the pleasure of all of creation; which is the pleasure of the Creator: For the created is the image of the Creator when the will of the Creator is followed.

Expand your concept as love working in you, love turning everything touched by you into a more accurate image of God and His Kingdom.

You see, you feel, you touch.
But what lies beneath,
Hidden – and yet revealed by all that is seen?
Is there love, light, delight?
Is there good, purity, truth?
Is there joy and hope and purpose too?
Then Eternal Love lies hidden within your spirit, mind and soul.
This power, not seen, not felt, not touched,
Transforms the world – for all to see, to feel, to touch,
With awakened sense of Right and Good and Peace forevermore.

 

A Compelling Mystery

No longer must we plod along, confused, not knowing where to turn  – discouraged by set-backs, lacking hope of better things to come.

Meditation Thought: “… a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 2:16)

We are not justified by mechanical acts – but by the inspiration of the awareness of our spirit to the revelations of the Spirit, and an appreciation of what these revelations mean to us: totally new life. No longer must we plod along, confused, not knowing where to turn  – discouraged by set-backs, lacking hope of better things to come.

For Jesus came from the Father to teach us the meaning of our existence – and the extent of it: not just our physical self and environment, but the glories and joys of the spiritual self and spiritual environment.

No more that the surgeon’s observation of the physical parts of the brain can discern the thoughts and memories contained therein, can our pursuit of the physical aspect of life reveal the meaning of life – the purpose toward which it leads.

To be touched – however lightly – by the significance of Jesus’ sojourn on earth – is the beginning of the possibility of life in a totally new dimension. If we have the energy and the courage to respond to this touch, we are started on a compelling mystery, a constant challenge, and a revelation of knowledge and feelings and actions previously uncomprehended.

Our hope is in Him, our strength is in Him, our knowledge is in Him, our love is in Him: The Father gave Him to us, and He came, sacrificing willingly all His power, glory, will, that we might be saved from sin and reconciled with the Father. He came to show us the way back to the Father and of the Father: we cannot deny our inheritance: we are born of the Father.

 

Hearing Aid

We need to be expecting to hear God at any moment – at every moment.

Meditation Thought: “The voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.” (Psalm 29:4)

Some kinds of waves can penetrate some materials, but not others – there are sound waves, light waves, infrared rays, etc. – but the only ‘wave’ that can penetrate any place at any time is God’s voice: of instruction, of help, of hope, of love, of power.

When we are expecting to hear a voice, we are more likely to hear it when it comes. We need to be expecting to hear God at any moment – at every moment. Then the “still, small voice” is amplified so that it becomes clear and incisive and penetrating, enabling us to know that God’s will is for us at that moment.

Flying Lessons

Do you know that I created you to love you, to interact with you, to have adventures with you?

“Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, the will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:30-31)

“I am here. Do you believe Me? Do you realize that you could not exist if I had not created you? Do you know that I created you to love you, to interact with you, to have adventures with you? You do? Then base your thoughts and your actions on these promises. This is the key to the kingdom.”

 

Over. Come.

The evil says “come”  the Lord says “come”. We must decide where to go.

Meditation Thought: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)

Overcome: Over. Come: “over” implies a movement upward – we move “up” to God’s higher methods, more effective methods, when we consult Him. “Come” – implies the invitation to movement. The evil says “come”  the Lord says “come”. We must decide where to go.

We have our “manual” – all we need to do is to consult it, to determine which destination we must choose. Good is always concerned with love, with peace, with joy, with giving – evil is always concerned with malice, with conflict, with envy, with taking.

 

Perceive the Valley from the Mountain

Our role is to share our experiences, to share our knowledge, and to share our love which has been quickened.

Meditation Thought: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

To be baptized is an act of being set apart for special service – the observing of the commandments is the nature of the service – the presence of Jesus is the moving power of the service. The baptizing, or setting apart, is the reason that those who believe cannot behave as the crowd behaves.

It is as if Christ takes us to the top of the mountain, where we can come to new perspective and knowledge of the valley, and then we can go back to the valley to share our new knowledge and wisdom to help others, and to urge them to go for themselves to find the new view of the valley.

Living in the valley after the trip up to the mountain is not the same as before the trip – it is more intense in every way, for awareness is sharpened, and new knowledge changes perception. Some will resent the ‘differences’, others will see it as being desirable and wish to take the trip too; our role is to share our experiences, to share our knowledge, and to share our love which has been quickened. Thus we provide the opportunity for our neighbors to respond to our sharing, and through their response, Jesus moves. And so the process becomes a ‘making disciples of all nations’.

(When we look at the world with our human eyes only, it is as if we look at a map in a book. When we look at it with spiritual eyes, we see it as a globe with topographical markings added – we can perceive so much more of the true qualities when we have a more complete perspective.)

Turning From, Turning Towards

Your task is to learn of My methods, of My attitudes, of My will in general and My will in particular – and then in prayer, in yielding to the Spirit, speak and act. 

Meditation Thought: “For it is God’s will that by doing right, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.” (1 Peter 2:15)

“Take your cue from Me – I only invite, suggest, touch lightly, lovingly. The response is left to the one touched. But it is when you are behaving in imitation of My ways that the response is likely to be positive – a response which will turn one from selfishness, from foolishness, from sin – toward love, consideration, wisdom, respect, righteousness.

Your task is to learn of My methods, of My attitudes, of My will in general and My will in particular – and then in prayer, in yielding to the Spirit, speak and act.

When you are in this state, you are doing My work, and when you are doing My works, it will not be in vain.”