Tag: harmony

A Place of Refreshment & Renewal

His pain is the labor by which you are given birth into the Kingdom.

Meditation Thought: “…not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)

“Expand! Be flexible – allow Me to stretch your abilities and talents – not by a forcing on My part for your good, but at My touch, yield willingly so that I may expand you gently. Do you not understand the message sent by My Son? His pain is the labor by which you are given birth into the Kingdom – as soon as you acknowledge Him as your Savior you are thrust into My Kingdom. My Kingdom is not a hostile environment for you: it is your place of refuge, your home, where you can be refreshed and renewed between bouts into the world.

My will is that you take advantage of all I offer you as the provider and head of your Kingdom-home. You must be willing to reach, to stretch, to give in order to be able to mature as a knowledgeable, effective member of My family. That is the meaning of “not what I will, but what you will.” If My Son, who is an integral part of Me, perfected in obedience, must struggle with choice, can you be excused from choice? No – you must struggle, must decide; but you have His example – follow it as an assurance of the working of my will in your life. The working of My will is the fulfillment of your heart’s desire: not your whim of the moment, but the deep, soul-longing need to be at peace and harmony with Me.”

An Open Door

Ask, seek, knock: you will learn, you will find, you will have the barrier removed – the door opened – to the kingdom.

Meditation Thought: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:19)

Your physical existence and your physical environment are your artistic tools with which to express your physical life.

You have understood rightly the spiritual affecting the physical – but you have not understood that your choice of living out the physical is reflected directly into the spiritual and eternal.

Though the spiritual precedes the physical, once both exist, the one affects the other.

You have not perceived that the physical is as necessary as it actually is. If you get enthused about expressing yourself through the physical as an act which looses and binds in the spiritual, you will accomplish more visible results in your life.

You like to contemplate and dream – fine. But do not overuse time in this manner.

To use energy to improve physical manifestations is not an inferior occupation: it is merely another expression of your life to complement the intellectual and spiritual aspects.

Therefore, when through circumstances and the prompting of he Spirit you are led to be aware of physical needs or desirable physical deeds – do them – gladly, enthusiastically, competently. The quality of performance is reflected in the spiritual realm as surely as the quality of your spiritual life is reflected in your physical life.

You must be as willing to express one as the other, depending upon the requirements of the moment.

The “keys of the kingdom” are the principles upon which creation – in my image, as pure and holy, as creative and lovely, as peace and harmony, as wholeness and unity – is based.

Wherever you bring filth onto being purified, sacrilege into holiness, inertia into creativity, ugliness into loveliness, strife into peace, discord into harmony, fragmentation into wholeness, and friction into unity, you are using the keys of the kingdom to open it wide, to bring the fragmentation – the separation – of spiritual and physical into unity. You combine the kingdom and the earth, as the original combination was conceived and came into existence. You return to the innocence and purity of life without sin. This is the reflection of the Father; this is the imitation of the Son; this is life as it was intended to be: by choice, not by demand.

You do not understand much of what exists, either physically or spiritually, but you do know that there are expressions in both areas, you do know that you are capable – intended, to be fully expressed in both.

Ask, seek, knock: you will learn, you will find, you will have the barrier removed – the door opened – to the kingdom.

You have asked where the keys may be found, you have sought them – and you have found them – in the Word, in the Spirit and in the physical.

Now walk through the open door, as you insert the keys and turn them through the measure of faith I have given you being used: in the spiritual through worship and prayer – in the physical through constant proper use and improvement.

Truly, what you bind and loose on earth shall be bound and loosed in heaven.

In the binding and the loosing shall be the creation of a “new heaven and a new earth” – fitting together, enhancing one another, becoming a whole out of fragmentation.

Glimpses of Heaven

Fret not that there are rocky paths and high mountains. I am here to help you move around them and over them. Do you understand that I traveled them first? I am an authentic, competent guide. Trust Me!

Meditation Thought: Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” Mark 14:38

“Watch. Be conscious of who you are and where you are and what you are doing. Be especially aware that you are not alone. I am with you. Fear not. Fret not. Regret not. Simply walk with Me, communing in harmony, moving constantly toward a more perfect relationship and a more perfect understanding of what is taking place and My guidance in that situation.

Remember our past walks together – many roads frightened you – but it was these roads which let us commune in a more vital and closer way. So it shall be again. This road is difficult for you to travel – but you are not travelling alone, nor are you travelling without a perfect destination for you and I to travel to and revel in at the end of the journey.

You are fascinated that you experience more than the physical qualities of life. You love “coincidences” that bring joy to you or to someone else. Do not forget your inspirational moments and the results of them. These moments are not the only moments you are to experience. Trials are a part of life on earth – but trials are also a way of moving closer to heaven – not simply heaven after death of the body, but glimpses of heaven while you are on earth.

TRUST: It is a pattern of life that the one who needs knowledge must seek it to find it. You are on the Way; fret not that there are rocky paths and high mountains. I am here to help you move around them and over them. Do you understand that I traveled them first? I am an authentic, competent guide. Trust Me!

 

The beginning

Just as a drop of food coloring will make water a pale tint, as you add more drops, it becomes vivid – a complete change. So as we let Jesus come into our lives, we are completely changed.

Mom had a well-established routine of prayer time and meditation before she ever began recording them in these journals. (See about this blog page.) We are forever grateful to her friend Mary Lou for giving her the blank book that inspired her to begin writing them down. Today’s entry is from the first page of the first book.

“For a long time I have wanted to keep a journal of family events and spiritual progress – of ideas as they come, feelings, etc. Much is lost, but I hope to keep a current record now, and as time (and memory) permit, to reflect on what has happened previously.”

The entry is fairly long, and totally awesome, and I will type the whole thing here – but if you don’t have time to read it all, let me start with an illustration from the middle so you don’t miss that:

“Just as a drop of food coloring will make water a pale tint, as you add more drops, it becomes vivid – a complete change. So as we let Jesus come into our lives, and as the Holy Spirit guides us, and we become more and more mature Christians, our lives are completely changed.”

Now, back to the beginning…

“This morning I had a particularly moving prayer and meditation time. For some time I have been concerned that my desire for beauty, harmony and order was a selfish, impractical desire. However, today it seemed God was conveying to me that He has a plan for each of us – that He made us in His image, yet each person uniquely fitted for the job he is do do. The qualities of beauty, harmony and order are all in keeping with His World and His Word.

It seemed I was to do my work through qualities of yielding, softness – although these are not particularly in my character, it seemed that (as experienced in ‘My Heart’ – ‘Christ’s Home’) – if I will relax and let Jesus guide my hands (tongue, etc.) He will reach others through me, using these very qualities of beauty, harmony and order that are comforting to me, and yet have up til now been a source of aggravation because I could not attain them to my satisfaction.

I turned in the Bible then to Romans 10:8 through 15:6. It all seemed very clear. Especially interesting: 10:15 ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace with God.’ Also 11:6 ‘And since Abraham and the prophets are God’s people, their children will be too. For if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be too.’

12:3 ‘Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has has given you. Just as there are many parts to our bodies, so it is with Christ’s body. We are all parts of it, and it takes every one of us to make it complete, for we each have different work to do… (6) God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well.’

13:9 ‘All 10 (commandments) are wrapped up in this one, to love your neighbor as you love yourself… It is the only law you need.’

In meditation, I had the concept that just as a drop of food coloring will make water a pale tint, as you add more drops, it becomes vivid – a complete change. So as we let Jesus come into our lives, and as the Holy Spirit guides us, and we become more and more mature Christians, our lives are completely changed.

Romans 13 ‘Obey the government.’ (Obey authority: This brings order.)

Romans 12:18 ‘Don’t quarrel with anyone. Be at peace with everyone, just as much as possible.’

Late afternoon – Karen came in to talk with me, and I was writing in mid-afternoon. We had a wonderful discussion about God, and I felt I wanted to see if she’d like to read “A Man Called Peter”. She read one of the sermons to me while I ironed and washed dishes. She really liked it and wants to read the book. Then we read ‘The 4 Spiritual Laws’ and the ‘Holy Spirit’ booklets. It’s been a wonderful day – thank you Lord!”

I would have been 12 at the time and don’t have a specific memory of that day but reading about it brings a smile and a warm sense of love. So typical of a summer day with my Mom. Today is my birthday – this entry is her birthday gift to me. I echo her sentiment “Thank you Lord!”

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