Pentecost 13 (Luke 13: 10-17)
You are set free.
Jesus Christ is the liberator of humanity.
In this event the woman not only experiences personal and individual liberation, she represents the liberation God offers all people in Christ.
There are two basic aspects to liberation. There is that from which we are delivered. There is that to which we are set free.
The woman was physically crippled. She was so bent over that she could not stand straight. She could only look at the ground. Her ailment was physical. Her ailment was also spiritual.
As a physician, Luke understood the causes and cures of disease. He also understood that as a doctor he could cure a disease and still see the patient languish in illness. He knew there was an additional step in healing. That additional step is wholeness.
Luke tells us that the woman had a spirit that crippled her. From the text, it is clear this is not demon possession. Demons are not the source of this crippling condition. The text is clear that Jesus healed the woman; he did not perform an exorcism.
What then is the spirit that crippled the woman?
Modern physicians are beginning to discover what ancient physicians had observed for centuries. You can cure an illness and the patient can still remain sick. Illness is more than a physical event in the body. It touches our emotions, our thoughts, and our spirits.
The spirit afflicting the crippled woman was not a demon imposing itself on her from the outside. It was her own spirit. The Bible doesn’t directly address the cause. There is a hint as to the cause.
The hint is the day Jesus chose to heal the woman. It was the Sabbath Day. It was the day God set aside for people to immerse themselves into the Divine love and holiness by which, through which, and for which we were all created.
Somewhere in her personal history, the woman had made a choice that led to a series of choices. She had taken her eyes off God and become obsessed with the things of this world. Her physical ailment mirrored her spiritual malady.
In this respect, the woman is representative of the entire human species. All of us collectively have chosen to separate from God. Each of us chooses to look away from God in our own unique and personal choices.
More often than not, the choice to look away from God is subtle. It is not the so called great sins that lead away from God. It is the little sins. It is the choice to set priorities that place God second. If we place God second we place God last. Those little choices that place God second have a cumulative effect on our spirits. For some of us it leads to the more overt and dramatic sins. For some of us is leads to a spiritual stagnation. For all of us is leads to greater brokenness, isolation and alienation.
Human choice impresses the human spirit. Human choice proceeds from the inner depths of the soul. Our Heavenly Father designed our souls to be temples of the Holy Spirit so we could enjoy an eternal friendship with God the Son.
St. Augustine observed that there are only two fundamental loves for the soul to pursue. There is the love of self which leads to separation, isolation, sin and death. There is the love of God which leads to reunification, communitu, holiness and eternal life.
The Sabbath Day is the day God sets aside for people to immerse ourselves into the steadfast holy love of God. It is the guidance, the boundary and the invitation to choose the love of God as the love that forms our soul and characterizes our spirit. The preeminent means by which we do this is worship.
Through worship we participate in the holiness of God. The holiness of God is the wholeness of eternal love. The Pharisees missed this fundamental truth. They heard the outward and visible law of the Sabbath command but they missed the inward and spiritual grace.
Jesus clarifies the law for the Pharisees, his disciples, the woman and us as he comments: is this wqman not a daughter of Abraham?
The healing that leads to wholeness takes place in relationship. Jesus reminds us that God entered into a personal relationship with Abraham. God formed Abraham and his descendants into a chosen vessel of blessing. The meaning and purpose of the blessing is to bring the blessing to others.
The Pharisees were exclusive and judgmental. They missed the blessing of the Sabbath. They ignored the principle of holiness as wholeness. They sacrificed compassion for rigid definition and harsh judgment.
Jesus healed on the Sabbath because the Sabbath Day of rest is the day of holiness, wholeness and eternal love.
There are two important principles for us to consider. First: healing is more than curing. Healing of the body can only be completed through healing of the spirit.
The second principle is the principle of the Sabbath Day rest. God wants us to enjoy a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. God sets aside one day in seven as a day of eternal love.
Every Sabbath Day is an invitation to immerse our selves, our souls and bodies into the reality of God’s blessing. When we resist the call to worship on the Sabbath Day we chose to re immerse our souls in the original “no” of original sin.
The resistance to the Sabbath Day of Rest is a “no” to God who invites us to meet him at the altar to receive the blessing. It is a “no” to other people to whom God wants us to carry the blessing. It is a “no” to our own souls which God formed to hold the blessing.
Jesus not only healed the woman of her disease, he restored her spirit to wholeness. He reminded her she was a child of God. He met her personally on the Sabbath Day of Divine Blessing. And, he reminded his students, his enemies, and us that the Sabbath Day is the eternal day God has set aside for us to meet him, receive his blessing, be transformed by his blessing and then carry that blessing into the world of time.
On the Sabbath Day, Jesus sets us free from the tyranny of time into the liberating blessing of eternal love. It is always our choice. As Jesus stood before the crippled woman so he stands before us.
Do you wish to be set free to enjoy the blessings God offers? Jesus has come into the world to bring the reality of liberation through the call to holiness, the call to wholeness, the call to eternal love.
For those who desire to receive the blessing Jesus speaks a new reality into our souls, our soirit, our lives: you are set free.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Pentecost 12
Pentecost 12 (Luke 12:49-56)
I came to bring fire to the earth.
Jesus is the fullness of God in human flesh. Jesus has come to restore to humanity what we lost. What we lost is the fire of divine love.
Jesus says he has a baptism with which to be baptized. That baptism is his death on the cross. It is a baptism into death through his own life’s blood.
The Fire Jesus has come to kindle is the Pentecostal fire of the Holy Spirit. It is the divine wind and the divine flames that gave birth to the one holy catholic and apostolic church. It is the new life and the new way of living Jesus wants to give us.
Jesus understands very well that the new life will cause division and strife. As Jesus suffered opposition from his own people so those who receive his gift and proclaim his gift will also suffer opposition from their families and friends.
For the first three hundred years of the Christian Faith it was illegal to be a Christian. The Synagogues denounced the Christians for blasphemy. The blasphemy was the incarnation, the teaching that God became a particular human being in Jesus Christ.
Pagans denounced the Christians for atheism. The pagans could not understand how the Christians could ignore the hundreds of deities the world honored and worshipped.
No one is born a Christian. Jesus taught that all who are born into this world exist in a state of separation from God. Jesus taught that all people need a second birth, a spiritual birth.
The first birth leads to a life of fear, self will and pride. The first birth leads to a life of separation, sin and death. The second birth leads to reunification with the eternal love of God. The second birth produces a new way of living.
Jesus’ followers initially described themselves a followers of the Way. The enemies of the church called them little Christs, Christians. The believers took an insult and turned it into a badge of honor. They said- yes, we are little Christ’s because we have received the gift of reunification with God in Christ.
It would have been so easy to make the necessary compromises to avoid persecution. It would have been so easy for the apostles to assure the Synagogue that they were speaking metaphorically not literally. It would have been so easy for the church to say to the pagans: there are many ways to God. We honor your way even as we seek to follow our way. It would have been so easy to compromise if in fact the apostles had not personally experienced the reality of divine love in Jesus Christ. It would have been so easy to compromise if in fact the apostles had not experienced the reality of the Holy Spirit in the Pentecost fires.
Jesus did not come to Earth to offer an opinion about God. Jesus did not die on the cross to offer one religious option among many possible religious options. Jesus did not rise from the dead and conquer death to condemn anyone.
Jesus came and died and rose again to restore lost souls to the divine love of God the Father through the Pentecostal fires of God the Holy Spirit. The apostles faithfully proclaimed the Good News that in Christ God offers all people everywhere forgiveness of sin, transformation of sin, and liberation from sin.
The message of Christ is a life or death message. That is why Jesus understood very well that his presence on this planet would enkindle a reaction of fear and self will that would lead to his death. Jesus did not die as a martyr for a cause. He died to trap death in his own body so he could transform death into eternal life by the power of eternal love.
Jesus never authorized any of his followers to kill for him. Jesus has never authorized holy war. Nevertheless, Jesus understood that a lost, sinful and rebellious humanity would violently oppose the Plan of Salvation. Jesus understood that the world of sin and death can only bring forth sin and death.
That is why Jesus warned his followers that those who receive the second birth into the kingdom of love and life will meet opposition, persecution and sometimes death.
More Christians died for their faith in the twenty century than in all previous centuries. A world of sin and death can only react to the Plan of Salvation through rebellion, opposition and violence.
The stakes are high. The stakes are life and death. Jesus warns us that as we are loyal to him we will experience division. Jesus promises us that as we are loyal to him we will experience the Pentecostal fires of divine love.
Jesus died to save the world. The apostles died to bring the gift of salvation to the world. Countless numbers of Christians through the centuries have died because of their loyalty to our heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ.
The signs of the times are in loyalty, opposition and indifference. An indifferent church is a dead church. It meets little or no opposition because it has little or no message. A loyal church, loyal to the person of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation he embodies, will meet opposition. A loyal church will also receive the gift of the Pentecostal fires of divine love.
Jesus looks at the church and tells us: I have come to bring fire to the earth. It is the Pentecostal fire of the Holy Spirit. It is the new life of the second birth. It is the new life of transforming grace. The sign of the Pentecostal fire is in the passionate loyalty to Christ we express in our lives.
It is the Holy Spirit who empowered the apostles and generations of Christians to live for Christ and to die for Christ. He will empower us as well. As reunification with God is Christ’s gift to us, so the indwelling Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit is His gift to us.
Ask. Ask that you may be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to live the new life Christ offers. Ask that your new life would help you to interpret the times in which we live. Ask that you may live the Way the truth and the life God offers in Jesus Christ.
I came to bring fire to the earth.
Jesus is the fullness of God in human flesh. Jesus has come to restore to humanity what we lost. What we lost is the fire of divine love.
Jesus says he has a baptism with which to be baptized. That baptism is his death on the cross. It is a baptism into death through his own life’s blood.
The Fire Jesus has come to kindle is the Pentecostal fire of the Holy Spirit. It is the divine wind and the divine flames that gave birth to the one holy catholic and apostolic church. It is the new life and the new way of living Jesus wants to give us.
Jesus understands very well that the new life will cause division and strife. As Jesus suffered opposition from his own people so those who receive his gift and proclaim his gift will also suffer opposition from their families and friends.
For the first three hundred years of the Christian Faith it was illegal to be a Christian. The Synagogues denounced the Christians for blasphemy. The blasphemy was the incarnation, the teaching that God became a particular human being in Jesus Christ.
Pagans denounced the Christians for atheism. The pagans could not understand how the Christians could ignore the hundreds of deities the world honored and worshipped.
No one is born a Christian. Jesus taught that all who are born into this world exist in a state of separation from God. Jesus taught that all people need a second birth, a spiritual birth.
The first birth leads to a life of fear, self will and pride. The first birth leads to a life of separation, sin and death. The second birth leads to reunification with the eternal love of God. The second birth produces a new way of living.
Jesus’ followers initially described themselves a followers of the Way. The enemies of the church called them little Christs, Christians. The believers took an insult and turned it into a badge of honor. They said- yes, we are little Christ’s because we have received the gift of reunification with God in Christ.
It would have been so easy to make the necessary compromises to avoid persecution. It would have been so easy for the apostles to assure the Synagogue that they were speaking metaphorically not literally. It would have been so easy for the church to say to the pagans: there are many ways to God. We honor your way even as we seek to follow our way. It would have been so easy to compromise if in fact the apostles had not personally experienced the reality of divine love in Jesus Christ. It would have been so easy to compromise if in fact the apostles had not experienced the reality of the Holy Spirit in the Pentecost fires.
Jesus did not come to Earth to offer an opinion about God. Jesus did not die on the cross to offer one religious option among many possible religious options. Jesus did not rise from the dead and conquer death to condemn anyone.
Jesus came and died and rose again to restore lost souls to the divine love of God the Father through the Pentecostal fires of God the Holy Spirit. The apostles faithfully proclaimed the Good News that in Christ God offers all people everywhere forgiveness of sin, transformation of sin, and liberation from sin.
The message of Christ is a life or death message. That is why Jesus understood very well that his presence on this planet would enkindle a reaction of fear and self will that would lead to his death. Jesus did not die as a martyr for a cause. He died to trap death in his own body so he could transform death into eternal life by the power of eternal love.
Jesus never authorized any of his followers to kill for him. Jesus has never authorized holy war. Nevertheless, Jesus understood that a lost, sinful and rebellious humanity would violently oppose the Plan of Salvation. Jesus understood that the world of sin and death can only bring forth sin and death.
That is why Jesus warned his followers that those who receive the second birth into the kingdom of love and life will meet opposition, persecution and sometimes death.
More Christians died for their faith in the twenty century than in all previous centuries. A world of sin and death can only react to the Plan of Salvation through rebellion, opposition and violence.
The stakes are high. The stakes are life and death. Jesus warns us that as we are loyal to him we will experience division. Jesus promises us that as we are loyal to him we will experience the Pentecostal fires of divine love.
Jesus died to save the world. The apostles died to bring the gift of salvation to the world. Countless numbers of Christians through the centuries have died because of their loyalty to our heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in Jesus Christ.
The signs of the times are in loyalty, opposition and indifference. An indifferent church is a dead church. It meets little or no opposition because it has little or no message. A loyal church, loyal to the person of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation he embodies, will meet opposition. A loyal church will also receive the gift of the Pentecostal fires of divine love.
Jesus looks at the church and tells us: I have come to bring fire to the earth. It is the Pentecostal fire of the Holy Spirit. It is the new life of the second birth. It is the new life of transforming grace. The sign of the Pentecostal fire is in the passionate loyalty to Christ we express in our lives.
It is the Holy Spirit who empowered the apostles and generations of Christians to live for Christ and to die for Christ. He will empower us as well. As reunification with God is Christ’s gift to us, so the indwelling Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit is His gift to us.
Ask. Ask that you may be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to live the new life Christ offers. Ask that your new life would help you to interpret the times in which we live. Ask that you may live the Way the truth and the life God offers in Jesus Christ.
Pentecost 11
Pentecost 11 (Luke 12:32-40)
Do not be afraid, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
God wants to bless us. God not only wants to give us the Kingdom, it is Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom.
The Kingdom is characterized by three fundamental virtues: faith, hope, and charity. The Kingdom is a new life and a new way of living.
The new life begins in the waters of baptism. God uses ordinary water to be a sign and a reality of the gift of that new life. In the sacrament of baptism, God the Father pours forth God the Holy Spirit to give us a new birth into the risen life of God the Son. We receive the gift of the Kingdom through the waters of baptism.
The new way of living is nourished through the bread and wine of Holy Communion. God the Father sends God the Holy Spirit to transform bread and wine into the body and blood of God the Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus infuses his own divine light, and life and love into our souls through the blessed sacrament of the altar.
The Good News Jesus brings to the world is that it is God’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. The Kingdom is a gift. We can’t earn it. It is available to everyone.
God wants to bless us. The obstacle to the blessings of the Kingdom of God is three fold: fear, self will and pride.
In the gospel reading this morning Jesus sets before us a reassurance, an assignment, and a goal.
The reassurance comes in the words “do not be afraid.” Jesus knows that much of human life is distorted by fear. Fear erodes and destroys faith. But, grace can transform fear back into faith.
The great fear that people in Jesus’ day felt was the fear of divine anger. People believed in a god of rewards and punishments. This god made many demands as a condition for his rewards. Sadly, those who live with fear also live with anger. Those who live by religious principles of rewards and punishment also bring forth an ethic of rewards and punishments in the way they treat other people. As people expect God to punish any misbehavior or imperfection so they feel justified in treating other people in the same way. So people adopt an attitude towards life, other people, even God that if we get what we want we will be nice in return. If we don’t get what we want we will retaliate in some active or passive aggressive way.
Fear and anger produce a spirit of pride. Pride states that I and only I know who God is and what God wants. Therefore, I am righteous and you are not. Since I am righteous and you are not I am perfectly justified in imposing my will on you, life, and even God.
Jesus reassures us that God is not angry. He does not relate to us on the principle of rewards and punishments. If you are suffering it is not a sign that you sinned, that God is angry with you, and that you are being punished. It is OK that you are not perfect. It is Ok to learn and grow. God will transform our sins back into their original virtues. The reassurance Jesus gives us is in the words: it is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. God delights in giving. God is the eternal fountain of blessings.
That fount of blessings sets free from the narrow brittle rigidity of rewards and punishments into a new life of compassion. God fills us with the eternal abundance of uncreated love. That love liberates us from the narrow constriction of fear into the abundance of faith, hope, and charity. From that fount of blessing we can immerse ourselves in the abundance of blessing and become a blessing to others.
Fear always limits abundance and produces scarcity. The antidote to fear is faith. Jesus came into the world to demonstrate God’s grace. Jesus is the gift of God. Jesus reveals God’s nature and God’s character by his own actions.
Jesus is the abundance of eternal life pouring himself out to all sorts and conditions of people. In his self giving he invites us to live by faith. He invites us to transform self will into love.
The love Jesus demonstrates is the active, dynamic, creative self giving love of God. We cannot generate this kind of love. We can experience it. We can open our souls to receive the outpouring of this love and become living channels of this love.
Jesus commends the way of active compassion as a means for us to open to the gift of divine love so we can become the living channels of grace.
Since God gives us the kingdom as a gift, since God gives us faith to transform fear, Jesus gives us an assignment to practice our faith through acts of charity: giving alms. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Giving opens our souls to become channels of grace. As we give we become a blessing to others. As we become a blessing to others we live life from the place of blessing.
In addition to giving alms, Jesus also gives us an assignment to be dressed for action, Light your lamps, and prepare. He uses the parable of the servants preparing for their master’s return from the wedding banquet. They don’t know when he will return. The servants are focused on the preparation to receive the master when he returns. That preparation is their priority.
To dress for action is to live the principle that faith produces action. A soldier dresses for military action so he can fight effectively. A farmer dresses to work in the field so he can work effectively. A servant of Christ dresses for a life of faith by wearing the robes of faith. Metaphorically, the robes of faith come from the new life of grace, the new way of living in the abundance of love and compassion.
Faith is the basis for the choices we make in life. The choice to light the lamps is a choice to wake up and to live in the light of truth. The truth is that God is love. The truth is that God is holiness. The truth is that God gives himself to everyone in Jesus Christ. The truth is that as we receive the gift of God in Jesus Christ we receive the gift of a new life and a new way of living. We live from a place of active creative transforming love and holiness.
We dress in the garments of faith for action. We light the lamps of holiness to prepare for the master to return. We offer our minds, and hearts and wills to be transformed by God. We prepare for the King to return as we reset our priorities to accomplish his plan and purpose for our lives, the church and the world. We prepare for the King to return as we offer God our sins to be transformed back into their original virtues. Do not be overwhelmed by your sins. Do not shrink back from recognizing your sins. Your sins are the hidden jewels of the treasury of heaven that the Holy Spirit will transform to shine in their original brightness. Acknowledge your sins and present them to God to be transformed back into their original virtues.
Jesus reassures us that God gives us a new life from the infinite abundance of his love. There is no punishment. The reward is Jesus himself.
Jesus gives us an assignment to live a new life by immersing ourselves in self giving and personal transformation. Jesus sets before us a goal for our lives. Be ready.
Be ready to welcome the personal return of Jesus Christ to this planet. Be ready by making a real choice to ask the Holy Spirit to transform fear, self will and pride into faith, hope and love. Be ready by seeking the blessing of God, by receiving the blessing of God, and by being the blessing of God.
Life is difficult. Life has many challenges, many joys and many sorrows. Apart from God, people react to the challenges of life with fear. Fear produces the demand of self will . Self will justifies its demands through pride. Life becomes a struggle to endure, a vicious cycle of fear, frustration, anger, and demand.
Jesus offers us a different way of living. It is the life of grace. It is the reality that God is love even when bad things happen. The reality of God is not in rewards and punishments of wealth or poverty, pleasure or pain, power or defeat. The reality of God is in the personal relationship God offers us in Jesus Christ.
The Kingdom of God is that relationship. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give us, and all people everywhere, those blessings of faith, hope and love in the gift of Jesus Christ.
Do not be afraid, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
God wants to bless us. God not only wants to give us the Kingdom, it is Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom.
The Kingdom is characterized by three fundamental virtues: faith, hope, and charity. The Kingdom is a new life and a new way of living.
The new life begins in the waters of baptism. God uses ordinary water to be a sign and a reality of the gift of that new life. In the sacrament of baptism, God the Father pours forth God the Holy Spirit to give us a new birth into the risen life of God the Son. We receive the gift of the Kingdom through the waters of baptism.
The new way of living is nourished through the bread and wine of Holy Communion. God the Father sends God the Holy Spirit to transform bread and wine into the body and blood of God the Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus infuses his own divine light, and life and love into our souls through the blessed sacrament of the altar.
The Good News Jesus brings to the world is that it is God’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. The Kingdom is a gift. We can’t earn it. It is available to everyone.
God wants to bless us. The obstacle to the blessings of the Kingdom of God is three fold: fear, self will and pride.
In the gospel reading this morning Jesus sets before us a reassurance, an assignment, and a goal.
The reassurance comes in the words “do not be afraid.” Jesus knows that much of human life is distorted by fear. Fear erodes and destroys faith. But, grace can transform fear back into faith.
The great fear that people in Jesus’ day felt was the fear of divine anger. People believed in a god of rewards and punishments. This god made many demands as a condition for his rewards. Sadly, those who live with fear also live with anger. Those who live by religious principles of rewards and punishment also bring forth an ethic of rewards and punishments in the way they treat other people. As people expect God to punish any misbehavior or imperfection so they feel justified in treating other people in the same way. So people adopt an attitude towards life, other people, even God that if we get what we want we will be nice in return. If we don’t get what we want we will retaliate in some active or passive aggressive way.
Fear and anger produce a spirit of pride. Pride states that I and only I know who God is and what God wants. Therefore, I am righteous and you are not. Since I am righteous and you are not I am perfectly justified in imposing my will on you, life, and even God.
Jesus reassures us that God is not angry. He does not relate to us on the principle of rewards and punishments. If you are suffering it is not a sign that you sinned, that God is angry with you, and that you are being punished. It is OK that you are not perfect. It is Ok to learn and grow. God will transform our sins back into their original virtues. The reassurance Jesus gives us is in the words: it is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. God delights in giving. God is the eternal fountain of blessings.
That fount of blessings sets free from the narrow brittle rigidity of rewards and punishments into a new life of compassion. God fills us with the eternal abundance of uncreated love. That love liberates us from the narrow constriction of fear into the abundance of faith, hope, and charity. From that fount of blessing we can immerse ourselves in the abundance of blessing and become a blessing to others.
Fear always limits abundance and produces scarcity. The antidote to fear is faith. Jesus came into the world to demonstrate God’s grace. Jesus is the gift of God. Jesus reveals God’s nature and God’s character by his own actions.
Jesus is the abundance of eternal life pouring himself out to all sorts and conditions of people. In his self giving he invites us to live by faith. He invites us to transform self will into love.
The love Jesus demonstrates is the active, dynamic, creative self giving love of God. We cannot generate this kind of love. We can experience it. We can open our souls to receive the outpouring of this love and become living channels of this love.
Jesus commends the way of active compassion as a means for us to open to the gift of divine love so we can become the living channels of grace.
Since God gives us the kingdom as a gift, since God gives us faith to transform fear, Jesus gives us an assignment to practice our faith through acts of charity: giving alms. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Giving opens our souls to become channels of grace. As we give we become a blessing to others. As we become a blessing to others we live life from the place of blessing.
In addition to giving alms, Jesus also gives us an assignment to be dressed for action, Light your lamps, and prepare. He uses the parable of the servants preparing for their master’s return from the wedding banquet. They don’t know when he will return. The servants are focused on the preparation to receive the master when he returns. That preparation is their priority.
To dress for action is to live the principle that faith produces action. A soldier dresses for military action so he can fight effectively. A farmer dresses to work in the field so he can work effectively. A servant of Christ dresses for a life of faith by wearing the robes of faith. Metaphorically, the robes of faith come from the new life of grace, the new way of living in the abundance of love and compassion.
Faith is the basis for the choices we make in life. The choice to light the lamps is a choice to wake up and to live in the light of truth. The truth is that God is love. The truth is that God is holiness. The truth is that God gives himself to everyone in Jesus Christ. The truth is that as we receive the gift of God in Jesus Christ we receive the gift of a new life and a new way of living. We live from a place of active creative transforming love and holiness.
We dress in the garments of faith for action. We light the lamps of holiness to prepare for the master to return. We offer our minds, and hearts and wills to be transformed by God. We prepare for the King to return as we reset our priorities to accomplish his plan and purpose for our lives, the church and the world. We prepare for the King to return as we offer God our sins to be transformed back into their original virtues. Do not be overwhelmed by your sins. Do not shrink back from recognizing your sins. Your sins are the hidden jewels of the treasury of heaven that the Holy Spirit will transform to shine in their original brightness. Acknowledge your sins and present them to God to be transformed back into their original virtues.
Jesus reassures us that God gives us a new life from the infinite abundance of his love. There is no punishment. The reward is Jesus himself.
Jesus gives us an assignment to live a new life by immersing ourselves in self giving and personal transformation. Jesus sets before us a goal for our lives. Be ready.
Be ready to welcome the personal return of Jesus Christ to this planet. Be ready by making a real choice to ask the Holy Spirit to transform fear, self will and pride into faith, hope and love. Be ready by seeking the blessing of God, by receiving the blessing of God, and by being the blessing of God.
Life is difficult. Life has many challenges, many joys and many sorrows. Apart from God, people react to the challenges of life with fear. Fear produces the demand of self will . Self will justifies its demands through pride. Life becomes a struggle to endure, a vicious cycle of fear, frustration, anger, and demand.
Jesus offers us a different way of living. It is the life of grace. It is the reality that God is love even when bad things happen. The reality of God is not in rewards and punishments of wealth or poverty, pleasure or pain, power or defeat. The reality of God is in the personal relationship God offers us in Jesus Christ.
The Kingdom of God is that relationship. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give us, and all people everywhere, those blessings of faith, hope and love in the gift of Jesus Christ.
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